Phalarope, late October 2023

I visited the Lower Otter Restoration project, hoping to see a warbler. Unfortunately, it was high tide, and the water covered a substantial amount of the designated walkway.  At the end of the path, where it would normally cross the ‘drain’ to the west path, there were a large number of gulls, a few ducks, and a Grey Phalarope. The first one I have seen. A small but very busy shorebird.

 



 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WWT London, Jan 2024

Image
I took advantage of a rare day of sunshine to visit the WWT London site in SW13.   There was a Bittern sighted in the morning, but it eluded me (no surprise) and it had not been seen by anyone I talked with in the hides. As always, it was a pleasure to get close to their managed collection of waterfowl. Canada geese Common Pochard (wild bird) Cormorant (wild birds) Common Crane Eider Goldeneye Greater Scaup Hooded Merganser North American bird, female pictured below. Maned Duck Australian wood duck. Red crested Pochard Southern europe / Central Asia bird but there are reports of it breeding in the Uk, possibly escaped birds. Ring necked Duck Smew Wood duck North American perching duck. Vagrants occaisonally arive in the UK. I saw one in 2022 on Creekmoor ponds. That bird was assumed to be an escapee. Ring necked Parakeets (wild birds) Goldcrest An apparently very confident bird, feeding on a fire tree right next to a path. However it had a damaged right eye, so perhaps it was exp...
Read more

North Norfolk, late April 2024

Image
We had a lovely short break in a hotel near Holt at the end of April. The weather was not kind, wet and with a bitter wind from the North but we enjoyed ourselves nevertheless. Weeting Heath We stopped at Weeting Heath NNR on the way up and the way back to watch the Stone Curlews (a first for us). We had good views on both visits, spotting 5 birds on the way and 6 on the way back.  They had a well sighted webcam on one nest and the birds swapped incubation duties regularly. The Stone-curlew ( Burhinus oedicnemus ), also known as the Eurasian Thick-knee, is a distinctive, nocturnal wader found in the UK, particularly on dry, open grasslands and heathlands. With its large, yellow eyes, upright stance, and cryptic plumage, it blends well into its arid habitat, feeding primarily on insects and small invertebrates. In the UK, its breeding range is mainly confined to the southern and eastern regions of England, with conservation efforts helping to stabilize its population. Currently, th...
Read more

New Zealand, Oct 2024

Image
This was a family holiday, not a birding expedition, so photography was on an 'ad hoc' basis. I shouldn’t have been, but I was stunned by the birding situation in NZ. The introduction of rats, stoats, cats and possums has devastated the native bird life, which evolved without exposure to many natural predators. On top of these challenges, the European settlers introduced an array of familiar birds to out compete the local fauna e.g. Blackbirds, Swallows, Starlings, Song Thrush, Yellowhammers and Mallards.  Really sad to see. Seabirds We had good views of seabirds from the whale watching boat from Kaikoura, although I'm not sure of the species level ID.       Albatross          Shearwater        Petrel Banded Dotterel The Banded Dotterel (also known as the Double-banded Plover) is a small, native shorebird found throughout New Zealand.  These birds inhabit coastal areas, estuaries, riverbeds, and sandy beache...
Read more