Azores: Day 10

Today was filled with optimism in the wake of the previously-mentioned small depression passing to the north of Corvo. Alas, alot of work by us and others today but no new birds! Today was supposed to be spent in Cantinho and Cancelas, but on arrival it appeared weather was clear at higher altitude - finally! So, first stop was the Caldeira.



And what an amazing place the Caldeira is. Geographically-stunning, as well as offering a unique habitat on Corvo - expansive fresh water with shallow margins - we're talking waders, ducks etc. Pierre and I ended up doing two 'laps' of the crater and the lakes within; highlights were a very nice adult drake Black Duck with 25 or so Mallards (and a few hybrids), a 1st-winter Lesser Yellowlegs, a Lapland Bunting and 9 Black-tailed Godwits as well as a Pintail and a Shoveler. By midday, we had all but exhausted the area and left Bosse and a few others to it. Talking of exhausted; if you want to feel that way, go to the caldeira. It knackers you out, especially the climb out afterwards.


Lapland Bunting in the crater



Lesser Yellowlegs - bottom image camera only!

We then traipsed down the hill towards Cantinho. A couple of hours in the valley were rewarded with the Northern Parula still present in exactly the same spot as last time. Not calling today, but lots of bill-snapping made it easy to pick up in the still and sunny conditions. It responded well to the tape too, and I even managed the appalling digibinned effort below:



By this point, Vincent had radioed in that the juvenile Marsh Hawk (Northern Harrier hudsonicus) had been showing near the Lighthouse Valley before heading up towards Caldeirao. Having not seen any of the variably-convincing candidates around Britain and Ireland last winter, I was pretty keen to get back up there and give it a go. So, off we went - back to the crater for the second time in a day. Basically, the bird eventually showed quite well to me (but not to Pierre, he will be going back tomorrow):





I then walked back down the hill to the village. Needless to say, after three laps and two climbs out of the caldeira as well as a bit of Cantinho, I am sapped of energy. I'm feeling pretty sorry for my feet, too.


Birds
Marsh Hawk: 1 juvenile at Caldeirao
Northern Parula: 1st-winter still in Ribeira do Cantinho
Black Duck: adult drake at Caldeirao
Spotted Sandpiper: juvenile at Caldeirao
Lesser Yellowlegs: 1st-w at Caldeirao
Lapland Bunting: 1 at Caldeirao
Pintail: drake at Caldeirao
Shoveler: female at Caldeirao

Azores: Day 9

Somehow, the southeasterly wind still clinged on today, although it went more southerly by the afternoon as the the depression tracked some way to the northwest of us. We also had a few heavy showers this afternoon and evening, the change in weather suggesting perhaps that the influence of the low had just about hit Corvo. So perhaps from tomorrow there will be birds...?

Talking of new birds, two were found today. JSH and MBH found a Grey-cheeked Thrush in the valley below the reservoir, whilst Hannu flushed a Blue-winged Teal from a dry grassy field near Fojo(!).

My day was not quite as spectacular, unfortunately. I started off by exploring the small wood above the Lighthouse Road. Spent 90 minutes there but nothing! The rest of the morning was spent exploring alot of fields; most notably the Lapa Fields and upper Ribeira da Lapa. No birds!

I spent an hour at the Blue-winged Warbler from around midday. Had my best and most extensive views of this absolute gem of a bird today, it's very easy to locate as it calls regularly with a sharp, piercing 'tsiip'. Pretty mobile though! Afterwards I headed back to Lapa, and worked the lower part of the valley. Again nothing, so I moved on to the fields along the road back towards the miradour. Nothing! Bleugh!

