Wildlife Travel

Galapagos 2012

2012-02-01T21:18:00.004Z

More to follow, but for now here are some of the highlights from our trip so far...

from the top: Ghost Crabs on Cerro Brujo beach; Galapagos Flycatcher getting up close and personal at Sullivan Bay; Medium Tree Finch, found only in the highlands of Floreana; the lovely chocolate brown Marine Iguanas of San Cristobal; Giant Tortoise on Sta Cruz; Santa Fe Land Iguana; a fly past by Red-billed Tropicbirds on Plaza Sur; Kicker Rock

Portugal

2012-01-19T19:05:00.001Z

Portugal, a set on Flickr.

Photos from two March visits to southern Portugal, in 2010 and 2011. Our 2012 trip is nearly fully booked.

Romania 2010

2012-01-19T08:49:00.001Z

Romania 2010, a set on Flickr.

Photos from our 2010 holiday to the Danube Delta in Romania. We have just confirmed our 2012 trip, so more pictures will follow in May.

Aragon 2011

2012-01-17T21:56:00.002Z

The latest of our photo galleries to go online is photos from our May 2011 recce visit to the Aragonese Pyrenees. We shall be returning to the Echo Valley in May/June 2012.

Coming soon... Portugal, Spitsbergen and Bulgaria

Aragon 2011, a set on Flickr.

Wildlife News: 16th January 2012

2012-01-16T10:07:00.004Z

Myanmar snub-nosed monkey, Credit: FFI/BANCA/PRCF

The Myanmar Snub-nosed Monkey was first discovered and described for science as recently as 2010 and has yet to be seen in the wild by scientists. An expedition in 2011 succeeded in capturing the first photographs of the animal alive and in its natural habitat, using camera traps.

Also in Asia, the stunning Blackthroat is amongst the least known birds in the world: a male seen for an afternoon in the grounds of Sichuan University last May was the first of its species to be photographed in the wild! And amazingly, just a month later in June 2011 scientists discovered for the first time where this lovely bird breeds, in the bamboo thickets of the Qinling Mountains of central China. The same habitat is, of course, famously home to the Giant Panda.

A beautiful new snake is discovered in Tanzania... but they're not saying where, exactly. With wildlife trade second only to drugs as the world's largest illegal trade, and with reptiles making up a major part of this, the location of this new species is being kept deliberately vague to avoid it disappearing from the relict forests where it lives and into private collections around the world.

And yet another new mouse lemur found in Madagascar, a highland specialist, just down the road from probably the most visited reserve in the country at Andasibe - Mantadia.

In New Zealand, fourteen young Blue Duck have been translocated to Fiordland, where a program of stoat control now protects more than 160km of waterways.

And in Galapagos, genetic work seems to suggest that the population of Giant Tortoises found on Wolf Volcano, Isabela may include animals that originated on Floreana, or at least the direct descendants of around 40 Floreana tortoises. Among the apparent first generation hybrids are animals less than 15 years old... Floreana's native tortoises were thought to have died out around 150 years ago...

Crete 2011

2012-01-11T22:06:00.001Z

Crete 2011, a set on Flickr.

Cyprus

2012-01-11T17:41:00.001Z

Cyprus, a set on Flickr.

New Zealand 2010/11

2012-01-10T23:09:00.001Z

New Zealand 2010/11, a set on Flickr.

Flickr Photo galleries

2012-01-10T17:57:00.005Z

Over the next few days/weeks we will be uploading photos from previous trips to Flickr. To start with (and to remind myself that it's now just two weeks until I go back there!), photos from the Galapagos...

Wildlife Travel's photostream on Flickr.

Happy Christmas

2011-12-23T08:54:00.001Z

Wildlife News: 1st December 2011

2011-12-01T16:49:00.003Z

The big wildlife news this week is the Government's Autumn budget statement... where, tucked in amongst the headline-making stuff about the continuing decline of the economy, was the statement that “…we will make sure that gold plating of EU rules on things like Habitats aren’t placing ridiculous costs on British businesses.” Hidden behind the use of the kind of language that implies the hoisting of extra red tape by 'those pesky Europeans' is the fact that the Treasury would like to see the protection for Britain's wildlife reduced, to clear the way for development, development, development...

Remember, this is the Government that said it aimed to be "the greenest administration ever".

The conservation community is, predictably, alarmed...

Reaction from The Wildlife Trust, The Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants; RSPB.

(updated: an opinion piece from BirdGuides)

The Impossible Hamster from new economics foundation on Vimeo.

Earth Music Bristol Festival

2011-11-24T20:13:00.001Z

More from the Earth Music Bristol festival, via Radio 3.

Radio 3: The Essay: Bird Song

2011-11-23T16:12:00.002Z

Behaviour expert Professor Tim Birkhead explores how birds learn to sing (probably only available 7 days...)

Wildlife News (ish): 7th November 2011

2011-11-07T19:22:00.002Z

Two Parid-related links:

Some amazingly friendly Siberian Tits and the work of Matt Sewell on film. (Speaking of whom: this is wonderful!)

Occurence Of Birds from R & A Collaborations on Vimeo.

Ghosts continued

2011-11-03T08:19:00.005Z

More from the pen of Ralph Steadman, including Labrador Duck, Colombian Grebe and North Island Takahe.

Some of the coverage of the Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition: it's not only me who thinks it's great!

BBC website
BBC London: go to 1 hr 36 minutes in.
Today Programme, Radio 4: go to 1 hr 43 minutes in.
Midweek on Radio 4
Culture24

(I'm a bit of a fan of this project: can you tell?)

