Nov 12 2011 - where did they go?

Good day at Chincoteague from sunrise to sunset
The sea was quiet to start with but later had a good procession of ducks (Black Scoter and teal mainly, what no surf scoter?!?) and good numbers of Gannet. several flock of Snow Gees over were the only ones seen (later they were absent form the pool). Several parties of Bonaparte's Gull were watched.
Several small parties of dolphin breached conveniently.
Hundreds of YR Warbler everywhere plus at least 1 Palm.
The flock of Dunlin included a couple with some remaining dark belly feathers
A rather nasty black duck x mallard hybrid swam nearby
The only white birds on the wildlife loop were Tundra Swan including a couple showing small areas of yellow at the bill base
A 2nd yr (?) male Harrier hunted the marsh and gave great views and 3 1st w white ibis were with the egrets in the marsh
Goof numbers of teal, wigeon, pintail and shoveler were periodically spooked by the harrier and the local eagle

Nov 5 2011 - migrants thru Occie

A good selection of migrants and others today.

A Hermit Thrush and Thrasher joined some Robins and Rusty Blackbirds found amongst the Blackbirds

Out in the bay a nice total of Eleven Horned Grebe were counted and seven Pied-Billed Grebe, the first Shoveler and Bufflehead and a late 1st w Parula.

23 oct 2011 - palmies

At Occoquan today I found an incredible number of Eastern Palm Warblers (c200)...

Sept 16 2011 - one extreme to another, a day in the Rockies

Apart from some good birds, it was great to get right up close and personal with the continental divide at 10000 ft and then back down to 'normality' at half that at Barr Lake near the airport. In the mountains waves of showers drifted through but once we were down on the plain the big sky had a couple of foreboding thunderstorms that thankfully circled us but made for some impressive skyscapes.
Nice birds today. Up in the mountains the very best must have been the Gray Jay that eventually gave up being elusive and came and sat in the tree above us. It took a little while but we eventually came across feeding parked of chickadees and kinglets and white-crowned sparrows were particularly numerous and showy.

Nov 4 2011 - crow time again

Flocks of crows flying away from roost before dawn over the bar side dinner. From calls all seemed to be American crow

Returning from the cinema last night around 9 (well after dark ) at least one American crow was heard flying over home

Sep 9 2011 - out in the desert

A trip to Arizona for a wedding and some birding. We found a great place at Riparian Preserve at Gilbert Water Ranch, so we went back again the next day !
Lots of Abert's Towhee around, a local speciality and a very large number of Yellow Warblers during Friday afternoon. Many fewer the next day but we did find a Wilson's. We were excited to ID a MacGillivray's Warbler and saw a few others on both day. Just occasionally I thought I had found a Geothlypis warbler with a complete eye ring but didn't get much more on it than that.



We did find a big group of 50 long-billed dowitcher and some interesting duck including a cinnamon teal

On the Sunday morning we headed an hour east out of town way out into the Sonoran Desert to the Boyce Thompson arboretum, a wonderfully verdant area around a creek surrounded by harsher terrain.
Cactus Wren was a great bird and came within a few feet. Lots of flycatchers and vireos on the trees along the (dry) stream bed.
At both sites Gila Woodpeckers were plentiful and noisy!

Sep 4 2011 - the patch

Initially pretty quiet on our walk from the rail bridge over the river to Rusty Bridge. We did find a perched hummingbird across the tracks and walking back passed the dog park we happened across a feeding party. Not much variety but 4+ Blackburnian with the redstarts and the vireos more than made up for that!






Cameron Stn, Ben Brenman Park with Chrystal, Alexandria, US-VA
Sep 4, 2011 8:15 AM - 9:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.5 mile(s)
28 species (+1 other taxa)

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 4
Green Heron (Butorides virescens) 1
Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) 1
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) 2
Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) 75
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 30
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) 5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) 1
Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) 2
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) 6
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 1
Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) 3
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 3
Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) 5
crow sp. (Corvus sp. (crow sp.)) 5
Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) 2
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) 3
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) 1
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 15
Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) 15
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) 15
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 12
American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) 2
Blackburnian Warbler (Setophaga fusca) 4
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 1
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 15
Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) 6
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://ebird.org)

Sep 1 2011- Kildeer meaning business

An odd sighting walking back from the customer offices to my hotel here in te outskirts of Denver - 10 kildeer running around on the well manicured lawns of the building next door.