Came back down the hill just as the newly-arrived birders were getting a taxi up to the BWW. Had a rest for half an hour before heading out to the Middle Fields and the adjacent tamarisks. No bloody birds! Desperate times called for desperate measures, so I sat at the rubbish tip for half an hour - amongst 30 Azorean Gulls, I had four 1st-winter Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The variation amongst Azorean Gulls is also quite fascinating. Saw one or two that looked very similar to claimed birds in the UK but I still wonder if the latter birds are Herring x LBB hybrids. I'll go back to take proper digiscoped photos tomorrow, but for now here are some digi-binned efforts:


Juvenile/1st-w Lesser Black-backed



Near-adult Azorean; essentially adult-like but with signs of immaturity in bill colouration and primary coverts, as wells as dull pinkish-yellow legs. This bird looks frighteningly similar to the "Azorean Gull" that has been at large in England for the past two autumns. Problem with that bird is that it should look more adult-like this year. It doesn't. Could hybrid Herring x LBB look like this...? Perhaps the hybrid option explains the retarded plumage/appearance of the English bird? Either way it looks extremely similar to this bird.


Birds
Blue-winged Warbler: still in da Ponte
Lesser Black-backed Gull: 4 first-winters at the dump

Azores: Day 8

Today hasn't been the most productive of days, but it was going to be hard to follow on from an excellent day yesterday in a strengthening southeasterly breeze. Not looking for any sympathy here, but my feet are really messed up. I can hardly walk due to blisters but am currently just wincing through the pain in an attempt to get the kms under the belt.

For the first couple of hours today, Pierre and I staked out the unidentified warbler we had late yesterday evening. Unfortunately nothing appeared, so I guess the bird has moved on or just to another part of the island. We then walked back down through the middle fields to the guesthouse; again no birds.

We got a taxi up to the valleys and did Cantinho today. Midway along the valley near the clearing, Pierre again latched on to the high-pitched "tsiip" of a Nearctic wood warbler. I was on the north side of the valley (which was windswept to say the least today), so missed hearing it but came down to join him on the south side. We had nothing for around half an hour but then, all of a sudden, I saw something flit amongst the canopy and latched on. Double white wingbars but... ah shit! Another Parula, and presumably the same bird seen further down the valley about 10 days ago. It seems everything is sticking; we need some new birds! To be fair to the bird, it was a little stunner - in my opinion even brighter than the bird in Cancelas yesterday, with a cracking orange necklace amongst the beautiful yellow breast.

We moved on pretty quickly, but did not see anything else. Do Vinte was also pretty birdless, and the mood began to slip once again. According to Magic Seaweed, some mildly-exciting low seems to be passing to the northwest of Corvo tonight and tomorrow so perhaps we'll get some new bits in... I sure hope so. I also need to put my feet up and have an early night!

Birds
Northern Parula: 1st-winter male in Ribeira do Cantinho
Great Shearwater: c.30 past off the windmills this evening

Azores: Day 7

The east wind still blows but it's been a good day for the French and Welsh! This update may not make much sense, and is written very poorly, but I'm half-asleep (dead) already and it's only 22:30! So... sorry!

Aside two great rugby victories early this morning, the birds have been great too. In fact today has had it all; relief, joy, exhaustion, pain and also a little frustration late on!

This morning, the France v England game was interrupted by a message on the walkie-talkies that a 'wood warbler' was present in tamarisks below the airfield. "American or European?!" I replied. "American" came the answer and off we went.

After a bit of a wait, the bird came out to play. I was the first to get views of the bird on the deck, and it quickly became apparent it was a Yellow Warbler; presumably a 1st-winter male judging by the lovely bright yellow-green plumage. It was calling quite a bit with a typical Nearctic wood warbler "chip", with call and elusive/flighty behaviour reminding me very much of my first WP Yellow Warbler at Mizen Head (Cork) in 2008 - as with this one, also enjoyed alongside Ernie Davis! Nice start to the day! Following the warbler, I worked much of the upper/middle fields area, including alot of the tamarisks. The constant easterly airflow seems to have finally had an effect as I had no less than four Willow Warblers in the upper fields area. Not what we want! A (the) juvenile Barn Swallow also flew over.

We organised a taxi lift up to the valleys for 11:30; destination for Pierre and I was Cancelas as it hadn't been done for a couple of days. After working the lower reaches of both Cantinho and Cancelas with little luck, we began the ascent up the main part of the latter towards the lighthouse road. About 200 yards up on the north side, I twice heard a sharp "ziip" which excited me at first. However it did not call again and, with many Starlings around making odd noises, I dismissed it and continued some 50 yards or so further up the valley. Some 15 minutes later I had Pierre on the radio saying he had heard what he was sure was a wood-warbler calling four times down the valley from my position. I went back to meet him and we heard it twice more - it was at this point I realised it was more or less the same position I'd heard a bird earlier - shit!

