Showing posts with label Common Crane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Common Crane. Show all posts

Sunday, 24 April 2011

Big Birds - Deja Vu

On June 7th last year 4 Common Cranes flew over the patch and then later in the day I found a couple of 'borealis' Eider in West Voe (link here). Today I found a drake 'borealis' Eider in West Voe and later 2 Common Cranes flew over ther house - DEJA VU !!! Elsewhere on the patch there was 3 Willow Warblers, a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Sand Martins, a Swallow and 2 Chiffchaffs.


 
 'borealis' Eider
.


Common Cranes.

Monday, 7 June 2010

Aura Borealis

After bemoaning the crapness of Scatness this spring (well sort of), with 4 Common Cranes flying over at 9am, not sure from which direction they came in on - picked them up flying north-west out to sea over Lady's Holm, they eventually turned back and started heading north past the cliffs of Fitful Head, finally lost them behind a hill near Quendale. The rest of Scatness was, as usual, quite devoid of anything, with just a few Sanderling and a Whimbrel. Another highlight (if you can call it that !) was at least one, probably two, possibly three 'borealis' Eiders in West Voe - one bird showed the rounded lobes, orangey bill and noticeable sails, another bird showed the rounded lobes, a not quite so orange bill (but definitely not green) and smaller sails, and the third bird showed slightly rounded lobes (though more rounded than the 'mollisimas' next to it), a faded orangey bill and no sails.






'borealis' Eiders

Common Cranes

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

28th January 2010 Thol Area.

After getting a car and a driver sorted out, eventually headed of towards Thol Sanctuary. On the way stopped at Ognaj village, where the large village tank offers some close views of water birds - 300+ Ruff, 150+ Little Stints, 4 Avocets, 8 Black-tailed Godwits and 20 Greater Flamingo were all within 100 yards of the road.
Got to Thol at about 10:30 and spent most of the rest of the day there - Thol is massive, even with a 'scope, it's massive, so after a while gave up on trying to scan through the huge rafts of Ducks in the distance, and just spent the day birding. 30+ River Terns, 40+ Black Ibis, 20+ Glossy Ibis, 120+ Painted Stork and 10 Whiskered Tern were all seen relatively close to the banks. 100+ Greater Flamingo, 70+ Common Crane and 5 Sarus Crane on distant islands, 2 Red-breasted Flycatcher and a Sykes Warbler in the Acacia Woodland (Thol was the only place we saw Sykes Warbler), and 4 Painted Francolin were seen around the car park. A distant Eastern Imperial Eagle was 'scoped from the car park.
Went on to an area of dried up fields just to the east of Thol village, this area had plenty of Desert Wheatears, Short-toed Larks and about 150 Blackbucks.
Between Thol and Ahmedabad picked up a soaring group of raptors, these turned out to be mainly Black Kites with 3 Steppe Eagles, 1 Griffon Vulture, 1 White-rumped Vulture and a Common Buzzard.


Avocet.

Black-tailed Godwit.


Greater Flamingo.

Ashy Prinia.

Common Langur.
Common Cranes.

Indian Darter.

Glossy Ibis.

Hoopoe.

Painted Stork.

Pied Kingfisher.


River Terns.

Indian Silverbills.

Blackbucks.
Mongoose.

Comb Duck.

Steppe Eagles.

Friday, 6 June 2008

June 6th 2008. A first for Britain.

Pied Flycatcher, Marsh Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Red-backed Shrike, Golden Oriole and Common Crane on Unst.

Then things went mad !! male Citril Finch on Fair Isle - managed to get on a charter boat from Grutness, only to get there 15 minutes after the bird had gone to roost !!


Pied Flycatcher and Marsh Warbler

Common Crane
Icterine Warbler