Honey Buzzards

Two Honey Buzzard species in one month!  

Several migrating Oriental Honey Buzzards (or maybe Crested Honey Buzzards depending on your taxonomic preference) were seen by Peter earlier this month during his trip to China.

 Oriental Honey Buzzard

 European Honey Buzzard

And then yesterday at Castro Marim in the Eastern Algarve we came across this European Honey Buzzard, presumably also a late (and very tired) migrant.  Our only previous experience of this species in the Algarve has been much further west and with autumn migrants in September and October so this was most unexpected.

These birds belong to the genus Pernis and are not related to the ‘true’ buzzards of the genus Buteo although in several respects their appearance is quite similar.  Because they aren’t really buzzards, they are sometimes referred to as Honey-buzzards rather than Honey Buzzards!

China - 2

After our long journey from Tavira, via Lisbon and Dubai, our first night in China was spent in Beijing, close to the airport.  The following morning before departing for Beidaihe there was just time for a short walk from our hotel to look for Azure-winged Magpies, a species that I had a particular wish to see and which I was told we were unlikely to find elsewhere during this trip.   Happily it didn’t take very long to find some in trees alongside a dual carriageway but in the short time available I wasn’t able to study them very closely and they proved impossible to photograph.  They didn’t appear very different from the Azure-winged Magpies that I ‘m familiar with in Portugal. 

Are these birds in China really a different species from those we have here in the Algarve?  We have blogged before on this subject here when the issue was of no more than of academic interest.  Now, having seen them both, I suppose I have to decide whether or not my life list is increased by this latest sighting.  Do I follow the taxonomy of the IOC and Handbook of the Birds of the World or do I follow Clements and Birdlife International?  To tick or not to tick, that is the question!  At the moment, I’m inclined not to tick but I’m open to persuasion.

The four-hour bus journey to Qinhuangdao and the shorter minibus ride from there to Beidaihe produced very few birds of note but when we arrived at the Jinshan Hotel there were plenty to see right there in the hotel grounds.  Some were resident species like the flashy Red-billed Blue Magpie, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Tree Sparrow, Light-vented Bulbul and Eastern Great Tit, with the last of these also presenting a taxonomic dilemma as it is regarded by some as a separate species from Parus major, sometimes referred to as Japanese Tit.

Japanese Tit

There were also quite a few migrants: Olive-backed Pipit, Yellow-browed Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Brown Shrike, Eurasian Wryneck, Black-faced Bunting and, best of all, a male Siberian Rubythroat.  My only previous Dusky Warbler had been a glimpse of one at Sheepwash Urban Park in the West Midlands on a typically gloomy November day in 1996 so I was pleased with a proper look at that.  I was also happier with the Black-faced Bunting than I was with the long-staying individual at Pennington Flash in 1994 that was accepted on to the British List but which I remember thinking at the time might have been an escape from captivity.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Next morning, before breakfast, we made the first of several visits to the nearby Friendship Hotel which has grounds even more extensive than those at the Jinshan.  It proved to be a good morning for thrushes with Grey-backed, White’s, Chinese and Dusky plus a Naumann’s x Dusky intergrade.  There was also a nice view of a spiffy male Taiga Flycatcher.

 Taiga Flycatcher

 Chinese Thrush

 White's Thrush

 Dusky Thrush

Dusky x Naumann's Thrush intergrade

The grounds of the two hotels and/or the nearby Lighthouse Point were visited before breakfast on five subsequent mornings during our stay but there was never again anything approaching the numbers and variety of migrants that we found on the afternoon of our arrival and the following morning.  Having read before the trip several accounts of spectacular falls of migrants at these sites on exactly these dates in previous years it was, to say the least, a disappointment that we had managed to pick a period to be there when so few birds were present.  It was a disappointment that we shared with quite a few other visiting birders but that was little consolation.  However, I know only too well from similar experience in High Island, Texas that spring migration is different every year and that weather conditions are all important.  There is nothing you can do about it.

Fortunately, there was more to this trip than just mornings around Beidaihe…. 