Moving round to the north side of the valley, we again heard the bird call and Pierre picked it up, flitting around in the canopy. I soon got on to the bird and it was clear it was a rather splendid 1st-winter male Northern Parula! Fucking get in, at last the first find of the trip! A bright individual with lots of deep orange streaks on the yellow breast, it was a much better looker than the already-stunning female I saw on Tiree last year. We radio-ed the news out and a few people came to look; I think almost all connected.

Boosted by the find, we continued up the ribeira to the lighthouse road. From here, we decided to continue to the upper reaches of the valley above the road, and bang! Another yank popped out in front of me - Red-eyed Vireo! The bird showed well out in the open at about 10m range for 30 seconds or so, but managed to disappear by the time Pierre had walked round to meet me. We couldn't relocate it so decided to head back towards the reservoir.


Red-eyed Vireo spot, Upper Cancelas

The reservoir was fogged up, so we did the lower slopes of the hill and the valley to the south; amongst the few birds here were a Quail and a Woodcock. We continued south towards the juniper bushes on the hill above the 'Tennessee Valley', but again couldn't find much. Heading down in to the valley, it did not take us long to relocate the Tennessee Warbler still showing well at times and calling regularly, although it seems much more restless and mobile today in the company of two Willow Warblers. We left Vincent and Rafael to continue the plight for photographs, and headed down towards the Miradouro as the light was slowly going.

Now for the frustration. At dusk, just below the miradouro, Pierre and I had a small warbler-sized bird flew up from our right and buried itself in tamarisks above the road. I heard it utter a single soft, high-pitched "siit". It must have been another American wood warbler but what species remains a mystery as we couldn't relocate it in the ever-worsening light. Unsurprisingly, this will be our first port-of-call in the morning!

Today has been exhausting yet deeply rewarding, especially as the wind is still firmly stuck in the east. A half-decent low looks to be passing to the northwest of Corvo tomorrow and Monday, so perhaps we might get a few more birds.

By the way, the Blue-winged Warbler is also still here today (seen by others).


This is what Corvo does to white clothes.


Birds
Northern Parula: 1st-winter male found in Ribeira Cancelas
Tennessee Warbler: 1 still in valley above Miradouro
Yellow Warbler: 1st-winter male(?) in tamarisks below airstrip
Red-eyed Vireo: 1 found in upper Ribeira Cancelas
Willow Warbler: 6
Barn Swallow: 1 juvenile, Middle Fields

Azores: Day 6

The wind is still in the east, but as quoted on Netfugl this evening, PAC is Back!

The day started pretty lazy; no one was expecting new birds with the weather as it is and so most stayed around the village seawatching - some went to Cantinho but saw nothing. The seawatching was good; Olof connected with a juvenile Sabine's and a (the?) Fea's-type but I saw nothing more than lots of Great Shearwaters. A wander around the shoreline to the west of the windmills saw me eventually connect with the juvenile Spotted Sandpiper that has been around a while. I seawatched until around midday, before deciding to lazily walk back to the house for some lunch and an afternoon nap.

Until bang! Pierre found a Tennessee Warbler in the early afternoon in the valley northwest and above the Miradouro that overlooks the village. Fortunately, he rang me to tell me just as I was nodding off in an attempt to read my book. I panicked, and began to run up the hill towards the miradouro. Big mistake - it basically f**ked me up, but did make me realise how unfit I am. Some half an hour after the news broke, I finally made it to the valley in which the bird was present - it had been favouring large areas of fennel on the east side of the valley, but was very mobile and had only really been seen in flight.

