Clucking hell

Just missed out on a Tennessee Warbler, bumping into Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Indigo Bunting in the process did nothing to take the edge off, so you can all cluck off.

A decidedly less quiet one

Four and a half hours in the wind and rain, worth every minute,...

 Regular appearances by a Black-and-White Warbler and a Cliff Swallow also helped the hours pass.

Wait till you see Vincent's images.

A quiet one

Spent all morning in Agua for very little reward and the most cursory of looks for the Blackpoll Warbler produced a predictable blank. All in all a bit quiet,... apart from the intra-local stabbing last night, Hannu impaling his leg and a possible hernia but I'll tell you about those another time. 

[Addendum: I forgot to mention, we also have a high(ish) profile member of the UK birding community living the life of a shadowy ne'er-do-well, climbing in windows, only walking the village streets after dark, hiding under the bed on every knock at the door, etc. I don't know, the things that happen on a rock in the middle of the sea.]

Magnolia falls

Unfortunately, our morning's birding produced nothing more than 2-3 Indigo Buntings and a Red-eyed Vireo. Fortunately, Gordon's morning turned up a Magnolia Warbler and we all piled into Da Ponte to bask in its lovely jubbliness. Unfortunately, its jubbliness did not extend to it being easy to photograph, hence the complete lack of associated imagery. Fortunately, my miserable failure is, potentially, your gain as it gives you a great excuse to check out Vincent's site here. Vincent, for those who don't know, is our photographic automaton, a pinnacle of modern design, a seamless fusion of man and camera. We simply point him at a bird then stand back and admire the single-minded, faultless efficiency,... and all fueled on coke, chicken and chips.

Popped up the reservoir this afternoon where everything was much the more amenable regarding photography as you can see,...

Halfway through papping this Solitary Sandpiper I leant back on the cattle fencing and received a rather unnecessary administration of a silly number of volts. Squealed. Like. A. Girl.

White-rumped Sandpiper, still outnumbering everything else but, on this occasion, also accompanied by the Solitary Sandpiper, a Pectoral Sandpiper and a Semi-palmated Plover.

An additional buy two get one free example of Corvo magic just for you,...

A bush and a bird.

Three minutes thirty-one seconds later, same bush, different bird. Groovy huh?

Across the ribeira and into the trees

A very quick update as I'm starving and dinner calls,...

First full day on Corvo, first two hours in a ribeira and look what I found.

Another smarty on the WP finds list.

Will add more detail later,... probably. Stay tuned folks!

[Addendum: never did get round to scribing a 'finder's account'. Well, it went like this,... looked up, there it was, I said "Wood Thrush!" (because that's what it was). A small amount of hell broke loose. Le fin.]

Gentle little warm-up

A short morning pottering on Sao Miguel produced 15+ Whimbrel, a Knot and a Bar-tailed Godwit at the airport; and four Semi-palmated Plover plus a smattering of White-rumped Sandpiper at Mosteiros.

Following arrival on Corvo a quick scoot up the road resulted in two (count 'em) Azores ticks in a mini hirundine flock consisting of four Cliff Swallow and four House Martin.

Then it was into the fields to be stalked at every turn by the hordes of feral cats, until...

... on rounding a corner we stumbled on an excited Finn watching a Northern Waterthrush in a puddle. Jubbly.

[Addendum: There seems to be some discussion over the identification of this Northern Waterthrush, I'd guess largely due to the high ISO, slightly over-exposed, noise-reduced-to-hell-and-back jpeg posted by Peter here. Not having Pyle to hand (I know, I know, I forgot to pack it), the following is heavily indebted to 'Separating Louisiana and Northern Waterthrushes' c/o Belltower Birding.

Our bird showed the following features:

• a plain up-and-down bobbing of the tail and rear body; 
• a yellowish supercilium (paler, whitish behind the eye), breadth of supercilium behind the eye varied with posture; 
• thin bill with thin and straight lower mandible; 
• a finely striped chin (this was lost' in Peter's photograph due to slight over-exposure); 
• yellowish breast and belly, whiter on the rear flanks and undertail (the yellow was reduced in Peter's photo probably as a result of increasing the contrast in the image and noise-reduction); 
• quite dense streaking on the underparts; and
• short primary projection. 

All the above seem to lean towards Northern,... granted the legs were quite pink though.]

Another god awful heavily cropped image for your delectation.

Just a little teaser

Will add a few more photos later but, in the mean time,...

Sao Miguel: Three Semi-palmated Plovers, 23 White-rumped Sandpipers, a Semi-palmated Sandpiper and a couple of Roseate Tern at Mosteiros; a flock of ten American Golden Plover with five, disappointingly white-rumped, Whimbrel plus three flyover Grey Plover just west of Calhetas; and a Spoonbill roosting in the harbour at Ponta Delgada.

Aaand a few more photos,...

The only adult amongst the White-rumped Sandpiper flock at Mosteiros today.

One of the many juveniles/1st-winters.

There's very little not to like about these Semi-palmated sweeties.

The American Golden Plover flock Peter and I found in a random field just west of Calhetas.

Drive-by bake-off

Just the last in a series of vicious cake-related ambushes. Two innocent people were caught in the crossfire of this senseless escalation and now face a prolonged period of recovery involving 'having a glass of milk' and 'sitting down and trying not to move around too much'. Authorities have asked the local community for help with identifying a woman observed running from the scene and who was heard to shout, "Mary Berry lives!"

Urgh

Bit blustery on the grasslands this morning. Apart from one Ruff, the Marsh Harrier and a reasonable flock of Snipe I saw naff all.

Phantom phalarope(s)

Dear 'phalarope' spotters,

If you don't know what a Wilson's Phalarope looks like or, for that matter, can't remember the salient features of a Spotted Redshank, why not try reeling your necks in and not claiming one, two, or any number of them at Goldcliff for the time being. Why not pop along to the RaSPBerry tea-room and enjoy a coffee and cake whilst cooing at the pretty Mute Swans outside the window instead. It really will be much better for all concerned.

If identifying rare birds isn't your strong point, please don't claim something outrageously rare before getting somebody who is accomplished at identifying rare birds to check it out first. Or maybe, before waltzing round claiming the Wilson's Phalarope is showing well, and certainly before informing the bird information services of said 'Wilson's Phalarope', why not open your field guide and work out what a Wilson's Phalarope should actually look like [What? You don't have a field guide? Well try this one. The RSPB sell them too].




[NB. We would like to apologise to regular readers but the paragraph formerly occupying this space imploded under the sheer weight of vitriol and obscenities included therein. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. In the mean time,... Mr. Conway Twitty.]




Nurse!

Nurse?!

Oh, there you are, a mug of Horlicks and enough horse sedatives to stop the the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, the 17th Lancers and the 8th and 11th Hussars please.

Thank you.