Ship-assists coming in?

Not very much happened today. Started in Ribeira do Vinte to look for the American warbler from yesterday, but didn't find it. Saw the Philadelphia Vireo good for a few seconds again though. Saw a Willow Warbler by the road, a first for Corvo found yesterday by Team Spain. Me and Simon worked Pico and the lowest parts of Ribeira da Ponte while Rafa and Ferran were looking for the Black-and-white Warbler. Unfortunately none of us saw anything of interest. Since we had seen a ship going east between Corvo and Flores in the morning we decided to bird the village in the afternoon and evening in search for newly arrived ship-assists.

On our way down we met a newly arrived Staffan Rodebrand who was on his way up. After trying to explain to him where the birds had been he went up and successfully twitched the Black-throated Green Warbler.

The only interesting we found around the village was the usual Pec on the airfield and two Wheaters in the lower fields (among those the flying peach). Rafa also found a Willow Warbler in the tamarisks by the shore.

Weather is continuing to look interesting with a new system hitting us tomorrow and another system moving out from America on Friday. More birds soon?





Birds
Philadelphia Vireo 1, Willow Warbler 1, Pectoral Sandpiper 1 1cy, Whimbrel 1, Grey Heron 1, Northern Wheatear 2

Philadelphia Vireo!

Good harvest today again! Team Spain went looking for yesterdays birds while me and Simon hit Ribeira do Vinte. After scanning the outer parts of the valley we went inside it to have a look. Pretty soon i noticed something small moving around in the tops of some trees and alerted Simon but he didn't see it as the bird had dropped down among the trees. I was pretty sure that it was one of the pale vireos (Philadephia/Warbling) but the bird was gone. After an hour of rain and wind we glimpsed the bird again, but again only from below. Now we were sure that it was a Vireo, but which one of them!? The hours passed and we just couldn't find the bird again! While searching for the Vireo we heard a sharp call and Simon also had brief views of a small bird in the tree tops. We heard the bird several times again but never got any views of it - VERY annoying! After looking for the Vireo for almost five hours getting soaked by shower after shower we had a short lunch break and then tried to find it once again. And then suddenly, there it was! A beautiful Philadelphia Vireo! 2nd for Corvo and 5th for the WP! On our way out of the valley we heard the American warbler again, but didn't see it this time either. Happy to have nailed the vireo but PISSED-OFF about the warbler we left the valley and headed towards new adventures. Didn't see very much else of interest that day. The Bar-wit and the Pec still around the village but no small Egret or Eider today.

This beautiful picture was taken by Ferran Lopez Sanz.

Team Spain had a great first full day and managed to twitch all three megas present on the island; Black-and-white Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler and Philadelphia Vireo! Now they are in the game and tomorrow the four of us will do our very best to find whatever might be out there.

Birds

Philadelphia Vireo 1, unidentified American Warbler 1, Pectoral Sandpiper 1 1cy, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 adult female

BANG! And BANG!

In the morning I couldn't find my Sibley guide (Birds of Eastern North America) and asked Simon if he could bring his instead. He just replied that bringing that stuff gives bad luck so we went up bookless today. Went back into the valleys after the last two days interesting influx of waders, hoping that new birds had arrived. Rain showers kept coming every now and then, among them the worst shower so far out here that got us both soaked and cold. Fortunately the sun came out shortly after that big shower so we sat on a field in the sun for a while trying to dry up a bit. Did Cantinho and Cancelas whole morning but didn't find any birds, not even the American Redstart, so maybe it's gone? Anyway, while we sat there trying to heat up Simon picked up a small white egret flying around looking lost over the sea. A new arrival since I haven't seen any small Egrets here during my three weeks. And coming in during the westerlies as well! The bird never came close enough to see any details but seemed to continue towards the village so we hoped to find it again.

Started to walk back and had lunch at Fojo. After that Simon walked up towards the picnic area and I went in to check the orchards in the forest. After a while in there I saw a bird feeding, hanging almost upside down in some twigs just over the path maybe 15 metres in front of me - BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER! One of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen! Called Simon on the walkie-talkie, got my camera up and tried to take pictures of this absolute perfect, superb, mega good looking creature. But despite close range, good light and image stabilizer on my lens I couldn't get any pictures! I was so sky high on adrenaline that I was shaking like a leaf! I shit you not, this was probably the best rush I have ever gotten from a single bird! And as I'm writing this every single hair on my body stands up once more, I love it! Simon soon came and we got excellent views of this mega together (his 2nd on Corvo!) as the bird was feeding in the orchard for a few minutes before moving away from us. During that time I (almost) quit shaking and managed to get some decent shots of the beauty. This was the sixth record for the WP I think, so a relly good one!

Black-throated Green Warbler, 2nd for Corvo and about 6th for the WP.

