Monday, April 16, 2018

Sparrowhawk hunt...

With spring in the air, and a south-easterly blowing I headed down to Wexford for some migrant hunting. I selected Carnsore Point as a starting point, and spent the first hour sea-watching. It was very productive, with decent numbers of Manx Shearwater, Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwake and Gannets passing through in a fairly constant stream. There were also a couple of Common Scoter, small numbers of Fulmar a few Red-throated Divers, and a similar number of Great Northern Diver, but nothing more exotic than that.

I then headed inland to Our Lady's Lake, the highlight of which was a large number of breeding Sandwich Terns, as well as lots of Black-tailed Godwits getting ready for the trip north.

Between the two sites I stopped to watch a female Sparrowhawk hunting. It crossed the road low in front of me, hopped of a hedge and ambushed a group of Black-headed Gulls in a field. It got hold of one bird by the head and spent the next 10 minutes locked in a death grip as the gull tried vainly to escape. Eventually the pair moved into the lee of the hedgerow, out of my view, but it didn't look good for the gull...






Saturday, April 7, 2018

Hurghada Sewage Farm - 3 April

I'd read trip reports that mentioned Hurghada Sewage Works, but with not much detail on how to get there, so I had to rely on Google maps. I downloaded the following image, found a taxi driver willing to take me (and more importantly, hang about while I went birding), and set off. We got in through the northern side. There were no security guards about, just a truck driver who said we could go in, so in I went! The place is enormous, with very little vegetation, so nowhere for birds to hide, Consequently they were very flighty, but there were some excellent birds to see.

My route is marked in red, and I have labelled the settling tanks arbitrarily.

The two ponds north of the main tanks were fringed with reeds and the green areas to the north were also interesting, but too large for me to cover in the time I had. There were areas of dense reed-beds, interspersed with lines of trees, and some bare ground.



I was walking from tank 4 towards tank 5 when I heard the characteristic twittering call of sandgrouse. I quickly got on to a small group flying in. Over the next 10 minutes at least 6 further groups arrived, totalling perhaps 70 birds in all. Most were Spotted Sandgrouse like these...
 ...but there were at least two pairs of Crowned Sandgrouse in amongst them. They came in to drink at the northern ends of both tanks 5 and 6



In the smaller ponds north of tank 6 were a large mixed flock of gulls. Mostly they were Lesser Black-backed Gulls of at least two forms (fuscus and graellsi), as well as possibly some Caspian Gulls. They were very nervous and did not allow a close approach at all. As I was leaving however, this magnificent beast flew in, an adult Pallas' Gull (previously known as Great Black-Headed Gull, or GBH Gull)
Several Western Marsh Harriers in the reeds north of the main sewage farm. One adult Hen Harrier here too.
Eurasian Sparrowhawk powering through.
Red-rumped Swallow
Whiskered Tern. A Caspian Tern also dropped in for a short while.
Little Ringed Plover



Monday, April 2, 2018

Hurghada

Last stop on our tour of Egypt was Hurghada on the Red Sea coast. I had no particular high hopes for the birds here beyond a few nice gulls, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The best area was the Hurghada Sewage works (see next post), but there were birds even in the hotel grounds. Best of all was an unfortunate Collared Flycatcher which was picked up, exhausted, by a diner at the hotel restaurant! She was showing the bird around to her family, but allowed me to persuade her to return it to the bush she found it in...

The coastal birds were as expected. White-eyed Gulls dominated, but there were plenty of Sooty Gulls, several types of Lesser Black-backed Gull (mainly Baltic Gull, L. f. fuscus), a Slender-billed Gull, a group of 3 Brown Booby and quite a few Common Tern. Other birds included migrating Western Marsh Harrier and Long-legged Buzzard.

Adult male Collared Flycatcher. 
Sooty Gull 
White-eyed Gull
 Slender-billed Gull
This group of 3 Brown Booby hung around on or near this buoy for our entire visit.
Long-legged Buzzard

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Yellow Wagtails in Egypt...

The short grass areas on the edges of the fields on Crocodile Island were full of Yellow Wagtails of various types. The commonest subspecies by far was  M. f. bema, but there were some exceptions...

Black-headed Yellow Wagtail, M. f. feldegg. Only a few of these striking birds...



Sykes' Yellow Wagtail, M. f. beema. The key feature separating this from M. f. flava is the white subocular stripe.
This appears to be a hybrid beema x feldegg, or possibly flava x feldegg, previously known as M. f. superciliaris.
Only a small number of what appear to be the endemic Egyptian Yellow Wagtail, M. f. pygmaea.
Plenty of Red-throated Pipits in amongst the wagtails...





Luxor - Crocodile Island 30 March and 1 April

Crocodile Island was easy to get to by taxi (60 Egyptian Pounds). The island has a single massive hotel, Jolie Ville, and they treat the island as their own possession. I had a few issues with security guards the second time, but once I presented myself at Reception the hotel staff were fairly accommodating and let me wander around.

The most noticeable birds in almost every area are the various different species of heron. Squacco Heron are particularly numerous, as are Purple Heron which outnumbers the Grey Herons by a large factor. Both Cattle Egrets and Little Egrets are also common, a decent-sized heronry consisting of nests of both species is in the northern part of the hotel. Pied Kingfishers are also here in quite large numbers.

