Three Dunlins

Three Dunlins

Tuesday 23 November 2021

Two late november records..

Hi there.

I haven't been very active lately and the waders don't show up so easy in this time off the year ,with the migration finished a few weeks ago ,not many chances to make blog entries.

Anyway I write down two interesting records that don't want to forgive.....

Golden plovers. Asturias. (20nov21).

A really nice group that was feeding in a recently harvested crop field.


A lonely whimbrel with fourty five lapwings in my local patch,Zolina reservoir.(23nov21).

Monday 4 October 2021

A second for Spain...

 Hi there.

Last week I had the opportunity to twitch a real treat that was discovered a few days before (Alberto Benito&others...) , it was a short billed dowitcher, the second record for Spain and first for Castilla y Leon province. Is a very scarce vagrant in Europe with much less records than its closer relative, the long billed. 

The lonely bird shared the muddyflats of a damm (Embalse Aguilar de Campoo) with other birds like some little stints, various dunlins and a dozen of ringed  plovers. 


                                     

                                                   Linmodromus griseus.



        VIDEO

Panoramic landscape views.


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Feeding action.

During tbe time I spent in the spot, the bird showed more and more confident and gave me good chances for quality observations and pictures for the card. 

The shorebird keep feeding frantically continuosly, with very fast head movements and short runs. From time to time, digged the whole long beak in its probbing manouvers and even the entire head!

As far as I know it remained in the same place and who knows for how long will stay..... 

Tuesday 27 July 2021

One morning in the Ebro delta......



Hi there!

I have been missing for to long, and now is the moment to return with the blog even if there hasn't been to much to talk about due to the dull period of summer in my local patch.

Nonetheless I had a holiday period of eight days and I went one morning birding to Deltebre,without a doubt  one of the best places in the Iberian peninsula for wader watching.

In july there are not plenty of those birds, but is always a treat observing the local ones like the kentish plover or the pranticole (this year I missed this one).

In mid july the postnuptial migration is really in it's very early beginnings so not to many shorebirds around, a few common redshanks and greenshanks to mention something.

I wonder how this place would look like in september with so many ricefields,muddy flats,beaches,small streams and shoreline....!!



 

Oystercatcher feeding.


Greenshank bath. (in the background a slender billed gull).

A solitary common redshank. Always wary....

Greenshank on the look out.

This was the only one I saw......

Kentish plover.

A real rarity  in my "l.p" but here always presents in "good" numbers.


A BW stilt family...out of focus.

Friday 19 March 2021

A pair of northern jewels

I had the chance of twitching a very rare bird in my LP, Zolina reservoir, the last month of december, thanks to my mate Raul that had the luck of discovering a pair of grey Phalaropus in the northern shore.

This is a very rare record in the county and the last time that they were seen here was twelve years ago due to a northern gale that brought many marine birds inland.

I managed to get a few decent pics with one of the birds that behaved quite tamely with my presence (I kept always a security distance to not disturb the shorebird).

 "Curiously"  they didn't get on well with each other, and in three ocassions one of the birds mobbed the other frantically. 


Swimming between the weeds


             A valuable record shot of two birds. 

 
          The first time that I see one                                 walking. 

Tuesday 16 March 2021

Season opening....

 Hi there!

My first year blog entry was delaing too much, so with the excuse of the Worldshorebirdsurvey here comes what I saw this sunday in my third oficial counting of the year (there is a marked schedule that every participant must follow in their choosen sites).

In a very cold and windy afteernoon I managed to observe a nice migratory group of common redshanks in the southern dich, meanwile theree little ringed plovers were lingering in the northern shore, to far to take a decent pic.

Things seem to start activating in this forthcoming prenuptial season that I will try to keep one eye as much as I can....

(so far a few lapwings and two snipes were my shorebird records in my local patch this year/winter. I have known that a dunlin and a few avocets were detected this weekend, but I was unable to twitch them.... 



Nice migratory flock of wary and nervous birds. 


VIDEO



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