An indifferent week!

With the the upcoming changes at work my time is going to become increasingly busy over the next few months so taking any leave is going to be difficult. My solution is to take a few days 'here and there' and head further afield for long weekend birding trips.
With Spanish sparrow (UK tick), dark eyed junco, rose-coloured starling along with firecrest and hawfinch I decided to head to the New Forest as my first destination with mixed results. Unfortunatly the sparrow didn't show (it was like looking for a sparrow in a housing estate!) but I did spent a pleasent couple of hours around Caldhot Spit before heading into the Forest proper. The weather was stunning and every man and his dog was out but I did manage to find some quiet areas of heath were I had good numbers of stonechats, several pairs of Dartford warblers, my first raven of the year and loads of buzzards.
The plan is to kip in the back of the van so I headed towards Boulderwood for a suitable carpark for the night. No problems and I settled in for the night. The only problem was I must have picked up a stomach bug at work the day before as I spent most of the night climbing in and out of the van being sick and doing what bears do in the woods - the worst night ever....ever!!
With not much sleep I stumbled around Boulderwood looking for firecrest and hawfinch but I really couldn't be arsed. After a couple hours sleep I was feeling much better and went in search of raptors. The site failed to produce any large accipiters but I did get loads more buzzards.
A trip down to Hordle for the rose-coloured starling also failed to produce so I cut my losses and headed home.

The rest of the week has been pretty decent. Managed to add several new species to the yearlist but it was kites that stole the show again.
While out checking on some contractors I noticed all the gulls up over the fresh marsh. A scan produced a red kite coming in from the east. The bird circled around and I managed to get a few visitors onto it. As I walked down to the hide I picked the bird up again. It was quickly joined by a 2nd and almost straight away, a 3rd! All three birds circled up high and went west. A 4th bird arrived over the reedbed and also headed west. Add these to a bird over in the morning (seen from the office window) and at least 4 common buzzards it was a pretty good migration day.

First blackcap and chiffchaffs ringed this morning.

Crazy

Recorded 20.3oc in the garden today and it felt more like mid-summer that the end of March - even worked in a T-shirt at Snettisham yesterday, almost unheard of even in mid-summer!
The reserve was alive with birds singing including 2 chiffchaff and the first blackcaps (126) of the year. Highlight of the day was a pair of garganey (127) on the new reedbed area. I was out checking a few things out when I thought I heard the croaking call that the male garganey does. I had already checked to pool and not seen them so it was a bit of a surprise to see the swimming across the middle. The birds flew almost straight away but thankfully they dropped onto the fresh marsh. 60 black-tailed godwits over calling were probably the first migrants.

Golden delight

I have made many trips and spent many hours at Wolferton Triangle looking for the golden pheasants without any luck. Yesterday morning I was on my way back from the station in Lynn when I decided to stop for a quick drive around the triangle. Luck was in straight away as there were 2 males crossing the road! They didn't stay long but showed wel.
Later in the day I added a fly-over linnet (41) to the garden list

Bloody weather!!

The weather forecast for the weekend was unpredictable and so it proved. We decided to go for a Sunday ringing session as the forecast was dry for the morning. I got up a 4:30 and it was pissing it down!!

Every cloud has a silver lining though and after going back to bed for a couple of hours, the rain had stopped by 6:30 so I decided to open my nets. I grabbed some breakfast while the birds were arriving and was pleased to see a few birds had been caught while I was eating. Even better was the fact that in the same net there were 2 lesser redpolls.

Adult male

1st year female

I had the nets open for a couple of hours before the rain came again but not before I had a/the red kite over the garden again.

Later in the day the weather cleared and I was able to open for the afternoon which coincided with a another flurry of birds.

By the end of the day I had ringed 24 birds and re-trapped 2.

Greenfinch - 11 new, 1 re-trap

Lesser redpoll - 2 new

Chaffinch - 8 new

Blackbird - 1 re-trap

Song thursh - 1 new

Goldfinch - 1 new

House sparrow - 1 new

Blue tit - 1 new

1st song thrush ringed in the garden

Don't get many house sparrows in the garden so it was nice to catch this male.

Think I might be obsessed!

I seem to be posting loads at the moment but I am really enjoying it. I have had some feedback from people so it can't be too dull so I am going to keep going.

Despite a wet start to the day (thankfully plenty of office work to do) I still managed to add 5 new species to the reserve yearlist. First one was following a phonecall from David (he is going to find something big this spring) on Gypsy Lane to say a red kite was flying west. I radioed Ray who picked it up over the back of the fresh marsh and by the time I got down the path it was circling nicely over the dead trees - 121.
With the weather clearing up I headed out onto the reserve for the afternoon. Soon added a female stonechat (122) and a pair of wheatears (123) on the grazing meadow and then onto the beach were I finally caught up with the velvet scoters (124), an adult female and 2 1st winter males. A gannet (125) was a nice surprise but I didn't catch up with the sandwich tern that was on the fresh marsh.

Miss of the week, and probably the year so far, was the 3 hawfinches that were seen briefly drinking from the Fen Hide pool yesterday afternoon before flying west. I have seen several fly-overs but never had one on the deck on the reserve yet.

Flutterby ID'd

Following a message from one of my many beautiful readers (thanks John), I have been able to the ID the black and white butterfly from Nameri.

It turns out that it is a Clear Sailer (Neptis clinia) and looks to be pretty widespread throughout SE Asia.

While I am on the Indian butterfly theme, here is one I do remember. This is a chocolate pansy - lovely name!

NE India 2012 pt2 a

Following a very early start (up at 2:30am) we were the only Western people waiting in the queue for our now delayed flight to Guwahati (something to do with low cloud). Eventually it left about 30mins late. The weather on the flight was clear and we had amazing views of the Himalayas as we flew east arriving in Guwahati in sunshine. The airport was very small (similar to Norwich) and we were soon through and meeting up with our guide Abid and driver Kanak. Bags were loaded onto the car and we were off.

Now every good birding trip is not complete unless you visit a rubbish dump or sewage works as the are usually great for birds. Our poison for this trip was a visit to the local dump and our quarry was the greater adjutant.

Rachael, Mandy and Abid birding the tip

Kites, adjutants and egrets

Greater adjutants

The roads were no better than Delhi and we were soon off the main road onto a track but we could see where we were heading by the large number of adjutants and black kites circling in the distance. As were arrived at the tip the scene was 'different' to say the least. Rubbish piled high with roads cut through, people everywhere sifting through looking for anything of value and birds everywhere. We had at least 180 adjutants, 100 black kites, 3-400 cattle egrets along with loads of citrine and white wagtails. Once Dave and I had got a load of photos and before we got mobbed we set off for Nameri.

Greater adjutants, cattle egrets and locals

Abid told us that the kites were black but I think that they may be black-eared, any comments?

I don't really remember much about the journey only that it seemed to take forever, something that we would get used to!

Crossing over the Brahmputra river was pretty special as the bridge (road above railway) was at least 4km long although there wasn't much water flowing at this time of year. A brief stop by some roadside pools produced 50+ lesser whistling ducks and 15 pigmy cotton geese.

A stop for tea gave us a chance to stretch our legs and we added black hooded oriole, crimson sunbird and small Indian mongoose.

We arrived fairly late (4pm) at Nameri and after having something to eat, had a bit of time to bird the local area. 3 spotted owlets were roosting in the trees by our accommodation and we picked up our first long tailed shrikes, Indian rollers and a couple of striated grassbirds.

Butterfly sp, can't remenber the name

Our first proper Indian dusk - Nameri.