Monday 25 February 2019

SHETLAND: Mainland 23 February - TENGMALM'S OWL

Saturday 23 February. I was on deck as it was getting light and saw a male Long-tailed Duck, 20 Eider and two Black Guillemots between Bressay and Lerwick. Garry had booked a car which had been left in the car park and half an hour later we were at Bixter, Phil Heath having taken the spare place in our hire car. There had been no sign of the bird since Thursday despite some birders searching the area for most of the night. The householders at Tumblin did not want birders around house or in the garden until 09:00 when Phil Harris had permission to search the plantation tree by tree, something which had been done several times the previous day with no success. It was not looking hopeful and Phil went in and started moving into the plantation on his back checking the trees. Literally three minutes later he came out and announced the bird was there but from below one could only see its belly. He then went back to the house to report this and obtain permission to see if it was visible from the drive. It was but very obscured and only from one position. The only option was to set up a scope and let each of the 50-60 birders present look through it one at a time. Very stressful especially as I was about number 40 in the queue and the first few went through at about one every three  minutes as it took a while to realise where the bird was. Fortunately it soon sped up with everyone being told what to look for and the queueing system worked well and was orderly. After about half an hour my turn came. Brilliant to have finally seen a Tengmalm's Owl. Even if a lot of it was obscured one gained a good impression of the bird. Like most I joined the back of the queue for seconds. Garry drove into Lerwick to sort of some paperwork for the car and didn't return for three hours although we were happy continually queueing. My only disappointment being that my scope was in the car and towards the end there would have been space to set it up and I could have tried digiscoping. By this time there were only a handful left, including recently arrived Steve Smith, and queueing rarely took more than a few minutes for longer views. I saw the bird at least ten times, most adding a bit more to my image of it - left side, eye open a bit, right side eye fully open, eyes closed shut, preening, back of head etc. By the time Garry returned it had moved a few inches making it more obscured and after a final view we returned to Lerwick. We saw an adult Iceland Gull, a pair of Long-tailed Ducks, 15 Eider, a Black Guillemot and a Raven at Lerwick Catch then obtained our boarding passes for the evening ferry. We'd not done so earlier in case we wanted to stay a second day. We drove south seeing in quick succession the wintering Scarlet Rosefinch in a garden in Claphoull, eight Whooper Swans and the Pied-billed Grebe on Loch Spiggie and two Tundra Bean Geese and what was probably a Pink-foot at Sandwick. We returned to Bixter at about 16:20 and joined 40 others on the drive at Tumblin. It was drizzling heavily but the Tengmalm's Owl was still just about visible in the same place in the plantation although looking into the rain with awful light. We were waiting against the clock as although the ferry left at 19:00 the gangway was closed at 18:30, it was a 30 minute drive to the terminal and we needed to fill up with petrol. We had a cut off at 17:50 which seemed fine at 17:00 with the light starting to go but the owl didn't start moving until after 17:25 and didn't move far. At 17:35 it moved a foot or so and then at 17:40 flew a couple of feet to perch in full view on the edge of a tree. By now most observers had moved to the side of the house giving me the chance to move to a good position on the drive and although it was almost dark it was nice to see the bird in full view in my scope. Even nicer when someone briefly shone a torch on it two or three times which didn't appear to bother the bird at all. It was now just after 17:50 and we reluctantly left. We were on the ferry with under five minutes to spare. It had been a brilliant visit, shockingly my first since April 1992. Something I would definitely have to improve upon.

Many thanks to Garry for arranging the trip and doing the driving (I was back home soon after 18:00 on 24th) , all transport cost me less than £100, a bargain if ever there was one.


just under £40 for the over 60s, so there is some benefit for being old
very obscured Tengmalm's Owl at Tumblin, the sun reflecting off the top of its rounded head is visible towards the top of the image, a few white spots lower down
this shows the limitations of a bridge camera, or its operator, in not focusing on the bird deep in cover
Tengmalm's Owl at Tumblin 19 February 2019 (Dave Cooper) - the image that got me wishing ...
Eider off Lerwick Catch
great to see this wonderful duck so well, putting most South Coast sightings to shame


Long-tailed Ducks off Shetland Catch
another brilliant duck when seen well

adult Iceland Gull at Shetland Catch
with two Fulmars, my first adult since 1992
Friday 22 February. Garry drove John Lees, Hugh and me to Aberdeen with a couple of stops. We saw about 500 geese (Barnacles?) in three skeins flying over the M6/M74 at Gretna, a Red Kite south of Perth and four Goosanders on the River Dee in Aberdeen. The owl had not been seen all day despite very intensive searching and much to our dismay did not appear at dusk. Hugh bailed out but Garry, John and I boarded at 18:30 joining Dave Holman, Phil Heath and Lee Evans, amongst others (most of who I didn't know but knew the names of) were on the boat. I had a decent nights sleep.

