New species for Corvo again!

Decided to bird around the village today, which turned out to be a wise decision. Rather strong winds from the east were blowing so I decided to try a little seawatching. Went up the small lighthouse next to the airport and sat down behind it. Loads of Cory's were moving in the wind and within a minute I had spotted my first Great Shearwater for the day. An hour and 15 minutes later I had counted 24 of them and since all shearwaters were flying further out I left and checked the shoreline instead. Not much to see at all, only saw the Bar-tailed Godwit, a Sanderling and five Turnstones. I wonder where the Turnstones are some days! Here are about 30 around so they must be hiding somewhere else.

Cory's Shearwater

After checking the beach I went up to the rubbish dump to have a look at the gulls and it was actually quite nice up there today. Something like 50-100 gulls were around and easy to check. Found three Lesser Black-backed and two Greater Black-backed Gulls among the Yellow-legged. Ring-billed Gull in a month or two? When I was on my way to check around the village for landbirds I suddenly saw a big grey wall coming towards me from Flores - RAIN! Quickly packed my bag and walked back to the guesthouse. Got a little wet but not very much. The rain then continued for four hours so I had time to have lunch, take a nap and hang around the Internet for a while.

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull

2cy Lesser Black-backed Gull (I think)

Juvenile brownie and Great Black-backed Gull


2cy Great Black-backed Gull

When the rain stopped I decided to have an early evening walk around the airfield. Took a short scan over the sea from behind the lighthouse again and loads of Cory's were moving since the wind had increased. When I lifted my eye from my scope I saw something coming flying towards me from west - A DUCK!!! Every duck out here is a good duck and this was the first time I saw one outside the crater. As the bird was going to fly by me at sea I had to make a fast decision - scope or camera? Within half a second or so I had started to change the settings on the camera and soon I was taking poor pictures of the bird in flight. Through the camera I could see it was a male Pochard type, interesting! When the bird flew out of camera range I grabbed my scope and couldn't see anything that suggested it wasn't a Pochard. When checking the pictures afterwards I could confirm the identification. This was the first record for Corvo and the first record since 2005 on the Azores, so quite a good bird!

Male Common Pochard

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

Full Metal Birding again!

After resting yesterday afternoon I had new energy to work some wooded places today again. Weather was more Azorish today with clouds and light rain the first half of the day. This made temperature stay pretty low which in turn made birding much more enjoyable! Worked hard in Ribeira da Ponte and Pico until late afternoon. Loads of birds were active all the time, totally unlike the previous hot days. But the best bird I saw up there was one of the Grey Herons from Caldeirão that was out sightseeing.

This is what a juvenile atlantis looks like, a real piece of chocolate pudding!

Checked the harbour, airfield and beach area during early evening. The Bar-tailed Godwit was still around but apart from that the most interesting was the usual Turnstones and Common Terns.

Mani (Manuel, my host) down at the beach, probably checking for girls?

Ola Elleström asked me which the common birds here are. Sorry for not telling earlier! Here are the breeding species of the island as far as I know:

• Cory's Shearwater (very common, see and hear loads of them every day)
• Manx Shearwater (probably rare, found one dead so far)
• Little Shearwater (probably rare, not seen yet)
• Bulwer's Petrel (probably rare, not seen yet)
• Band-rumped Storm-petrel (probably rare, not seen yet)
• Quail (pretty common I think but have stopped singing now, heard a few the first days)
• Common Snipe (scarce in Caldeirão, see 5-10 on every visit there)
• Woodcock (scarce, see about 1 daily)
• Yellow-legged Gull (common, see about 100 daily)
• Common Tern (common, see about 30 daily)
• Roseate Tern (rare, not seen yet,guess they've departed south for winter)
• Feral Pigeon (unfortunately common, see about 100 daily)
• Wood Pigeon (pretty scarce, see 5-10 daily)
• Grey Wagtail (common, se 10's daily)
• Blackbird (common, see about 100 daily)
• Blackcap (very common, see about 100 daily)
• Starling (very common, see about 100 daily)
• House Sparrow (common in the village where you see 100's)
• Chaffinch (very common, see 100's daily)
• Atlantic Canary (very common, see 100's daily)
• Goldfinch (scarce, see about 1 daily)

Apart from these I also see a few Ruddy Turnstones every time I go to check the beach area, not sure whether they breed or not though. I also know Northern Wheatear has bred at least once. On a normal day of 8 hours birding in the ribeiras I see about 10-12 species, similar to Falsterbo or Ottenby!

