American Yellow Warbler

Today everyone started in Ribeira do Poso de Agua and looked for the Chestnut-sided Warbler. Exactly zero of us saw or heard it! On our way there a few saw the Indigo Bunting in da Ponte from the car. I missed it of course :( After a few hours I left Poso de Agua to try the Indigo Bunting instead. When I had walked about 50 m people Simon called me back since they had seen an Indigo Bunting in Poso de Agua! I missed it and the bird was not seen again. Spent a few more hours in the valley but didn't see anything interesting. Got a few shots of a Woodcock on the ground.

Woodcock

In the afternoon I left to try the Indigo Bunting in da Ponte again. Not much happened. In fact it was really boring until Vincent arrived and I had someone to talk to. After a while Manuel came with some newly arrive birders. We thought just a few would arrive but they turned out to be nine! Vincent took them down inte da Ponte to look for some of the megas that are present in there. I stayed up by the road and continued to watch the boring non-Indigo tree. After two hours I was pretty cold and went for a short walk. Bumped into Pierre and had a little chat with him before our walkie-talkies went crazy. René had found a Warbler with all yellow underparts, a possible American Yellow Warbler. Pierre had already seen it in the WP so he went to radio the others while I ran down to where the bird was. Didn't take long before I saw it and soon everyone had seen it pretty good - an American Yellow Warbler! Really strange that it turned up in da Ponte since it is by far the most watched site the last week. Why do so many Yanks end up there? Apart from the Yellow Warbler the Black-and-white and two(!) American Redstarts were present in the same valley! Went back to the non-Indigo tree and spent another 1½ hours or so there getting aquainted with some of the new birders.

Back in the village we bumped into Simon who had just relocated the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Got some good but brief views of the bird before it drapped down on the ground. Later had a look at the Great Egret that Pete had found in the fields behind "The Bandit's". Got great views of it as it was walking around along the stonewalls, waving its neck and catching insects. The Caldeira bird that is out sightseeing or a new bird in? Maybe we'll find out after tomorrow when some birders have been in the Caldeira.

Great Egret

As I was watching the Egret Pierre announced on the radio that a Cormorant was flying along the island towards the harbour. Picked up the bird pretty quick but it was to distant to see any details. Took my camera and got some crap shots of the bird but you can't see shit on the pictures either. Apart from these birds Fred also saw a Corn Crake and a Red-eyed Vireo around Pico. Probably the same crake as I saw four weeks ago.

Cormorant sp

Tomorrow I wont spend very much time at the non-Indigo tree.

Birds

American Yellow Warbler 1, Great Egret 1, Cormorant sp 1

Dipp day

First a few things I forgot yesterday. The French team found a new (third!) American Redstart in Ribeira da Ponte where the Black-and-white and the Black-throated Green were still around to. Fred also found a Spotted Sand on the beach.

First half of today was quite calm, best bird was a Red-eyed Vireo by Pete in the bottom of Fojo. All I picked up on my walkie-talkie when he found it was "...eyed Vireo" so at first I got a bit excited, but unfortunately soon calmed down again. At lunch time Fred picked up an Alpine Swift over Fojo, a 1st for Corvo and 2nd for Azores. During early afternoon Darryl spotted an Indigo Bunting at Ribeira da Ponte. I was already on my way there and soon joined Darryl and Ferran who sat and waited for the bird to reappear. After ten minutes of waiting the walkie talkies went active again and soon the news broke that Pierre had found a CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER in Ribeira da Poso de Agua. 1st for Az and about 3rd for the WP - RUUUUUUUUUN! While we were running there news broke on the radios that Fred had relocated the Philadelphia Vireo in Ribeira do Vinte at the same time!

Alpine Swift

The French and Belgians saw the Philadelphia Vireo and in Ribeira da Poso de Agua all ten of us were looking for the Warbler until dusk but all we got was a few contact calls :( Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow when we go there together in the morning. On my way back to the village I once again missed the Indigo Bunting since I stayed too long in Poso de Agua.


Winds today and tomorrow maybe can put some stuff out of course from Newfoundland...?

Birds

Alpine Swift 1

Darryl and his Canadian friend!

Today it happened again! After kicking different valleys in the morning a few of us were going to have lunch at the picnic site in Fojo. As I was on my way there I picked up some intense radio traffic going on with directions on how to get to the bird so I started to run and try to find the right place - without knowing what species they were talking about! As I was almost there I radioed them and got to know that Darryl had found a Canada Warbler just north of the picnic site! Unfortunately the bird had disappeared and we had to search hard. After abut an hour Ferran picked it up and the look on his face was very similar to a childs on Christmas eve. Unfortunately the bird disappeared again before the rest of us arrived... Later Darryl saw the bird briefly again and after totally three hours everyone finally got excellent views as Pete refound the bird feeding in the middle of the wood. Absolute magic!

CANADA WARBLER!

Read about the discovery on Darryls blog: http://gwentbirding.blogspot.com/
Pete has put some film of the twitch (mostly showing my ass) on his blog: http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/

Eric celebrating his 703rd WP species.

On the way back me and Fred checked the lower parts of Ribeira da Poso de Agua. That place looks really, really good and I look forward to seeing something there... sometime... Found a Cory's nest down there with an almost fully grown chick in it. Soon we will be picking them up from the streets in the village but I decided to have a preview.

Juvenile Cory's Shearwater.

Me trying to pull out the Cory's chick that was doing its very best to fight back! Photo by Fred.

According to Pete the occurance of vagrants in Newfoundland correlated pretty good with what turned up in the Azores in autumn 2005, so you better take a look at Newfoundland Rare Bird Alert every now and then: http://groups.google.com/group/nf.birds/topics?lnk=srg&pli=1Thanks to Dave Brown for providing the link.