Thursday 21 February.Peregrine on Southwick Power Station on my way to work where news the Tengmalm's Owl was back was not entirely a surprise. Thankfully Garry Bagnall was offering lifts on twitter and I quickly contacted him. He'd been as far as Preston on Tuesday night but turned around when it wasn't seen. We would leave his place at 23:00 and this time we would go over whatever. 5000 Starlings murmurating by the Palace Pier on my way home. I was at Garry's just before 11pm, having driven past a couple of times before realising where it was.

Wednesday 20 February.  Shoreham Fort, Widewater and Brooklands produced little, the highlights being a Polish colour-ringed Black-headed Gull on the beach at Shoreham Sailing Club and two Sanderling on the beach opposite Brooklands. No sign of the Tengmalm's Owl on Shetland.
Polish Black-headed Gull, ringed at Koronowo, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland on 21/05/17 and seen at nearby Shoreham Fort on 23/12/18
Tuesday 19 February. A Peregrine on Southwick Power Station on my way to work where news of a roosting Tengmalm's Owl on Mainland Shetland was rather distracting. Thankfully Dave Cooper made it from Unst. 2000 Starlings murmurating by the Palace Pier on my way home.

Monday 18 February. 6000 Starlings murmurating by the Palace Pier on my way home.

Sunday 17 February 2019

West Sussex in a mild mid February

Sunday 17 February. DB took JK and me to Blackdown, making the most of a decent forecast. We spent over four hours there seeing two Red Kites, six Buzzards, Wood Lark, five Stonechats, male Dartford Warbler, Goldcrests, Marsh and Coal Tits, Nuthatch, Siskin and at least five Crossbills. We also had a poor view of an almost certain Goshawk and I missed a Redpoll. It was only my fourth visit, Blackdown being the back of beyond for those of us on the mid Sussex coast and meeting the 'resident expert' DB was very informative. We called in at Knepp on the return seeing 15 Redwings, two Treecreepers and two Nuthatches.
looking south-west from Blackdown, the South Downs as far as Chanctonbury Ring were just about visible against the glare of a low sun
still lots of mist in the Weald
male Crossbill at Blackdown
male Dartford Warbler at Blackdown
Saturday 16 February. Megan and I took Cookie up to Chantry Hill and despite very poor visibility found our way to Blackpatch Hill visiting the trig point before returning via Lee Farm. Some nice habitat but little seen not helped by the weather. I recorded 500 Wood Pigeons,  10 Sky Larks, a Raven, 150 Linnets and 11 Corn Buntings. Back home two Stock Doves were feeding on our lawn.
Megan and Cookie at Blackpatch Hill trig point
Friday 15 February. I took Cookie to Shoreham Fort and Widewater. The Black Redstart was still present on the Fort but it was very murky out to sea and I only saw a single Gannet. Widewater was very quiet - just one Little Grebe, the twoCoot, tenTeal and the pair of Mute Swans chasing away a persistent immature. In the afternoon we walked down the airport side of the Adur on the newly opened footpath and back up the other side. Nothing was noticed amongst the gulls and the only waders seen were three Redshank. The area around the new footpath looks quite a mess although hopefully the vegetation will grow back. The reed filled ditch which held Reed and until recently Sedge Warbler was no more.
Black Redstart still at Shoreham Fort
view from the new footpath 'beside' the Adur
Thursday 14 February. Two Peregrines were sat on Southwick Power Station as I cycled to work. Nice that it is light now. At the University Herring Gull A4AH was feeding on the lawn, almost ten years since I first was it. 

Tuesday 12 February. An estimated 7000+ Starlings were flying around the Palace Pier at dusk. I'm not making it all the way home in daylight but ore than half the journey now is. 


