Spurn 3rd to 6th October

Made our annual 'Leeds Birders' trip to Spurn in October, I decided to go a couple of days early which proved to be a good decision. A Booted Warbler had been found on 1st October and ringed early on 2nd but not seen for the rest of the day, fortunately for me it was re-found on the morning of the 3rd in the field full of sunflowers by Southfield Farm. It was on view when I arrived though towards the middle of the field. It was feeding low down but kept landing on top of the sunflowers then flying a short distance and occasionally flying further. I hung around and eventually it flew directly towards me and landed in the bush a few metres away before moving on to the fence. Great views and my 3rd seen at Spurn.

Booted Warbler

Caught up with Yellow-browed Warblers on Vickers Lane, Easington and in Kilnsea plus a flyover Lapland Bunting over the Wetlands, also Merlin there and a Great White Egret south over the Triangle - was that my first at Spurn?
Friday the 4th produced a 3W Caspian Gull on the Wetlands and I managed 4 Yellow-browed Warblers out of 16 reported in the recording area.

Caspian Gull - 3rd winter 

The 'Leeds Birders' started to arrive in the afternoon before dinner at the Crown & Anchor and a few beers and exchange of news of our families and various birding travels. Mick Cunningham was a late arrival and missed the photo shoot!

In the foreground Roger Barnes (left) and Johnny McLoughlan with behind from L to R Paul Doherty, Vaughan Lister, Martin Quinlan, Me and Richard Hart

Saturday got off to a good start with a Barred Warbler in the bushes opposite Driftwood then Yellow-browed Warbler at the Crown & Anchor followed by 6 Bearded Tits dropping in to Corner Field.

Bearded Tit

A female type Common Redstart in Big Hedge looked interesting with a grey shawl and slight pale wing panel, possibly the eastern race samamisicus?

 

Common Redstart

An 'eastern' type Lesser Whitethroat was in roadside bushes by Sykes Field (5 were seen that day and one definite Siberian trapped). Finally a Snow Bunting showed well on Beacon Lane along with a dozen Redwing and several Brambling along the track.

Snow Bunting

Sunday rained all morning, I sat in the Scrape Hide and was rewarded with a Jack Snipe bobbing in the gloom before heading for home late morning only to hear that a Little Bunting had turned up in the same area after I left and then a Siberian Stonechat by the Crown & Anchor. 
Another great Spurn weekend!

Jack Snipe

Tarifa - 15th to 21st September

Pam and I returned to Tarifa in September, flying to Gibraltar for a change and a shorter drive. All was going to plan until an announcement that heavy cloud over Gibraltar might be a problem. As we flew down the Spanish Mediterranean coast the Captain announced that we would have to land at Malaga from where a bus would be arranged for the transfer to Gib. We landed and taxied to some far off part of the airport, waited for 20 mins then the Captain announced we were now cleared to land at Gibraltar so up we went again and finally landed at our intended destination, 3 hrs late including take-off delays at Manchester. Still it was only a short drive to Tarifa from here. We hired a car from Espacar at La Linea so we left Gibraltar on foot and soon found the man with our car in the designated underground car park.
Arriving in the town we saw a few Honey Buzzards heading out over the Straits, our first Spotless Starlings and a couple of Turnstone down by the Castle.
Los Lances the following morning produced 25 Kentish Plover, 7 Knot, 3 Whimbrel and 40 Calandra Larks with a few distant Audouin's Gull in the distance on the beach. Moving on to Cazalla there were a few raptors on the move in a light SW wind ; 35 Short-toed and 31 Booted with 30 Black Stork and 23 Pallid Swifts, not a bad start.
The following morning I started again at Los Lances and was just negotiating the collapsing footbridge when a Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin flew from the side of the bridge and landed in some scrub by the side of the river. The first I have seen in Spain, I walked back along the bridge and found a track close to the river and had brief views again as it flew out a landed on the top of a bush before diving in. Brief but reasonable views but no chance of a photo.
The wind was picking up a blowing a decent force 4 or 5 easterly so I headed up to Trafico where the birds appeared to be following the valley and heading just inland of the coastal watch point so I moved to the dirt track crossroads about 1km inland. Here birds were passing very close, mainly Booted Eagles (120) with a few Short-Toed Eagles and Black Kites. It provided a good opportunity to get photos of the variation in underparts colour in the Booted.

