2014 review

It's time for my annual review of the monthly birding highlights of the past year (lifers are in CAPS).

January - TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL (The Netherlands); a nice male successfully twitched and seen well in a group of Common Crossbills.

February - Razorbill (Ostend); a new species for my Belgian list.  An adult winter constantly diving in the harbour.
March - Black Grouse (Hautes-Fagnes); another Belgian tick.  This species is almost extinct in Belgium but a long wait eventually produced two distant males feeding in the treetops.
April - Tawny Owl (Brussels); a juvenile seen well in a Brussels park having located it by its begging call.
May - Red-necked Grebe (Denmark); an impressive concentration of these beautiful birds I rarely get to see in summer plumage at a small breeding colony on the outskirts of Copenhagen.
June - TATAUPA TINAMOU (Cristalino Jungle Lodge); a female with chick seen extremely well on the Serra Nova trail.
July - PAVONINE QUETZAL (Cristalino Jungle Lodge); finally, distant but unmistakeable looks at a male perched above the Castanheira trail.

Spangled Cotinga at Cristalino Jungle Lodge

August - Crested Eagle (Cristalino Jungle Lodge); great looks at and adult both perched and flying over the Rio Teles Pires.
September - Pomarine Skua (Ostend); good views of a dark juvenile passing close inshore.
October - Firecrest (Belgium); traditionally the best month for them, they seemed to be absolutely everywhere whenever I went birding this month, including in the park right in the centre of Brussels.
November - Pied Wheatear (Mortsel, Flanders); an easy twitch for a first-winter male sitting on a fence and showing extremely well as soon as I arrived.  Very nice to finally remove the question mark next to this species after the only other one I have ever seen, fourteen years ago in Israel, was dismissed by all the local birders as a misidentication.
December - GREAT BUSTARD (Germany); wonderful views of 50% of the remaining German population of this vulnerable species and a long overdue lifer.

My bird of the year just has to be Great Bustard as I was surprised at how easily we found them yet we were extremely lucky to find such a big group so close to the road.  We also got to see the whole group in flight and one of the males doing display gestures, and they were even more beautiful than I had imagined.  My 2014 list for Europe reached 229 species, 206 of which were in Belgium.  I added another 415 in Brazil taking the year's total to 644, of which 10 were lifers.  Here's hoping 2015 will bring some more and wishing you all a happy and birdy New Year.

Cristalino advent Day 24

Most of you will have already seen this picture but, as the highlight of this year's stay in the Amazon, this jaguar was the only way I could possibly conclude my online advent calendar.  It was sitting on the bank of the Rio Cristalino just a week before I left as I headed upriver with two guests following a morning rainstorm, hence the hazy quality to the picture.  After a total of one year spent on the reserve, it is only the second one I have seen, and it sat there watching us for fifteen minutes before turning tail and disappearing into the forest.  The Dutch couple in question were perhaps the luckiest guests I have ever guided as, in addition to this magnificent beast, they got to see four species of monkey, yesterday's poison dart frog (the first sighting of the season), three tapirs, both otters, a southern tamandua, yellow-footed tortoise, red-tailed boa, a group of nine Dark-winged Trumpeters drinking at the riverbank, a male Amazonian Umbrellabird, all three large macaws, and a magnificent rainbow to boot.
Their luck even rubbed off on me as the same boat trip as the jaguar also produced a female (or immature male) Crimson Topaz hummingbird, a very scarce bird at Cristalino and a new one for me, the last of just five lifers I saw there this summer.
Happy holidays to all my readers!     

Cristalino advent Day 23

The still undescribed 'Cristalino' Poison Dart Frog

Lazy bustards

On my way back from Poland earlier this month, I stopped off in Berlin and hired local guide Rolf Nessing to hopefully find me another lifer.  Heading to our meeting point by train, I already noticed one group of cranes in flight and we soon found this group - notice the brown, young bird in the centre - right by the side of the road.  Stopping a little later to check out some geese (mostly Tundra Beans and White-fronts), we suddenly realised there was also a large flock of cranes feeding in a ditch to our right and counted around 600 of them, some of which were displaying.  As great as it was to see and hear them, they were not my target bird so we pressed on towards Buschow train station.  Once there, Rolf pulled up right between the platform and some rather average-looking fields and said we'd look here.  After just a few minutes of scanning, he announced he'd found them and I was looking at my first Great Bustards, 14 of them, just standing there in the middle of the field!  There was another, larger group in the distance, however, so we drove closer to get better views and try to count them.  We settled for 41, with one big male in particular regularly flashing his white feathers in some half-hearted display gestures no doubt prompted by the mild weather, before moving on to an area which held two Hen Harriers, two Rough-legged Buzzards and a Red Kite.  After a good morning's birding, during which we also saw around 70 Whooper Swans and two White-tailed Eagles, we headed back to Buschow for my train back to Berlin.  Just as we were approaching, though, a group of large birds flew over the road and my first reaction was geese before I realised it was actually the bustards, which had been put up by a passing eagle.  They flew right over the car and I managed to get a flight shot of the whole group numbering 57.  We had obviously missed a couple of birds earlier on and this total represents 50% of the remaining German population of this vulnerable and rapidly declining yet beautiful species.

