Red-footed Falcon(s)

In May this year we saw Red-footed Falcons in both the Algarve and the Baixo Alentejo, birds that were part of an unprecedented influx of this species into Portugal.  We reported here on the first ones that we saw near Faro after a tip-off from Thijs Valkenburg.

It was difficult when the birds were so mobile to know for sure how many of them there might have been in total.  One estimate put the number at more than 100.  Previously there had been only a handful of accepted records in Portugal so this was quite an event.

Castro Verde, Portugal; May 2015

Red-footed Falcons winter in southern Africa and migrate north to breed in eastern Europe, west and central Asia.  Clearly something went seriously wrong this year during their northward journey as exceptional numbers were also seen in France, Switzerland, Spain and several other countries; some birds even reached the Canary Islands.

 In the UK it’s not unusual for a few overshooting birds to be seen in the spring, to the point that the species is no longer officially a rarity.  With so many birds occurring this year in central Europe an influx into the UK was perhaps to have been expected but in the event it didn’t happen.  However, there have been a few birds including one, a first-summer male, that was first reported on 9th July at Chatterley Whitfield in Staffordshire.

Chatterley Whitfield; July 2015

And Chatterley Whitfield is where we went this morning!  It’s only 25 miles away, the sun made a rare appearance and there was the promise of another local ‘rarity’, a Black Restart.  It was more than we could resist!

With the falcon having been present in more or less the same spot for three weeks we were surprised when we arrived to find so many people there watching and photographing it.  It seemed amazingly unconcerned by the presence of these people and completely undisturbed by cars passing within just a few feet as it perched on roadside posts and power cables.

Chatterley Whitfield; July 2015

Apparently during the early part of its stay some birders provided locusts for it to eat resulting not just in a lot of controversy and debate about whether this was acceptable/advisable but also in an array of notices advising against such practices.  If the motive was to entice the bird nearer for the purposes of photography, then based on today’s performance it was totally unnecessary.

 Police protection for the Red-footed Falcon!

This is only the fourth record of Red-footed Falcon in Staffordshire and the eighth in the West Midland Bird Club recording area.

The Black Redstart appeared to be a juvenile, perhaps one that has been bred locally.  

Tanzania - Serengeti

Here are some more photographs from Tanzania, these from our three days (four nights) in Serengeti National Park where we stayed at the Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge.

The Serengeti region covers 30,000 square kilometres and extends into south-western Kenya.  In the time available we could, of course, visit only a small part of it.  The Kenyan part of the Serengeti is known as the Maasai Mara.  In the Maasai language Serengeti means “endless plains”, a description that fits very well.

Although our main focus was on the birds we also devoted plenty of time to the mammals, particularly the cats.  One day we thought we had done well to see 22 cats of four different species (12 Lions, 2 Leopards, 7 Cheetahs and a Serval) but the following day we saw twice as many!  The Cheetahs were an adult female with six young cubs that were going to be a serious challenge for her to feed and keep safe.

 Our room at the Serena Safari Lodge

The plains are studded with isolated granite outcrops, known as kopjes

Lions - lying in the shade

Yellow-throated Sandgrouse - one of three sandgrouse species that we saw

Yellow-throated Longclaw - that really is a yellow throat!

Zebras - thousands of them

Sharpe's Starling - a fruit eater

Spotted Hyaena - they always look a bit menacing

African Fish Eagle - this one was remarkably confiding

Eland - the largest of the African antelopes

White-bellied Bustard - a male of the subspecies erlangeri

Serval Cat - its long legs enable it hunt in the long grass

Cut-throat Finch - only the male has a red band across its throat

Hippopotamus -  one of the most dangerous large animals in Africa

 Hildebrandt's Starling - an East African endemic

Usambiro Barbet - possibly just a subspecies of d'Arnaud's Barbet

Another Lion - we saw more than 80 of them during the tour

Avian Adventures in Tanzania

We’ve recently returned from another very enjoyable Avian Adventures tour, this time in Northern Tanzania.

