The Deskbound Birder: Green Sandpiper

Showing posts with label Green Sandpiper. Show all posts

Friday, 17 August 2018

A Long Hot Summer

The summer has been long and hot and I have done little but for work most evenings and many weekends with little time for birding. This is a summary of the highlights of my summer before, with luck, Autumn kicks in and tI can get out and see some birds.

I have been carrying out vegetation and butterfly surveys at Bedwyn Brail in Wiltshire, this woodland block is always a pleasure to work in and I recorded three new species for the site, most exciting was an egg laying female Purple Emperor but these Chimney Sweeper and Forester moths were nice additions.

Chimney Sweeper - Bedwyn Brail, Wiltshire

Forester - Bedwyn Brail, Wiltshire

I have been carrying out extensive invertebrate surveys on Portsmouth Water sites in Hampshire and West Sussex with Adam Wright. These have produced a few interesting species including a new colony of Small Red-eyed Damselfly and a whopping count of 31 Asilus crabroniformis at a site on Portsdown Hill. The latter is one of my favourite invertebrates and to find such a strong colony was very satisfying.

Bee Orchid - Near Wickham, Hampshire

Small Red-eyed Damselfly - Fishbourne, West Sussex

The Tachinid Fly Prosena siberita - Near Wickham, Hampshire (O)

The Longhorn Beetle Paracorymbia fulva - Near Wickham, Hampshire (O)

The Longhorn Beetle Agapanthia villosoviridescens - Near Wickham, Hampshire (O)

The Picture-winged Fly Chaetorellia jaceae - Near Wickham, Hampshire (O)

Wasp Spider Argiope bruennichi - Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth (O)

Asilus crabroniformis - Portsdown Hill, Portsmouth (O)

My only visit to Crockford Bridge this summer was on 26th June where the usual range of New Forest Odonata put on a good show.

Small Red Damselfly - Crockford Bridge

Southern Damselfly - Crockford Bridge

Beautiful Demoiselle - Crockford Bridge

On 28th June I popped to Bentley Wood to try and see Purple Emperor. I met with some success but the only 'grounded' Emperor was in the shade and not showing much purple.

Purple Hairstreak - Bentley Wood

Broad-bodied Chaser - Bentley Wood

Red-necked Footman - Bentley Wood

Purple Emperor - Bentley Wood

On 4th July, having heard of large numbers of Purple Emperor present, I visited the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. After seeing around 12 Purple Emperor I eventually encountered one on the ground which showed fairly well. On the day before my visit there was an impressive count of 388 Purple Emperor at this site!

Purple Emperor - Knepp Estate

We visited the Isles of Scilly on a family holiday for a week from the 7th July. I didn't do any birding as such but did run my Heath moth-trap at the Star Castle and went on a pelagic on 10th July. The latter didn't produce many birds as the conditions were too calm but we did see around 12 Blue Shark, Ocean Sunfish, 12 Bottle-nosed Dolphin and 25 Common Dolphin. Moth highlights were two new British species for me, Shore Wainscot and Devonshire Wainscot,

Shore Wainscot - St. Mary's, Isle of Scilly

Devonshire Wainscot - St. Mary's, Isle of Scilly

Marbled Coronet - St. Mary's, Isle of Scilly

Four-spotted Footman (female) - St. Mary's, Isle of Scilly

Four-spotted Footman (male) - St. Mary's, Isle of Scilly

Ocean Sunfish - At Sea, Isle of Scilly

Blue Shark - At Sea, Isle of Scilly

Great Skua - At Sea, Isle of Scilly

Rose Chafer Cetonia aurata - Peninnis Head, St. Mary's, Isle of Scilly

Trips to Pennington 20th and 24th July produced relatively little but these three Curlew Sandpiper and a Little Stint on 20th July were very welcome.

Curlew Sandpiper - Pennington Marsh 20th July (O)

Black-headed Gull - Pennington Marsh 20th July (O)

Little Egret - Pennington Marsh 20th July (O)

Reed Warbler - Pennington Marsh 20th July (O)

On 24th July I was working near Noar Hill NNR and so I couldn't resist popping by for a couple of hours.

The Hoverfly Sericomyia silentis - Noar Hill NNR 24th July (O)

Brimstone - Noar Hill NNR 24th July (O)

Brown hairstreak - Noar Hill NNR 24th July (O)

Weekends in the cottage in the Cotswolds allowed me to spend some time at Slimbridge 31st July and 11th August where a few migrant waders had begun to trickle through and Avocet showed well.

Avocet attacking Shelduck chick - Slimbridge 31st July (O)

Green Sandpiper - Slimbridge 11th August (O)

Ruff - Slimbridge 11th August (O)

Ruff - Slimbridge 31st July (O)

This summer I sold my beloved Canon 7d Mark II and 500mm Mark II and purchased a new camera system, the Olympus OMD E-M1 Mark II with the 60mm macro, 70-150mm and 300mm lens. I have found adjusting to the system a steep learning curve having been using Canon kit for the last 20 years or so but I am getting to the point where I am pleased with the images I am obtaining, particularly the macro shots. Images taken with the new Olympus are marked (O) after the caption. For the time being at least most images on this blog will be shot with the Olympus kit. The full list of my Olympus kit can be seen on my About page here.