Squacco Heron & Little Bitterns

A Squacco Heron was an unexpected find yesterday here in the Algarve.  It was on a small pond by the entrance to the Pinheiros Altos Golf Resort.  Squacco Herons are rare breeding birds in Portugal so seeing one at this time of the year is quite unusual.  We do recall also seeing one in May last year, but all of our other records have come in the months October to March.

Nearby at Quinta do Lago, we watched three juvenile Little Bitterns doing not very much!  Their male parent appeared to bring food on one occasion but otherwise seems to be leaving them to fend for themselves.  He presumably thinks it’s time they were independent.

Elsewhere, the day’s highlights included Collared Pratincoles, Caspian Terns, a Black Tern, Slender-billed Gulls and Audouin’s Gulls but the weather was windy and quite cool and not what we came here for!    

China - 1

When Ray Tipper told me that he and two Avian Adventures clients were planning to spend the first two weeks of May in China it didn’t take long to persuade me to join them!  Their main aim was to be bird photography but for Ray it was also to be a scouting trip with the intention of possibly arranging a tour for 2014.

Red-billed Blue Magpie

The itinerary included six nights at Beidaihe, four nights on Happy Island and excursions to Old Peak to look for Koklass Pheasant and to Qinglong River in the hope of seeing Ibisbill.  Beidaihe and Happy Island have long been known as migration hotspots with early to mid May the best time to be there.  Clearly there was the possibility of seeing plenty of birds! 

 Brown Shrike

For me it was also an opportunity to travel to Asia for the first time, to see the Great Wall of China and maybe to see some of those species that I have previously only read about, the ones that have names beginning with the word Siberian!  Just as importantly, there was also the chance of seeing more than a dozen wader species that I hadn’t seen before.

Grey Nightjar

I’ve been back for four days and am now starting to make progress with processing the many photographs taken, a few of which will appear here on the blog over the next couple of weeks or so together with some details of the trip and the birds seen.

Windy Day

Left to our own devices we might well have stayed home yesterday.  From just a quick look at the weather forecast we could see that it would be a difficult day for birds and birdwatchers with winds of 20mph or more from the NNW.  It was going to be cold and birds were going to be sheltering and hard to see.

However, arrangements were made and we were committed: June to a half day visit to Castro Marim, Peter to a full day in the Castro Verde area in the Baixo Alentejo.

The star bird at Castro Marim was undoubtedly the female Red-necked Phalarope that June found at Cerro do Bufo.  Like many of the other waders here now it was a bird that is moulting into its breeding plumage.  It is only the second of this species that we have seen in the Algarve and is sufficiently rare here that it will require a submission to the Comité Português Raridades.

As well as a dozen other wader species, the supporting cast included Little Bustard, Golden Oriole, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Greater Flamingo, Montagu’s Harrier, Red-rumped Swallow, Woodchat Shrike, Hoopoe and Azure-winged Magpie, some of these very common birds to us but much appreciated by visitors who are here for only a week.

Up in the Alentejo, the day’s bird list included most of the target species but raptors in particular were in short supply and there was only a quick glimpse of Black-bellied Sandgrouse.  Highlights, again from a visitor’s perspective, were Collared Pratincoles, Griffon & Black Vultures, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Rollers, Lesser Kestrels, Great & Little Bustards, Short-toed Eagle, Calandra Lark and Montagu’s Harriers.  However, finding birds was hard work and the area's other attractions including the continuing spectacular display of wildflowers were a welcome diversion.

Days out from Tavira

Last week was a busy one for us with days spent in the Castro Verde area of the Baixo Alentejo and across the border in Doñana as well as around some of the usual sites in the Algarve.

The Alentejo is at its very best right now.  Both Great Bustards and Little Bustards are displaying and easy to see, there are raptors everywhere (13 species this week), Calandra Larks singing, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Collared Pratincoles, Great Spotted Cuckoos, Rollers, Black-eared Wheatears and more.  However, what makes this time of the year really stand out is the amazing display of wild flowers – carpets of yellow, white and purple with patches of red.  Truly spectacular!

Alentejo flower show...

...too many to name!