Sunday 10 February. Megan, Cookie and I walked around Swanbourne Lake and were a bit dismayed at how much had been cleared on the SW side. Whatever top soil is on the slope there could easily end up in the lake. 70 Tufted Duck seemed a decent count, 30 Gadwall but no Mandarins. We left Cookie in the car at the WWT and had a quick walk around seeing Water Rail and my collection favourites - Harlequin, Long-tailed Duck and Scaly-sided Merganser.

Water Rail at Arundel WWT




Saturday 09 February. We walked along Southwick Canal seeing 30 Cormorants and three Greenfinches.


Friday 08 February. A very rough day and a reasonable tide made the Cuckmere gull flock seem a good bet but it was not to be. Despite over 3000 gulls in scattered flocks I couldn't find anything of interest (other than three unreadable colour-ringed Norwegian Great Black-backs). Great Black-backs predominated (an estimated 2600 were present including many immatures). The four regular Barnacle Geese were present and 90 Oystercatchers were roosting on the scrape. Back home three Stock Doves were feeding on our lawn.

Cuckmere from Harry's Bush
Barnacle Geese in the Cuckmere

Belle Tout from the Cuckmere on a rough day
Wednesday 06 February. I took Cookie to Shoreham Fort where the Black Redstart was still present. At Widewater I saw nine Little Grebe and the two Coot.  Pretty much as it was before I went away.
Black Redstart at Shoreham Fort



Monday 4 February 2019

SRI LANKA 20019: Uda Walawe and Sinharaja (1-4 February)

Continuing on the Naturetrek Sri Lanka Endemic Bird trip, with eleven others and two excellent leaders (Indi and Dinal), we had arrived at the Centurion Hotel beside Chandrika Lake in Embilipitiya.

01 February 2019. We left the hotel as it was getting light at 06:00 with a packed breakfast and drove to the entrance of Uda Walawe National Park where we decamped into three jeeps (we had tracker Lionel in ours) and joined a long queue of other tourists waiting in jeeps for it to open. As usual with Sri Lanka permits had to be bought on the day which rather wasted the best part of it. Once in we soon branched off from most jeeps which were concentrating on elephants. We drove around in a loose convoy for three hours seeing a lot of birds without them including anything special, at least as far as I was concerned. I had only marginally better and still not countable views of another Grey-bellied Cuckoo and failed to get onto a Blue-faced Malkoha that Lionel spotted and only Peter saw. We had no luck at all with Sirkeer Malkoha which I had been particularly hoping for. Indi later mentioned that afternoon drives were more productive but not possible on our very tight itinerary (although an earlier start from Nuwara Ellya should have allowed it). An afternoon visit would have involved less of a scrum to enter the park and more bird activity as it started to cool down late afternoon rather than the heat of the day we mostly had. The contrast between what we saw in our morning and Dave Cooper and Brenda Kay on an afternoon the previous November rather emphasised this (http://eastsussexbirding.blogspot.com/2019/01/30th-november-2018-nuwara-eliya-to.html). I had seen lots of Jerdon’s Bush Larks and a Jungle Prinia was also new while a pair of Great Stone Plovers were excellent as were a pair of Orange-breasted Green Pigeons. Indi also had a new bird – White Wagtail - although it didn't do a lot for us. Back in the bus we drove to a nearby hotel for an early lunch. I stayed out but it was just too far (2km) to walk to the woodshrike area and back in the time I had, although I could have done if I’d realised we would be driving back past it. As it was my walk along the edge of sugar cane fields was rather unproductive (and hot). We drove to Sinharaja arriving at 15:30. A look around the entrance failed to find the ‘resident’ Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, the suspicion being that a crowd of noisy school children had disturbed it. We drove on to our hotel, the Blue Magpie Lodge, and I was a little disappointed to find it was a couple of km outside the park in fairly uninspiring habitat. Not that it matter much as we were soon hit by a very heavy rainstorm which limited birding to the veranda. From there Dave spotted a Slaty-legged Crake visiting the hotel’s rubbish dump 100m away. Its appearance was short lived thanks to two Grey Mongeese and then a local cat but it was a nice end to what been an enjoyable if rather disappointing day. Tomorrow was likely to be the trip’s make or break day and having made no inroads on the remaining endemics today I was starting to feel rather stressed!
Jerdon's Bush Lark at Uda Walawe
a good start when one of the first birds seen is new but sadly it didn't continue that way despite plenty of potential for it to do so 






