Garden Predator

 Just a quick post that I forgot to do before our holiday back in March. We had been getting a feral pigeon in the garden for a few weeks feeding under the bird feeders.  That was until a female Sparrowhawk took a fancy to it. Below are a few images of the Sparrowhawk it eating its quarry. She did return the following day and after having a feed on the pigeon took the rest of the carcass away. 

Female Sparrowhawk

Like I've said just a quick post, but hopefully will posting again soon. Thanks for stopping by.

The Atlantic Isles

 After our cruise around the Baltic, 3 weeks later we were on another cruise with Ambassador, but on their other ship the MV Ambition. Again, not a birding trip - just the good lady and myself going for a bit of early sunshine............ but you know birders, have binochulars will travel, and occasionally I did take the camera ashore.

Our route was from Tilbury down to Leixoes and Lisbon [Portugal] then to Cadiz [Spain] over to Morroco for Cassablanca (very dissapointing); it was then over to the Canary Islands, from here to Funchal [Maderia] then to the  Ponta Delgarda [Azores]. From here it was back over to Vigo [Spain] and because we could not make Horta in the Azores, they subsistuted it with a stop in Zeebrugge [Belgium] before heading back to Tibury, all together 21 nights. 

Immature Black Redsart than was hitching a ride in the Bay of Biscay, but sadly we were going the wrong way.

Going across the Bay of Biscay was  a bit dissapointing Cetacean wise, though we saw loads of common Dolphin but only a few Fin Whales and one probable Humpback Whale. Cory's Shearwater were plentiful throughout the cruise, but the only Manx Shearwater I saw were around the Western Approaches when heading South.

                                                                                  Fin Whale Blow

                                                                          Common Dolphin

When the good lady and myself go ashore, we love visiting the cities botanical gardens if they have one. Below are images I took whilst walking around a few of the cities on our cruise

                                                               Berthelot's Pipit

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Atlantic Canary

Canary Isle Chiffchaff

Cory's Shearwater

                                                                  Atlantic Canary.

 Little Egret

Azorean Wanderer Crab Grapsus adscensionis in the harbour at Ponta Delgarda

Whimbrel

Turnstone

Spannish Sparrow

Sanderling

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Ringed Plover

Monk Parakeet

Monarch Butterfly

Mediterranean Gull

Kestrel

Jungle Fowl

House Sparrow, this species was abundant in all the places we visited. I wish was so abundant where i lived

Gannet

Perez's Frog Pelophylax perzi in the Parque Garcia Sanabria Tenerife

Grey Wagtail

Common Tern

Bar-tailed Godwit

                                                                     Common Sandpiper

All in all, it was a really great cruise!

I have got some images of stuff that I have taken locally, which once I have sorted out, I will do another post.

As alaways, thanks for stopping by.

Baltic Cruise

 Just a quick post about a cruise around the Baltic Sea the good lady and myself went on in Febuary this year. Ports of call were Skagen in Denmark, Stockholm in Sweden, Riga in Latvia, Klaipeda in Lithuania and back to Sweden for our last port, Copenhagen. We were on board Ambassador Ambience, a ship we have been on several times.

I didn't do any birding as such, but I did take the camera ashore in Stockholm and took a few images of the local bird life in the city.

House Sparrow, lots of this species in all the cities we visited

Hooded Crow

Great Tit

Goldeneye

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Feildfare in a snow flurry.

Female Goldeneye

Feeding time on the river Norrstrom, one of the shortest rivers in Europe

Common Scoter, taken as we wre leaving the port of Riga in Latvia

Blue Tit

Blackbird

Approach into Stockholm, and what an approach it is; the scenery is absolutely stunning, made more spectacular by the snow fall.

Approach into Stockholm

Approach into Stockholm

Female Common Eider, again taken as we were leaving the port of Riga in Latvia.

Like I've said, it wasn't a birding trip and as for cetaceans- I hardly spent any time out on deck, as the tempertures ranged from -2 feeling like -6 to -5 feeling like -10,  pretty cold in my eyes-but still a great cruise.

As always thanks for stopping by.

What a Spectacle

 On the 13th January 2025 a Spectacled Eieder was found by Elian Hijne, a female Dutch birder, off the island of Texel in the Wadden Sea, which is just north of Den Helder in northern Holland. This enigmatic sea duck which breeds in Alaska and north east Siberia, but winters on the pack ice in the Bering Sea, is a real rarity in the Western Palearctic.

Over the next week or so, birdwatchers from all over Europe were traveling to Texel to get a sighting of the Eider - including lots of birders from the UK.

My mate Dave Gray started putting a plan together around the 25th of Jan for a visit to Holland for what would probably be a once in a life time view of a bird I thought I'd never see. So with Dave doing all the logistics and getting another couple of friends to join us (Paul Powel and Andy Kyriacou), on the 29th Jan we were on the overnight ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland on the Stena Britannica. After an uneventful seven and half hour crossing we arrived in Holland aound 8.00am, it was then a couple of hours drive to Den Helder to get the ferry to Texel. Dave did really well navigating through rush hour traffic around Schiphol airport in time to get the 11.00am ferry across to Texel. After 20minutes we were on the island of Texel then 30 minutes later there it was - a sea duck I never thought I would ever see........ Spectacled Eider; it was  a fair way out - too far for images with the camera, but really good views through the scope, which the images below were taken using a hand held Iphone 13.

Spectacled Eider

Spectacled Eider

After a couple of hours spent with the Spectacled Eider and some Common Eider which it was associating with, we also picked out Black-necked Grebe and Red-breasted Merganser with a few Turnstone on the shore line and a flock of Dunlin. Paul had been told by one of the local birdwatchers that when the tide went out the Eiders came closer, which was going to be about one and a half hours away, so we went for a drive around the back roads of Texel to look at the Geese flocks.

As we drove around, there were really big flocks of Brent Goose, White Fronted Goose, Barnacle Goose and Greylag Goose and also the most  Egyptian geese I've ever seen in one place!

Driving back to where the Eider were, we picked up Marsh Harrier, Buzzard and Merlin, arriving back hoping the Eider flock was closer - but sadly, if anything they had moved further out.

 After a brilliant few hours on Texel seeing our target bird, it was time to head back to the Hook of Holland for our overnight ferry back to Blighty (UK). Our mate John Hague (Shrike Birding Tours) travelled the following day to see the bird, but stayed on Texel overnight and saw a lot more species than we did, so I don't think this will be our last time on Texel

As always thanks for stopping by