129!

Questions anyone? Here are the answers!

Azores FAQs
Part 1: http://gwentbirding.blogspot.com/2009/10/azores-faqs-part-first.html
Part 2: http://gwentbirding.blogspot.com/2009/10/azores-faqs-part-two.html
Part 3: http://gwentbirding.blogspot.com/2009/10/azores-faqs-part-three.html
Part 4: http://gwentbirding.blogspot.com/2009/11/azores-faqs-part-four.html

Today was twitch day. Took the boat to Flores at 9 to give the Dickcissels a try!

Lifting the boat into the sea. The harbour here is very small and unprotected so no boats stay in the water overnight.

Good weather today and the sun was shining over northwestern Flores!

Nico and Ans de Vries as well as Urs and Edith Maienfisch met me in Santa Cruz harbour and together we drove to the old football field in Ponta Delgada where Nico and Ans saw the Dickcissels yesterday. On the way there they showed me their pictures of one of the birds from yesterday. Good pictures of an adult f*cking Dickcissel!!! This is only the second record for the Western P following a summer record of one bird in Norway almost 30 years ago.

Searched in the area for five hours but could only find a Lapland Bunting among the hundreds of Canaries, Chaffinches and House Sparrows.

Lapland Bunting record shot

Took a taxi back to Santa Cruz and got a place on the boat back as well despite not having pre-booked tickets either way. And well, that's the end of the story.

What about the 128th-129th? I had forgotten to update Great Egret and Goldcrest :)

Birds

Little Egret 1, Grey Heron 1, Common Tern 1, Whimbrel 1, Lapland Bunting 1