Paddyfield Pipit
Blyth's Reed Warbler


Malabar Pied Hornbill in superb light



Common Iora
definitely no white in its tail
Yellow-eyed Babbler
Philippine Brown Shrike
Crested Hawk Eagle




Indian Pewfowl
with the odd broken feather
still puts on an impressive display




male Orange-breasted Green Pigeon
Indian Silverbill
Rose-coloured Starling


Jungle Prinia
Indian Roller
Blue-tailed Bee-eater


Uda Walawe's main attraction
Great Stone Plovers were very nice too


Indian Stone Curlew
Oriental Darter


Painted Stork
Purple Heron and Little Ringed Plover
Little Ringed Plover


Kentish Plover
Lesser Sand Plover
Little Stint
Red-wattled Lapwing


Yellow-wattled Lapwing
not as brightly coloured as Red-wattled but I thought all the better for it

Little Green Bee-eater


Ashy Prinia outside Uda Walawe
Fruit Bats on the way to Sinharaja
Purple-faced Leaf Monkey


02 February 2019. I slept poorly, the number of birds we had left to see playing heavily on my mind. It was almost like a major twitch with several really good but potentially difficult birds to see and very likely no second chances given our limited time. Arguably the most important day of the trip started with a predawn visit to sign in. It can’t be done in advance - doubtless a hangover from British bureaucracy. While waiting in the dark one of our trackers for the day, wandered off and spotlighted a Sri Lankan Frogmouth but I only had naked-eye views before it flew. Not a very auspicious start as it was my most wanted non-endemic. We signed in as it was getting light and in quick succession a Sri Lanka Blue Magpie flew in to feed on moths around the building’s lights and a Spot-winged Thrush appeared at the edge of the car park. This was more like it even though the light was too poor for photography. We returned to the Blue Magpie Lodge for breakfast and at 07:00 clutching packed lunches left in two jeeps with Indi, Dinal and our two expert trackers Dhanushka and Shantha for the steep climb up to the park entrance. Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush here we come, all 16 of us! More than half-way there we stopped to check some trees where White-faced Starlings often fed early morning. Our trackers quickly found one which gave reasonable views. Not the most inspiring of species but with possibly the smallest range of all Sri Lanaka endemics another potentially tricky bird out of the way. We arrived at the entrance behind another group and followed them for a short distance, as if we weren’t handicapped enough, until we were told to wait on the trail while our trackers wandered off into a shallow ravine to look for Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush. They soon returned not having found one but they knew another site further on and it had given the other group time to get further ahead. We saw male Sri Lanka Junglefowl (the first of several), two more Spot-winged Thrushes by the trail and a roosting Sri Lanka Frogmouth just off it (the first of six seen which put my concern about missing the early spotlight view in perspective). A small flock contained Velvet-fronted Nuthatch and Indian Paradise Flycatcher and nearby our first (of two) Red-faced Malkoha. We came to a small side trail and waited while our trackers went in to look around. They came out having seen a Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush but it had moved further away. Shantha led us down the small track and then he and Dhanushka tried to out flank the bird and encourage it back towards us. This worked when I saw it hopping across a small gap, although not through binoculars. We waited and first one then two thrushes hopped up onto a low branch before flying further into the forest. I saw the first briefly but fortunately I had my binoculars on the low branch when the second bird appeared on it and had a good clear view, for all of 3-4 seconds. Everyone in the group had seen the bird, Indi later told me it was the first group