Shetland - 13th October

I started the morning birding at Fladderbister with high hopes, this is one of my favourite birding spots on Shetland and I always have great expectations when I visit this place. The winds were light north-east and it was clear with sunny spells. I spent some time birding around the village and ruins and then along the road to the south. It was slow going, in the three hours I was here I recorded an Eastern-type Lesser Whitethroat with a sandy coloured mantle, a Yellow-browed Warbler, five Goldcrest, a late Willow Warbler and 35 Redwing. I was just wandering back to the car wondering what to do next when news broke of the long-staying Snowy Owl showing on Ronas Hill in the north of the island and so, having considered it yesterday but bailing out when the news of the Lesser Grey Shrike broke, I decided to go for it today.

Eastern-type Lesser Whitethroat - Fladderbister, Mainland Shetland

Chiffchaff - Fladderbister, Mainland Shetland

Yellow-browed Warbler - Fladderbister, Mainland Shetland

Shetland Wren - Fladderbister, Mainland Shetland

I stopped at Lerwick to grab some lunch and then drove the 50 minutes or so north and then up the track to the masts on Collafirth Hill where I parked. It was then a 3 km walk north-west to an area known as The Hadd on the southern edge of Loch of the Hadd. The landscape was spectacular with wet cotton-grass bog, heather and exposed granite, it felt like the middle of nowhere. The walk produced a Merlin and a high flying flock of around 50 Snow Bunting. Having joined up with a couple of birders it seemed like a long walk but eventually we saw a small group of other birders looking through their scopes, as we joined them I recognised Dan Houghton. Dan showed me the Snowy Owl through his scope which was sitting on a ridge some 200m or so away in a slight heat haze and so not the best of views. This was a stunning, mainly white male, which as far as could be seen had black barring restricted to the flanks. I was back at the car for 15:45 and decided to spent the last hour or so of birdable daylight at Lower Voe. There was not a lot to be seen as the sun was off the trees and in the hour or so I was here the only bird of note was a Spotted Flycatcher. I headed off and was back to the hotel by 17:45.

Snowy Owl - The Hadd, Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland

Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland with Yell in the distance

Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland with Yell in the distance

The Hadd and the Loch of the Hadd, Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland

This was the view point for the Snowy Owl, the bird was on the left hand most ridge - Loch of the Hadd, Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland

Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland

Ronas Hill, Mainland Shetland with Yell in the distance

16th-18th May - Martin Down and Pennington Marsh

The last couple of weeks have been manic at work with some very early starts for breeding bird surveys, late nights reviewing documents and getting the company ready for the new and extremely tedious General Data Protection Regulations which come into force later in May. However, I have managed to get out a little to protect my sanity.

Note - I added a number of sound recordings to this post linked to uploads at the Internet Bird Collection (IBC). With the subsequent transfer of data from IBC to the Macaulay Library the links to these became broken. I have therefore subsequently uploaded these sound files to eBird and the recordings can be viewed here for Martin Down and here for Pennington Marsh. I have retained the sonograms from these recordings on this post.

On the morning of 16th May I visited Marin Down on the north Hampshire and Wiltshire border to complete my Nightingale survey as organised by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, alas, there were no Nightingale. Martin Down has experienced a catastrophic fall in population from 24 singing males in 1980 to none now, there cannot have been a change in the extent of scrub, this is a National Nature Reserve and there has probably been an increase rather than a reduction in scrub cover. So surely this local and the national decline is linked to changes in the wintering grounds or something happening along the migration routes rather than localised habitat loss/change in the UK. Still, there were lots of Corn Bunting (at least 15 birds recorded) and the first Turtle Dove that I have seen in the UK for many years with at least six 'purring' birds. Here, also were an amazing density of Skylark and it was difficult to estimate the number of birds but my best guess was 30 birds in all. It was a little windy for butterflies and the only species I recorded was a single Green Hairstreak, my first of the year.

