The Deskbound Birder: Little Owl

Showing posts with label Little Owl. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 September 2021

Portland Bill - 15th September

Before a Dormouse survey near to Dorchester I popped to Portland Bill for a couple of hours birding. I parked in the main car park and birded the lighthouse, Pulpit Inn and Observatory area. The bushes were alive with Chiffchaff and with good numbers of Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Whitethroat as well as Redstart, Whinchat, Tree Pipit, Yellow Wagtail and a Hobby flew north. I spent some time at the Observatory Quarry where the Wryneck showed well eventually, it would disapear for long periods under the Brambles to feed.

My eBird checklist for the morning can be viewed here.

Wryneck - Observatory Quarry, Portland Bill

Little Owl - Observatory Quarry, Portland Bill

Northern Wheatear - Portland Bill

Chiffchaff - Bird Observatory, Portland Bill

Friday, 27 October 2017

Portland, Dorset - 27th October

I arrived at Portland at 07:30 just as the sun was rising and overhead Meadow Pipit, Sky Lark, Alba Wagtail and Linnet called. During a coffee before setting off and waiting for the sun to rise I spotted a couple of thrush in the scrub along the West Cliffs, chacking calls gave them away as Ring Ouzel so I set-off to get better views. I eventually had fairly good views of a male and female as they fed on Blackberries and Privet berries on the scattered scrub. I birded the west cliffs for a while before dropping down to the observatory. Woodpigeon passed in good numbers overhead and Brambling and Redpoll could be heard calling as they passed over. I birded the Hut Fields and then along the East Cliffs before heading up to Culverwell the highlights being two Firecrest, four Yellowhammer and two Golden Plover. At Culverwell, the southern edge of the scrub was bathed in sunlight and there were good numbers of insects, there were at least three Chiffchaff and a few Goldcrest. I then picked-up what looked to be a fairly pallid Acrocephalus and my immediate impressions were that it was simply a pallid looking Reed Warbler. Other birders approached and it became apparent that there was a rumour that the bird was a Marsh Warbler, this identification morphed into Blyth's Reed Warbler and as the crowd swelled to around 30 this identification took hold. I however was a little sceptical, to me it simply looked wrong in tone being too warm and seemed to have the wrong jizz - I couldn't put my finger on it but it just didn't feel right for a Blyth's Reed. Still I watched the bird for an hour or so before heading back to the car and home. When home I quickly looked at my images of the Acrocephalus and became more certain of my doubts so emailed some images and thoughts to Martin Cade - a little later that day the bird was captured and its identity as a Reed Warbler confirmed. Martin's account of the day can be read on the Portland Bird Observatory website here.

Ring Ouzel - West Cliffs, Portland

Migrating Woodpigeon - Portland Bill

Little Owl - Observatory Quarry, Portland

Meadow Pipit - East Cliff, Portland

Reed Warbler - Culverwell, Portland Bill

Long-tailed Tit - Coastguard Cottages, Portland

Mornings Totals:

Golden Plover - 2

Lapwing - 1

Woodpigeon - 350

Ring Ouzel - Male and female West Cliffs, on heard at Obs

Redwing - 8

Chiffchaff - 8

Firecrest - 2

Long-tailed Tit- 8

Reed Warbler - 1

Blackcap - 3 (2 male and a female)

Stonechat - 35

Brambling - 5

Redpoll - 6

Siskin - 35

Reed Bunting 6

Yellowhammer - 4

Sunday, 14 May 2017

Mongolia - 14th May (Day 7) - Dalanzadgad to Khongor Sand Dunes

We were up 05:45 and birded the habitat around the guest house. There had evidently been a small fall of migrants and we recorded six Eye-browed Thrush, three Pallas’s Bunting, 12 Red-throated Thrush, Dusky Warbler, Reed Warbler and, best of all, two Siberian Rubythroat which showed well in a newly planted line of scrub opposite the guest house and attracted to the irrigation system in place.

Siberian Rubythroat - Dalanzadgad

Daurian Redstart - Dalanzadgad

White-cheeked Starling and Red-throated Thrush - Dalanzadgad

After breakfast we packed our bags and headed to an area of sparsely vegetated gravel plain just outside of Dalanzagad, here after driving across the plain for around 30 minutes we came across a pair of Oriental Plover. We watched the male for around 30 minutes in his fantastic display flight over the desert banking and flapping on long stiff wings while emitting a strange clicking call. A female was also present here and, a little like Lapwing, the male seemed to display as a result of our presence as well as to impress the female. The display was reminiscent of the flight of a Leach’s Petrel or perhaps a Manx Shearwater.

Oriental Plover

Female Oriental Plover

Oriental Plover, male in display flight

Oriental Plover, male over is desert habitat

We continued our drive eventually leaving the asphalt, a road surface we would not see for the next three days. We headed out through the Gobi Desert the landscape gradually becoming drier, flatter and stonier. Stops along the way produced Steppe Eagle and Greater Sand-plover while Pallas's Sandgrouse were regularly seen flying at speed along the roadside. We stopped at a small plantation consisting of a planted shelter belt and irrigated agricultural fields. Here we recorded Pallas’s Warbler (3). Pallas’s Bunting (5), Little Bunting (2) Dusky Warbler (2), Pin-tailed/Swinhoe’s Snipe (1) and Wryneck (3).

Steppe Eagle

Greater Sand-plover, male on territory

Dusky Warbler

Tolai Hare Lepus tolai

Pallas's Bunting

Pallas's Warbler

Daurian Redstart

Ger with all mod-cons

Driving onwards across gravel plains we came to a large wetland area, the water level was low and birds were very distant and in the heat haze not identifiable, we recorded Little Owl in a small barn, Taiga Flycatcher (1), Siberian Stonechat (1) and Barry slipping on his arse and getting covered in mud and goat shit! Heading further west, we had great views of a pair of Mongolian Ground-jay adjacent to the road and found the birds nest.

Tussocky habitat close to a lake in the desert

Lake side vegetation and scenery

Lake and goats

Little Owl of race plumipes

Mongolian Ground-jay

The Mongolian Ground-jay nest was located on the top of this bush which was

no more than 1.5m high

Mongolian Ground-jay nest and eggs

Mongolian Ground-jay nest

It was time for lunch and we headed up a ravine in the mountainside and found our lunch laid out for us in a spectacular ravine. While we ate we had great views of an adult Lammergeir plus Pied Wheatear (6), Chukar (3) and Rufous-tailed Rockthrush.

Our lunchtime ravine

Lunch

Chukar

Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush

Female Pied Wheatear

Male Pied Wheatear

Lammergeier

Following a dirt road west we drove parallel to the magnificent Khongor Sand Dunes the dunes progressively becoming larger and larger while backed by contrasting black and red rock mountains. A short stop in an area of gravel desert with scattered scrub soon produced Asian Desert Warbler and we eventually obtained good views of these birds as they ran between scrub patches and occasionally sat-up to survey the surrounding land.

Greater Sand-plover

Asian Desert Warbler habitat

Asian Desert Warbler

Horned Lark nest and eggs

Desert habitat

The lower areas of the Khongor Sand Dunes

Desert Scenery

Our Russian support vehicle racing through the desert

Arriving at our camping area we birded an area of dunes and Saxaul Scrub where we had good views of Desert Wheatear (4) and Hill Pigeon (5) but Saxual Sparrow eluded us. Our campsite over looked the Khongor Sand Dunes and we enjoyed a couple of beers overlooking the dunes watching a beautiful sunset and studying the moons of Jupiter.