Crazy winds!

Nice weather in the morning, calm and sunny = passerine search. Crap weather in the afternoon and evening, really windy and a few showers = seawatching.

Flushed two American Great Egrets (and a juvenile Grey Heron) in the morning at Ribeira da Poso de Agua. Two new birds or has the bird from the Caldeira gone out? It was in the Caldeira yesterday...

American Great White Egrets

Also saw the Chimney Swift hunting over around Poso de Agua and Fojo during the first half of the day.

Chimney Swift

Birded Fojo below the lower road and after some pisching I heard a very sharp and loud "ZIPP!" close to me. Out from a bush popped an Ovenbird, at the exact same place where Rafa found it a few weeks ago! Probably the same bird that has spent some time in Fojo during the last two weeks and that now has found its way back to its first home on Corvo, or...?

Ovenbird

Continued birding Cancelas and Cantinho below the road and also checked the middle parts of Cancelas before I started walking back in the very strong wind. Tried to bird da Ponte but it was to windy there, even in the very bottom of the valley! Also slipped as usual in da Ponte but this a bit harder than normal. Lost grip totally with both feet at the same time and slided down the slope for a bit before hitting a small tree with my groin - ouch! =/

Ended the day at the windmill with some seawatching that produced a Gannet and some Great Shearwaters. Tried to string a Manx for a while but it turned out to "just" be a Great.

Tomorrow we are getting a new hit from a pretty deep low pressure (see below). Hope it isn't to windy for birding just... the waves are supposed to be about 9 m high!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm! :-)

After eating at the windmill yesterday (don't ask me why we went there!) we were back at the Bandits' today! Home sweet home! No chocolate pudding thugh :(


Birds
Gannet 1 1cy, Great Shearwater 7, Pale-bellied Brent 1, American Great White Egret 2, Grey Heron 1 1cy, Chimney Swift 1, Ovenbird 1

New Yank landbirds!

Check out the Eurovision Rare Bird Contest on Petes blogg: http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/2009/10/eurovision-rare-bird-contest.html Today Sweden got one new point (Yellow-rumped Warbler) and Finland its first point (Chimney Swift). Two days ago Italy got its first point (Savannah Sparrow) and yesterday Denmark its first point (Indigo Bunting).

Started in the Caldeira today with Fred, Rene, Jacob, Daniele and Hannu. On our way there we saw the newbie American Great White Egret on a field below Fojo in the morning. Found a new species for Corvo in the crater, but not a very exciting one; Garganey.

Garganey

Other ducks in the crater included a bunch of Mallars, the Pintail, a Black Duck hybrid, the two Ringnecks and their new homie a male Tufted Duck. About 20 Common Snipe kept us alert as did a Grey Heron. The American Great Egret (the oldie) was also still around as usual.

Tuftie and Ringnecks

When we got out of the crater we found out that a Chimney Swift had been found over Fojo and was now flying around Pico/da Ponte somewhere. Walked towards the place and scanned but got interrupted by the news that a Yellow-rumped Warbler had been found by the reservoir! Walked there as fast as we could but the bird had disappeared in the flock of Canarys that it was feeding together with. Many of us searched the area but the bird wasn't seen again :( Some people saw the Savannah Sparrow again though. I only managed to see the Dotterels and a Red-throated Pipit :( Anyway, a good sign that birds are still arriving! Hopefully the winds that are blowing will bring even more stuff! Would LOVE to see an American Swallow for example!

Kicked a few fields on my way back down to village and ended the day with an hour of seawatching which produced the regular ten or so Great Shearwaters and a bonus juvenile Gannet. Tomorrow me and Fred will search the island for the Great Blue Heron that everyone except us seems to see.