Birds

Grey Heron 1 juvenile, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 adult female

Calm day

Got a somewhat odd lift up today, sitting back on a 4-wheel motorcycle with my tripod over my shoulder. Wish someone had taken a picture of it! Did the lower parts of Cantinho, Cancelas and some of Fojo today before I went back pretty early in the afternoon, as usul without finding anything. The low pressures are moving to far north over the Atlantic, PLEASE give me a direct hit down here!

What's cookin' good lookin'?

Feeling pretty thick in nose and throat and overall very tired I had a two hour powernap in the afternoon and skipped evening birding. Is that what happens when you bird hard for 17 days in a row? Anyway, new day tomorrow!

Birds

NADA!

Shitty day!

Broken Coolpix, broken memory card for my 50D, broken trousers, soar feat, closed store and absolutely no American birds at all. That's pretty much what today's been about.


Once again a day with good, boring, to hot weather. Manuel drove me to the end of the "middle" road today. I walked out to the lighthouse to check it out. Not very much to see, one of the smallest lighthoueses I've ever seen. Birded the nearby area and a few small ribeiras as I slowly was moving back towards the village. Birded the upper parts of Cantinho and Cancelas for quite a few hours but found nada. It's really hard work up there these days, the heat and humidity makes you sweat like crazy when walking up and down in the rough terrain. Up there my camera once again (has happened twice before) got fucked up and said the memory card was corrupt so I couldn't use it for the rest of the day. Gonna send an email to the boys who sold it to me and get them to send a new card out here!

The small lighthouse in the northeast part of the island. Note that earth is round (for those of you who missed that!).

Had a little bit of luck though and got a ride back down to the village. Very much needed since my feet were hearting a lot. When I got down there I went to the shop that of course had closed for the day. Made a short visit to the beach and airfield but nothing of interest today. When I got back to the guesthouse I discovered that my trousers were broken, I had ripped up a big hole and showed half my ass all day. Borrowed neadle and thread from Manuels wife and got them back in decent shape after an hour or so.

Had an ok dinner at one of the restaurants and when I got home I discovered that the zoom button on my coolpix had died. Maybe not very surprising since the camera is soon seven years old, but still very annoying and very bad timing!




Jan Kåre left the island today for a few days on Sao Miguel before he goes back to Norway. So now I'm the only birder in the island which of course is a big responsibility. Gonna try the lower parts of Cantinho, Cancelas and Fojo tomorrow I think! If I get up there... Manuel is on Faial today and tomorrow so I hope I'll be able to catch a ride with one of the farmers tomorrow morning. Ciao!


Birds
Lesser black-backed gull 1 adult

Nice day in the crater

Good weather met us as we woke up today, which is necessary if you're going to the crater lakes. Up there the crater was filled with beautiful fog that soon disappeared after the sun came up. The best bird in the crater was a juvenile Least Sandpiper. Other waders were two Pecs, three White-rumps and the usual Common Snipes. The Great Egret was of course also there.

Jan Kåre Ness viewing the crater.

Waders paradise!

American Great Egret in flight

White-rumped Sandpiper

Juvenile Pec

Juvenile Least Sand

The two Ring-necked Ducks where still there and we also got a little better views of the Mallard flock today. There were 28 birds in total of which two look like Black Duck hybrids. Also checked out a corpse I scoped out on my last visit and it turned out to be a Manx Shearwater, possibly a breeding species on the island?

Black Duck hybrid

Very dead Manx Shearwater

We climbed the slope west of the lakes to see what was on the other side of the edge. Not much! Just very steep cliffs pretty much. On the way back I checked Ribeira da Lapa (or similar), the one closest to the village. Pretty nice one, easy to check.

Semi-interesting winds are moving over the Atlantic today and tomorrow. North of the Azores as usual but maybe it will bring one or two new birds.

Birds

American Great Egret 1, Ring-necked Duck 2, Mallard 26, Mallard x American Black Duck 2, Least Sandpiper 1 1cy, Pectoral Sandpiper 2 1cy, White-rumped Sandpiper 3, Common Snipe 5, Manx Shearwater 1 dead

Another day on the east side

This morning the weather was better then yesterday, so I went up to the valleys on the east side again. Birded Ribeira da Poso de Agua and the upper parts of Fojo until the heat got to strong early afternoon. Then I needed to go someplace cooler and decided to give Ribeira da Ponte another try. That Ribeira is quite deep and thereby shaded and rather cool. Rare birds however were absent there as well. After eight hours of birding I lifted back with one of the farmers that happened to pass by as usual and had a short siesta at the guesthouse. It's amazing how helpful and kind people are out here. So far I've only been denied lift/ignored once - compare that to hitching in the rest of Europe!

