Willow warbler still singing, 1 pr bullfinches still around.
2 swallows over and an orange tip butterfly in the garden.

First willow warbler singing on my patch this morning, and 3 bullfinches too (2m + 1f).

This years first 2 swallows, and a brown hare, just past the "red pump" pub towards bashall eaves, today. Plenty Pheasant too.

Pipistrelle bat
Check out this little fella!
Jill just found him in the bin in the upstairs toilet!
He must have flown in the window last night and got lost.
I gave his wings a quick check to see if he was ok and then took him to our bat boxes on the trees outside.
No sooner had we got him to the boxes and he came to life, and went for a flight. He flew about in the daylight for a bit, catching midges, but must have found a roost for now until its dark.

Snowdonia camping
Well, its been over a month since I last posted! Jill and I have been to Bonaire,Ecuador and Galapagos for the last month. I have a huge amount of photos and video footage still to process, so I'll be adding reports from each stage of that trip gradually from now on.

Anyway, on arrival back from holiday, we decided to go camping in Snowdonia over easter.
Heres a link to "Silver birches" , the lovely little campsite where we stayed.
Marion and Ian (the owners) have added a picture of us (click here then scroll down) to their site too!.
The campsite is only a few miles up the valley from GLASLYN - the only breeding pair of Ospreys in Wales.

When we visited on 7/4/07 there was late staying whooper swan near the hide and the osprey pair that had just returned the week before, were showing well on the webcam.














Here's the full list from the long weekend. 40 species.
With the early/late migrants highlighted

Mistle thrush
Song thrush
Blackbird
Nuthatch
Treecreeper
GS woodpecker
Raven
Rook
Carrion crow
Jackdaw
Jay
Magpie
Wood pigeon
Goldcrest
Robin
Wren
Dunnock
House sparrow
Siskin (seemingly replacing greenfinches in the area)
Goldfinch
Chaffinch
Chiff chaff (my first summer migrants)
Blue tit
Great tit
Coal tit
Long tailed tit
Peregrine falcon
Sparrowhawk
Buzzard
Osprey
Pheasant
Pied wagtail
Grey wagtail
Common gull
Herring gull
Mallard
Mute swan
Whooper swan (last of my winter migrants)
Willow warbler (many heard)
Tawny owl (several heard every night at the campsite)

Good numbers of Pipistrelle bats around the camp at dusk too

Not the most concerted effort from myself birding-wise, I was more interested in BBQing this time! Being Easter, the area was chocka with holiday-makers and kids, so Jill and I were happiest just to chill with a beer at the CHILD-FREE "Silver birches". "Child- free" is always a better phrase than "Adult" when it comes to camping, dont you think?

They're was a shocking amount of roadkill on the M56 , so much so that we started counting as a game :(
10 dead badgers
1 dead fox
5 dead hedgehogs
and about a million dead Pheasants!!!!!

Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles) 26/02 - 04/03

Species seen

Brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis


















Magnificent frigatebird Fregata magnificens
Reddish egret egretta rufecens
Snowy egret Egretta thula


















Tricoloured heron egretta tricolor
Little blue heron Egretta caerulea
Carribean flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber


















Osprey Pandion haliaetus
Crested caracara Caracara cheriway
Merlin falco columbarius
Peregrine falcon falco peregrinus
American oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus
American golden plover Pluvialis dominica


















Collared plover Charadrius collaris
Lesser yellowlegs Tringa flavipes
















Ruddy turnstone Arenaria interpres


















Sanderling Calidris alba


















Least sandpiper Calidris minutilla
Laughing gull Larus atricilla
Royal tern Sterna maxima
Rock dove Columba livia
Bare-eyed pigeon Patagioenas corensis
















Eared dove Zenaida auriculata
Common ground dove Columbina passerina
Brown throated parakeet Aratinga pertinax


















Groove billed ani Crotophaga sulcirostris
Blue tailed emerald Chlorostilbon mellisugus
Belted kingfisher Ceryle alcyon
Brown crested flycatcher Myiarchus tyrannulus
Barn swallow Hirundo rustica
Tropical mockingbird Mimus gilvus


















Pearly eyed thrasher margarops fuscatus


















Yellow warbler Dendroica petechia


















Bananaquit Coerba flaveola


















Saffron finch Sicalis flaveola
Yellow oriole Icterus nigrogularis
Venezuelan troupial Icterus icterus


















House sparrow Passer domesticus

Hummingbirds in the cloud forest

I'm currently editing lots of video footage from our March Bonaire/Ecuador/Galapagos trip and I'm thinking of making a short video of just the hummingbirds from the gardens of Septimo paraiso lodge in Mindo. I think I'll use "flight of the bumblebee" as the soundtrack eh?

