10 Nov 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 15 - Reflecting On Red-necked Phalaropes

I was up as usual around first light when we were at sea. We had spent the previous day from late morning sailing from Pantar in the Lesser Sundas to Kalaotoa. It is a long journey & we were still at sea and didn't expect to reach the island until early afternoon. Kalaotoa is part of the Southern-most islands in the Sulawesi group and it would produce a few Sulawesi species, once we arrived. But first we had a morning at sea until we reached Kalaotoa. This was an opportunity for some Seabirds.

Great Frigatebird: The lack of white axillaries confirms this is a Great Frigatebird

Red-footed Booby: Subadult of the rubripes subspecies which breeds in the Tropical Pacific & Indian Oceans

Red-footed Booby: Subadult

Red-footed Booby: Adult

Bridled Tern: this is the nominate anaethetus subspecies which occurs in the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia & Australia. The longer white supercilium with the white extending behind the eye confirms these are Bridled Terns

Crested Tern

I do enjoy getting to photograph reflections of Birds, but I rarely get the chance. Today’s glass-like seas & some close Red-necked Phalaropes provided the opportunity for some nice reflections.

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope: Reflections from one of the above group

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope: Another party

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

The glass-like seas

Occasionally we saw these floating structures, but it wasn't clear what they were

Finally, we realised the floating structures were mooring buoys

Another local fishing boat

11 May 22 - Red-necked Phalarope: A First For Studland

After a day of volunteering on the Dorset Wildlife Trust Brownsea reserve, I had only been in a couple of hours or so when I saw a message on RBA that there was a Red-necked Phalarope on the beach at Pilots Point, South Haven, Studland. Fortunately, I had eaten, so I could leave immediately. I grabbed the Birding optics & the camera, whilst phoning the news around the locals. I didn't know much more at the time, but I did know it was likely to either a first for Studland or at least the first record for at least the last twenty five years.

Points Point is just over a half mile from the end of the boardwalk: It is the furthest point visible on the beach (26 Jul 15)

After about twenty minutes, I started to scan the beach from near the end of South Haven boardwalk. There was no obvious sign & as expected, I had beaten the other local Birders to South Haven. The drawback is it is a long beach & it's just over a half a mile to Pilots Point. The other problem is there were still too many walkers, dog walkers etc on the beach to be good news for finding a rare Wader. I crossed to the tide line & walked along the beach as fast as possible. As I neared Pilots Point, I saw local photographer Aidan Brown walking to me. By this point, I knew it had been Aidan who had found it. He confirmed it was still present & feeding on the tideline with a few Dunlins and sixty Sanderlings, on the far side of Pilots Point. That was good news as it confirmed it was still around and secondly, not that many of the walkers & dog walkers continue beyond Pilots Point. Within a few minutes, I was watching the Red-necked Phalarope feeding on the tide line. I hung back to ensure that I didn't disturb the flock as I knew more locals were on their way.

Red-necked Phalarope: Phew: it was worth racing off for

Over the next hour or so, a number of locals arrived & enjoyed watching the Red-necked Phalarope. Fortunately, there weren't too many walkers on that part of the beach. We headed off a few who were walking along the tide line by explaining there was a rare Bird & letting them look through a telescope: they were interested in the news & happy to have seen it. Typically, there was one fisherman who refused to avoid walking along the tide line. He wasn't fishing at that point & insisted on it being a public beach & he could do what he wanted without considering the wishes of the Birders or the Waders. Obviously, this arsehole immediately flushed the Waders, which fortunately, resettled in a similar position after he had passed. He has encouraged on his way with justifiable comments from one of the Birders present. Sadly, there is always an inconsiderate person in any locality. I hope that other beach users had been suitably inconsiderate to respecting his fishing space since.