The northern part of the island is dominated by the hotel, and its manicured grounds. The lawns are good for Hoopoe, and I found several groups of Eastern Olivacous Warblers and Lesser Whitethroat in the bushes and trees. The football field in the northeast is also a good spot to get close views of Spur-winged Plovers.

The southern tip of the island is fenced off completely. Access is possible, but would involve clambering through a large fence. Beyond the fence is a large area of very short grass and not much else. There were plenty of Wagtails and Pipits on the grass, as well as Northern Wheatears and Hoopoe.

The best birding areas are the east and west flanks of the island. In the east are a number of small farms (mainly onions and similar crops) with scattered low bushes, areas of short grass, and reedbeds. In the west the farms are larger, and are mainly wheat, there are similar areas of short grass and reedbeds.

The reedbeds in the east were easier to access, and were very productive. Clamorous Reed Warblers were very noticeable, but there were also Eurasian Reed Warblers, Sedge Warblers and a Red-spotted Bluethroat. Hirundines here included Sand Martin, House Martin and two different races of Barn Swallow (Red-bellied and White-bellied forms). The short grass was filled with various different races of Yellow Wagtail (see later post), and loads of Red-throated Pipits. The farms in this area were in various states of harvesting, and the fields with bare ground were good for larks. I had both Crested Lark and Thekla Lark, my first ever sighting, totally unexpected.

Another unexpected bird in the east was Masked Shrike, of which I saw at least 4 different birds. Very flighty, but very nice.

The farms in the west were less interesting, lots of Fan-tailed Cisticola and Graceful Warbler, as well as both Little Green Bee-eater and Blue-cheeked Bee-eater but not much else. The short grass areas had similar groups of Yellow Wagtails and Red-throated Pipits, as well as a group of 3 Painted Snipe.

The reedbeds in the west were extensive but harder to get close to than the east, though I did get great views of an African Swamphen here.

I had a chance encounter with a very nice local chap called Mahmoud who took me out in his boat to get a closer look at the shallow areas south of Crocodile Island, which was great. The headline item here was a group of 8 Ferruginous Ducks, as well as both Whiskered Terns and White-winged Black Tern, Western Marsh Harrier, and another group of 4 African Swamphen.

One of at least 4 different Masked Shrikes in the eastern fields
Red-spotted Bluethroat showing very well.
Sedge Warbler
Eurasian Reed Warbler
Clamorous Reed Warbler. Common, and very noisy...

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler



Lesser Whitethroat
Ferruginous Duck. Very flighty so no decent photographs unfortunately
Crested Lark. Note the longer crest, buffier breast spots, and curved upper and lower mandible...
...in contrast with this Thekla Lark. Shorter crest, darker less diffuse breast spots, and straight lower mandible. When seen side by side they are quite different birds
Male Painted Snipe.
African Swamphen.
Nile Valley Sunbird. Another endemic down!
This magnificent summer-plumaged White-winged Black Tern was the last bird I saw as I crossed the bridge on my second visit. A wonderful send-off!

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Luxor - 30 March to 1 April

We took the night train to Luxor (highly recommended by the way, lots of fun, quite comfortable and the food was decent), arriving at our hotel on the Nile (Iberotel) before 8:00am. I immediately abandoned the family and had myself dropped off at the well known. Crocodile Island (see following blog entries for details).

The hotel grounds weren't particularly birdy, with the exception of a group of at least 7 Senegal Thick-knees which appeared each evening on the bank of the river just upstream from the hotel. Apart from this the birds were as expected. Lots of various species of heron flying back and forth (including Striated Heron), as well as numbers of Glossy Ibis, decent numbers of Pied Kingfishers, and my only Turtle Dove of the trip.

Senegal Thick-knee. Appeared on the riverbank just before sunset each evening, returning just after sunrise. Noisy, but difficult to approach.



Pied Kingfisher. Ubiquitous on the main river.
Black Kite. Small numbers pretty much everywhere.
Spur-winged Plover. Always near water, and quite easy to approach. They were highly alert, and ready to dive-bomb intruders, so presumably nests were nearby.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Cairo, 27th - 29th March

A family holiday to Egypt for the Easter holidays was a nice opportunity to find some new birds.

We started in Cairo, staying in an apartment on Gezira island in the middle of the Nile. City birding in the Middle East can be pretty limited, but it helps when you have a bloody great river running through the middle of it. Most of my birding was from the apartment, which overlooked both the Nile itself and a small park.

The birds were fairly typical. Common Bulbuls, Laughing Dove, Hooded Crow and House Sparrows were the commonest species. Both Ring-necked Parakeet and Alexandrine Parakeet used the park, as did a number of Hoopoe. Black Kites were everywhere in small numbers, as were Pallid Swift. The river was a flyway for several species of heron, particularly Cattle and Little Egrets, Squacco Heron and Black-crowned Night Heron. Pied Kingfisher were quite common, but White-throated Kingfisher was much less so. The first of the Egyptian specialities I found was the cleopatra subcpecies of Little Green Bee-eater.


Little Green Bee-eater, ssp. cleopatra. Only on the edge of the desert in the Cairo area
Hoopoe. Only in the park near the apartment.
Common Bulbul.

A surprise was finding a small population of Alexandrine Parakeet in the park.