Black-eared Wheatear

Lesser Kestrel

Doñana, too, is really looking good.  In complete contrast to last year’s disappointment following the drought, currently there is water everywhere and, as a result, lots of birds fixing to breed.  In particular, there were hundreds of Greater Flamingos and Glossy Ibises and seven species of herons and egrets.  Throw in a few Gull-billed & Whiskered Terns, some Greater & Lesser Short-toed Larks, Red-knobbed Coots, Great Spotted Cuckoos and an assortment of raptors and waders and it makes a great day trip from Tavira.  There was even a Long-tailed Duck at the Cañada de Rianzuela.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Little Ringed Plover

In the Algarve, we’ve been to Ludo, Quinta do Lago, Olhão and, of course, Tavira, all of them within the Ria Formosa.  Highlights for our visitors have included Collared Pratincoles, Little Bittern, Bee-eaters, Caspian Terns, Slender-billed Gulls and Stone-curlews.  Just as much as those, we’ve enjoyed hearing the air filled with the songs of Nightingales, Cetti’s & Reed Warblers and watching Black-headed Weavers busy building their nests.

Collared Pratincole

Black-headed Weaver

Finally, news of the colour-ringed Common Redshank, H19, which we previously blogged about here.  This bird, which has now spent three winters in the saltpans here, is so faithful to one particular area that when we couldn’t find it on 15th March we were confident that it had left to start its migration to The Netherlands.  At the time, the weather there was awful with temperatures down to minus-3 and it didn’t seem like a good place to be going.  We were worried!  Anyway, the good news is that ‘our’ bird (which we share with Wim Tijsen who ringed it) arrived back on the breeding grounds on 9th April having presumably stopped somewhere on the way to wait for better weather.  We hope for news of a successful breeding season.       

What's in a name?

It’s good to be seeing Collared Pratincoles again!  These migrants typically start arriving back here in Portugal in late March, some staying to breed in the Algarve, at Castro Marim and in the Ria Formosa, but many more continue inland into the Alentejo.  The earliest date on which we have recorded them is 22nd March (2010) but this year it was April before we saw any.

Pratincoles nest colonially in small groups choosing flat open areas, dried mudflats and ploughed fields, usually with short patchy vegetation.  Nest sites change from year to year as conditions vary.  A clutch of three eggs is usual and incubation takes about 18 days.  The young leave the nest after two or three days and fledge after about a month, although the parents may still continue to provide food after that.

From early July the adults undergo a partial post-breeding moult but this is suspended for the southbound migration and by early August most will have left to spend the winter in sub-Saharan Africa.  Although lingering birds have been seen as late as September, most Pratincoles probably spend only about four months here in Europe.

In flight, Pratincoles look a lot like terns; on the ground they seem almost like plovers.  They feed on insects, such as grasshoppers and crickets, which they catch in flight.

Wood Sandpipers mostly pass through the Algarve in March and April on their way north to breed in Scandinavia and Russia (or even Scotland) and then again in August and September on the return journey to spend the winter in Africa.  They are never numerous here (anymore than they are in the UK) as their main migration routes lie further east.  Perhaps it is because they are relatively scarce along the western fringes of Europe that it has sometimes surprised us to find them so numerous when we have been travelling in various parts of Africa.

During migration, they are birds that avoid seashores or tidal areas, preferring shallow fresh water habitats, particularly those with wet grassy patches.  Most of the ones we’ve seen in the Algarve have been either at Lagoa dos Salgados or at Castro Marim.
 

Although Wood Sandpipers usually nest on the ground in dense vegetation they do occasionally use an old tree nest of a Fieldfare, much like Green Sandpipers do.  They usually lay four eggs, which are incubated by both parents but it’s quite normal for the female to depart the scene soon after hatching, leaving the male to care for the young.

So what is it that connects Collared Pratincoles and Wood Sandpipers?  Well, the answer lies with their scientific names: Glareola pratincola and Tringa glareola.  It seems that glareola is derived from the Latin word glarea, meaning gravel.  Seven species of pratincoles have the generic name Glareola and perhaps it is just possible to accept that at least some of them have some sort of association with gravel.  However, glareola does seem to be a rather inappropriate specific name for Wood Sandpiper and so far we haven’t been able to find any explanation for how it came about.

Talking of inappropriate, the name pratincole is derived from Latin words meaning 'inhabitant of meadows', a description which hardly fits Collared Pratincole and definitely doesn't apply to Rock Pratincole and some of  the world's other pratincole species.