AUg 21 2011 a warm summer day at the patch

Aug 28 2011 after the wind...

A quick trip to Dyke Marsh after the hurricane.

Found 9 Black Tern amongst the large numbers Forster's, Royal, Caspian with a couple of Common Tern and a couple of 1st winter Least Tern.

Along the shore of the marina a collection of birds feeding (many insects were around on various branches and limbs)

good morning :)

August 11th back in uk

Hobby over m25
Rook and magpie

Sparrowhawk over motorway looking chunky



Off deck at lodging- 10+ coal tits Inc juvs plus treecreeper (froze after playing crest calls) nuthatch and goldcrests



red crossbill Calling and seen in flight




Woodpigeon feeding from the pancake house feeding station

July 3 2011 allegany mountains

Brief visit to the area including a quick foray in West Virginia. There were a few Bobolink seen in a very rural and remote area. Around the b and b both Barn and Cliff Swallows seemed to be nesting

June 23rd - green heron 'colony'

A quick walk around the lake at the patch. At least 7 Green Heron flying to, from and hanging around the reception pool. At least one large chick in the usual nesting tree

June 17 - and speaking of breeding

On return home we found a family of Grackles feeding on the deck Also

June 18 2011 - Riverbend

Here's the results of the breeding Survey walk at Riverbend June 18th

Here are the rest of the records:
Scarlet Tanager, singing by boat ramp
Phoebe singing near visitor center
Orchard Oriole nest in front of visitor center
Baltimore Oriole singing and pairs present around boat ramp
Mourning Dove singing
Pileated Woodpecker, pair present in front of visitor center
Red-eyed Vireo singing many place (10+)
Great-crested Flycatcher singing and calling (4+)
Northern Parula 1 singing
Common Merganser female plus 5 chicks, plus 2 additional female including one with injured wing
Indigo Bunting several singing (5)
Wood Thrush 1 singing
Warbling Vireo 1 singing
Tufted Titmouse, several family groups seen
Eastern Kingbird holding territory
Eastern Wood Peewee, several singing
Catbird agitated behaviour near Nature Center
Tree Swallow with recently fledged young, near boat ramp
Cowbird singing
Red-winged Blackbird singing

also present
Barn Sallow
Bald Eagle
Eastern Bluebird
Goldfinch
Rough-winged Swallow
An unidentified Empid near the Nature Center
Cardinal
Common Grackle
Carolina Chickadee
Double Crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
WB Nuthatch
Black-crowned Night Heron
Mallard
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Canada Goose
American Crow

May 21 2011 - Singapore!

Rather few birds during a busy work week with occasional java mynas along orchard road and a Indian House Crow flight at dusk (usually outside the office where we were still working.
Today I walked the other way up Orchard and found the Botanic Gardens.

Here an approx full list with sone notes

House crow

Java myna, everywhere

Common myna, few
Asian glossy starling

Little heron, one on dawn lake
Spotted dove, common, Inc one darker displaying male
Black-naked oriole
Pacific. Swallow
Black-nest swiftlet
blue-crowned hoping parrot
Stork-billed kingfisher
Asian glossy starling
Pink-necked green pigeon

Crimson Sunbird
Olive- backed sunbird
White crested laughing- thrush
White breasted kingfisher.
Collared kingfisher

Long-tailed parakeet
Rose-ringed parakeet
Lesser whistling duck

Wandering whistling duck - maybe a hybrid with that much rufous on tail coverts

Later at the 'Marina' a Brahimy Kite was a nice additional and a black-napped oriole along the promenade a surprise.