Corn Bunting - Martin Down, Hampshire

Corn Bunting - Martin Down, Hampshire

Turtle-dove - Martin Down, Hampshire

Green Hairstreak - Martin Down, Hampshire

Invertebrate surveys with Adam Wright on 17th May near to Fishbourne, Chichester area produced a few first spring records for me although we recorded nothing of great excitement. White-legged Damselfly, Beautiful Demoiselle, Banded Demoiselle and Hairy Hawker were nice species to see as always.

The hoverfly Platycheirus rosarum - Fishbourne, Chichester

The hoverfly Helophilus pendulus - Fishbourne, Chichester

The hoverfly Cheilosia albitarsus - Fishbourne, Chichester

The snipefly Rhagio scolopacea - Fishbourne, Chichester

On 18th May I had a short wander around Pennington Marsh, it was fairly quiet with the highlights being two male Ruff almost in summer plumage, 25 Dunlin, two Peregrine over the site, three Whimbrel, 15 Great-crested Grebe (this seemed to be a large number for a May visit) and two very late Wigeon. Numbers of migrant birds seem to be very low and I only recorded three Whitethroat and four Reed Warbler of the breeding species. Singles of Cuckoo and a Lesser Whitethroat seemed to be birds holding territory on site.

Reed Warbler - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Single song sequence of Reed Bunting - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire


Lesser Whitethroat - Pennington marsh, Hampshire


Sequence of Lesser Whitethroat song with a rattle to begin with followed by warbling notes - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Sequence of Lesser Whitethroat song starting with the rattle then a sequence of warbling notes and ending in a rattle - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

There were high numbers of Great-crested Grebe for a May visit - Pennington Marsh, Hampshire

Pennington Marsh - 5th October

It was a beautiful October day and after dropping Tobias at school I was going to spent the day at Pennington Marsh until it was time to pick him up at 15:30. After a coffee at the corner of Lower Pennington Lane I walked along the full length of the Ancient Highway. It took me almost two hours to walk the 500m or so! I was absorbed in the bushes trying to find a decent bird but in a north-westerly I was not too hopeful. Other than fair numbers of Chiffchaff and Goldcrest there was little to be found. The highlight was an obliging Lesser Whitethroat which despite my best efforts I couldn't turn into one of the eastern races. Three Bearded Reedling passed high overhead to the east, I guess these were local birds simply moving around the site. There was some visible migration evident and I recorded a total of 26 Swallow, 11 House Martin, six Siskin, eight Redpoll and 24 Sky Lark moving west. I spent a fair bit of time around the plantation at the west end of the Ancient Highway but there was little to be seen.

Lesser Whitethroat - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Lesser Whitethroat - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Lesser Whitethroat - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

Lesser Whitethroat - Ancient Highway, Pennington Marsh

As I wandered around the seawall it was evident that the tide was very high and the waders on the salt marsh were tiptoeing in knee-deeps water when normally they would be high and dry. Scanning through their ranks there were many Dunlin and Grey Plover and I counted a total of 185 Curlew. Scanning over the scrub looking for the Wryneck that has been present recently I picked up an immature Sparrowhawk that was harassing the pipits, a Marsh Harrier and a Red Kite flew north over. Red Kite is still a scarce bird here.

Sparrowhawk - Iley Point, Pennington Marsh

Walking around the seawall an obliging Wheatear was on the track while at Fishtail there were good numbers of wader with 180 Black-tailed Godwit, six Snipe and 90 Lapwing along with small numbers of Redshank and Dunlin. I watched a pair of Mallard foraging in the shallows accompanied by three Little Grebe, the Little Grebe were diving in the 'slip stream' of the Mallard and were clearly foraging for prey items (small invertebrates) disturbed by the Mallard - I do not recall seeing this feeding association before. Scanning over the saltmarsh I picked up an immature female Merlin chasing a Meadow Pipit which it eventually downed over the scrub at Iley Point.

Wheatear - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Wheatear - Keyhaven Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Foraging Mallard accompanied by Little Grebe - Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

At the Jetty there were around 30 Turnstone and 15 Dunlin feeding on the seaweed that has accumulated on the beach - quite unusual that the beach is not disturbed by dogs so I spent a little time he photographing them. I then headed along the seawall past Pennington Lagoon before cutting inland and back to the car.