The itinerary included Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Serengeti National Parks and Ngorongoro Crater and was a repeat of previous tours that we have blogged about in the past here, here, here, here and here.  On this occasion our local driver/guide was Allen Kweka.

Once again we had a great time with plenty of birds and huge numbers of mammals. Without any doubt this is one of the world's top wildlife destinations.

 Writing about it in detail would involve a great deal of repetition so instead we’re just going to share a few photographs, starting with some from Tarangire.

Maasai Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi), the largest subspecies of Giraffe

 Baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) - the upside down tree

 Breakfast in the National Park - bacon, sausage, egg, yoghurt, fruit and more

 Tarangire Sopa Lodge - our accommodation for two nights

 The Tarangire River

 Our transport - a Toyota Land Cruiser safari vehicle

 Northern White-crowned Shrike (Eurocephalus rueppelli) - seen almost every day

 Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus) - another everyday bird but always appreciated

African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) - particularly numerous in Tarangire but elsewhere in Tanzania suffering badly at the hands of poachers

Scarlet-chested Sunbird (Chalcomitra senegalensis)  - common in Tanzania and widely distributed in much of sub-Saharan Africa

West Midlands Melodious Warbler

A Melodious Warbler, the first ever in the West Midlands metropolitan county and only the third to be recorded in the West Midland Bird Club area, was found on 11th June at Mercote Mill, close to Marsh Lane Nature Reserve, by Alan Dean.

We see lots of Melodious Warblers in Portugal and have in any case long ago given up fretting about any rarities we might miss seeing back home, but we do like to try and keep up with what’s happening in the UK and especially in our local area.  Although we were in the Algarve, we had read about this bird on the internet and indeed seen several photographs of it. 

When we arrived back at Birmingham Airport on 17th June the Melodious Warbler was still being seen just four miles away but we had no thoughts about going to see it.  After all, it was just another Melodious Warbler!

We didn’t really give the bird another thought until yesterday when we needed to visit Focus Optics at Corley to get some minor repairs carried out to our binoculars.  To get there we had to pass within just a couple of miles of Mercote Mill.  It would surely have been rude not to stop by and have a look for the Melodious Warbler!

In fact we didn’t have to look for it - we could hear it singing from almost 50 yards away and it continued to sing during the whole time we were there.  If it was defending its territory from other Melodious Warblers or trying to attract a mate, it seems very likely that it was wasting both time and effort but the loud song, full of variety and mimicry was itself well worth the short diversion.

Algarve update

Yesterday we helped with the ICNF monthly count of the wetland birds in the Cerro do Bufo sector of the Castro Marim Reserve.  Who would have thought that on 5th June there would be 1,482 non-breeding Greater Flamingos there?  Who would have predicted that the second-most numerous species would be Black-tailed Godwit (570) or that there would be 135 Curlew Sandpipers?  We were also a little surprised to see how many species there were that we regard as ‘winter birds’: Cormorant, Mediterranean Gull, Red Knot, Grey Plover, Turnstone, Caspian Tern, Dunlin and Ringed Plover were all there, albeit in very small numbers.  The only ducks were the breeding Shelducks, which continue to multiply; another surprise was a single Glossy Ibis.  In total there were 3,250 birds of 27 species.  As usual we took some time to read a few colour-rings, including a Caspian Tern from Sweden and a Lesser Black-backed Gull from Scotland.

Little Tern

Common Shelduck

Although we have continued to spend time at Castro Marim and at various sites within the Ria Formosa, as usual at this time of the year the main focus of our birdwatching has moved away from the coastal wetlands and increasingly in the past few weeks we have been heading inland.  Of course we are always frequent visitors to the Castro Verde / Mértola area in the Baixo Alentejo but recently we have also been exploring again in the interior of the Algarve.

Our travels inland have been taking us to parts of the Serra de Alcaria do Cume that we haven’t seen much of before.  That’s the area we’ve agreed to cover for the latest Portuguese breeding bird atlas project that started this year.  One of the things we like about atlas survey work is that we get to see places that we probably wouldn’t otherwise have a reason to visit.