Each night walking back from the office there has been cord call I'm some of the trees - depending on the time. This evening it became clear that many hundreds and probably thousands of (presumably java) mynas were coming in to roost. I could still hear them 15 stories below me when I got back to my room

May 11 2011

Very unusually a grackle visited the deck, wandered around under the fat blocks and had a drink.

A late junco visited.

May 11 2011

Very unusually a grackle visited the deck, wandered around under the fat blocks and had a drink.

A late junco visited.

May 7 2011 - warbler walk at the 'bend

A bit quiet on the warbler from yellow rumps, a fine male Yellow, a few Parula and La waterthrush. Bit a good group of 6 enjoyed the orioles, flycatcher (Kingbird, Many great Crest, peewee, Phoebe ) Vireos were playing hard to get although there were several around A pair of red-tailed hawks were 'sky dancing' with territorial display flight. Lots of water snakes were in the boat ramp wall

May 6 2011 - monti

Quick pre-work visit on a sumny but initially cool day
A delightful Canada in the stream and 2 Cape May high up were the highlights
Also grosbeaks, both m and f b and w and lots of BT Blues

May 2 -at the patch

Double-created Cormorant on the pond - not unheard of but unusual
Baltimore Orioles pair nesting in tree on pooh bridge side of stream, seemingly natural materials this year!
Gnatcatcher
Red-eyed vireo in several places
Indigo bunting
Rw swallow
1st s and adult orchard orioles singing
Empidomax - least fly singing at the magic spot
Black vulture on the dead tree across the track waiting for it to warm up

Brown thrasher coming to pishing And the first youngsters of the year...

May 1 2011 - bluebirds and an overcast day at monti

My first trip round the golf course, the only chicks were still hatching with the last chick just about to exit the egg. A couple of BB nest had tree swallows in attendance so we'll see how that shapes up and one BB was built atop a house wren nest
Box 8 has a huge house wen nest

At Monticello we had a female / young male hooded plus great views of veery, BTGreen, Indigo bunts, scarlet tanagers, and a swainsons thrush coming to my starling sqealed!

April 30 2011 -at last

Much delayed first visit to Monticello Park turned up some great view of black-throated green, a showy blue-winged and an early Blackpoll

April 20 2011 - then sprig was here

Snatch of house wren song outide corp apartment in PA - just one,at 5am-ish!

April 12 2011 - *YAWN*

12 hour time diff = 24/7 firefighting :( oh problems please just resolve yourself sometimes :)

April 11 2011 - here we go....

Late Night e Clarkson with subtitles - was I dreaming ?
Apparently not



Jumped in a taxi to go 1 mile to work central plaza is PRIMO location Nieghbours are eBay and Paypal up here on floor 32
.

Chinese banquet at lunchtime on day 1 - apparently my chopsticks skills are GOOD - or Agnes is just very polite and ignores the debris on the tablecloth


The usual challenge of keeping people on task but super enthusiastic group


Use the triangle!

Team dinner - at the local Italian - surreal.

HK at night is Times Square on steroids!

April 10 2011 - HK Sunday

An awefil lot of shouting going on out there...

April 2011 hk birds - april 10 update

Black-eared kites beneath my window - tum ling twisting and locking talons, one caught some paper floating up high

Small egrets on bay

Tree sparrow

black-billed magpie



Sunday am

Red-whiskered Bulbul - everywhere!

Black-collared Starling - serious nice looking but darn hard to photograph (with a phone anyway)

Spotted Dove

Tree Sparrow

Black-eared Kite flying even in dank humid conditions early

Japanese White-eye

Oriental Magpie-Robin

Common Kingfisher

White-throated Kingfisher

Barn Swallow

Little Egret

Chinese Pond Heron

Crested Myna

Black-crowned Night Heron one with bubble gum pink coloured legs - is this a breeding plummage? another closeby had standard yellow legs

Small flock of Masked Laughthrush

Chinese Bulbul
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Apr 9th continued

A huge ( somehow predictive text turned that into' UBS Jesuits' !!!) powernap after the best shower EVER kinda wipes out the rest of daylight.

Walk aroun the park after dusk - the impressive light show from the sky scrapers begins.