This is what a big part of this game is about to me, getting that rush when finding a true rarity. And what a rush it was today! I'm glad we didn't bring any book out :) Now it was game on for us! What else could be out there!? After looking for the Black-throated Green for while we continued up to the picnic area and had a short break trying to decide what to do. The choice of site fell on Ribeira da Ponte to which we walked getting hit by another shower. After scanning the parts of the ribeira around the road I wanted to go down into the lower parts of the valley to have a look. We usually split up down there to cover as much as possible, me going up and Simon going down. I suggested to Simon that I could go down and he go up this time but he just replied that if I went down I would just find a good bird instead of him, so we went our usual ways. Afer only 20 meters I see something on a big tree, looking almost like a Tree Creeper in profile with a long, insect-eating-adapted bill. Got my bins one the bird and another dream came true - BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER! The bird was a bit tricky to see so I was really glad that Simon was right behind me and soon got onto the bird as well. It turned out he had heard the bird call as I got my eyes on it, the so far sharpest call I've heard from an American warbler as we got to hear it a few times more.

Black-and-white Warbler, 1st for the Azores and maybe the first for the WP since 1996?

What was happening? What birds were on the island today? When did they get here? And what had we missed? It was getting late so we went down to the village to have a look for the Egret. I went down to the harbour to scan that area and spotted an Eider lying there looking f*cked, proper f*cked! The jurney these vagrants do before hitting Corvo is impressive, so not strange they're tired when getting here. Apart from the general condition I think the bird had a really strange head- and bill shape compared to what we normally see back home. Have a look at it:

Common Eider. Look at that bill - American vagrant?

Went on to theck other spots for the Egret, and soon Simon found it! And it had a lot of yellow on the legs! Snowy?! When looking closer at the bird it unfortunately had grey lores and not yellow. But what about those legs? I think a juvenile Little Egret can look like this, but can a Snowy as well? I don't know. What I know is that the bird did fly in from the sea during a front passage from west with an apparent influx of American vagrants... Please comment! When watching the Egret we met Rafael Armada and Ferran Lopez from Spain who will be here for almost ten days. As soon as they heard about the warblers (or about the Black-and-white) they went up there to have a look for it, but didn't find it. Hopefully they will tomorrow!

Juvenile Little/Snowy Egret.

Birds

Black-throated Green Warbler 1, Black-and-white Warbler 1, Common Eider 1 female-type, Snywy/Little Egret 1 1cy, Whimbrel 1

A 1st for Corvo and more Yanks!

Birded around the village all day today. Got a "bad" start by finding a first for Corvo - a House Martin. We do NOT want European birds, we want Yanks! After kicking the upper fields and scanning all the fig trees, stone walls etc. we went for a walk around the airfield. Things soon felt better as Simon picked up a juvenile Pec and a juvenile White-rumped Sand together, nice ones! Both birds looked like shit in the beginning to be honest, as you might expect after almost crossing the Atlantic... They both gave very nice views as they started to feed just inside the fence next to the airstrip. These two and the waders in the crater yesterday signal that new American birds are in fact coming in, let's hope that goes for warblers as well!

Yank wader video by Simon. Filmed by hand without scope!

Pec with W-r in the background.

White-rump and Pec.

When we got to the lower fields i bumped in to a Northern Wheatear that looked almost as a flying peach. I have never seen anything like it. Here, have a look at that rufous underpart colour. Beautiful, isn't it!?

I've never seen a Northern Wheatear with this rufous underparts. Has to be a leucorhoa, right?

Winds are really strong outside now from somewhere around west, so I really look forward to do another hit in the valleys tomorrow!

Birds

Pectoral Sandpiper 1 1cy, White-rumped Sandpiper 1 1cy, Whimbrel 1, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 adult female, Barn Swallow 3 adults, House Martin 1, Northern (Greenland?) Wheatear 1

Caldeirão!

Made a new try to get to get to the crater today and managed to get in, even though it was a little bit foggy. Me and Simon split up and did one side each of the crater. I got the shit side and kept slipping and falling and only saw the Ring-necked ducks and the Pintail we saw in the fields the other day. Simon on the other hand had a nice walk and soon picked up a juvenile Spotted Sand on his side. A little while later he also found a very nice group of five juvenile Pectorals while I was pissed because I had slipped, again! All the waders from my last viit was gone and the new ones were feeding intensely all the time. When did they arrive? Simon also had a Wheatear, the fourth we see around the crater in just a few days. A little bit too many just to migrants, or...? After having a late lunch we walked back to the eastern side of the crater and decided to go around it one more time to really clean it up! Now Simon got the shit side :) I had lost the lens-cap for my scope somewhere in the crater and got annoyed everytime a shower came and made my scope wet (which happened quite a few times)... Anyway, when we met again Simon pulled up the lens-cap from his pocket and tried to explain that he's the man! Today I'm actually willing to agree with him. Thanks!