Birds

Gannet 1 1cy, Great Shearwater ~10, Grey Heron 2, American Great Egret 2, Mallard ~20, Black Duck x Mallard 1, Pintail 1, Garganey 1, Ring-necked Duck 2, Tufted Duck 1, Great Black-backed Gull 1, Lesser Black-backed Gull 1, Common Snipe 20, Dotterel 2, Red-throated Pipit 1

New systems on their way

Pretty quiet day today. The westerlies keep blowing pretty strong over the island so hopefully more stuff is coming in. Saw the Pale-bellied Brent flying over the village this morning while waiting for Manuel to take us up. Birded my way up through Cancelas slowly and carefully during the first half of the day, but found absolutely nada. Went down again through Fojo and continued to Pico where I spent a few hours at the White-eyed Vireo place. Walked back through da Ponte where I bumped into the Black-and-white Warbler again. That bird has been there for ages now! I wonder what it's gonna do... winter there maybe!?

Weather is looking promising. Thanks to a low pressure moving out a few days ago we've been getting westerlies for the last three days. And more is on the way...

This is what the weather was today.

On Saturday a new system is coming in and it is coming from southwest!

The system is moving pretty quick as well, this is on Sunday.

Tomorrow we'll try to go to the Caldeira!

Birds

Brent Goose 1, Black-and-white Warbler 1

Savannah Sparrow!

Started in the village today to look for the Grackle, but no sign of it. Also did some seawatching but found nothing but Cory's. Kicked some fields with Pierre and then went back to the guesthouse and had a break after seeing a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. In the village Eric heard something on the radio that sounded like someone had found a Sparrow, a probable Savannah Sparrow. We couldn't find out anything more about the bird so we decided to head up towards the valleys and try to radio the others. After a sweaty walk we managed to get through to Daniele who had seen a Savannah Sparrow, just like we suspected, up by the reservoir. Everyone went up there pretty soon but the conditions were horrible with very strong wind, fog and a little bit of rain just to mess up all optics. Thanks to this noone saw the bird :( We did hear and see a Red-throated pipit though, the fifht for the Azores.

A wet and cold group of birders sheltering behing a "Cat" for lunch.

Went down to the village to say bye to Simon, Eric, Pierre and the others before I went up to the mountain again to gie the Sparrow another try. When I got up there the fog disappeared and I got about an hour of clear weather which produced two Red-throated Pipits and the two Dotterels.

Red-throated Pipit

After a while I heard a car coming and out jumped about eight other birders who had decided to give the Sparrow another go. It didn't take long before David had relocated the bird, but then the fog started to come in again and only Hannu got to see the bird. NOT good! Anyway, after another 15 minutes or so of nervous waiting we all had gotten good views of the bird in the fog. Jadang!

Savannah Sparrow!

On the way back we bumped into Staffan Rodebrand and Rich Bonser who were looking for the Northern Parula at the power plant. The bird gave som absolutely excellent views at dusk. Definately the best looking bird out here so far this autumn!

Northern Parula again, what a bird!

Birds
Northern Parula 1, Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1, Whimbrel 2, Savannah Sparrow 1

Norsern Parula

Went birding with Simon today since he's leaving tomorrow. Did Pico all morning but once again without finding the White-eyed Vireo. It has to be in there somewhere! We were supposed to meet at the bridge over da Ponte for lunch at 12 and so we did. But instead of lunch we got a message with German touch on our Walkie Talkies: "Norsern Parula at se Power Station"

Simon immediately tried to phone Pierre (but failed) and started to walk towards the place. Since I had seen one last year in Cantinho I walked back a few hundred meter and radioed out the news to the others in the northern valleys before I left. Soon we met Swedish birder Stefan Ettestam who had found the bird (new point to Sweden Pete!!!) and he explained where the bird was and even showed me some pictures of it. Moments later a car passed us and we got a lift all the way to the site - perfect! It didn't take us long before Martin relocated the bird. And what a bird! And what views! Birders continued to drop in and soon everyone had seen the bird - fantastic since we are almost 30 birders here now!

Swedish birders Per Forsberg and Jan-Michael Breider also managed to get a lift to the Parula.

Photo battle!

Northern Parula!

Fred, Ward and other happy people going back up to the valleys after a successful twitch.

Went back up to Ribeira da Ponte with Simon and kicked it all afternoon without seeing anything at all. But still it felt really exciting to bird today! New birds have apparently come in and all valleys are worth checking carefully again.