There a tennis center with some fine young player playing under the floodlights - must though I don't much care for the game.
For the umpteenth time this evening a feral cat crossing my peripheral vision make me jump

No such action on the lawn green bowling next door - such an English game feeling a little out of place in this warm oriental environment

A few starling like squeals can't be located - could be good in the morning, I the cats don't get them first lol



Elected for dinner in schmancy 27th floor restaurant looking down over my domain for the next week or so. Tiger Prawn - now THAT'S some shellfish !

Apr 9 2011 so that was a short Friday

Almost ready for the third leg - the United desk opens at 4:30 and off we go....

Upgrade 3 in business on the jumbo for 3.5hours, next to chatty Jon on his way home from Jakarta to Columbus, OH.
Right now we're flying into a stunning sunrise...

Oh they make the materials for the smelting pots btW



The Chicken Rice for breakfast was an interesting experiment - probably should have taken it a little easier on the chilli sauce buy hey

And no, toilet seat comes crashing down on Jumbos - sorry (formerly?) sleeping peeps on ya fancy flatbeds. :0

And so after 20 yrs or so I complete my circumnavigation of the globe ....


FUUUUUUUCK I'm in Hong Kong all alone Yikes! And safely reunited with Natasha




I hope the first bird Is more exotic than the shops traveled, HSBC and'bucks


Ahhhhhhh that would be a feral pigeon then....

Astonishing sights so far - never seen so many tower blocks and shipping containers...

So the first thing Park Lane Hotel offers me? Why a flagon if the finest local brew..... Carlsberg

One THIS is a room

April 7 2011 -

First barn swallows at Dulles.

April 5 2011 - and then ...

March 31 2011 wilson bridge

First Osprey sighting of the season as I approached the wilson bridge coming south down 295

April 2 2011 - i see no ships

A quick weekend for Rhiannon's birth and towards dusk we grabbed just a few minutes to look off Selsey South Beach

A small flock of Brent geese flew low over apart from that Herring Gulls were hanging in the wind calling loudly and a Great Cormorant was on it's usual perch just off shore

After a good curry - one or more Robins were singing in budgens car park and a Barn Owl over the road at Siddlesham Ferry

April 4 2011 - Sparrowpalooza!

Considering it started as just a quick glance st the feeders today turned into quite something.

A couple of Chipping Sparrows around the deck including one on the Niger feeder were the immediate surprise


Shortly after a Fox Sparrow flew into the tree from the lower are of the garden - both species reappearing later in the afternoon ( but with only quick photo ops ).

3-4 different White-throated Sparrows were around throughout the day abs the Song Sparrows remain the only ones interested in the mealworms on offer.

It was generally busy all day with an unusual visit from 2 Starlings and the appearance early afternoon of a pair of Cowbirds - probably a new garden species

Mar 29 2011 - more goldfinch

This one looks like a first summer male

Mar 27 2011 - after the 'big snow'

Just a light covering of snow in some places that soon melted however may have been responsible for a flock of 9 Junco as I put out food for the birds. Pretty quiet so far otherwise, one goldfinch is coloring up nicely

Mar 26 - spring on the way, snow tomorrow!

Mid-morning visit to the patch found trees in bloom and a cool but sunny morning.

A few juncos are still around and the occasional white-throated sparrow. Cardinals were singing loudly in several places and song sparrow and particularly Robins were numerous, especially around the picnic area. Across the rail tracks a Sapsucker was actively moving through the tops of the trees.

At the rusty bridge this mockingbird was showing well when it suddenly drew it's plumage in, looked much skinnier and disappeared into the middle of the bush. I looked up to see a Coopers Hawk pass close by. It was interesting to watch how the feather tracks changed orientation, especially the coverts aligning more with the bill to tail access than shown in thus relaxed shot.


Around the receiving pond a pair of Grackles remain - maybe they will breed here? They have Been around for a while in an unusual place fir them.
At the confluence of the Rivers a pair of Cowbird were skulking around the scrubby area maybe looking for early victims.