Probably my best photo so far of a Spotted Sand.

Pintail with Mallards.

After we had done the walk of hell up from the crater again it had gotten pretty late, it was almost 19, getting dark and the rain had increased... we weren't going to get back until LATE! So guess if we were happy to see a car coming up after only 30 s! Got a lift back down in the rain (by a maniac driver) and were pretty much soaked when we got back.
The winds are looking interesting the coming days, or what do you say about these jet streams coming from Newfoundland the next days?

Birds

American Great Egret 1, Grey Heron 2, Mallard ~20, Pintail 1 female-type, Ring-necked Duck 2, Common Snipe ~15, Spotted Sandpiper 1 1cy, Pectoral Sandpiper 5 1cy, Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 (adult+1cy), LENS-CAP 1!

Fog sucks

Had a late morning since we we're only going to do the Caldeira today. Weather looked good and I started with a short walk around the village. Soon got on to the Barn Swallows which turned out to be three. Unfortunately they all are European ones, which is NOT good! We don't want birds coming from that side of the Atlantic!

Adult European Barn Swallows. Note small throat patches, broad breast-bands and white bellies.

As we got up to the crater it was foggy and rainy so we had to do plan B instead. Too bad we didn't have a plan B! We took a walked a bit we north along the western edge of the island. Saw very much fog and rain but not many birds. Let's hope the weather is better tomorrow!

Birds

Mallard 2, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 adult female, Common Snipe 1, Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 adult, Northern Wheatear 2, European Barn Swallow 3 adults

The lost Swallows!

Like we decided yesterday me and Simon (the man!) did Ribeira da Ponte during the morning hours. As usual we found nothing, but we just have to keep on looking! It's out there somewhere. A few showers fell as we did the valley and that's pretty much how the weather was during the day. Either sunny and hot or windy and rainy. Waterproofs on, waterproofs off, waterproofs on, waterproofs off... Simon showed me some new spots for me. Good looking places! In the "Garden of Eden" I'm gonna find a Blackburnian Warbler after he's gone back home I think (since he talks about that species about ten times every day). We split up and did some different fields and small valleys on our way back down towards the village. A heavy showe came and I decided to get a lift down to the village, but after only 500m I met Simon and decided to get off. That nearly cost me a foot since the driver started driving again as I was getting off the car having my foot on one of the wheels!

Shortly after that I found an odd Starling flying over the Rubbish Dump. Starlings out here have a bad habit of looking like Swallows all the time, especially when they descend quickly from higher to lower altitudes. Anyway, this Starling soon turned out to be a Swallow as I saw the pale underparts of it! This was just what we both needed, some real action! After watching it for a while it cloned itself and there was two of them. Both turned out to be Barn Swallows, adult ones. But which subspecies!? To be honest I didn't know what to look for at all on an adult bird apart from the colouration of the underparts. Got some lousy pictures of one of them before they disappeared behind a ridge, comments are very, very welcome!

Adult Barn Swallow

We went back to the guesthouse and recharged ourselves with orange juice, coffee, cookies and fruit before going out birding again. We also had a look in the American and European books we brought and judging from the plates in those it seems as and adult American apart from the rufous underparts should have a bigger throat patch and a thinner breastband between the throatpatch and the white body than the European. Am I right? Unfortunately the pictures are too poor for this to be visible. Judging from the underparts it looks like a European one I think (both birds looked very similar, being adults with pale underparts), or can an adult American be this pale underneath? Comments are VERY welcome!

After the break Simon took a walk in the village (which gave a Whimbrel) and got a haircut while I walked up the road again to the Swallow hotspot arond the farmers' little houses along the road. As I got up there hell broke loose. The rain was massive! And of course no cars were passing by so I just had to walk back in the rain. After a while I got a lift back but by then I was already soaked and cold.

In the evening we head an absolutely delicious chicken dinner at the airport restaurant. Normally the food is something fried (meat or fish) served with rice and french fries and then spiced up with some extra salt and ketchup. You do get a bit tired of that rather quick. Tonight we hit the jackpot though, especially since it was the dish of the day, meaning that we had to wait about one minute to get our food. Excellent!

If weather allows us we'll go up to the crater tomorrow to have a look in there. Hopefully at least some new ducks and waders have turned up since my last visit there (11 days and an American weather system ago!), and maybe a yank passerine has got stuck down there? Both Yellow-rumped Warbler and Scarlet Tanager have been recorded down there in the past...

Birds

Grey Heron 1 1cy, Great Black-backed Gull 1 1cy, Barn Swallow 2 adults (ssp?)