Great Knot at Titchwell

Absolutely brilliant scope views on Titchwell beach - so, so much better than the Breydon bird. If this bird hangs about, someone with a big lens is going to blow it away. I had views down to about 50m and could have got far closer; some of the Knot were half that distance from me. Unfortunately the tide pushed it off before that could happen - my feeble efforts with the 400mm lens below:

Late Spider Orchids

All European orchids have a charm to them but it is the genus Ophrys - the insect imitators - which are my favourites. These, arguably the most characterful of all Palearctic taxa, tend to be quite small and at first can appear inconspicuous. Look closer and they are anything but - the flowers are invariably stunning, their beauty epitomised by a spectacularly patterned lip which immediately draws focus. Indeed it is not just the botanist that finds them so alluring - so well-designed are the flowers that they readily fool amorous male insects in to mating with them, thus pollinating them.

Four Ophrys species occur in Britain. Bee Orchid is by far and away the most widespread and recognisable while Early Spider can be found in colonies numbering in to the thousands along the south coast in April and May. The third species, the diminutive and elegant Fly Orchid (my favourite British orchid), is also quite widespread but never particularly common. That leaves a final, much scarcer representative - Late Spider Orchid. Occurring at just a handful of locations in Kent, Late Spider is the trickiest member of its genus to see in Britain - or at least as tricky as twitching stationary flowers can be. Perhaps I should say it's the one that requires the most effort ...

For various reasons I have failed to make said effort to see Late Spider Orchid in either of the previous couple of years. I was determined to put the record straight in 2016 and so set an alarm for 04:00 on Sunday morning. Somewhat miraculously I resisted the urge to ignore it and was soon out of bed and on to the M25, heading for the far south-east as the sun began to rise.

The first colony of Late Spiders I visited were easily found thanks to the myriad of protective cages that betrayed their presence. The majority weren't yet flowering and many were stunted and unimpressive; just one or two plants looked good and so photo opportunities were a bit limited. James Lowen had informed me that this is a good site for Black-veined Moth but I couldn't see any in a reasonably brief search - perhaps it's still a tiny bit early in the year for them? Either that or I was still half asleep.

With the Late Spiders failing to impress I headed over to another site, nearer to Folkestone. Here I found a much better range of flowering specimens and, although the 20 or so plants meant that photo opportunities were always going to be a little restricted, I came away with a more pleasing series of images. I was struck by the amazing variation in lip shape, size and pattern among individual plants - the British colonies are apparently notorious for this. Also here were a few fairly puny Man Orchids and a handful of Common Spotted just beginning to flower.

I still haven't worked out what conditions I find best for photographing orchids. I quite like the early morning sunshine, which gives the subject a nice glow, but bright sunshine quickly becomes too harsh at this time of year and I tend to prefer neutral light for photography anyway. The above three images were taken during a brief spell of cloudier conditions at the second site while the below image was taken in sunshine.

Offering more or less wall-to-wall blue skies, Sunday was fantastic morning to be out on the Kent Downs. Late Spider was my first new orchid of 2016 - I have a few more targets to mop up in the coming weeks, so be prepared for one or two more flowery posts.

A memorable June weekend

No time for words, so I've summed up my long weekend with in photographs.

male Eastern Black-eared Wheatear, Acres Down, Hampshire, 13 June

male Cretzschmar's Bunting, Bardsey Island, Gwynedd, 15 June

male Melodious Warbler, Hampton in Arden, West Midlands, 15 June

Russia trip report, June 2014

It's taken a while, but this leviathan of a document can now be read below. If you would like a copy, please email me. Here's hoping it comes in useful for anyone thinking of making the trip out to Russia - we had a brilliant two weeks out there, and the birding is absolutely superb.

Pacific Swift

Pacific Swift over the Suffolk countryside - a long way from home

Given the run of sightings, I guess I wasn't alone in thinking that 2013 might finally be the year in which Pacific Swift was 'unblocked'. But such belief still required the bird to do its bit and actually linger somewhere long enough for a large-scale vigil to take place. But, at last, [one of] the Pacific Swift[s] gave itself up in Suffolk yesterday (and still today as it happens).

I mentioned on Thursday that an animated call from Rich Bonser last weekend had me going for a bit, but alas it was regarding the Long-tailed Duck that he'd just found. That said, there was no mistaking the panicked tones in Rich's voice as he rang at 10:45 yesterday to tell me that "the Pacific Swift is at Trimley". As it happened, I was heading westwards on the M4 with my mate Chris - we'd planned to visit a couple of orchid sites in the Home Counties to get some fresh air and enjoy a stroll outside the capital. I'd just passed the M25 junction as it broke, but was able to pull a quick U-turn at junction 5. The M25 looked pretty clogged up so we tediously battled back in to London and around the North Circular before eventually getting a fairly clear run up the A12 towards Colchester.

