Back for the autumn migration

It’s great to be back in the Algarve!  The months of June, July and August in the UK didn’t seem to include summer but now at last we’re warm again.

It’s also good to be back in Tavira - nearly all of the guide books describe it as the most attractive town in the Algarve and we wouldn’t disagree with that.

The Gilão River in the centre of Tavira

Already we’ve spent a few hours checking out nearby areas of the Ria Formosa and it’s wonderful to have this huge wetland virtually on our doorstep.  Those saltpans around Tavira and Santa Luzia that aren’t being used to produce salt are currently attracting hundreds of birds: Greater Flamingos, Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Spoonbills, more than 20 wader species, at least five different gulls as well as various ducks. 

Santa Luzia saltpans

September and October are months when we can expect a few rarities to show up amongst the huge numbers of migrant birds that pour in here and already there have been a couple of Pectoral Sandpipers further west at Lagoa dos Salgados.  It can’t be denied that rarities add a bit of spice to our birding but there’s a great deal of interest and pleasure to be had from watching almost any birds especially those waders!

 We hope to share photographs here in the coming weeks of at least one or two rarities but in the meantime here are a few taken this week just down the road in the area we like to think of as “our office”.

 Juvenile Greater Flamingo

 Black-tailed Godwit

 Ruff

 First-winter Slender-billed Gull

 Common Redshank

Hoopoe

Birdfair 2015

Last weekend saw the 27th British Birdwatching Fair held at Rutland Water and as usual we were there!

Tim Appleton, co-founder of the event, reports another record attendance this year and almost certainly a record amount of money raised for conservation.

This year’s fundraising project was ‘Hope for migratory birds in the Eastern Mediterranean: action against illegal killing’. The aim of the project is to reduce the scale and impact of illegal killing of migratory birds, and to improve protection and laws throughout the region.

The recent publication by BirdLife International of a report on this issue has emphasised the need for some urgent action to be taken; it estimates that around 25 million birds are illegally killed annually in the Mediterranean area with Egypt, Italy, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece and France topping the list of offending countries.

Patricia Zurita, CEO of BirdLife International

It is somewhat ironic that the first Birdfair in 1989 raised funds for the ‘Stop the Massacre’ campaign which focused on the killing of migrant birds in Malta. We don’t seem to have made much progress! Malta’s absence from the current list of worst offenders is simply a result of its small size.

What we all have to do!

We spent all three days on the Avian Adventures stand promoting the company’s programme of overseas birding and wildlife tours and also taking every opportunity to talk about the birds of the Algarve. It was great to meet so many people who have been birding with us in Portugal and elsewhere.

As well as being very enjoyable and tiring, being on a stand at the Birdfair can also be a frustrating experience. There are so many things to see, binoculars, telescopes and cameras to try out, books to browse, countless talks and presentations to go to, so many old friends to catch up with, celebrities to spot and there’s even a wonderful bird reserve! The problem is that we just don’t have enough free time to get around. The result is that we come away knowing that once again we have seen only a small fraction of who and what was there.

Chris Packham, Bill Oddie, Simon King, David Lindo, Nick Baker 

and Mike Dilger were among the celebs we identified

 We were in the same marquee as both Wildsounds and Subbuteo - very tempting!

 Marco and Paco from Cotinga Tours - they will be 

arranging our tour in Costa Rica next February

Our long-time friend Steve Cale was amongst the team of artists 

working on the traditional Birdfair mural

Guto Carvalho from Brazil was our new neighbour for three days in Marquee 3

One very obvious change this year from previous Birdfairs was the catering. A range of different outlets offered an excellent variety of foods and it was possible to get served rather quicker than previously. We heard some complaints about the prices and the lack of vegetarian options but most agreed that there was an overall improvement.

 Cook Street by MPM Catering

Beechdean Farmhouse Dairy Ice Cream - their 1953 Morris Commercial van started life as an ambulance

And so, we look forward to the next Birdfair - 19th to 21st August 2016. The dates are already in the diary and maybe we should plan to have half a day off the stand!

Tanzania - Ngorongoro Crater

Our last three nights in Tanzania were spent at the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge, situated on the eastern rim of the wonderful Ngorongoro Crater.  Here we were at 7,800 feet above sea level, high enough for a significant drop in the temperature and also high enough for occasional pauses for breath to be needed when walking uphill!  This was Avian Adventures' fourth time in Tanzania; we reported here about one of the previous visits to Ngorongoro.

 Looking down into the crater from the rim

Part of the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge

Most of the mammal species that we had already seen elsewhere were down there on the vast expanse of the crater's grassland although Giraffes and Impalas were notable exceptions.  As well as Wildebeest and Zebras, Thomson's and Grant's Gazelles were very common and we also found a few Kongoni.  As might be expected with all these prey species present, it wasn’t long before we saw Lions and remarkable numbers of Spotted Hyaenas.  There were also Black-backed Jackals and we were lucky enough to see Serval Cats again.

A typical view in the crater with Zebras and Wildebeest

Lions - they are really impressive at close range

Black-backed Jackal - folklore has it that it received the 'burn' on its back as a punishment for its scavenging habits

Hippos - aggressive, unpredictable and surprisingly fast over a short distance!

Spotted Hyaenas - hunters and scavengers

Serval Cat - mostly nocturnal so we were fortunate to see them on three occasions during the tour

Kongoni - also called Coke's Hartebeest

There were also plenty of birds, ranging in size from Ostrich, Kori Bustard and Grey Crowned Crane down to Fischer's Sparrow-Lark and the tiny Pectoral-patch Cisticola.

Common Ostrich

Augur Buzzard - one of the mostly commonly seen raptors in Tanzania

Fischer's Sparrow-Lark - a very numerous species in the crater and elsewhere

 Ngoitokitok  - a popular picnic site in the crater

If you like the look of Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire and the Serengeti, Avian Adventures have another tour to Northern Tanzania planned for April 2016.

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