he’d had where that had been the case. We went to a nearby clearing with a research building outside of which we had our packed lunches. It had been a brilliant morning but there were still birds to see, although we were still in the clearing when our trackers called that they’d found Ashy-headed Laughingthrush. A three minute dash and we were watching a party of three. No sooner had they moved on than a pair of Malabar Trogons appeared and another male Indian Paradise Flycatcher and we returned to the clearing via a roosting pair of Sri Lanka Frogmouths. Collectively the group had seen all but three of the endemics although only three of us had been lucky with Crimson-backed Flameback. The three were Serendib Scops Owl, Sri Lanka Myna and Sri Lanka Spurfowl. All were more likely to be found outside the National Park than in it and we would be visiting a feeding site for the latter the following morning. The owl was the most important so were happy to go along with Indi’s suggestion that we leave the park to maximize our chance of finding it. We returned to the park entrance seeing a female Sri Lanka Junglefowl with small chick then a couple of posing male junglefowl, two more Spotted Ground Thrushes and a Brown-breasted Flycatcher on the way. At the hotel we were left while Indi, Dinal, Dhanushka and Shantha went back out. I wasn’t a great fan of hanging around while a guide looked for something, preferring to involve myself even if my efforts were very unlikely to do any good. I was also worried about getting in the way but when they returned over an hour later and Indi gave me the thumbs up as they drive up to the hotel I seriously regretted not having been with them. At least I’d have been on site. It seemed to take ages to get the group moving but it was probably less than ten minutes before we were heading back down the road. It was a short drive to where they’d found the owl, a group effort of all four of them carefully searching likely roosting areas in an area they knew a bird usually was. Despite this it took them over an hour to find. It was another ‘two at a time’ job and Dave and I followed Indi up a bank, being careful not to grab hold of a vine and disturb a pair of roosting Sri Lanka Frogmouths. The bird was only 50m from the road in a particularly thick clump but Indi couldn’t find it and my heart sank. Dhanushka came to help and said it was still there but could only be seen from one position. Even then it took Indi an inordinate amount of time to see it, well 30 seconds that felt like 5 minutes. He positioned me in the right place and there it was, a Serendib Scops Owl partially obscured behind leaves and twigs. I had a quick look and left to give others a turn and promptly joined the back of the queue. It was a stunning looking bird and definitely worth a prolonged view. My turn came around again and I enjoyed further views but couldn’t manage to focus on it although maybe I didn’t even find it in the viewfinder. Dhanushka offered to creep in to take photos for me and I happily handed over my camera. There were no other takers for a third view so I went back again. Brilliant, as were the photos Dhanushka took for me. We left it in peace and drove back up towards the National Park entrance where we walked a section of road on the lookout for Crimson-backed Flameback and Sri Lanka Myna. On the way back down we saw two distant mynas on the opposite side of the valley which flew over to our side. They fitted the bill but views were not great. It then started to drizzle and we wandered back, but not before two Sri Lanka Mynas appeared in tree tops on our side of the valley. Another session on the veranda as the light faded was memorable for the 20 Brown-backed Needletails blasting around overhead.  A brilliant end to an amazing day with pretty much everything falling into place, in no small part to our guides and trackers. What a difference 24 hours can make.
White-faced Starling at Sinharaja