Dunlin - Jetty Beach, Pennington Marsh

Dunlin - Jetty Beach, Pennington Marsh

Turnstone - Jetty Beach, Pennington Marsh

Dunlin - Jetty Beach, Pennington Marsh

Dunlin - Jetty Beach, Pennington Marsh

Dunlin - Jetty Beach, Pennington Marsh

Chiffchaff - Pennington Lagoon, Pennington Marsh

Day Totals

Wigeon - 147

Teal - 295

Pintail - 10

Shoveler - 46

Red-breasted Merganser - 1

Marsh Harrier - 1

Red Kite - 1

Water Rail - 4

Lapwing - 125

Curlew - 215

Black-tailed Godwit - 207

Bar-tailed Godwit - 3

Greenshank - 5

Spotted Redshank - 4

Snipe - 8

Peregrine - 1

Merlin - 1 immature female

Goldcrest - 9

Bearded Reedling - 3

Sky Lark - 24 west

Swallow - 26 west

House Martin - 11

Chiffchaff - 9

Blackcap - 3

Lesser Whitethroat - 1

Stonechat - 11

Wheatear - 5

Siskin - 6 west

Redpoll - 8 west

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 11th February (Day 4)

Having seen most of our target birds for the area during the course of yesterday, today was going to be a little more relaxed. We were up at 06:00 for a 06:30  breakfast and headed south-west out of Jaisalmer birding the desert as we went we added Black Redstart of the race phoenicuriodes, White-throated Fantail, Variable Wheatear of the form capistrata, had good views of more Desert Warbler and encountered flocks of several thousand Bimaculated Lark. We drove through dry, dusty desert villages with bedraggled men talking and smoking outside stores but pristine and colourful ladies gathering water, crushing wheat and generally carrying out productive duties.

We then turned north back through the Desert National Park where we scanned for Great Indian Bustard with no success. We enjoyed flocks of Bimaculated Lark, Greater Short-toed Lark and Black-crowned Sparrow Lark. And then, overhead, a stunning Laggar Falcon with its distinctive dark underwing coverts. We slowly made our way north stopping and scanning for bustard, counting ourselves fortunate that we had seen a pair yesterday. The drive out of the park produced nothing new and by 13:00 we were back at the hotel for lunch and a siesta.

The afternoon was spent at Jaisalmer Fort, a UNESCO world heritage site built in 1156 and is one of the largest fortifications in the world. The fort is 460m long and 230m wide and is built on a hill that raises 76m above the surrounding country side. The Fort was built by Rawal Jaiswal from whom the town of Jaisalmer takes its name. There is a very large colony of Greater Mouse-tailed Bat within the walls of the fort, we saw around 50 animals but judging by the smell and number of droppings in some areas there are many hundreds of animals present at times - not a very pretty looking bat!

Variable Wheatear of form capistrata

Black Redstart of race phoenicuriodes 

Lesser Whitethroat - Not exactly sure of race/species of this bird any advice please email simon@ecosa.co.uk - is it Desert, Hume's or Lesser?

Common Babbler

Purple Sunbird

Purple Sunbird

Southern Grey Shrike

Ladies and wind turbines

Typical desert village in area

Peacock common in the villages

Desert Warbler

Desert Warbler

Indian Spotted Eagle

Black Drongo - Commonly seen riding sheep and flycatching from their backs

Black Drongo

Bimaculated Lark

Lagger Falcon

Ladies collecting water

Sarah and I in Desert National Park

Typical habitat in Desert National Park

Entrance sign and habitat at Desert National Park

Camels at Sam

The following are all images from the fantastic Jaisalmer Fort 

Links to the other days of the trip:
Day 1 - 2 - Background and Travel
Day 2 (Part 1) - Desert National Park
Day 2 (Part 2) - Desert National Park
Day 3 (Part 3) - Desert National Park
Day 5 - Travel from Jaisalmer to Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 1) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 2) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 3) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 7 - Little Rann of Kutch and Travel Home