I soon got on to the bird as it announced itself with a couple of typical Nearctic wood warbler-type "ticks" and then proceeded to perch in a juniper some 20 yards in front of me. Wow! I called the others over as I enjoyed excellent first views of the bird through binoculars; a lovely lime green on the upperparts and rump, with obvious paler yellowish supercilium, sharp grey bill, yellowish throat and breast, and whiter underside and undertail coverts. We enjoyed further views both in flight and in the fennel, and enjoyed the bird's high-pitched zitting. One thing that struck me was how long the bird remained stationary as it fed - so much so that I'm hoping to go back tomorrow to try and digiscope it! Not at all like other warblers, and nothing like the two flighty Willow Warblers in the vicinity.

The rest of the day was spent with Pierre heading around the slopes west of the 'Tennessee valley', as well as in the upper fields. No more birds aside a Quail, but I don't care - magnifique and big thanks to PAC for finding a bird on a day when everyone else was down in the dumps!

Lots of Great Shearwaters still offshore this evening and a Whimbrel flew over (European). Guess the pterodroma is still out there somewhere.


The windmill this evening.

Birds:
Tennessee Warbler: 1 above the Miradouro
Spotted Sandpiper: 1 on rocks below airstrip
Whimbrel: 1 on rocks below airstrip in morning then over village this evening
Willow Warbler: 2 above Miradouro
Great Shearwater: 300+ past today
Quail: 1 on upper slopes above Vila Nova

Also Striped Dolphins (5+) today, and a Basking Shark yesterday!

Azores: Day 5

The weather changed overnight, but the wind didn't! More southeasterlies flowing over The Rock today, with no new birds to show. I spent the morning walking around Cantinho (spent 4 1/2 hours in there today!) and saw absolutely zilch. Pierre had a similar situation at Pico, and most of the others either did da Ponte for a bit or just stayed around the village. It was very foggy:



The Blue-winged Warbler is still here today, and I enjoyed more brief views of this little stunner - it seems alot more mobile than it did on Monday although is not too difficult to locate thanks to it's call. Afterwards, I headed back down to the village where a seawatch off the windmills produced perhaps 150 or more Great Shearwaters, with similar numbers of Cory's and a couple of Common Terns:




Olof picked up the juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron down on the rocks, so I walked round and took a few photos:





The most exciting sighting of the day however, was this very large container ship off the west of Corvo and heading south past Flores:



Perhaps a few birds were on board?


Birds:
Blue-winged Warbler: still @ Ribeira da Ponte
Yellow-crowned Night Heron: juvenile still at Vila do Corvo
Great Shearwater: 150+ offshore

Azores: Day 4

Not much more to write home about today other than the east wind is still blowing! The weather has been beautiful for much of the day with lots of warm sunshine, although the crater has been clouded over all day so didn’t manage to get up there.

This morning, I started up at Cantinho (above) as I quite liked the look of the place yesterday. I worked much of the valley from the low to middle roads, but found absolutely nothing! The plan for the morning was to concentrate effort from as many observers as possible on to Fojo in the hope of turning up a surprise or two, so I walked back along the middle road to the top of the valley. I headed in, and spent an hour walking very slowly down to the picnic site – the best bird I saw was a Woodcock! Whilst I sat at the picnic site with René discussing the lack of birds, the radio crackled to life – alas it turned out to be a series of updates from birders around Fojo and further afield – no-one had seen anything, and it appeared even the Blue-winged Warbler had gone from da Ponte!

With nothing doing in the valleys I decided to head up to the reservoir, accompanied by Daniel. I had five waders flying high over the hillside briefly but they disappeared in to the low cloud (fog) – bizarrely they looked most like Turnstones. We found very little around the reservoir area; I flushed two very Common-looking Snipe from the north side. I still don’t believe Wilson’s exist in the Azores ;-)

Walked back down to the village via the fig trees along the shortcut; again no Baltimore Oriole. Things are real quiet right now! Also my feet are pretty fucked:

Update 17:00: the Blue-winged Warbler has been re-found in da Ponte... that will please today’s new arrivals (three of them). René left this afternoon so there are now 16 birders on the island.

Had an evening seawatch off the village this evening; enjoyable views of about 100 Great Shearwaters offshore with lesser numbers of the usual Cory’s. Also a few Common Terns.

