The Deskbound Birder: Ring Ouzel

Showing posts with label Ring Ouzel. Show all posts

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

Friday, 29 April 2016

Bulgaria Trip - 23rd April (Day 2)

We awoke to the sound of a Black Redstart singing from the tiled roofs outside our room, we quickly freshened up and were drinking shots of expresso by 06:15. Minko arrived at 06:30 and we were off. Driving along the wooded gorge we passed through the still sleeping town of Devonish and climbed the slopes above the town. Our first quick stop was for 2 Chamois that Minko spotted high on a rock outcrop. The stop also produced singing Lesser Whitethroat and Cirl Bunting. We continued our climb before stopping in a pine and spruce dominated woodland near to Lesichevo. A flock of 6 Crossbill called and sang overhead and a Firecrest showed briefly nearby, singing birds included Cuckoo, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin and Dunnock, familiar birds from home but then a distant calling Black Woodpecker showed we were birding in more distant lands. We took a short walk through the forest looking for our target Hazel Grouse seeing Firecrest, Common Treecreeper, Willow Tit and a flyover Black Woodpecker but no sign of the grouse. Bear poo complete with crushed bone seen along with evidence of foraging Wild Boar. We returned to the car and took a slow drive back towards Devonish adding Jay to the list along the way.

A short stop in Devonish produced a pair of Dipper with two fledged young, this seemed very early for these birds to have fledged chicks and the pair were busy freshening their nest with new material. Overhead were around 40 Pallid Swift, 15 Red-rumped Swallow, 25 Barn Swallow and 30 House Martin while Serin twinkled their song from the treetops.

Dipper action in Devonish. Shots 3 and 4 show the bird capturing and eating a Stone-fly larvae and the prey time can be seen as the bird surfaces. The bottom image is of a juvenile bird already manically dipping at this age. These birds are of the race aquaticus.

We headed back through the gorge towards Trigrad admiring the stunning gorge and the crystal clear waters of the Trigrad River. Minko was very excited to see two Chamois feeding on the gravel beach's lining the river and we stopped and watched as they fed on vegetation before heading up the steep cliffs and back into the forest. We stopped at a viewpoint just before the tunnel located immediately to the south of the ‘Devil’s Throat’ a deep cave said to be the route to the underworld that Orpheus took to rescue Euridice from Hades. The viewpoint was flanked by shear cliff face and just above the road was a small vertical crack where a tuft of moss could be seen, this was a Wallcreeper’s nest. We waitied and after around 10 minutes Minko and I both heard a distant calling bird. Slowly the bird got closer until the calling was fairly loud, reverberating around the canyon and within a short while Minko spotted the bird on the cliff face above us. And there was my nemesis bird, dipping and flashing its bright crimson wings - a Wallcreeper! The bird dropped and was now within 15m of us, absolutely stunning, even Sarah let out a ‘wow’! The bird entered the nest and we could see it in the crevice freshening the nest and moving material around and then it was out and flying away along the cliff face. I followed the bird in my bins as it flitted butterfly like againist the vastness of the limestone cliffs of the gorge.

Chamois feeding along the edge of the Trigrad River, Minko said it was very unusual to see them beside the river as they are usually very high on sheer cliff faces

What can be said! The Wallcreeper is absolutely unique.

We headed back to the hotel for 11:00 for a much needed breakfast stop of scrambled egg, toast and more shots of expresso. After this we headed to the meadows above Yagodina. It was a little early in the year for the meadow flowers to be blooming but it was clear that there these were flower rich meadows. Fairly quickly we found our main target here, Sombre Tit, which enthusiastically responded to a recording. This was a surprisingly large tit with a hefty bill, large black bib and a very long (for a tit) tail. Also here were Rock Bunting, Lesser Whitethroat, Stonechat, Green Woodpecker and Serin.

Sombre Tit - Yagodina

Serin - Yagodina

Stonechat of race rubicola - Yagodina

Rock Bunting - Yagodina

Marsh Orchid species - Yagodina

Traditional farming methods still used in Yagodina

The village of Yagodina

Buynovo Gorge below Yagodina

We then headed back through Devin and back up the road to Lesichevo to try once more for Hazel Grouse. Around the mainly derelict village of there were at least 4 Ring Ouzel of the race alpestris with big white wing panels and scaly flanks. It started to rain and we headed for the woodland but saw little at our first stop. The next stop was a wide ride that lead for around 1km through woodland to a mammal hide we spent around 1.5 hours here as it was fairly birdy. The rain had encouraged the emergence of Fire Salamander and we saw 5 of these amazing animals. Birds included our first Crested Tit, calling Grey-headed Woodpecker and 3 fantastic Black Woodpecker but no Hazel Grouse. We headed back to the hotel for much needed cold beer and a fantastic salmon meal.