Thursday, September 24, 2009

New Corvo-tick!

Today started with a 2cy Great Black-backed Gull at the rubbish dump, saw it from the guesthouse while waiting for Manuel. Spent 7 hours up on the east side birding Ribeira do Poco de Agua, Fojo and the ribeira between Pico and Poco de Agua, don't know its name. Had a little moment of excitement early afternoon as I saw a medium sized finch flying north. Light conditions were lousy and the bird was rather distant but it appeared to have an overall rather brown-yellowish colour and contrasting head pattern. Bobolink was what popped into my mind when I saw it. Unfortunately the bird flew far north so I'll just have to forget that one. Great to have a little moment of excitement though!



Me working in Fojo


Weather was hot today again, due to high pressures that have parked over the Atlantic down here. Some light rain fell during the day and even a few more intense showers. Manuel took some tourists to the Caldeira and from the road he saw the Great Egret in the Caldeira, or as he said it "I saw the big white one with the long neck". The bird appeared first on the island in October last year if I haven't mentioned that before.



After a brief stop at the guesthouse changing clothes I did the beach and airfield as usual. One of the first birds I found was a new Corvo species for me, a juvenile Red Knot. Apart from that the Spotted Sand was still at the beach and the Bar-tailed Godwit on the airfield. Due to a pretty heavy shower I had to shelter in the pubilc toilets down at the beach for 15 minutes or so. Had pretty good view over the ocean from there but couldn't find anything but Cory's, Yellow-legged Gulls, Common Terns and a bunch of dolphins. I've seen dolphins three or four times out here so far, but don't know what species they are yet.


Juvenile Red Knot



Birds
Spotted Sandpiper 1 1cy, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 adult female, Red Knot 1 1cy, Great Black-backed Gull 1 2cy

6 comments:

  1. The dolphinsCuld be a number of species. Bottlenose Dolphin is perhaps the most probable.
    Don´t know how much you know about sea mammals, but since I´m very interested in sea mammals and got a fairly good knowledge about theese animals maybe I can help... =)
    The Bottlenose is the typicall dolphin seen in movies and water parks. Look for uniform gray color on upper parts and lighter gray underparts. Length is about 100 cm, the dorsal fin is relatively large. This species is often seen near shore and you can often see them jump quite high! (very cool to see!!) Had observations of about 150, give or take, during my time in Tenerife.
    The Atlantic Spotted Dolphin is very possible to see from the Azores. Almost 50% the size of the bottlenose, dark grey-brown with hundreds of white spots all over. Very easy to identify if it´s a adult. Young ones are similar to bottlenosed. Spinner Dolphin is all light gray with a long, thin beak. The dorsal fin is almost tilting forward in shape - this is very different from the other two. Striped dolphin is a beauty - dark gray back, light gray flanks and white belly. Dark eye mask and one, or sometimes two, black stripes on the side from beak to tail. Short-beaked Common Dolphin is also a nice one! Same size as a bottlenose but more "bow-shaped", big "shark like", triangular dorsal fin. Dark gray back and a very easy-to-see yellow to white area on flanks/belly. This extends back to a imaginary vertical line from the rear part of the dorsal fin (anybody understood what I ment by that??=)

    Theese are the one, that I can think of right now, that are most lightly to appear in the Corvo costal waters. You should be on the look out for whales as well - at this time a year there´s migration going on in the waters - Great Blue Whale, Grey Whale and Killer Whale should be possible to find with loads of luck
    Long-finned Pilot Whale should be easier - go whale watch!!

    //Johannes

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  2. Jag hittade en gång en död tumlare på revlarna. Mega.

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  3. Kolla mitt inlägg på förra bloggen!/Joppo

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  4. Snygga brallor! Arne...

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  5. Tack för alla kommentarer! :) Brallorna rockar! JonnyT ska få pris för längsta kommentar vid tillfälle.

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  6. Olof, we have seen big numbers of Short-beaked Common along with Bottled-nosed Dolphin off Corvo during the last few Octobers. Sperm and Humpback Whale have also been seen.

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