Waxwing, St. Just, Cornwall

Sarah and I spent the weekend (2nd-5th November) in Cornwall just to the west of St.Ives with the intension of some relaxation and a little birding. The birding was very quiet, not surprising given the weather conditions with a strong west to north-west wind, and sole rewards were a couple of firecrest in Cot Valley.

Sarah and I spent the morning of 4th November with our good friends Nigel Wheatley (http://www.wheretowatchbirdsandotherwildlifeintheworld.co.uk), his partner Alice and sons Ned and Tom in St. Just. We started the morning by bowling up to a stunning waxwing feeding on cotoneaster berries close to the junction of Victoria Row and Bosorne Road (thanks for pinning it down Nige and Alice!). There has been a small (but building) influx of these stunning birds into the UK over the previous three to four weeks with the first of the season being from Shetland on the 15th October and with birds arriving further south a little later in the month, with for example, the first birds in Norfolk on 25th October and reaching the Isles of Scilly on 31st October and mainland Cornwall on 2nd November.

Waxwing, St.Just, Cornwall 4th November 2012 (S. Colenutt)

Waxwing breed from north-eastern Fennoscandia east across boreal areas of Russia to Kamchatka and from Alaska east to Hudson Bay. Their winter range is almost a southern ‘mirror’ of the breeding range with the regularly occupied range extending from the Balkans and Caucasus east through Kazakhstan to north China and Japan and in the USA the central states. Waxwing is a partial migrant but is particularly known for its eruptive movements with some winters seeing large arrivals of several thousand into the UK while others see far fewer. These arrivals occur as a result of a low supply or failure in the main autumn food source of berries forcing birds to move to areas outside of their regular wintering grounds. The largest arrivals occur when a productive breeding season is followed by high overwinter survival as a result of a good berry crop resulting in a large source population which are then confronted by a poor berry crop the following autumn. It is likely that the majority of waxwing arriving in the UK originate from Scandinavia.

The winter of 2012 to 2013 looks set to be a good waxwing winter so keep your eyes peeled wherever there are berries - favourites being rowan, cotoneaster and hawthorn berries. Rowan in particular is commonly used as a visually attractive plant in landscaping schemes associated with supermarkets and housing estates so these are often favoured habitats for winter flocks.

Crete 3rd-9th October 2012

Sarah and I took a much needed break on Crete from 3^rd to 9^th October, this was not a birding trip as such mainly a much needed rest from the hectic 2012 bat survey season and a recent house move. However, me being me I did manage to do a little birding and in addition I took my actinic moth trap with me. Therefore, this posting will provide a little information on birds we saw (albeit not many!) and the moths we recorded. 

We stayed in Elounda on the north coast of the island at the Domes of Elounda resort http://www.domesofelounda.com - while not the cheapest resort we weren’t after cheap we wanted somewhere nice to stay with a decent view and potentially with some birding and the resort certainly provided us with this. The resort is located on a slope running down to the sea and our room was located at the top of the slope affording good views to Spinolonga Island http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinalonga I was able to run my moth trap in our small private garden. This is the view from our balcony:

Spinalonga Island from Domes of Eulonda

During our stay we explored mainly the central area of the island from Heraklion in the west, to Gourtys in the south and east as far as Gournia.

Moths

To date I have been able to identify a total of 18 species trapped at Elounda with around another 15 photographed and still to identify. These included a range of species recorded as migrants to the UK as well as some unfamiliar species. Those identified to date are: vestal, obscure bar, hummingbird hawk-moth, eastern bordered straw, small mottled willow, pale mottled willow, dark mottled willow, shuttle shaped dart, dark sword grass, Mythimna ruparia, Opthiusa tirhaca, Devonshire wainscot, cosmopolitan, golden twin-spot, pale shoulder, purple marbled, Udea ferigalis, Nomophila noctuella and Palpita vitrealis.

Devonshire Wainscot

Pale Shoulder

Palpita vitrealis

Opthiusa tirhaca 

Purple Marbled

Golden Twin-spot

Birds

I have to say my experience of birding on the island was not astounding. We saw very little and not really through lack of trying (or through to much relaxing by the pool with a glass!). There appeared to be a lack of migrants on the island at the time of our stay (possibly due to the presence of a long settled high pressure system over the eastern Mediterranean) and relatively few resident birds. Highlights included: griffon vulture, Eleanora’s falcon, booted eagle, golden eagle, yellow-legged gull, crested lark, red-throated pipit, Sardinian warbler, red-backed shrike, chough, Italian sparrow and cirl bunting. Most of these birds appeared to be generally distributed and we did not visit any specific sites to see these birds. There are no endemic bird species on the island which is a little surprising given its relative isolation especially when considering an island such as Corsica. The races of jay (race cretorum) and great tit (race niethammeri) are endemic.

Griffon vulture

Sardinian warbler

Further Information

If you are considering a birding trip to Crete then the following websites are useful:

Fatbirder: http://www.fatbirder.com/links_geo/europe/greece_crete.html

Crete Birding: http://www.freewebs.com/colnsue/

For moths I used Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of Patrice Leraut's 'Moths of Europe' published by N.A.P Editions.