Cristalino advent Day 22

Selina Hairstreak, male

Cristalino advent Day 21

The very shy and difficult-to-see Ruddy Quail-Dove

Cristalino advent Day 20

A Red-handed Howler Monkey just lazing around.

Cristalino advent Day 19

Idomeneus Giant Owl

Cristalino advent Day 18

Great Black Hawk with snake!

Cristalino advent Day 17

Starry Night Metalmark

Cristalino advent Day 16

Glossy Antshrike, male

Cristalino advent Day 15

The endemic and very cute Bare-eyed Antbird, which of course showed well for my group of butterfliers instead of the birders!

Needle in a haystack!

Last week, I was in Opole, in south-western Poland, for three days with the main target of seeing my lifer Taiga Bean Goose.  Ten years ago, I was looking at a flock of Bean Geese in The Netherlands when a friend thought he had found a Taiga amongst the many Tundras but, just as I looked through his telescope, a helicopter flew over putting the whole flock into the air.  Taiga Bean Goose has, therefore, been a very frustrating gap on my lifelist ever since, especially as we went on to produce the first documented record of Tundra Bean Goose for Norway, where Taiga Bean is relatively common!
My first morning in Opole started well with this female Syrian Woodpecker, a scarce bird for the region and Poland as a whole, right outside where I was staying.  We then moved on to Turawski Reservoir, where the first birds I found where a couple of White-tailed Eagles.  We ended up counting no less than seven of them dotted around the edge of the huge reservoir, before moving to a gull roost which held around 500 Caspians plus the odd Herring and Yellow-legged, giving me some good practice at large-gull identification.  Day two was goose day and a call from a local birder near Gliwice confirming the presence of geese saw us arrive at Pławniowice Reservoir to be greeted by the below sight.

The dark blob is actually thousands of Bean Geese (we estimated 4500) packed tightly together but excitment soon turned to despair when I realised they were mostly Tundras plus a few White-fronted.  The three of us thus started searching through the flock and, on my first look through the telescope, I picked out a Barnacle Goose, much to the delight of my companions as this is another rare bird for the area.  It took us almost two hours but I eventually found just two Taiga Bean Geese, picked out by the orange on the bill extending all the way to its base and confirmed by bill shape and neck colouration.  The others all had a look and agreed I had found my taiga needle in the tundra haystack!  From there, we relocated to another, larger reservoir at about the same time as most of the geese so that we ended up watching a huge flock of around 10,000 geese, most of which were Tundras; a truly amazing sight and sound.  Back in Opole, my lucky streak continued as I went on to find an extremely late Chiffchaff while the others were busy photographing the Syrian Woodpecker.  On the third and final day, however, we woke to thick, freezing fog and so only got to see a mixed group of europaeus and caudatus Long-tailed Tits before heading back to the gull roost and impressing myself by picking out a Yellow-legged Gull from the many Caspians, proving I had actually learnt something during my gull masterclass of the first afternoon.

Cristalino advent Day 14

The tiniest butterfly imaginable; Gyas Sarota (just look at those hairy legs!)

Cristalino advent Day 13

Unidentified but particularly colourful dragonfly

Cristalino advent Day 12

Unidentified tree frog in the bar area

Cristalino advent Day 11

Scarlet Macaws

Cristalino advent Day 10

White-whiskered Spider-Monkey

Cristalino advent Day 9

Theodora Metalmark

Cristalino advent Day 8

Agami Heron, adult

Cristalino advent Day 7

Especially for Eva, the 'fat bird', aka Capped Heron

Cristalino advent Day 6

Selina Hairstreak, female

Cristalino advent Day 5

OK, it could be a lot sharper, I know, but Cryptic Forest-Falcon was only described in 2003 and remains one of the most sought-after and most difficult species at Cristalino so getting any kind of photo is a major achievement!

Cristalino advent Day 4

Little Banner and Hystaspes Eighty-Eight

Cristalino advent Day 3

Red-headed Manakin (it's not easy to focus on such a small bird amongst so much foliage!)

Cristalino advent Day 2

Sunrise over the Amazon

Cristalino advent Day 1

As long-standing readers of my blog will know, it is time for another online advent calendar featuring some of my favourite pictures taken this summer during my stay at Cristalino Jungle Lodge in the Brazilian Amazon.  As always, day 1 is dedicated to the Bare-faced Curassows which hang around the lodge clearing and are often referred to as the lodge chickens.  This year, they stopped coming in mid-July, only for the female to reappear around two weeks later with these two little fluffballs sheltering under her tail.  Unfortunately, one of them disappeared, no doubt predated, after a few days, but the other was still going strong when I left the lodge in early September.