Birds

Canada Warbler 1!

President Manuel

Not very much happened for me today despite hard work in the Ribeiras. Me, Vincent, Eric, Pierre, Rafa and Ferran tried Ribeira do Vinte for a few hours in the morning, but couldn't find either the Catharus or the American warbler sp. Best bird was a Willow Warbler... Rain was pretty heavy though, and it was slippery like hell today! Had approxiamately ten falls during the day - a new highest daily count for me and my butt without doubt! Ouch! After do Vinte the others went back to the village to twitch a Bobolink that Peter had found. See pics on either his (http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/) or Darryls (http://gwentbirding.blogspot.com/) blog. I decided to stay up in the valleys and birded the upper half of da Ponte, a small part of Pico, the upper parts of Cerrado das Vacas and the lower parts of da Lapa, but found absolutely NADA! Just to keep on looking. Was fortunate enough to get a lift down to the village by Manuel as it started to rain during early evening. Speaking of Manuel; Today there were mayor elections in all Azorean towns, including Corvo, and Manuel was one of two candidates here. A few hours ago we found out that he had gotten 65% of the votes and will be mayor the coming four years, starting in early November. Congratulations Manuel!

Apart from the Bobolink the others saw the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a Merlin of unknown race, the Pec and some other more common stuff around the village. Hopefully more people will be up in the valleys again tomorrow looking for the small magic ones!

Lunch break in Fojo a few days ago. In order of appearance: Me, Rafa and Ferran. Filmed by Simon.

Birds

Willow Warbler 1...

Ovenbird!

Started at upper Ribeira da Poso de Agua and upper Fojo with Simon but strong from south made birding hard. During late morning the Spanish clown Rafa (Rafael Armada) found an absolutely stunning Ovenbird in Ribeira da Amoreira below Fojo. He found the bird as he was taping Blue Tit(!) along the road and everyone could twitch the bird successfully. A very much wanted species for me!

Ovenbird!

Birded my way back and had an odd looking bird I thought could be a Baltimore Oriole near the lower parts of Ribeira da Poso de Agua, but only got crap views of it on big distance in bad light. Maybe it was just a Chaffinch.

Two hours later at Ribeira da Ponte I got to know that there was a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a Baltimore Oriole in the village! Walked down as fast as I could but missed the Oriole. Found out that Eric was the only one who had seen it as it rapidly moved up towards the village. Probably a newly arrived bird looking for a nice place to hang out, hopefully someone will find it the coming days. Also got to see Pete's Grosbeak in the evening.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Visit Peters blog for better pictures: http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/

Black-and-white and Black-throated Green are still hanging around in Ribeira da Ponte and in Ribeira do Vinte Eric flushed a Catharus thrush and Pierre heard the (still!) unidentified American Warbler today again. We're thinking about making a hit there together first thing in the morning tomorrow to nail the bastards!

Birds

Grey Heron 1, Ovenbird 1, Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1

More yanks and more birders

Me and Simon started at the lighthouse valley today while Team Spain went to look for the Red-eyed Vireo by the Camping area and Staffan went to Cancelas to look for the American Redstart. Me and Simon hit the jackpot as there was both a Red-eyed Vireo and an American Redstart (new bird judging from photos) in the lighthouse valley! Beautiful place, but far away and lacks mobile signal...

Red-eyed Vireo

Got picked up by Manuel at noon and dropped of at da Ponte with Staffan who we picked up along the road. After a brief lunch we split up to try to find and stake out the Black-and-white Warbler for the arriving birders; Pierre, Eric, Vincent, Fred, Peter and Darryl. Simon went down and I went up (as usual) and the Black-and-white was still around in the same area as usual. Surprisingly it was soon joined by a Black-throated Green Warbler (maybe same as in Fojo)! This island is without doubt on fire! Most of the arriving birders saw Black-and-white Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler and American Redstart during their first afternoon - what a start! The grand finale of the day was a hunting Common Nighthawk above the power station that Eric picked out at dusk!


Birds
Red-eyed Vireo 1, American Redstart 1, Black-and-white Warbler 1, Black-throated Green Warbler 1, Northern Wheatear 1, Grey Heron 1, Bar-tailed Godwit 1

Red-eyed Vireo

We had planned to go to Flores today with the boat at 11:20, so at 9 I went to the ticket shop and settled everything. At 10:30 Simon got a call that the boat was cancelled... So we headed up to Cantinho and Cancelas instead. After 10 minutes the rain started and the first half of the day was a total failure. After boosting up at Fojo I went down and kicked the lower part of Ribeira da Poso de Agua as hard as could for a few hours, but nada. After walking back scanning fields I took a short walk around the village before I settled on some rocks by the sea and enjoyd a fantastic sunset. On my way back I passed a few bushes by the beach and a Blackcap flew by me. Very odd place for a Blackcap so I checked the bird and soon saw a Red-Eyed Vireo feeding in a small bush 5 m in front of me - yes! Unfortunately it was late and not much light left, so none of the others got to see the bird. Maybe it arrived today as a new system hit us or maybe it flew off the boat that passed the island yesterday? Anyway a good indication that new birds are here! Also saw the small white Egret flying by near the beach. Staffan successfully twitched the Philadelphia Vireo in Ribeira do Vinte today but unfortunately couldn't find the Black-and-white Warbler in Ribeira da Ponte despite a 4 h search :(

Birds
Red-eyed Vireo 1, Bar-tailed Godwit 1 adult female, Little/Snowy Egret 1, Northern Wheatear 1