Another January

We’re into the third week of storms with no prospect of birding or ringing for several days. Storm Ella is lined up to be next. 

Almost every day has been so awful that I have struggled to get out birding or ringing, even for the occasional “window of opportunity”. Everyone is pretty fed up, not least those people whose homes have been flooded.  Fortunately here in coastal Lancashire, apart from fencing panels, we have escaped any serious damage, but there’s more to come from the current cycle with its misplaced and overactive jet stream.  

UK 2020 - Getty Images 

Meanwhile the Government is happy to blame so called “climate change” for the damage and destruction while muddying the waters, diverting attention from building on flood plains; or forgetting to mention the Environment Agency’s failure to properly maintain dykes, ditches and rivers because of the European Water Framework Directive 2000. Roll on 2021 when Britain becomes again an independent nation, free from the dictats of unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, and when our politicians will be paid for making decisions of their own. 

For those of an enquiring mind willing to read other than mainstream media I recommend:

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/18/boris-tories-floods-arent-our-responsibility-blame-climate-change/

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/the-link-between-climate-change-and-britains-winter-storms-clue-there-is-not-one/

That’s the whinge over for now.  Meanwhile a few pictures from January 2011 and a holiday in sunny Egypt where we saw a somewhat limited range of species within the confines of the resort of Makadi Bay, Hurghada.  A couple of miles of beach plus 15 or so lush hotel grounds provided ample time and opportunity for birding while soaking up the winter sun. 

Makadi Bay, Egypt

 Red-throated Pipit

Bluethroat

Kingfisher

 Kestrel

Laughing Dove

Makadi Bay 

Sleepy Camel

Striated Heron

Osprey

Cattle Egret 

 Makadi Bay, Egypt

Makadi Bay, Egypt

Hooded Crow

Bluethroat

Kingfisher

Greater Sand Plover

Greenshank

Cattle Egret

We had a great time with two weeks of unbroken sunshine in the eighties when back home there would be rain, wind and whatever else the British weather might throw at us.   

I know someone who went to Hurghada just two years ago. Following terrorist atrocities in Egypt the rules are now more controlling whereby tourists are unable to leave the confines of their hotel grounds, barred even from walking into neighbouring hotel surroundings because of security concerns - such a shame.

It's raining now.  Back soon - sometime, never?

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Saturday Blogspot.

Something For The Weekend

Spring has yet to arrive. In fact the weather at the moment here in Lancashire is still like winter with low temperatures, biting easterly winds and even snow predicted for the weekend. 

Something For the Weekend 

With little prospect of birding or ringing I dipped into the archive for the sunny days of Egypt in 2011. 

The post from February 2011 seems especially relevant now as we in the UK await Chiffchaffs fresh from the wintering grounds, one of the first spring migrants. 

Chiffchaff 

Ringers know that early Chiffchaffs often carry pollen residues on their bills. This pollen was deposited by the feeding strategy known as nectarivory, birds indulging in sipping nectar from flowering plants during which flowering pollen is left on the bird itself, mainly around the base of the bill, the part of the bird most closely in contact with the flower. Nectarivory is also known to occur in some species of bats. 

Chiffchaff 

During the 2011 holiday to Egypt I saw countless Chiffchaffs and also saw nectarivory in action. The number of Chiffchaffs was not entirely surprising as unlike the closely related Willow Warbler which winters mainly in West Africa south of the Sahara, Chiffchaffs also cross the Sahara and concentrate in Senegal, while others remain in the Mediterranean North Africa of Egypt. 

At least 3 often inseparable races breed in the Middle East, collybita (includes brevirostris), menzbieri and probably abietinus and at least two others visit. So at any time, and especially during winter, spring and autumn the origins of Chiffchaffs and race of each individual in Egypt is hard to determine. The latest scientific and perhaps unremarkable opinion is that races of Chiffchaff interbreed freely, thus  making racial definition and identification in the field difficult if not impossible.  

There is no doubt that in Egypt I heard and saw our familiar UK collybita, with both the typical “hweet” call and occasional snatches of “chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff”. I also heard the “squeaky chicken” call frequently and on a couple of occasions, snatches of the fast, melodious song of Siberian Chiffchaff tristis, totally unlike the Chiffchaff song I know but more like a demented Dunnock. 

In Hurghada I witnessed many Chiffchaffs taking nectar, at times the liquid being visibly sipped as birds stuck their heads deep into the flowers, and upon the bird withdrawing from the flower, drops of the nectar spilling from their bill. A particular favourite plant of the Chiffchaffs was a flowering Mexican Saguara cactus shown in the photographs below. In a few of the pictures, by zooming up it is possible to see the nectar drops around the bill. 