One of the forrested areas on the east side

Inside Ribeira da Ponte

When I'd had my much needed siesta I went out again, this time to check the beach and the airfield. More Common Terns (50) and Turnstones (25) than the previous days was nice and yesterdays Spotted Sand and Bar-tailed Godwit were still around, as were a Whimbrel and two Sanderlings.

Love is in the air... Clouded Yellows

Adult Common Tern

The Spotted Sandpiper in flight


Moray eel for Larsa

Jan Kåre spent today on Flores driving around and checking the good areas, unfortunately without finding anything rare. Tomorrow is his last full day on Corvo and we'll go up to the Caldeira if the weather allows us. Hope some new waders have arrived!

Birds

Spotted Sandpiper 1 1cy, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 ad female, Whimbrel 1, Ruddy Turnstone 25, Sanderling 2, Woodcock 2, Common Tern
50, Goldfinch 1

New species for Corvo!

Hôla! Me and Jan Kåre just got back from the restaurant where we ate the fish dish Bacalau, which turned out to be exactly the same as Norwegian dry fish, a dish served in Norway according to Jan Kåre. It was rather dry and very salt, but still tasty!

The birding day today began a bit different than usual. Since the oldest man on the island (96 years!) had died, Manuel had to go to his funeral this morning and couldn't act driver. Therefore I hitched up to the end of the middle road (via the nice drivers eight cows that we fed first). Down in the village the weather was pretty good with clouds hanging pretty low so Jan Kåre stayed down here. And when I got up on somewhat higher altitude it was REALLY foggy! It was so dense it was even raining a little - welcome to the Azores! If it had stayed that way it would have been ok, but when we reached the end of the road the skies opened and it rained. A lot! We sat in the car doing our best to have a conservation, me speaking English and he Portugese. But after half an hour my driver got enough and we drove back into the village, where it still was dry. So I decided to bird the village today instead, just like Jan Kåre. When I got down to the harbour I heard a distant, familiar call from the sky and soon found a godwit flying high up in the sky. Saw it good though and soon identified it as a Bar-tailed Godwit - a new species for Corvo!

Adult female Bar-tailed Godwit

When I got up to the little lighthouse Jan Kåre joined me and we did a short seawatch together which resulted in two Great Shearwaters among all the Cory's, a lifer for Jan Kåre! Continued to the airstrip where the Bar-tailed Godwit, an adult female, was walking around eating. When we had rounded the airstrip and got to the small beach I heard a distant Common/Spotted Sandpiper and soon saw the bird flying away. It landed on some lava rocks further away and when we got closer we saw it was a nice juvenile Spotted Sandpiper. The winds did bring something! When we turned around after watching the Sandpiper a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull was standing behind us, a rather scarce bird on the Azores.

Juvenile Spotted Sandpiper

Juvenile Great Black-backed Gull

The following six hours or so the birding was pretty quiet with a Goldfinch and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull as highlights while I was checking fields, gardens, fig trees etc. I ended the day with an hours seawatching which gave another four Great Shearwaters among the Cory's gathering for the evening in big flocks offshore. Tomorrow the weather will hopefully be a bit better (it's clear outside now) so I can continue checking the valleys while Jan Kåre is on his day trip to Flores. Cheers!

Birds

Spotted Sandpiper 1 1cy, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 ad female, Ruddy Turnstone 6, Sanderling 2, Great Black-backed Gull 1 1cy, Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 adult, Goldfinch 1

Corn Crake!

Once again beautiful weather as it became light outside. Spent the whole day at Ribeira da Ponte and Pico, birding all possible places I could find. Quite early I flushed a Corn Crake in a field on the eastern slopes of Pico. Really fun since it was the first time I saw this species outside Sweden and not during breeding season. This was the fourth record for Corvo, all three previous were in October 2007. Apart from that the most excitingbirds I found was Woodcock 2, Quail 2 and Goldfinch 2.

Flores seen from Corvo.

Corn Crake

During late afternoon it became more cloudy and somewhat more windy. The winds seem to be somewhat better now then they have been the last few days. A new low pressure has moved east from Newfoundland, but as usual seem to pass north of the Azores. Better than easterly winds though and maybe it will bring something!