We arrived on site about 12:40 and soon met up with Rich and various others tackling the three-mile walk to the reserve in brisk fashion. And, forty-five minutes later (after a nerve-wracking message about the bird flying off over the river!), there it was, hawking around low over the lagoon - a bloody Pacific Swift! Significantly different in structure to the Swifts by which it was surrounded, it was more elongated with an obviously forked tail, and had longer, slimmer and more scythe-shaped wings - not to mention to obvious pale scaling on the underparts and white rump and throat. Just look at that profile!

 The Pacific Swift displaying just about everything you'd need to identify it - note the deeply-forked tail, long, scythe-shaped wings and of course white rump

In the strong winds, the bird spent much of its time feeding low over the lagoon. We felt that the bird's flight pattern was different to Common Swift, being a little more Alpine Swift-like in many respects. It was also a paler shade of brown to Common Swift.

 Comparison between Pacific (right) and Common Swifts

Though more often than not on the distant side for photography, it would occasionally battle the wind towards the seaward side of the lagoon. This meant it did just about get within range for some half-decent record shots, several of which can be seen below. What. A. Bird.

It proved a fantastic few hours in Suffolk. The crowds were surprisingly small and there was a lack offensive behaviour or conflict, just huge swathes of relief and elation as those arriving connected. Great to see so many friends there too. All in all, a brilliant day, despite the almost biblical storm along the A12 on the way home - cars were pretty much at a standstill due to quantity of rain; aquaplaning was proving a real problem. We saw at least seven seperate car crashes (of varying severity) on the way back to W London, four of which were on the North Circular alone!

Morocco Trip Report, June/July 2012

You can view and download my Morocco trip report at your will below:



Apologies for the mix-up last night; I've moved the PDF to scribd which seems to solve the problem. Hope it comes in handy to others on future visits!

Morocco, 24th June - 1st July

Late on Sunday evening, I arrived back from a typically exhausting trip to Morocco. I've visited the country twice before (April 09 and July 10), although still hadn't seen several of the more localized species which occur within its boundaries. Accompanying me were Dan Pointon and Will Soar, who had both visited on one occasion previously.

Prior to our visit, I had targeted seven species and a further two subspecies which I had not been previously. Just two of these species were not observed; details of each can be found below. If anyone wants further details (and GPS) for these or other species, please do not hesitate to email me.

*Marsh Owl: three birds seen on the west side of Merja Zerga during the evening of 25th.
*Double-spurred Francolin: three seen in flight c.2km north of Ben Slimane during the morning of 26th (JJ only), while at least two were heard at the traditional spot at Sidi Yahya on 1st July.
*Fulvous Babbler: remarkably, I had not seen this species on either of my two prior Moroccan visits despite searching. Once again, they proved relatively difficult to pin down, although we eventually located a family party of at least six individuals on the western outskirts of Errachidia.
*African Desert Warbler: several birds were seen in the 'usual' wadi c.5km along the track to Cafe Yasmina, by the 'Yasmina 9km' sign.
*[Western] Mourning Wheatear: a first-summer male was located in the hills c.14km west of Tinghir on 28th. This has been a regular spot for sightings during spring 2012. A male was also seen distantly in the gorge c.2km west of Imiter on the same day.
*[Pharoah Eagle Owl]: although there was plenty of faeces distributed all over the regular sites west of Rissani, we failed to find the species there. We also failed at the Mourning Wheatear site above, although finally connected with a single adult in the gorge south of the main road c.2km west of Imiter on 28th.
*[Saharan Olivaceous Warbler]: we found this striking race of Eastern Olivaceous Warbler to be fairly common across the southeast of the country. First seen in the Ziz Valley north of Errachidia on 26th, we also found plenty in the lush wadi c.20km west of Errachidia, as well as near Rissani. They were also abundant in tamarisks at Barrage El-Mansour, Ouazarzate at dawn on 29th, with many singing.
African Dunn's Lark: we could not locate the regular bird(s) at the Desert Warbler site; presumably they disperse following the breeding season.
Egyptian Nightjar: despite intense searching of the wadis north of Auberge le Tresor, we could not locate any birds. Striking a piece of rotten luck, we found that the hotel at Derkaoua (quoted as almost guaranteed at dawn) was closed, and no nightjars were found in the area.

Adult Marsh Owl

First-summer male Western Mourning ('Maghreb') Wheatear...

Three studies of adult Pharaoh Eagle Owl: surely a good species?

Little Owl in the early morning light at Barrage el-Mansour, Ouazarzate.

Temminck's Lark east of Boumalne du Dades. It appears to have been a great year for the species.

Crested Coots enjoying some of Pointon's biscuit supply at Dayet Aoua.

Three Royal Terns on the Oued Souss at dusk on 29th.

Record shot of one of the many Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters seen in the southeast of the country.

 

Saharan Striped Polecat