Sunday, 6 August 2017

Slimbridge WWT - 3rd August

With another free morning during our week long stay at our cottage in Cowley in the Cotwolds, but with a bad weather forecast, I decided to head for Slimbridge and the shelter of the hides. It was a pretty foul day with strong-westerly winds and some very heavy showers accompanied by strong winds. I started at the South Lake Discovery Hide where the highlights were around 300 Black-tailed Godwit, three Snipe, 14 Ruff and two Green Sandpiper. There were large numbers of Black-headed Gull but few large gull and over the course of the hour or so that I was there I only noted six Lesser black-backed Gull and similar numbers of Herring Gull. Dodging the showers I headed to the Rushy Hide which was very slow, approximately 30 Sand Martin, six Green Sandpiper and two Black-tailed Godwit. One of the Green Sandpiper was very close to the hide but unfortunately in rather poor light.

Green Sandpiper - Rushy Hide, Slimbridge

I then headed to the Robbie Garnett hide which was equally as slow with nine Black-tailed Godwit, 11 Green Sandpiper and 12 Sand Martin. On to the Holden Tower which was as good as dead, a heard only Yellow Wagtail and two Teal. I decided that I would push the time a little for getting home as the Zeiss Hide was bound to have a few birds but once again it was very slow with six Ruff, three Green Sandpiper, 25 Teal and six Black-tailed Godwit. It was time to head home and do the moth trap.

Tufted Duck (female and chick) - Robbie Garnett Hide, Slimbridge

Green Sandpiper - Robbie Garnett Hide, Slimbridge

Thursday, 11 May 2017

Mongolia - 11th May (Day 4) - Travel from Ullanbataar to Dalanzadgad

Today was mainly a driving day 570km south from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad passing through the Gobi Desert with a few stops, mainly at lakes, en-route. The landscape was vast, stark and barren, mainly flat with a few rocky outcrops and dominated by gravel plains with sparse grass. The common birds here were Horned Lark, Lesser Short-toed Lark and Isabelline Wheatear and we also saw a good number of Pallas’s Sandgrouse (30+), eight Demoiselle Crane, two Upland Buzzard, Cinereous Vulture, Steppe Eagle and two Saker. Stops at three smallish lakes produced Shelduck, Ruddy Shelduck, Shoveler, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Avocet, Temminck’s Stint, Long-toed Stint, Little Ringed Plover, Mongolian Finch, Rock Sparrow, Grey Wagtail and Citrine Wagtail.

At one small roadside lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi (45°55'34" N 106°20'30" E) the vehicles pulled up close to the muddy shore and we waited for Pallas's Sandgrouse to arrive to drink. Here there were Rock Sparrow, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Ruddy Shelduck, Common Shelduck, Teal and five Green Sandpiper while at least 15 Pallas's Sandgrouse dropped into drink although not close enough to the vehicle for good photographs - they were always very wary of the vehicles.

Pairs of Demoiselle Crane were scattered along the roadside

Horned Lark was one of the commonest roadside birds - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Horned Lark - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Pallas's Sandgrouse - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Female Pallas's Sandgrouse - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Pallas's Sandgrouse - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Green Sandpiper - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Eurasian Teal - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Ruddy Shelduck - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Lesser Short-toed Lark - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

Demoiselle Crane - Lake between Delgertsogt and Mandalgovi

The Middle Gobi Desert

Steppe Eagle - Gobi Desert

The next lake we stopped at was at Luus (45°30'5" N 105°45'34" E) and was far larger than the previous lake. The cars drove opposite ways around the shores in order to cover the ground. It was quite a novelty driving through miles of vast desert to be confronted with a lake with teaming birdlife. Here there were flocks of Shoveler, Pintail and Teal in the open water while around the lake margins were Temminck's Stint, Long-toed Stint, Marsh Sandpiper, Avocet, Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and Citrine Wagtail.

Temminck's Stint - Luus Lake

Citrine Wagtail - Luus Lake

Little Ringed Plover - Luus Lake

Long-toed Stint - Luus Lake

Marsh Sandpiper - Luus Lake

Avocet - Luus Lake

Time was running tight as we wanted some birding time around Delanzadgad before dark and so we left Luus Lake reluctantly and continued our journey south-west. The desert scenery was amazing with barren landscapes dotted with camels and as we continued eventually we saw the mountains of Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park with the town of Dalanzadgad situated at its northern base.

Camel - Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert with the mountains of Gobi Gurvan Saikhan above Delanzadgad coming into view

We arrived at our Guest House at Dalanzadgad at around 17:30. The guest house is owned by Tumen and we soon found our bed space and settled in, I opted for a bed on the landing for some unknown reason while others shared. We spent a couple of hours settling in and birding from the balconies before heading in to the adjacent habitat. We then spent the rest of the day birding the small lake and area of scrub opposite the guest house (43°33'7" N 104°25'1" E). Highlights included Hobby, Osprey, Long-toed Stint, Citrine Wagtail, Isabelline Shrike, Pale Martin, Pallas’ Bunting and Red-throated Thrush. Dalanzagad is a small town located close to a mountain range of the Gobi Gurvan Saikhan and within the middle of the Gobi Desert and as a result any small areas of scrub attract migrating birds. Tumen has put considerable effort into influencing the creation of habitat for birds on this edge of the desert, and hence the areas around the Guest House are a magnet for migrant birds and we enjoyed a fantastic couple of hours birding before the sun went down.