A Somerset & Bristol Birder Travels the World » identification

Waders, Chew Valley Lake

Andy — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:14:35 +0000

Not an immediate association but water levels are such that a strip of mud in front of the Stratford Hide hosted a common sandpiper, lapwings, a snipe, greenshanks and a curlew sandpiper – a small number of birds but a nice variety.

In fact a flock of curlew sandpipers had flown over Heron’s Green on my [...]

2000: Little Blue Heron vs Snowy Egret

Andy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:20:35 +0000

Moving on to July in Santa Clara and a bird I saw and puzzled over on the 10th, tried to claim on the 12th and retracted on the 13th. We’ve all been there…

“On looking at my National Geographic to check the description I realise that I saw a juvenile at Sunnyvale Baylands on Monday. I [...]

1999: Death on the A96, Moray

Andy — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:51:28 +0000

From October 4:

“Lossiemouth was an unexpected treat. Quite apart from being a pleasant town with a real ale bar it had provided purple sandpipers, bar-tailed godwits, ringed plovers, turnstones, red-breasted mergansers, a stonechat, a rock pipit, gannets off-shore, and a shag in the harbour. The last of these proved difficult to identify. I am not [...]

2008: Cape Leeuwin Gulls

Andy — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:26:30 +0000

Grey butcherbirds would be regular on the Leeuwin-Naturaliste peninsula. So too would lifer number 888. A large gull floundered by in the persistent wind.

Compared with the UK’s fifteen or so regular and vagrant species, Australia has not been well endowed with gulls, silver gull being the only countrywide species and Pacific adding variety on the [...]

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Portbury

Andy — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:24:32 +0000

The Wharf is not ideal habitat for woodpeckers, apart from green, so no surprise that it’s taken this long for great spotted to enter its list. This now stands at 89 after stalling for a while on early June’s hobby. As is so often the way I saw not one, but two, of the woodpeckers [...]

2000: Hooded Oriole, Santa Clara

Andy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:23:34 +0000

The missing description for my May 27 Los Altos Hills bird:

“Is this possible? I caught a glimpse of a large (i.e. bigger than a finch) lemon yellow bird with black foreparts flying over my house just now. I immediately thought of an oriole but the only one that fits that description is Scott’s. I notice [...]

2008: Walpole-Nornalup National Park

Andy — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:39:33 +0000

My honeyeater tally rose to seven, with another lifer no less: western spinebill. Three families separate scrubbirds and honeyeaters at this prehistoric end of the taxonomic spectrum: bowerbirds; Australasian treecreepers; Australasian wrens. This last family then contributed lifer number 885 in the form of a red-winged fairy-wren.

I’d like to say I’d tracked it down in [...]

1999: Velvet Scoters, Lunan Bay

Andy — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:46:47 +0000

Last century’s October trip through Angus continued on the 2nd:

“First stop on my way north from Auchmithie was not far but the lure of velvet scoters was too great. Lunan Bay is backed by sand dunes, which give one some good height for scanning the sea. Sure enough there were black blobs out there, but [...]

2000: Mines Road, Santa Clara

Andy — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:20:29 +0000

Having read all the previous trip lists from this area, on May 29 I decided to go and fill my boots. Er, not quite.

I certainly got Lawrence’s goldfinches although they resolutely would not turn around to give me a frontal view. Yellow-billed magpies took my Santa Clara list up to 150.

I got yet another yellow-looking [...]

2000: Skyline Ridge, Silicon Valley

Andy — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:11:15 +0000

A tricky decision from May 28 at Los Trancos, which is bisected by the county line between San Mateo and Santa Clara.

“Many thanks to those who responded to my putative Scott’s oriole. It sounds like a yellow hooded oriole is the best explanation.

“I caught up with the indigo bunting at Los Trancos this morning. I [...]