 Common Redstart

Spotted Flycatcher

We’ve also been looking at other parts of the Eastern Algarve and trying to find some of the scarcer breeding species.  Some of these, such as Common Redstart, Spotted Flycatcher, Nuthatch and Robin don’t perhaps sound very exciting but it’s been fun seeking them out in areas where they are not common but where Nightingales are abundant and where Golden Orioles are common and regularly seen.   At the same time, we’ve found Iberian Chiffchaffs, Short-toed & Bonelli’s Eagles, Black-eared Wheatears, Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin and White-rumped Swifts, any of which would go a long way towards making the day for many birders we know.

 White-rumped Swift

 Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin

 Bonelli's Eagle

Unfortunately, time is running out before we leave here and head first to the UK and then to Tanzania but there are still lots of new places in the Algarve to go and surely more birds to be found!  

Having a light meal!

Although it couldn’t be described as common the Blue Rock Thrush is a widely distributed species in the Algarve and is usually not difficult to find.

It is perhaps mainly associated with the sea-cliffs and rocky coastline of the western Algarve but it also occurs elsewhere, breeding in steep-sided, rocky valleys, in quarries, on ruined buildings and on churches and other large, town-centre buildings.

In the quarry

We have been watching several pairs in recent weeks around Tavira and further inland.  In March, we were even able to watch one from our kitchen window as it sang from the roof of a building across the road.

Feeding young

In the centre of Tavira a pair has been seen on the Church of Santa Maria do Castelo.  These birds have been notably inactive during the day but they come alive each evening at around 9.00pm (half an hour after sunset) when the floodlights that illuminate the church are switched on and immediately attract many moths and other flying insects, which are ready-meals for the thrushes.  Although this behaviour and feeding strategy doesn’t seem to have been previously documented for Blue Rock Thrushes, it is not, of course, unusual these days for birds’ lives to be affected by artificial light sources such as street lamps and floodlights, leading to extended feeding hours and for some species extended periods of singing.

At the church (ISO 6400; f/5.6: 1/200 sec)

Church of Santa Maria do Castelo

Another species taking advantage of the abundance of insect prey at the church in Tavira is Red-necked Nightjar.  Twice this week we have seen a bird hawking insects from a high tree-top perch next to the church.  After each aerial sortie it returns to the same perch in the manner of a Spotted Flycatcher and it has used the same perch on successive evenings.

On a ruined building

The floodlighting at the church is clearly making life easier for the Blue Rock Thrushes and Red-necked Nightjars but spare a thought for the moths and other insects.  It has been estimated that up to 30% of insects attracted to such lighting die or are injured by colliding with a hot lamp surface or as a result of predation.  Artificial lighting can have several other negative impacts on a wide range of invertebrates including disrupting their feeding and breeding.  Developments in lighting technology have led to major increases in the distribution and intensity of artificial light in the past few decades and its growth is continuing largely unchecked.  When we consider why insect populations have been so severely reduced, impacting also on the populations of the bird species that feed on them, we tend to think (quite rightly) about pesticides but maybe artificial lighting is also an important contributory factor. 

Thanks to Kenny Boyle for bringing the birds at the church to our attention.

What a great day!

It’s been baking hot here these past few days; August weather in the first half of May!  In spite of this we have enjoyed some really good birding.  As well as visiting Castro Marim and keeping an eye on the local Bee-eaters in Tavira, we’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Serra do Caldeirão, the hills north-west of here.   We have also made several visits to the Castro Verde area where the temperatures have generally been even higher than on the coast.  Early starts have been essential and we have been on the road before 6.00am almost every day.  