Many of the birds that have been seen the last days were seen today. A new bird was a Great Blue Heron that Daniele saw flying over the villege towards the Caldeira, so hopefully I'll have to make a visit there soon again. A very interesting fact is that two birders independently saw a bird that might have been a GRACKLE(!!!) around the village today! Tomorrow will be an interesting day for sure! To see all observations, visit http://www.birdingazores.com/

Birds

Northern Parula 1, Whimbrel 1

What!?

Did it rain today or did it rain today? Ask David who first spent two hours in a cave(!) in one of the ribeiras and then another two hours in the public toilet in Fojo sheltering for the rain. What a nightmare!

I started the day on Pico to look for the White-eyed Vireo. Got about 1½ hours of birding before the rain came, which produced biref views of an American Redstart. After sitting in the rain for almost three hours we all walked back, totally soaked, without any sign of the Vireo. During my lunch brake in the village Pete and Darryl found two Yellow-billed Cuckoos of which I got to see one. Stunning birds they are! Hope we get one with black bill soon for comparison. These two birds were new in thanks to a low pressure moving out from Newfoundland, bringing westerlies (and rain) yesterday and today. And that's not all that was found today...

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Pete and Darryl left today, as did Dominic and his group. In came Team Scandinavia with two Swedes, four Danes and two Finns and also Daniele from Italy. Now the big photo battle is ON Vincent! Went up with all of them and Manuel and did another try for the White-eyed. After one or two hours Eric brought the news to us that Pierre had did it again, found a mega that is, this time a Yellow-throated Vireo. He's in the zone! As I was fortunate enough to see last years bird in Cancelas I stayed on Pico until dusk without seeing the White-eyed, while everyne else went to Cantinho and dipped the Yellow-throated. Hopefully we'll all have a bit more luck tomorrow!

Another lowpressure seems to be moving out around Wednesday in a somewhat more southerly orbit... what will come then?


Birds
American Great Egret 1, American Redstart 1, Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1, Whimbrel 1

Flores!

Got news yesterday evening that there was a Killdeer and an Upland Sand on Flores, so 12 of us decided to twitch Flores today. Simon chartred a boat for us from 12 to 19 and we agreed to meet in harbour at 11:30. At about 11:20 news broke that the French machine Pierre had found a White-eyed Vireo on Pico. Third for Corvo and third for the Western P! After a few minutes of panic (at leat for me) everyone agreed on sticking to the plan and doing the Flores trip no matter what. So at 12 the twelve of us we left on our chartred boat.

Corvo

Parts of the crew!

In Santa Cruz we had two taxis waiting for us and immediately went up to Lagoa Rasa and the Killdeer. Small lake and easy to scan so we found the bird fast. What a stunning wader! Enjoyed it on ground and in flight for half an hour or so before we continued to Ponta Delgada and the Upland Sandpiper along the road out to Ponta do Albarnaz. The Upland Sand was soon giving excellent views in flight, but was a bit tricky to spot on the ground as it was really flighty and nervous.

Killdeer!

Killdeer again!

Upland Sand!

After enjoying the bird for an hour we walked back to Ponta Delgada and had lunch at a bar. Some of the guys walked over the old soccer field and bumped into a White-rumped and a Least Sandpiper. While we were having our very late lunch we got news about a Double-crested Cormorant in Lajedo on the other side of the island. Being short on time we never went for the bird as we would never have made it to the harbour in Santa Cruz to 18:00 :( Instead we had a look at the waders before our taxis came and took us to Santa Cruz.

Least Sand!

In Santa Cruz harbour, close to the boat, we had two Semi-p Plovers and another White-rump giving stunning views. Other stunning views there was Vincent Legrand showing how you do to get the best pictures of whatever might turn up.

White-rump

Semi-p Plover

Vincent Legrand in action

On the way back we got company by some dolphins aound the boat for a while. Stunning creatures and amazing to get to see them just a few m away! That was one of the absolute highlights during the day for me!

Dolphin with Flores in the background

Tomorrow we will try to relocate that Vireo on Pico. Wish us good luck!

Birds

Killdeer 1, Upland Sandpiper 1, Semipalmated Plover 2, Least Sandpiper 1, White-rumped Sandpiper 1, Grey Heron 1, Northern Wheatear 2