Colour variation in juvenile Booted Eagle

Moving back to the coast at La Pena had had the chance to have a good look at some of the larks on the hillside most were definitely Thekla but there also appeared to be 1 or 2 Crested. Having taken some photos I went back down to the beach near Los Lances where I had seen Crested earlier in the day to get some comparison photos. 

Thekla (left) v Crested Lark

Not the best comparison with a rather tatty Crested Lark but it shows the long curved culmen of Crested v the straight and shorter culmen of Thekla. I think it's sometimes easier to compare the shape of the culmen rather than the straight lower mandible of Crested with the slightly convex lower mandible of Thekla often quoted in books but this is more apparent in the photo below.. The breast and flank streaking of Thekla is also very obvious in this photo and is more restricted to the upper chest in Crested (see photo below).
In the afternoon I went up to La Pena and counted 12 Thekla and 2 Crested Larks allowing further comparison.

Thekla (left) v Crested Lark

In a reasonable flight view the orangey underwing of Crested Lark is usually fairly apparent compared with the greyish underwing of Thekla.

Thekla (left) v Crested Lark underwing

In the strong winds I went down to the beach to have a look at the Yellow-legged Gulls flying around the causeway to Tarifa Island. The birds were coming close and providing some good photo opportunities.

Yellow-legged Gull - moulting to 1st winter

The following day we went to La Janda which was very disappointing. Cotton appears to have been planted in many of the areas that used to be rice and the whole area is very dry, consequently there were very few herons, egrets or water birds. I did manage a single but distant Black-winged Kite, a distant juvenile Bonelli's Eagle, just two Montagu's Harriers and a more obliging juvenile Woodchat Shrike.

Woodchat Shrike juvenile

I made a few visits to the wooded valley by the Castle in Tarifa which leads up to El Olivar. It held a few common migrants such as Garden Warbler, Whitethroat and Blackcap and I also heard one of the few remaining Common Bulbul calling but failed to get any photos.

On the 19th we met our good friends Richard and Janet Hart, he and I went up to Cazalla which produced an amazing flock of 300 Alpine Swift, 62 Short-toed and 26 Booted Eagles plus singles of Spanish and Bonelli's Eagles.

Alpine Swifts

Spanish Eagle juvenile

The following day we went to Barbate, not an area I have visited too often but it proved to be a good choice, we went up the southern edge of the lagoons and soon found at least 6 Stone Curlew and a decent group of Calandra and Short-toed Larks in the neighbouring fields probably 40 or 50 Calandra and a dozen Short-toed. Audouin's and Yellow-legged Gulls were preening on the islands with at least 19 Audouin's. Several juvenile Woodchat Shrikes were sat along the fence posts and in the final patch of trees there appeared to be something of a fall of migrants with 2 Pied Flycatcher, male and female Redstart, Willow Warbler and at least 3 strikingly yellow Iberian Chiffchaff.

 

Iberian Chiffchaff - juv/1st winter

I came back the following morning when there were over 250 Calandra and 75 Short-toed Larks but only single Iberian Chiffchaff and Pied Flycatcher remained in the wood but a Tawny Pipit was an addition to the trip list.
Returning to Tarifa we drove the Santuario Road stopping for an hour at the high point. Several Griffon Vultures appeared in the distance drifting towards us and as they came closer one turned out to be an immature Ruppell's.

Ruppell's Vulture

It circled at some distance drifting north with the Griffon's but was soon lost to sight.
On my final morning I returned to Los Lances, crossing the listing wooden bridge and whilst looking at a Stonechat was surprised to see a small trip of 7 Dotterel sat in the field.

Dotterel

Our light back from Gibraltar was uneventful and it was certainly a much shorter drive then flying from Malaga so worth considering.

Back to Spurn 2nd - 4th September

I've recently gone through all my old birding notebooks, I have a lot, dating back to the early 1970's with just a few gaps over the subsequent 40 odd years! One thing that's very apparent over that period is how many good birds I have seen at Spurn. In the last couple of decades I've only visited once or twice a year but it still provides a large slice of the more interesting birds I see in the UK in a typical year. 
Anyway I had a few days there in early September and even in less than ideal weather conditions I saw a decent range of species.
A White-rumped Sandpiper had been present for several days when I arrived and since there was a good range of other species at Kilnsea Wetlands where it spent most of it's time this seemed like a good starting point. 