Yesterday morning we were out with UK birders, Dave & Simon  We considered another trip to the Baixo Alentejo to look for a Rufous-tailed Scrub-robin and perhaps a White-rumped Swift but the prospect of again being out all day in such heat wasn’t attractive.  Instead we decided to stay near the coast and head for Quinta do Lago where our main targets were to be Black-headed Weaver and Iberian Green Woodpecker with Purple Swamp-hen and Little Bittern on the list of birds that would also be nice to see.  We thought that later in the morning we might go to the saltpans near Olhão in the hope of finding a Caspian Tern.  That would have to be around 11.30am to coincide with high tide.

By 8.00am the job at Quinta do Lago was done and just as we were wondering what to do and where to go next we received a message from Thijs Valkenburg.  It was to say that he had just found a female Red-footed Falcon, a rarity here in Portugal.  He was at the waste water treatment ponds (ETAR in Portuguese) between Olhão and Faro, not too far away from where we were.  He had just made our decision for us.  We jumped in the car and off we went.

When we reached the ETAR, Thijs was just leaving.  He told us his story about the falcon and off we went to look for it.  He mentioned also having seen some migrant Common Redstarts, which we should look out for.  There were lots of other birds to see including a Spotted Flycatcher, several Mediterranean Gulls, about half a dozen Red-crested Pochards, a few Collared Pratincoles and about 20 Spoonbills but sure enough it wasn’t long before a Red-footed Falcon came into view.  However, this Red-footed Falcon was a male!  It was soon joined by a female and we watched the two of them feeding above the ETAR and neighbouring areas for quite some time.  

We phoned Thijs to let him know that there were now two falcons but that was just the start!  Minutes later a bird flew over that we quickly identified as a Western Reef Egret.  It was heading towards Olhão; we made another call to Thijs who by now was already on his way back to join us.

Before long, the egret re-appeared.  First it flew off to the west towards Faro but then it came back and landed and for a while we were able to watch it on the edge of one of the ponds.  However, all the time it looked distinctly unhappy, nervous and unsettled and after a few minutes it again flew off and out of sight.  By now we had noticed that each time it flew it was accompanied by what we at first thought was a Little Egret but which we now start to think may well have been a white-morph individual of its own species, another Western Reef Egret.

We now turned our attention to finding the Common Redstarts that Thijs had seen earlier.  He pointed us in the right direction and we began working our way along a line of conifers where we soon began to see not just Redstarts but both Spotted & Pied Flycatchers, a Garden Warbler, a Tree Pipit and, most exciting of all, a Wood Warbler, a real rarity here in Portugal!

Eventually we dragged ourselves away from the ETAR and reverted to our original plan; we headed down the road to the nearby saltpans to look for a Caspian Tern.  Alas, we were unsuccessful, possibly because we were now much too late, having missed the high tide period when birds regularly roost here.  However, there was still plenty to see including a few Oystercatchers, small numbers of Dunlin, Sanderling, Curlew Sandpipers and Black-tailed Godwits, a Stone-curlew and about 50 Spoonbills so it wasn’t exactly a wasted journey!

From there we headed to Praia do Barril where the isolated stand of trees near the beach can sometimes act as a migrant trap and which seemed worth a look on a day when birds had obviously been on the move.  We were obviously now much later in the day than was ideal but we weren’t disappointed.  We managed to find a Spotted Flycatcher, a Common Redstart and a Melodious Warbler and perhaps more surprisingly a roosting Black-crowned Night-Heron.

After ice creams and drinks in Santa Luzia, we finished the day’s birding around Tavira where a Spotted Redshank was one of 20 wader species that we saw during the day.  The species total for the day was 92 and three of those (Red-footed Falcon, Western Reef Egret and Wood Warbler) were ones that we hadn’t seen before in Portugal.  What a great day indeed!

It isn’t often that we don’t have with us a camera of some sort to record the unusual but unfortunately this was one of those days!  Thanks, then to Thijs Valkenburg for the use of his images of the three rarities.  Thanks also for the very timely message that took us to the ETAR in the first place.   

We learned later that there has been a remarkable influx of Red-footed Falcons into Portugal involving perhaps as many as 40 birds, most of them further north.