Birds:
Great Shearwater: c.100 off the village this evening
Common Snipe: 2 at the reservoir

Azores: Day 3

Today was a day of blue skies and warm sunshine on Corvo, with a light southeasterly blowing through the day – not good for the yanks!

I started the day at the Lighthouse Valley with Daniel Mauras; our target here was a lingering Northern Parula that was still present yesterday. Not this morning though; we couldn’t find it anywhere!

We moved round to Ribeira do Cantinho although we could not find anything here apart from a Woodcock in a couple of hours searching. I will hopefully return here tomorrow or Thursday, dependent on weather tomorrow. Cancelas was difficult to penetrate and provided us with just another Woodcock. In fact, the rest of the morning and early afternoon was hard work in the warmth, with nothing seen of note.

We decided to head back to Ribeira da Ponte, which seemed to be faring better. Along the with the Blue-winged still being present, both Philadelphia and Red-eyed Vireos as well as Grey-cheeked Thrush had all been seen at various points during the day. No such luck on my part though; after a couple of hours it seemed as if I was going to go the day without seeing anything – I even spent an hour looking for the Blue-winged without success! Just as I was berating my failures to Vincent by the bridge at da Ponte, I caught sight of a bird drop down in to the famous ‘Indigo Tree’. At last, a decent bird – my first Azorean Red-eyed Vireo! The bird performed fairly well for a couple of minutes before flying back in to dense cover. Hopefully it realised it had saved me from a desperate day, as we were later unsuccessful looking for the ‘new’ Baltimore Oriole back towards the village. A Barn Swallow (probably European) was seen flying over the hillside there but we could find little else.

Forecast is for more of the same weather-wise... not promising but who knows!

Birds:
Red-eyed Vireo: 1 at Ribeira da Ponte
Barn Swallow: 1 of indeterminate race over the village

Azores: Day 2

In comparison to yesterday, relatively little to write up today despite a new WP tick! Had another unbearable night’s sleep last night (perhaps the worst I’ve ever had as I was chucked out Terceira airport in to the rain in the early hours). Anyway, despite that and inclement weather earlier cancelling our flight from Faial, I’ve somehow made it to Corvo this afternoon, for about half 3ish.

No guesses as to what the first target was. Dropped the bags off at the place I’m staying and then got a lift up to Ribeira da Ponte, where the Blue-winged Warbler had been seen all day. A short walk down in to the dark depths of the valley below the road found us at the site, where Vincent had seen it shortly before our arrival. We could hear the bird calling (a soft, sort of ‘dziit’) and eventually it showed well but briefly in the canopy. Moving around the valley side to where the bird had been proved to be wise, with much closer views afforded to all. Despite being warned about how dense the foliage is in these ribieras, I don’t think it is possible to appreciate the fact fully until you’re amongst them; despite being close at all times, views of the warbler were generally tantalisingly brief. What a stunner, though! A beautiful yellow bird with grey-blue wings and double white wingbars, greenish-yellow upperparts and a striking black eyestripe. Great start to the trip!

Shortly afterwards, it emerged that a Swainson’s Thrush had been seen just up the valley from where we were. However, it was being very mobile and elusive and perhaps it was not surprising we did not see it. By this point (mid-evening), the previous 48 hours were beginning to catch up with me and, as I hitched down to the village with Vincent and David, I felt very weary and in need of rest to the point that I could not be bothered to search for the night heron or Dickcissel!

Looking forward to a good night’s sleep, here’s hoping tomorrow will be a more energetic and bird-filled day! For what it’s worth, there are currently 14 birders on Corvo – one Brit (me), one French, three Belgians, 5 Swedes, 2 Danes and 2 Germans.

Birds:

Blue-winged Warbler (1) at Ribeira da Ponte

Azores: Day 1

Following on from a direct flight from Gatwick to Sao Miguel the previous evening, I found myself on Terceira first thing this morning thanks to an early flight from PDL. As the skies brightened (by that I mean from black to an ominous blue-grey), I ambled down the hill towards Praia da Vitoria full of typical first-morning enthusiasm. There are, it seems, two inevitabilities in an Azorean birdwatching adventure. The first is that you will get absolutely soaked, and the second is that you will see a species of Nearctic origin. I debated which of these would come first today as the skies darkened once more and the northeast wind (not ideal direction!) got stronger.