White-rumped Sandpiper

Fortunately, it was still present but remained distant most of the time. There was a good selection of other waders with Curlew and Wood Sandpipers, Black-tailed Godwits and Spotted Redshank. 
The Dotterel which spent most of its time on the humber made a brief appearance that evening but I got reasonable scope views the following morning in front of the Crown & Anchor.

Dotterel - juvenile

The following morning I came across it with a large flighty group of about 800 Dunlin on the beach by Easington Lagoons.

Dotterel in flight

I was lucky to come across a juvenile Water Rail on the Canal which came far enough in to the open for me to get a photo.

Water Rail - juvenile

With 75 species on Monday and 85 the following day I was very pleased with the trip despite the lack of migrants. 

Last days in Slovenia and the journey home 9th - 20th June

Until this trip I hadn't realised that Slovenia had a coast but then it's only around 20km long so it's easily overlooked.  We stopped in Piran at the Campsite Fiesa which is on the coast and next to a small lake. The lake had singing Reed Warbler and the sparrows here were both House and Italian.

Piran central square

After an evening meal in the old town of Piran we visited the nearby Parco Naturale delle Saline di Sicciole which are working salt pans. It was very hot when we were there, 34°C, and it's a large area that would be worthy of several days rather than our few hours but we saw Kentish Plover, Avocets and Black-winged Stilts, more Italian Sparrows, breeding Yellow-legged Gulls with young and quite a few Little Terns.

Italian Sparrow

From Piran we drove in to Italy and to Camping Realto on the outskirts of Venice. A 5 min bus ride took us into Venice, our first visit since stopping here in 1979 on our overland trip to India and Nepal. We took a 20€ boat trip which lasted about four hours and visited the islands of Murano and Burano.

Venice Grand Canal

Burano

After Venice we drove to the Italian Lakes stopping at Camping Orta by the beautiful town of Orta San Giulio but still no sign of the Muscovy Ducks there. Crossing in to Switzerland via the Simplon Pass we saw Water Pipits and Whinchats but as the temperature here dropped to 12°C and the wind picked up we moved further in to Switzerland and stopped in the hills above Sion. In the morning during a short stroll I could here the distinctive cho-eet call of Western Bonelli's Warblers and after some time I located a male that was also occasionally giving short bursts of their trilling song. The plumage was a little worn but I can put up with that for one of my favourite warblers!

Western Bonelli's Warbler

More Red-backed Shrikes and several Black Kites were in the area.

From Sion we drove in to France via Chamonix and onward to Samoens for a few days with my brother and his wife.

A trip up the Col de Joux Plane produced a nice pair of alpestris Ring Ouzel feeding young in the nest. 

Ring Ouzel - male of the alpine race alpestris with very scaly underparts

I had heard that the Bearded Vultures at Salvagny had been unsuccessful this year so I decided to have a look in the Fer-a-Cheval. As I walked down the track I met a shepherd who asked me what I was looking for and if I had seen the Gypaete. I mentioned the birds at Salvagny but he said no here in the Fer-a-Cheval to which I replied no. I wondered on and about 15 minutes later caught a glimpse of a Bearded Vulture flying close to the rock face before it disappeared. I walked to the area I had last seen it and after several minutes scanning the rock face found it on the edge of a large cave. Frustratingly it was only visible from certain places on the track and there was no way to get closer but I got some record shots of what is perhaps a second breeding pair in the area.

Bearded Vulture

 Finally we left the Alps stopping overnight south of Chaumont and again near Calais before taking the Tunnel back to the UK and bringing another European superb trip to an end.

