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5 Mar 2024

Green-winged teal from the window!

When we bought this house in September 2016 I had no idea there was a pond in the field opposite what ended up being our study window. Its not really visible from the road as the water level drops during the summer and for a few months we can't even see any water from our elevated window position It fills during the winter but its extent varies depending on how wet its been This year has been particularly wet! 

Over the years its attracted a small number of wildfowl with Pink-feet, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Pintail, Shoveler, Shelduck and Mute Swan all being recorded at some time or another. Teal numbers in particular can be impressive with a record count being 80+ birds. These birds don't stay long as this pond is used as a flight pond and there is another much larger pond, surrounded by trees, in a nearby private garden that they all tend to fly to. I keep hoping and looking for something rarer and Garganey, Goldeneye or Green-winged Teal have always been on my birding radar.  Throw in the possibility of a wader or two and its understandable, to me at least,  that the first thing I do every morning before making a brew, is check the pond through the scope. The wader list is equally impressive with Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Green Sandpiper, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Redshank, Lapwing, Woodcock  and Snipe all being on the house list. Add Little Grebe, Mediterranean Gull,  Cattle Egret and Little Egret and the list get even more impressive. See here for some previous sightings.

Recently we've had a small group of Shoveler and Gadwall frequenting the pond on a regular basis. They're occasionally joined by a small number of Teal from the larger pond. Checking the pond Sunday morning there was nothing new but later in the afternoon I noticed a greater number of Teal than usual and checked them and literally the first bird I looked at through the scope was a Green-winged Teal. I hadn't even got my phone with me so dashed downstairs to get it to get the all important digiscoped 'record' shot. The pond is 210 metres from the house so I've found taking short videos is a better way of getting a record than trying to take a photo.

I needn't have worried as the bird showed well for at least an hour before the whole flock flew across the wet field to the main pond where they disappeared. 

Green-winged Teal in flght - just above the Canada geese



Video above and below. Green-winged Teal, Mollington, Cheshire 3rd march 2024




                                       Above: Shoveler and Gadwall, Mollington, Cheshire

An hour later they all waddled out through the hedge and started feeding much closer than they had been
As the birds were a bit closer I got a couple of photos using the DLSR with a 100-400 mm lens and 1.4 teleconverter that are heavily cropped! 


Aware of the spectre of a hybrid I was able to check out all the relevant features. Apart from the obvious white shoulder stripe, the breast is more mottled than Eurasian Teal with a vineous hue whilst the head pattern is less well defined. Eurasian Teal usually show a buff border, top and bottom, to the green eye stripe whereas this is less well defined in Green-winged Teal with the top border almost missing. Of course there is individual variation but I'm happy this is a pure Green-winged Teal with no hybrid genes. 

It's amazing what even a small wet area can turn up and the anticipation keeps me looking for another new species to add to the already house / garden  impressive list that currently stands at 125 species.

1 Mar 2024

Antarctic Expedition. Part 11. The final days.

Following on from our trip to Carcass Island we headed, after lunch on board, to Sanders Islands w where we'd be going ashore to view breeding Black-browed Albatross and our final penguin species - Southern Rockhopper. What a brilliant place - as well as the Southern Rockhopper and Albatross there were a few pairs of King Penguins (including some with very small young peering out from their 'pouches' above the parents feet), Gentoo's and Magellanics.


Spot the King Penguin chick

King Penguins have a vertical pouch or brood patch above their feet. The egg is incubated in this pouch which is also used to keep the newly hatched young warm and safe until they are old enough to be left unattended. These pouches can be seen in the two birds photographed below.


Many of the Gentoo's were feeding well grown chicks in contrast to the very young King Penguin chicks we saw. It was comical watching young Gentoo's running after their parents trying to get the mto regurgitate more food when clearly the adults crops were empty! 



The main attraction though were the nesting Southern Rockhopper Penguins. Our seventh and final penguin species of the trip. They didn't disappoint and after pending time at the colony we made our way down to the beach where a 'penguin highway' was being used by the Rockhoppers to the colony from the sea.





A quick visit to the museum and gift shop on the island and were were heading back to the Plancius earlier than expected as the bridge had reported the swell was increasing and was getting close to the operating limits of the zodiacs. However next day was promised to be even more exciting as Eduardo and the team gave us the usual evening briefing and a resume of the day before dinner. We were heading for New Island South and the picturesque Coffins Harbour

I was up on the bridge at the slightly later time of 6 am but went back to the lounge to get a hot brew only to find Nicole and Angelica had found a pod of seven Fin Whales whilst I was below! Fantastic views as they worked their way around the ship and out to sea. 

Boarding the zodiacs we made our way ashore and threaded our way up the hill side to one of two viewpoints where we had fantastic views of both nesting Black-browed Albatross and Southern Rockhopper Penguins. It was simply stunning and it was hard to take it all in. There were literally birds everywhere. 