Red-necked Phalarope: Skulking at the edge of the bank compared to the tamer Sanderling & three Dunlins

Red-necked Phalarope: Skulking again with a couple of the Sanderlings

Red-necked Phalarope: Back out again on view

The Red-necked Phalarope Twitch: Phil Saunders (left), Rob Johnson, James Leaver, Garry Hayman & Trev Warrick (right)

I checked when I got home & it was the first Studland record. It was only my third individual in Poole Harbour with the others being an afternoon/evening only individual on Brownsea on 26 Aug 11, found by the late Ewan Brodie & one at The Moors, Arne on 23 Sep 17 which stayed for a few days from 21-26 Sep & was found by Jol Mitchell. They are not a common species in Poole Harbour & there are only three other records: Arne (May 1962), Brownsea (17-19 Aug 1989) & Arne from a Birds of Poole Harbour bird boat (25 Aug 17). I returned early the following morning & was disappointed to find that while the Dunlins and Sanderlings were still present, their rarer friend had departed. But I was not surprising as most records in Poole Harbour have been one day individuals.

10 April 14 - Finding A Rare Wader

It was another early start as you can never have enough early starts when you're on holiday. First stop was back to Eilat's North Beach to see if we could get better views of the White-cheeked Terns. In one word - No: didn't even see them.

The lads on the beach

Squacco Heron: At least this bird was around to photograph

Squacco Heron

Indian House Crow: There was one or two around

It was fairly quiet, so we quickly headed onto the km 20 saline ponds. Scanning the Waders on the Southern pool showed there was a interesting pale Phalarope feeding with the main group of Waders. Was waiting to get a chance to have a look through one of the scopes (didn't take a tripod for my small scope which was in the car anyway), when Simon called it as a Grey Phalarope. We all had a look at it & didn't think too much of the record, other than it was a new bird since we were there the previous day. At that point, Itai arrived & we mentioned it and I was a little surprised when he said he was about to send out a rare bird alert on it: as it's a vagrant & description bird for Israel. Not really sure if we found it or not, as there had been some other birders there when we arrived, but they had moved on, by the time we got to the Grey Phalarope area.

Grey Phalraope: I'm not sure how many records there have been, but sounds like it's no more than about 30 records. The Israelis call this Red Phalarope (following the American name), but the British name is clearly more appropriate for this bird

Red-necked Phalarope: This is the common Phalarope with several present on each visit

It was a quick dash back to the hotel for breakfast, before they stopped serving it. Feeling refreshed, the next stop was the car park next to Dolphin Reef for another look for the Little Green Heron. After a while, both birds appeared, but too far away for a photo. While we were waiting, we watched some White-eyed Gulls on the Dolphin Reef pontoon.

White-eyed Gull: Adult. This Gull has a restricted range of the Red Sea & the Gulf of Aqaba to Yeman

We headed off on the Eilat Mountains road to look for the Hooded Wheatear that was around an army checkpoint on the road. It doesn't take long for the scenery to get very arid. The soldiers on the checkpoint were fairly relaxed about us birding there, but warned us not to take photos of the Egyptian border fence. We spent about a couple of hours looking around the wider area, but no sign of the Hooded Wheatear.

The mountains are very arid

Looking back to Eilat

Bird hide: Israeli Army style (small). They didn't tell us we couldn't photograph the gun emplacements (but the photo was taken through the car window to avoid any hassle with the army)

White-crowned Black Wheatear: Fortunately, this bird was sitting on a road sign near the border fence, but sufficiently far enough away to get away with a photo. When the army checked the camera, they were impressed with the photo & didn't ask to look at the other photos so I got away with the bird hide photo

Selfies are all the rage these days: Proving I'm not too old to take one (badly)

Late afternoon saw us heading off to the Amran Pillars. A scenic site a few kms further north of the km 20 water tanks & on the West side of the road, but didn't see a lot of birds there. After that we headed down to the fresh water tanks at km 19 to look for Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse, but there were a lot of other people there along with a local nature tour group. The Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse did appear, but right on last light.

Amran Pillars: The pillars are tucked away at the top of this dried wadi

Amran Pillars: The geology is fairly complex here

Amran Pillars: Finally the Pillars

Sand Partridge

Black-eared Wheatear: Not the first bird seen in Israel keeping a careful eye on the skies. Not surprising with the numbers of Raptors moving North