Jan Kåre cancelled his boat trip to Flores and did the Caldeira once again. No Citrine Wagtail today but American Great Egret 1, White-rumped Sandpiper 5 (at least), Pectoral Sandpiper 2 1cy, Least Sandpiper 1 1cy and Lapland Bunting 1.

Convolvulus Hawk-moth (åkervindesvärmare)

Birds

Corn Crake 1, Quail 2, Woodcock 2, Sanderling 1, Goldfinch 2

Quiet day

Today the hard work with checking the ribeiras on the eastern side of the island began. We checked Cantinho, Cancelas and did a few places in Fojo as well. No interesting birds though. The weather here is amazing with temperatures just below 25 degrees in the shadow during the day and the sun shining from an almost clear blue sky. This of course sucks if you want to find passerines, but we do our very best! Pretty tired we hitched back to the village late afternoon and had a brief siesta before we checked the beach areas around the airfield. The Ringed Plover from yesterday was still there as well as the usual Common Terns, Ruddy Turnstones and two Sanderlings. We just had a wonderful chicken dinner at the small Snack Bar close to the Guest House - without doubt the best restaurant on Corvo!

Ohoy me hardies!

An atlantis on a lava rock, probably a 4th cy bird.

Tomorrow Jan Kåre is going to Flores for the day while I'll continue checking the valleys on the east side.

Birds

Common Ringed Plover 1 1st cy, Ruddy Turnstone 4, Sanderling 2

Corvo!

Arrived yesterday afternoon on Corvo and immediately took a walk in the Ribeiras along the lower road. Got back exhausted and hung out with Norwegian birder Jan Kåre Ness, who had had a nice day in the Caldeira with Citrine Wagtail (1st for the Azores), Least Sandpiper and other goodies.

Today we went to the Caldeira again as it was really nice weather. Best to take the opportunity as it can be foggy up there for many days in a row! Here's what we saw:

Juvenile Citrine Wagtail, the first for the Azores, found yesterday by Jan Kåre Ness. Nice one and quite unexpected!

Caldeirão, the crater lakes in the middle of the island.

Two Ring-necked Ducks. The right one probably an adult bird (pale iris) and maybe a male since it had at least one big, grey feather on the flank. It also had quite contrasting head pattern.

Here the same dudes with the presumed juvenile to the right. Much less contrasting head pattern and darker iris.

The American Great Egret that arrived in October last year seems to like the crater!

A blury juvenile Least Sandpiper with some White-rumped friends (saw totally five).

For a few days Jan Kåre had heard a Lapland Bunting in the crater as well, bot not been able to see the bird properly. Bu we managed today and of course he was right, it was a Lapland Bunting, the fifth for the Azores! Now I'm gonna go to bed and fall asleep to the sounds of singing crickets and Cory's Shearwaters - life could be worse :)

Birds

Grey Heron 3, American Great Egret 1, Mallard ~15 (a few dark types need to be further checked), White-rumped Sandpiper 5, Least Sandpiper 1 1st cy, Whimbrel 1, Ruddy Turnstone 2, Common Ringed Plover 1 1st cy, Citrine Wagtail 1 1st cy

Terceira

I'm tired so I won't write very much about Terceira, sorry! To sum things up I've seen WILLET, Western Sandpiper, American Black Tern, Semipalmated Plovers (4), Semipalmated Sandpipers (2), Spotted Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpipers (2), Pectoral Sandpipers (3), Great Shearwater, Roseate Tern and some other more common stuff. Here are som pics!

Juvenile Pec

Juvenile Semi P

Juvenile Western Sand

Western Sand and Semi P - quite different!

White-rumped Sand - age?

Juvenile American Black Tern (ssp surinamensis). Note more greyish than white underwings and grey-smudged flanks.

Same fellow as above. Note grey crown, not black. The tail should be darker and contrasting to the rump in a typical surinamensis, but I guess this is OK? Comments on this bird are more than welcome!

Common (top) and Spotted (bottom) Sandpipers in flight. Note the very different wingbars!

Juvenile Spotted Sandpiper. Note short tail-projection, yellowish legs and barred lesser and median coverts (but not greater).

Adult Semipalmated Plover. Note for example yellow eye-ring, thin yellow diffuse eyebrow and white extending above gape.

A somewhat strange gull, really pale among all the dark atlantis (and a few graellsii). Not very wide tail-bar in flight, but the tail didn't feel fully complete - moult? Suggestions please Dr Gullhead!