Croatia 28th May - 9th June

We crossed the impressive toll bridge on to the island of Krk on the afternoon of 28th June and drove down to Krk town where we booked accommodation at Ana Rooms via Booking.com for 65€ (~£58) for 2 nights. The property was within easy walking distance of the centre and close to open countryside in a modern elegant property. I took a walk along a track into a maze of walled olive groves. A Cirl Bunting was singing from the top of a bush and I soon heard several Eastern Subalpine Warblers. I returned to the same area the following morning with a light rain still falling and added Red-backed Shrike plus a distant Lesser Grey Shrike. The latter was rather frustrating as it was sat in the open on top of a bush but the maze of deep drystone walls made it impossible to get closer. Sardinian Warblers were also present with the Eastern Subalpines. 

Cirl Bunting - male in song

The following morning I returned to the Krk Airport area where I had searched in vane for Rock Partridge in 2016.

Krk dry stone walls- the ground was covered in rocks and I concluded they just piled them up to clear the ground?

The signs were not good with heavy rain showers and almost gale force wind. Pam and I trudged up and down the area east of the quarry but it felt hopeless. We disturbed at least 6 Red-backed Shrikes which were sheltering close to the ground out of the wind but couldn't find the partridge. A single Eastern Black-eared Wheatear flew towards the quarry but in the weather conditions there seemed little point in pursuing it so we left the area heading south again hoping for more luck on the island of Pag.
We decided to stay at Nin for four nights at Apartments Ventura which were opposite the small island town of Nin and 
right on the coast. The weather finally started to improve and we enjoyed glorious sunshine here.
On Nin itself there was a large colony of Spanish Sparrow by the church and a pair of Woodchat Shrike.

Woodchat Shrike - female

Nin was badly flooded in 2017 and they were still repairing some of the access roads including that which ran parallel to the salt pans which made access to that area difficult although other than Little Terns and Black-winged Stilts there did not appear to be much bird activity.

Aerial view of the 2017 flooding at Nin on a poster at the town entrance

As we drove in to Nin Pam saw a Pygmy Cormorant sat on a rock close to the old town and subsequently we saw 2 or 3 everyday sat on posts or this same rock.

Pygmy Cormorant

A short walk from the apartment was some open ground with scattered trees, Turtle Doves and Nightingales could be heard with the occasional flutey whistle from Golden Oriole. Several pairs of Red-backed Shrike were courting and I came across a pair of Eastern Subalpine Warblers feeding young in a nest. The female was very elusive but the male came along the tops of the bushes to the nest giving some excellent views. He brought a range of different sizes of spiders, small butterflies and quite a large grasshopper of some kind.

Eastern Subalpine Warbler - male with a cricket

Eastern Subalpine Warbler - male

The male Red-backed Shrikes were very vocal giving a short croaking call that I can't recall hearing before and were clearly in courting mode as they were regularly chasing the females.

Red-backed Shrikes - male and female

From Nin we drove down the coast through Zadar to Lake Vrana. There is a conservation area on its northern edge with a decent boardwalk which gave good views of the lake and the reed bed. Pygmy Cormorants were flying past in ones and twos and there were marsh terns feeding over the lake including both White-winged and Whiskered Terns but they were always distant. Purple Herons kept appearing over the reed beds then disappearing in to them again. From the reeds Great Reed Warblers were calling incessantly with the occasional Cetti's Warbler. A couple of male Montagu's Harriers drifted northwards high over the lake and we also saw singles closer to Nin.

Montagu's Harrier - male

The following morning I got up early and drove round to the island of Pag. There are two linked wetlands on what is otherwise a very barren island so I headed for Veliko Blato which has open water and reed beds.

Sign at Veliko Blato

The edge of the lake is easily accessible and this held several Squacco Herons feeding amongst the sheep. 

Squacco Heron

There were also Crested Larks here and a few waders with singles of Wood Sandpiper and Little-ringed Plover I also saw several Lapwing in a wet area by the main road as I turned off to Veliko Blato. The only raptor was a rather tatty female Marsh Harrier and it was clear that I was at the tail end of migration here although small parties of Bee-eater were still moving. I stopped at various spots for Rock Partridge but without success.
The following morning I had another look around Nin, close to the salt pans I came across a hippolais warbler in song. It was sat out in the open but frustratingly, due to dense vegetation, I couldn't get very close. The song lacked the wheezy nasal elements of Icterine, not sure why its named Melodious though as it was still fast and scratchy. The primary projection was short, pale wing panel very narrow and buffy yellow underparts with yellow restricted to throat so all good for Melodious.