Spot-winged Thrush


Red-faced Malkoha
its red face put it at a disadvantage when palying hide and seek
Brown-breasted Flycatcher
male Malabar Trogon
female Sri Lanka Frogmouth
a pair of Sri Lanka Frogmouths




Green Garden Lizard
male Sri Lanka Junglefowl with a tatty tail
another male Sri Lanka Junglefowl although with Red, Green and Grey Junglefowl elsewhere in Asia this one might have been better called Orange




who's a pretty boy then
Kangaroo Lizard at Sinharaja
female Sri Lanka Junglefowl with chick


another male
another pair of Sri Lanka Frogmouths, guarding the way to the Serendib Scops Owl roost. Fortunately they allowed us to pass ...
White-breasted Waterhen from the Blue Magpie Lodge veranda
Serendib Scops Owl (photos taken with my camera by Dhanushka). My views were good but more obscured than this and I wasn't able to focus on it
probably the best Scops Owl I've seen
my bird of the trip, how could it not be
its very prominent ears are apparently rarely seen at night and most illustrations do not show them. Not an issue in my field guide which was published in 1999 before its discovery.
03 February 2019. We left the lodge at 05:00 in two Jeeps with a packed breakfast for the 45 minute drive to the spurfowl site. It was the back garden of a house on the edge of the forest much further along the road where we’d seen the Serendib Scops Owl. We arrived before dawn to be sure of being able to see the area as there was only limited viewing, from their kitchen window or beside the house. As it turned out we were the only group trying that morning and I opted for the side of the house where I made use of my small collapsible stool. Some chairs were found for the others waiting outside and we anxiously overlooked the small open area into which their drain flowed. The spurfowl had appeared at 07:20 the previous day but didn’t always show. Not what I wanted to hear. A male then a female Sri Lanka Junglefowl appeared and we ended up seeing at least two females, three juveniles and four small chicks. We also saw three Emerald Doves, two Spot-winged Thrushes and four Orange-billed Babblers while a Slaty-legged Crake made a quick pass. By now it was 07:15 but the light was remaining stubbornly poor. At 07:25 a male Sri Lanka Spurfowl appeared and slowly and rather erratically made its way across the clearing. The final endemic, at least for a few of us. We birded along the road hoping to find Crimson-backed Flameback with no success. Perhaps the forest was too open as we saw two Red-backed Flamebacks. Improved on views of Sri Lanka Myna were some compensation and we saw another Green-billed Coucal and Sri Lanka Blue Magpie. We returned to the Blue Magpie Lodge where Indi, Dinal and Dhanushka took Dave, Tony and I back along the road up to the reserve for a final look for the flameback. No success although a male Indian Paradise Flycatcher was nice. I birded from the veranda until it was time to leave. We left Dinal and four of the group to head for the coast and some whale watching while Indi took the remaining eight of us back to Colombo and the Airport Garden Hotel. We arrived in daylight and I wandered around the gardens until dark seeing Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Brown-headed Barbet and Yellow-billed Babblers but not much else. Immediately after dark Indi took some of us out to look for Brown Hawk Owl in the hotel grounds. It was about the easiest night birding I’ve done with it coming in immediately. How easy it had been made me regret that we’d not been able to try any night birding elsewhere although as the trip had exceeded my expectations I shouldn’t really be complaining. At 22:00 I said goodbye to Shane as he got in a taxi to the airport for his long flight back to New Mexico. He’d been a good room-mate not complaining at my late hours.

spurfowl site near Sinharaja
female Sri Lanka Junglefowl
bushy-tailed male Sri Lanka Junglefowl
Spot-winged Thrush






Sri Lanka Myna


Philippines Brown Shrike


Indi and Dhanushka at Sinharaja
Common Green Forest Lizard
jeep ride
Dhanushka, Dinal and Indi looking for Crimson-backed Flameback
three-quarters of the group
Sri Lanka Green Pigeon
Indian Paradise Flycatcher above the Blue Magpie Lodge
me and Dinal
me and Indi, he'd been an excellent leader and was the main reason the trip had been a success
view from our hotel window. My efforts to reach the not so distant lagoon from the hotel grounds failed
part of a faded bird display in the hotel grounds. Not faded enough to hide a very suspect identification
Brown-headed Barbet in the Airport Garden Hotel grounds
Yellow-billed Babbler
04 February 2019. We were to gather in the hotel lobby at 08:45. I’d worked out from my phone that it was about a 15 minute walk to the edge of the lagoon the hotel was near too. I’d established the previous evening that there was a canal and high fence between us and the dual carriageway that bordered the lagoon and it would be necessary to walk back to the road we’d come in on, follow it for 500m before turning back towards the lagoon which could be accessed by an underpass. I packed my bag and set off at 07:00, a little later than anticipated. It took slightly longer than 15 minutes to reach the lagoon and it was a little disappointing with only Little Cormorants, egrets and Whiskered Terns visible although a Striated Heron was new for the trip and I saw Red-wattled Lapwing, Blyth’s Reed Warbler and Grey-headed Wagtail on the way. Back in the hotel gardens a Spoonbill flew over and I saw Stork-billed Kingfisher, Red-backed Flameback and more Yellow-billed Babblers making a nice end to the trip. I just had time to grab my bag and a bit of breakfast before we left for the airport. Indi had been a great leader and thankfully quite relaxed about my wandering off at meal times (in my own time as he nicely put it when one or two comments were made). Our flight was on time and even got into Heathrow slightly ahead of time. I made it to Victoria in good time for my pre-booked cheap train ticket, in the event the one before would have been fine. The train was 15 minutes late arriving at Shoreham but that is Southern Rail for you. Megan came down to meet me and we were home at 23:30 (05:00 Sri Lanka time).
pre-departure check: All endemics seen? Yes plus the more recently split and not illustrated Red-backed Flameback