Chiffchaff on Saguara cactus

Saguara cactus - Egypt

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff

In the two week trip I had one sighting only of Nile Valley Sunbird, another bird that takes nectar. In view of the tremendous number of flowering plants in Makadi Bay my single sighting was a little disappointing. 

The biggest numbers of Nile Valley Sunbirds occur much further south than Hurghada, but in the last 100 years, helped by the building of tourist resorts, the species has spread from the southernmost parts of the Red Sea and up to the Cairo area where it breeds. I didn’t get to Cairo to look for more sunbirds so settled for my one brief encounter and a couple of distant shots.

Nile Valley Sunbird

Egyptian Garden

Some of that sun and warmth of Egypt would  be very welcome right now. Maybe soon? Log in again to Another Bird Blog to check.

Linking today to Anni's blog and Eileen's Saturday.

Egypt Matters

When I watched the TV news and read today’s newspaper which described the tumult going on in Egypt it made me both sad and angry.

“The Foreign Office (FCO) issued the advice for the resort of Hurghada, where violent clashes erupted earlier in the week in an area away from the main tourist section. The FCO advised that in Hurghada on August 14 there were some violent clashes, in an area away from tourist resorts. One man was killed. Hurghada police advised tourists to remain in hotel grounds, avoid all demonstrations and large gatherings and if becoming aware of any nearby protests, to leave the area immediately and to not attempt to cross road blocks erected by the security forces or protesters.” 

Sue and I enjoyed a wonderful winter holiday in the Hurghada resort in January 2011 and it grieves me to think of those poor, hard-working and proud Egyptian people suffering such turmoil. 

It’s raining hard here in the UK, so I put together some pictures from Hurghada 2011. Apologies to any readers seeing a few of these pictures again but to anyone who didn't find them until now, I hope that after seeing them you will agree that Egypt should be on any birder's or photographer's wish list.

Hopefully Egypt will recover soon from this setback and their tourist industry return to normal.

"Click the pics" for a better view of Egypt.

Hurghada Hotel

Western Reef Heron

Red-throated Pipit

Common Kingfisher

Bluethroat 

Common Kestrel

Sleepy Camel

Egyptian Lizard

Greater Sand Plover

Nile Valley Sunbird

 Striated Heron

 

Osprey

Tourist Police

More soon from Another Bird Blog but not from Egypt just yet.

Appropriately enough I'm linking this post to Anni's I'd Rather Be Birding Blog .

Long Time No See

A spot of just birding at Pilling this morning where I didn’t see many species and not in any numbers, but the ones I saw were pretty interesting.

I’d gone armed with spring traps looking for Wheatears but saw only two, neither of them interested enough in a meal-worm, although the male spent quite a while watching a trap intently before wandering off up the fence line. So I sat on the sea wall where I could see the traps but also look out to the distant tide line, some four hours to high-tide. There was an Osprey out there in the sunny haze, on top of the tallest post that sticks out of the sand, halfway to Heysham, where it just sat and sat waiting for the tide to come in I supposed, just occasionally changing its perspective or stretching its wings. The bird was just too far out for a picture, but below is an archive shot from Egypt as today’s Osprey reminded me of “the big white hawk that lives in the sand”.

Osprey

I walked along towards Fluke Hall where I found several Linnets and 2 White Wagtail, and at the wildfowler’s pools, 2 Grey Heron, 4 Teal, several Shelduck, plus plenty of territorial Lapwings and Redshanks. There have been Golden Plovers on the partly ploughed field for a week or two, up to 170, camouflaged in summer plumage against the brown, dry earth, but today a distant 40 or so that flew around a couple of times when the Lapwings spooked off for nothing.

Golden Plover
Lapwing

More territorial Lapwings at Fluke Hall with pairs of piping, displaying Oystercatchers and protesting Redshanks, but nothing on Worm Pool save for more Shelduck and Oystercatchers.

Shelduck

I got back to Lane Ends where upon setting off earlier I had noted the now resident pair of Jays, 2 singing Willow Warblers, singing Reed Warbler, 2 overhead tree Pipits and a single Redpoll. The pools held the now resident pairs of Tufted Duck and Little Grebe.

Jay

I sat at the picnic table, making notes when from towards the western end of the plantation I heard the unmistakable bursts of a Wood Warbler in song, but try as I might I couldn’t get any pictures of the said bird.

This species is now so scarce in our area that it has become twitchable, a “target” bird. I looked on IPMR and found that I last saw them here at Pilling about 15 years ago, on 2nd May 1995 when one turned up in a mist net, with one again in a net on 19th August 1997. Apart from finding a few nests and ringing nestlings in the Pennine lowlands since then, my sightings of Wood Warbler remain few and far between, and I certainly don’t have any digital images of them. With luck we’ll catch one in the next few days of spring, but don’t hold your breath.