Melodious Warbler

Later that day we drove to Starigrad with a view to driving up to Veliko Rujno but the narrow road had suffered a landslip in the village and was impassable. I tried to find an alternate road to link up above the landslip but nothing connected so we entered the main Paklenica Park entrance. There were many climbers and few birds. Having walked fairly well up the gorge I tried in the low wooded area near the park entrance and soon found a singing Icterine Warbler. Croatia is one of the few countries where their breeding ranges overlap and seeing both species the same day was a real treat. The Icterine had a striking wing panel (although I've recently seen photos of Melodious with a distinct wing panel in the Netherlands so this is not a diagnostic feature). Primary projection was very long, equal to the exposed tertials and the underparts were a more uniform yellow and it looks like a short 1st primary is just visible. The song contained the characteristic repeated wheezy nasal elements.

Icterine Warbler

After leaving the park I had another look for a road up to Veliko Rujno and finally found an alternate route. Stops on the way up produced more Eastern Subalpine and where the paved road ends I had rather poor views of two Eastern Orphean Warblers, calling tack tack which to my ears was the same as Blackcap but no song.
We had a last day at Nin on 2nd June and made another trip to Pag. At a small supermarket at the entrance to Povljana there were both House and Spanish Sparrows together and I saw mating House and mating Spanish but no interspecies mating and no sign of any hybrid birds.

House and Spanish Sparrows

Spanish Sparrows courting with House Sparrow looking on, note the blackish throat on this female

I Left Pam by the beach at Povljana and drove over to Veliko Malo, just as I left the shoreline a Rock Partridge flew over the road in front of me and appeared to land in a rocky field.
I parked up and scanned the field, no sign. I waited and after several minutes it appeared below a bush, stood still for 30 seconds then moved out of view.

Rock Partridge

I waited another 15 minutes with no further sign then I heard a second bird calling some distance away and picked it up on top of a wall. It was distant but stood out in the open, Rock Partridge at last.

Rock Partridge

Whilst they may not be guaranteed on Pag or Krk the chances of seeing them and getting decent views appear a lot higher than on the hills of Paklenica or for that matter the French or Swiss Alps.

Rock Partridge habitat on Pag

The following day we moved to Camp Igor on the coastal southern edge of Starigrad. Early the next morning I walked up a paved road just south of the campsite and almost immediately heard the flutey song of Eastern Orphean Warbler, then another and within half an hour I counted at least six singing males. They appeared to choose the tops of the tallest trees as song post but after an hour or so I managed some reasonable photos.

Eastern Orphean Warbler - males

All the males I saw had irises that were only a slightly lighter blue grey than the pupil. The dark blotches on the under tail coverts are just visible on the lower bird as well as the extensive bluish bill base which help to distinguish Eastern from Western Orphean.

From Starigrad we started to head back north stopping at a large but empty campsite by the pretty fishing village of Klenovica and then continuing on to Pula in Istria where we stayed in Apartment T&S off Booking.com €124 (~£111) for 4 nights. A couple of km from Pula centre but walkable.

Pula amphitheatre

The amphitheatre at Pula is certainly spectacular and its a decent town centre. Nearby a promontory sticks out in to the Adriatic which forms the southern tip of Istria and is a protected area called Kamenjak. At times in the spring it must be alive with birds but Pam and I had the usual Eastern Subalpine Warblers, Red-backed Shrikes plus Woodlark and Tawny Pipit with lots of Shag off shore and a couple of orchids but apparently there are 30 species to be found here.

Tawny Pipit

 About 30km to the north of Pula there is another reserve, a coastal swamp called Palud. There were very few birds and lots of mosquitos when we visited but I could imagine it pulling birds in when the weather is right.

Palud reserve from the small hide

We saw Shelducks, Eastern Subalpine Warblers this time feeding fledged young and a few Little Egrets.
After Pula we headed north back in to Slovenia but we stopped a couple of times on the way to look at wooded and scrub areas. One bird I hadn't seen this trip was Sombre Tit although we'd looked in many areas that looked suitable but had no luck, are there Sombre Tit in Istria? Stopping near Pazin we came across a lovely group of flowering Lizard Orchids before finally leaving Croatia.

Lizard Orchid