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