The penguins and albatross were in mixed colonies and it was weird seeing Rockhoppers sat on empty albatross nests. The whole place was a cacaphony of noise with he penguins being their usual belligerent selves, the albatross clling and displaying along with Blue-eyed (Imperial) shags grunting and the strident call of Dolphin Gulls looking for an easy meal.












One aboard the Plancius we realised, with lots of sadness that our time on board was coming to an end. or the next two days we were at sea again before arriving in Ushuaia and disembarking. The journey to the Falklands didn't bring any new species of bird or cetacean but I was lucky enough to get some good photos of breaching Peal's Dolphin alongside the boat.


I also found my 1st juvenile Black-browed Albatross of the trip - a bird that threw me for a few seconds as I hadn't seen one in that plumage before and Great Shearwater were common on this final leg of our voyage.
juv Black-browed Albatross


We arrived in Ushuaia on a beautiful sunny but cold morning with snow all around us on the surrounding hills. After breakfast it was time to say our goodbyes to other passengers and the crew and guides.  I'd arranged to stay an extra night in Ushuaia and after saying my farewells I dropped my bags off at my hotel and went off birding. The heavy snow seemed to have moved some birds from the higher slopes to the town and I found a small party of five Austral Negrito.



I heard that Andean Condor had recently been seen above the snowy peaks behind the town so I staked it out and was rewarded with five of these huge raptors as well as my best views of Chimanga Caracara.


It had been a fantastic trip and  I ended up with 86 lifers out of 135 species seen in total - this included seven species of penguin and six species of albatross (five lifers), eight species of cetacean and four pinipeds. In total we travelled 5,850 km on the Plancius! Although sad to be leaving I was ready for home so departed for Buenos Aries where, unbelievably, I ended up on the same flight back to the UK as fellow Hilbre Bird Observatory member Mr Alan Conlin who Id last sen in Ushuaia three weeks previously! 


28 Feb 2024

Antarctic Expedition. Part 10. The Falklands. Stanley and Carcass Island

Our visit to the Falklands was quite poignant for me. It was the Argentinian invasion in 1982 that prevented me going to join the British Antarctic Survey. I also had school and university friends that fought in the war and thankfully all came home safely but some were traumatised by what they'd seen and experienced. However, if I'd gone to the Antarctic in 1982,  I'd never have gone to work in Finland and then move up to Cheshire and met my lovely wife or have such wonderful kids and grandchildren..... Fate is a curious thing.

I actually spent time doing touristy things in the short time we had in Stanley - posting more postcards to the grandkids, visiting the museum and having afternoon tea! I did did see a few birds though with Falklands Flightless and Flighted Steamer Ducks being added to the trip list along with superb views of Turkey Vultures.

Female Steamer Duck

Falklands Flightless Steamer Duck showing spurs at 'elbow' joint of wing


Turkey Vultures

With the cultural activities completed I was keen to get to our next location as the following morning we were due to visit the Magellanic Penguin colony at Carcass Island. What a place! Regis had warned me I'd see plenty of birds including the endemic Cobb's Wren and there were far more passerines than we'd seen on any of our previous landings with Blackish Cinclodes. Long-tailed meadow Lark , Black-chinned Siskin and Black-chinned Finch, Falklands Austral and Dark-faced Ground Tyrant all being fairly easily seen. The Cobb's Wrens were hopping around on the beach as we landed and the Blackish Cinclodes were so tame they were walking over my feet! 
Black-choinned Finch

Black-chinned Siskin

Blackish Cinclodes

Cobb's Wren


Dark-faced Ground Tyrant

Long-tailed meadow Larks


Falklands (Austral) Thrush.

What we'd really come to see though was the large colony of Magellanic Penguins and they didn't disappoint. Magellanics breed in burrows and many were covered in soil as they stood guard outside their burrow entrances to protect their eggs or young from marauding Striated Caracara's.

Above and below: Striated Caracara's


Striated Caracara and Magellanic Penguin

As is usual in penguin colonies there was a lot of activity with birds returning from fishing trips being mobbed by youngsters begging for food and birds wandering down from their colonies to the beach to go off to sea to fish. Other birds were just hanging around displaying and interacting with their neighbours.







All to soon our time here came to an end. It had been arranged that we'd take the zodiacs to another bay where the community hall had been opened up for us to provide a traditional Falklands 'smoko' or morning tea with home made cakes and freshly brewed pots of steaming hot tea. There was still time for a few more birds on the walk back to the beach and the zodiacs though with Magellanic Snipe and Magellanic Oystercatcher both showing well.

Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed my 'smoko' and despite several cakes I still had room for lunch back on board the Plancius as we set off for our next landfall with the promise of our final penguin species and breeding Black-browed Albatross.