Anyway, anyone with a soul, or indeed just an interest in nature must spend at least one day of their life watching hummingbirds in a tropical garden. Without wanting to sound like a "big girls blouse"...it is MAGICAL!!! Irridesence and glittering colour whirr past your face as you dump your binoculars for the camera. Even their descriptive names dont do justice to their striking brilliance...... "Sunangels" ,"woodnymphs" and "trainbearers" .
It's taken me quite some time to ID and list the hummers I saw in Mindo, but the whole point is that listing is irrelevant in comparison to the experience itself. To a European (like me), it is probably even more awe-inspiring, as hummers only inhabit the Americas. It is almost like a different hobby from birding or nature-study in general.

Heres a typical still pic taken from my video footage. A bit nicer than my UK birdfeeders, these outlandish machines are filled (twice daily, such is the demand) with sugar and water.

On the right is my favourite hummer......
the Velvet Purple coronet (Boissonneaua jardini)















as usual, click on the photos to enlarge

and again















and once more from the SLR















My (non-birding) partner, Jill, even got in on the action in the "Septimo Paraiso" ("seventh heaven" in Spanish) gardens. Here she is shooting with the SLR while I try to shoot video.




















Another favourite of mine was the tiny Purple throated woodstar (Calliphlox mitchellii), it should be as it shares my surname! It was definately the smallest, there were plenty of insects bigger than it. Really looked like and sounded like a bumble bee.






























This is the 2nd most fancy hummer, the Violet tailed sylph (Aglaiocercus coelestis) with possible Empress Brilliant (Heliodoxa imperatrix). These 2 spectacular hummers were often duelling. We were'nt sure at the time but, by freezing the video frames , the swallow-tail and golden belly suggest that it is the Empress Brilliant. I got some help with the ID from Birdforum.















After consulting with the experts at Birdforum, the pic below turned out to be a Green-crowned Brilliant (Heliodoxa jacula), very similar to the Empress Brilliant.
















The Booted racket tailed (Ocreatus underwoodii) is a little cutie with his fancy tail streamers and puffed-up leg-warmers.















One very aggressive and territorial hummer we observed was the...
Brown Violet-ear (Colibri delphinae)
















The Purple-bibbed whitetip (Urosticte benjamini) was fairly numerous and can be IDed by the strange white feathers that stick up noticably at the end of its tail.






























The Rufous tailed hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl) was the most common species seen and is easily IDed by its rufous tail and red bill.















White necked Jacobin(Florisuga mellivora)















White whiskered hermit (Phaethornis yaruqui)















Brown Inca (Coeligena wilsoni)















Speckled hummingbird (Adelomyia melanogenys)















Andean emerald






























So that looks like 14 species of Hummer just from one location. There was probably many more that I didnt manage to video, or just failed to ID, especially the females.

White-necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora)
Brown Violet-ear (Colibri delphinae)
Andean Emerald (Amazilia franciae)
Brown Inca (Coeligena wilsoni)
Purple-throated Woodstar (Calliphlox mitchellii)
Velvet-purple Coronet (Boissonneaua jardini)
Purple-bibbed Whitetip (Urosticte benjamini)
Violet-tailed Sylph (Aglaiocercus coelestis)
Booted Racket-tail (Ocreatus underwoodii)
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl)
Speckled Hummingbird (Adelomyia melanogenys)
White whiskered Hermit (Phaethornis yaruqui)
Empress Brilliant (Heliodoxa imperatrix)
Green-crowned Brilliant (Heliodoxa jacula)

The only other hummers I've seen in my life are this unIDed one on Sugar loaf mountain, Rio...















.....this Black Jacobin (Florisuga fuscus) in Tijuca forest near Rio......













....and this Western emerald nesting on our balcony in Bonaire....















....but I'm still writing the Bonaire trip report, so hopefully I'll get that posted next.....stay tuned!

...and feel free to comment (below this post) if I've got any IDs wrong or if you have any questions.