500 UP

Its been very quiet the last couple of weeks hence the lack of updates, but this weekend I was back at the Coastal Park doing a bit of Ringing on the big mound. As great as that was, it was made even better by having Adrian join us for both days, something that hasnt happened for ages. Its great having him around, not just because he constantly teaches me new things and helps my training develop at a faster pace, but because he is genuinely good company. Birdwise, the two mornings were fairly quiet, the highlight being a lovely juvenile Pied Flycatcher which is one of my favourite birds and one that scores extremely highly on the cutesy scale!

The weekend saw me reaching a nice little landmark, as I Ringed my 500th individual bird. The bird in question was a lovely little Robin, not a bird considered too special or exciting, but on this occasion it was definitely the bird of the day.

On sunday evening I headed back to the Coastal Park as a Barred Warbler had been found in, of all places, our Ringing mound! It was a very skulking bird, but I still managed to get a number of good views. Its just a pity it waited until we'd finished Ringing before it turned up!

NIGHTJARS

The Whitburn Ringing Group has recently gained permission to Ring in Slaley Forest, just north of Derwent Reservoir. Its a terrific area and we are absolutely delighted to have secured the rights to Ring there. There are a number of species resident in the area, but one of the real attractions are the Nightjars that regularly breed in the region. Last weekend Adrian went over and had a little try to net one of these scarce birds and to his utter surprise he ended up Ringing THREE adult males! So on thursday night myself, John and Adrian went over to see if we could get a few more birds. We were joined by a couple of local birders who wanted to get some good views of this normally elusive species, and in Steve's case see one for the first time. We put three nets out in various locations and it didnt take long at all for the first chirring bird to be heard. Shortly after, the first bird was seen flying. Then another. And another. This was terrific, and raised our hopes of getting some in the nets. As myself and John were checking one of the nets Adrian radioed us to say he had two adult birds in another net. Excellent! We rushed back to the car where Adrian was waiting with the birds and he handed us one each. My bird was a male, and Johns was a female, so maybe they were a breeding pair out hunting together? Or maybe it was coincidence. Who knows? I like to think they were Mr and Mrs though! We Ringed the birds and took all the relevant details before letting the lads take a couple of quick photos. It was a new Ringing species for both myself and John, and was the 50th species I have Ringed. I'm delighted I reached the landmark with such a special bird. These two birds turned out to be the only ones caught that night, but there were plenty more flying around so the potential is there for more Ringing.

BBQ & Petrels

On Saturday night the CCG and the Ringing Group held an open night at Whitburn Coastal Park. It began at 7pm with a BBQ at Souter Lighthouse. It was very well attended with well over 30 people enjoying the free food put on by the Groups. John was alpha male and took charge of the grill and I was more than happy to let him! According to weather reports it was meant to be a cloudy evening with possible showers, but as we ate our food in the open the weather was lovely. As everyone was enjoying the evening, at around 9.30pm myself, John and Andy nipped away to put the nets out in preparation for the second part of the event, the Storm Petrel Ringing. We were feeling really hopeful as on thursday myself and John had a practice run and there were loads of Stormies then. Unfortunately the wind was really strong that night so most of them bounced out of the nets before we could get a hold of them. So as long as the weather stayed fine we had a great chance tonight. Shortly after 10.00pm the people started to make their way over from the BBQ, and we all settled in to wait for the dark to come. While we patiently waited for the birds to arrive we were entertained by a number of Common Pipistrelle Bats buzzing around searching for Moths. There were also a few Common Toads scattered around, which the kids loved playing with! Then at around 11.30pm, John returned from checking the nets and he was carrying a little white bag. We had one! It was handed to Andy to do the sciencey stuff before it was shown to the excited crowd. I never ever grow tired of seeing peoples reactions to seeing these amazing little birds, especially when they realise that such a small, fragile looking thing spends most of its life out at sea. But they are obviously a lot tougher than they look! Once everybody had had a good look at the bird we took it to one side and released it unharmed. A job well done. We then settled down to wait for the next bird to come when, surprise surprise, the heavens opened. It started chucking it down and forced everyone to scarper for their cars. After a little wait the rain hadnt eased so most of the people went off home. Myself and the other Ringing lads hung around a bit longer but called it a night ourselves at 1.00am. Despite just getting the one bird it was a really successful night. The BBQ was a big success and everybody got to see a Petrel. Mission complete!