As it turned out, the latter came first in the form of a (relatively) smart female Blue-winged Teal wallowing around amongst the Muscovies at Paul da Praia. Not quite on a par with the half-dead juvenile seen on Scilly earlier this autumn, she was rather wary and just a few seconds were enjoyed before she bolted off in to the sky.

I didn't have to wait long for the soaking, though. Just a few minutes later the heavens opened as I conducted my first scan of Praia harbour, although through steamed up bins there seemed to be a fair few Common Terns bombing about the harbour. It took a while to get around to the fishing port (I spent around half an hour hiding behind various objects to avoid several nasty squalls), but on arrival a couple of decent bits were picked up - a 2cy Great Black-backed Gull amongst the Azoreans and two adult Roseate Terns giving stunning views at times amongst the Commons - wasn't expecting those so late on here.


2cy GBBG

With a more extended break in the weather now prevailing, I moved round to the notorious Cabo da Praia quarry, where I met Mauris, Per and Thomas. Amongst the gathered waders were 3 adult White-rumped Sandpipers, 2 juvenile Semipalmated Sandpipers and a juv Pectoral Sandpiper - not exactly ground-breaking but decent enough. There was also a female Common Teal-type present, which looked rather interesting with a strikingly contrasted head pattern - presumably a Green-winged but better views need.

Mauris was very kind in that he offered me a lift as he was the only one in his car. So, off we went up towards the Lagoa do Junco area to look for Killdeer (via a quick look at the Roseate Terns in the harbour). The weather was still squally and in the time we were out the car here, I must have got soaked and dried out again about three times! No Killdeer nor Wilson's Snipe on the pool near Posto de Radio Americano, but 5 juvenile Pec Sands were impressive. A teal sp (again probably a Green-winged), a Greenshank and a Common Snipe were less so.

Keen to get out of the squalls and low cloud, Mauris and I headed back down to Cabo to re-check the quarry. The White-rumped Sandpiper flock had risen to four, a juvenile Ruff had popped in, and I heard a Semipalmated Plover. With the sun out the sandpiper photo opportunities came:





Semipee, White-rumped and mix-up

Followed quickly by a Semi-p Plover which was not the juvenile Mauris had photographed the previous day; looks more like the usual(?) adult:





Our next stop was Cabrito Water Reservoir. This probably isn't the best name for the site currently as water levels are phenomenally low. I had a bit of a surprise when a Black-necked Grebe popped up post-dive, but it now appears this bird has been around a while (shame). We checked Lagoa do Negro and Lagoa dos Patos but neither had anything on them.

Down at Angra do Heroismo harbour, I was reacquainted with an old friend:



Final few of stops of the day were Lagoa do Ginjal (nothing), Posto de Radio Americano (3 Common Snipe, 5 Pecs still, Greenshank still), and finally at the quarry again. The teal here I am pretty sure is a Green-winged not only due to head pattern being suggestive but also a dock-off buffy covert bar.

Writing this exhausted in Terceira airport. I'm going to try and get some sleep before I inevitably get woken up by security at some point in the night. Flying to Corvo in the morning, where there is now a Blue-winged Warbler. Please stay one night....

Highlights today:

• Blue-winged Teal: female at Paul da Praia
• Great Black-backed Gull: 2cy in Praia da Vitoria harbour
  
• Green-winged Teal: female at Cabo da Praia, presumed female near Lagoa do Junco
• White-rumped Sandpiper: 4 adults at Cabo da Praia
• Semipalmated Sandpiper: 2 juveniles at Cabo da Praia
• Semipalmated Plover: adult at Cabo da Praia
  
• Pectoral Sandpiper: juvenile at Cabo da Praia; 5 juveniles at Posto de Radio Americano
• Black-necked Grebe: one at Cabrito Water Reservoir