CUBA WILDLIFE

RED LEGGED THRUSH

GREAT LIZARD CUCKOO

CUBAN GREEN WOODPECKER

CUBAN EMERALD

CUBAN TODY

CLAPPER RAIL

NORTHERN CARACARA

BLUE HEADED ANOLE

CUBA - JULY 2012

A very, very late decision (ie just days before!!) saw myself and Maria heading off to the Caribbean yet again. This year the destination was somewhere neither of us had actually considered before, Cuba. But thankfully it turned out to be an excellent choice. It had a beautiful beach for Maria to relax on, and enough greenery and wildlife for me not to get too bored! Our hotel was in the area of Holguin on the east of the island. It was a stunning area, with gorgeous white sandy beaches surrounded by miles and miles of lush exotic forest. Perfect for a relaxing, peaceful holiday.
As ever this was in no way a wildlife holiday, but as usual I managed to get myself a couple of hours in early in the morning and the odd wander in the evening, so I still managed to see a fair bit. The hotel grounds themselves had a great variety of wildlife, with lots of species of birds, hundreds of butterflies of various types, plenty of lizards, and loads and loads of crabs! They were absolutely everywhere. But there was one creature that thankfully we hardly seen at all, mosquitos! As we were in the middle of the rainy season we were expecting to be bombarded by them, but we hardly seen any at all around the complex. Admittedly I did get a fair few bites when I went exploring in the surrounding forests but that is to be expected. In total I saw 48 different species of birds, 19 of which I had never seen before. The highlight was easily seeing the Cuban Tody, an absolutely stunning little bird which was thankfully very common. Another was the huge Great Lizard Cuckoo. Great to see and even better to hear! Away from birds, another highlight was snorkelling with a huge shoal of Barracuda fish. A great experience!

MAGNIFICENT MOTHS

This morning we had the best catch of the year in the Souter Moth Trap. Mind you, thats not really that difficult cos its been an absolutely rubbish year so far. There were 40+ individual Moths from 15 different species, but the undoubted highlight was this absolutely stunning POPLAR HAWKMOTH (above). Its only the second time I've ever seen one of these incredible Moths, and the only species of Hawkmoth I've seen in the UK. Other highlights included Buff Ermine, Angle Shades and my first ever Ghost Moth.

ANGLE SHADES

BUFF ERMINE

SILVER GROUND CARPET

GHOST

THIS IS WHY.

On Wednesday lunchtime I decided to pop over to Whitburn Coastal Park to have a quick look at how the Ponds were doing. It had been nearly a fortnight since I was last there so a visit was long overdue! The rain was coming down heavily when I pulled up, so I decided to have my sandwich in the car and hope for a break in the weather. After about 15 minutes the rain hadn't stopped but it had eased enough for me to get out the car and go for a wander. The North Pond was very quiet, with only a couple of Tufted Ducks present, and as I approached the South Pond things initially didn't look a whole lot better. That was until some movement on the left of the Pond caught my eye! I knew straight away that it was a Wader, but as I focused my binoculars on the feeding figure it suddenly dawned on me I was watching a Greenshank! My jaw dropped and my heartbeat quickened. I was totally and utterly gobsmacked. A Greenshank was on our Pond! A Greenshank was feeding on our brand new, recently created Pond!!! This was amazing. Now don't get me wrong, I know a Greenshank isn't an absolute mega rarity for Britain, but it IS an extremely scarce bird for South Tyneside. And the fact that one was here on one of our Ponds that had only been complete since March was superb news. When we were in the original planning stage of the project, Greenshank was one of the species we had in mind when we were designing the Pond. And now, after all the hard work, one was actually gracing our Pond. And it felt great. It pretty much justified everything we had done and proved something we had known all along, if we created the environment the birds would come. And for this particular species to arrive so soon after completion is the dream becoming reality. Hopefully, this is just the beginning.