Ghosts: Shoreditch, 2nd November 2011

2011-11-02T23:09:00.006Z

Waved Albatross, by Gail Dooley

As I may have mentioned before, the Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition has finally arrived in London, at the Rochelle School in Shoreditch, a three minute walk north from Shoreditch High Street station.

A beautiful, thought provoking and in places genuinely moving collection, much more (oh so much more!) that 'just' bird paintings, this is really good art with a story to tell. If you get the chance, do make an effort to go and see the exhibition: it's free entry, and is also a selling gallery, so if you like what you see, spend your money and raise money to help prevent any more bird extinctions.

(And if anyone has a spare £7K, Darren Rees's spectacular canvas of a flock of Carolina Parakeets would look great on my wall!)

Carolina Parakeets, by Darren Rees

King Island Emu, by Harriet Mead

Jamaican Red Macaw, just one of the entire room full of paintings from the prolific (and somewhat bonkers!) mind of Ralph Steadman

'Ula-'ai-Hawane, one of the beautiful Hawaiian Honeycreepers by Michael Warren

Gone, by Brigitte Williams.

Simple, beautiful, moving

Double-banded Argus, by Angie Lewin

Auckland Island Merganser, by Matt Underwood

Moa, by Katrina Van Grouw

St Helena Hoopoe, by Jonathan Edwards

Ghosts of Gone Birds: coming soon!

2011-10-24T16:37:00.002+01:00

Dodo by Ralph Steadman, part of the forthcoming Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition.

A little late for Halloween, but hopefully with a lot more treats in store, the Ghosts of Gone Birds extravaganza arrives in London on 2nd November. Admission is free, and the exhibition is on for three weeks, so if you're around in November, get yourself along to the Rochelle School in Shoreditch and enjoy, amongst other things, Margaret Atwood's knitted Great Auk...

Wildlife News: 28th September 2011

2011-09-28T10:16:00.004+01:00

Exciting news from Dartmoor, where Red-backed Shrikes have bred for two years in a row!

Control of introduced predators paying dividends in the Hebrides and New Caledonia.

Another tragic migration period in the eastern Mediterranean... sign the petition, and make your feelings known to the Cypriot government.

50 years on, and the last rhododendron bush on Brownsea Island has been removed. Good news for, amongst others, the island's famous Red Squirrel population.

Isles of Scilly, September 2011

2011-09-22T13:27:00.002+01:00

A lovely week on Scilly. In between some spectacularly esoteric plants (Suffocated Clover, Beaked Tassel-weed and all 3mm of Ophioglossum lusitanicum anyone?), 8 Pectoral Sandpipers and an exhausted juvenile Blue-winged Teal, superb sea views, singing seals and interesting archaeology, I also found the time to catch up with Northern Waterthrush, Solitary Sandpiper, Baltimore Oriole, Red-eyed Vireo, Woodchat Shrike and Bee-eater. Not bad for a gentle week! Although those pesky Buff-breasted Sandpipers still managed to hide from me...

Scott's Forgotten Surgeon: a quick plug

2011-09-09T17:13:00.002+01:00

For those tempted by polar travel, a quick plug for a book written by one of our travellers.

For more information, visit Whittles Publishing.

Norfolk: September 2011

2011-09-06T12:08:00.003+01:00

A week spent on the North Norfolk coast, away from the office and out of mobile phone reception!

Seven days that saw the last days of summer, with blue skies and hot sun, swiftly followed by the arrival of autumn (think 60mph winds and heavy rain, unfortunately coming in from the west, so putting paid to any chances of more good migrants...).

A Wryneck in the bushes on Holme Dunes was very flighty, perched up on the tree tops before disappearing inland. A fantastic high tide roost of thousands of Knot and Bar-tailed Godwits was harried by a Peregrine and a Hobby. At Titchwell, an evening visit revealed a roost of 40 Little Egrets, two Spoonbills and a couple of fly-past Bitterns. At Cley, a wader-array included some wonderful peach-flushed juvenile Curlew Sandpipers, together with Little Stint, Spotted Redshank and Greenshank. The pinging of Bearded Tits and chuntering Cetti's Warblers. Butterflies enjoying the last days of summer: Red Admirals on windfall pears; Small Heath, Speckled Wood and Small White among the dunes. And plenty of blackberries to snack on along the way.

Ectopistes, in memoriam

2011-09-01T13:10:00.003+01:00

On 1st September 1914, the world's most numerous bird ever slipped away. An inglorious anniversary...

Wildlife News: 26th August 2011

2011-08-26T10:47:00.004+01:00

Recent research puts the total number of species on the planet at around 8.7 million, give or take a million. With 'only' around 1.2 million described thus far, that leaves a whole lot of species out there still to be found...

Well, there's one of them... yet another titi monkey hiding away in the Amazon.

Oh, and another... the world's smallest shearwater, hiding somewhere in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, many of those species are apparently heading rapidly towards the poles and climbing the mountains... which obviously doesn't leave a lot of wriggle-room for those species already at the poles/mountain tops.

November sees Ghosts of Gone Birds setting up shop in Shoreditch, with Margaret Atwood's knitted Great Auk among the ghosts... see you there?

Rather more imminently, this weekend is the 15th annual European Bat Night. Our local Wildlife Trust has plenty of batty events to get involved in. I'm sure yours will too!

Oh, and the picture above is a Waved Albatross on Espanola, Galapagos for no reason at all really, other than the fact that, along with 188 other bird species,, this is one of those Critically Endangered birds that the Ghosts of Gone Birds project is trying to help. And co-incidentally, we'll be visiting Espanola in January: just two spaces left, if you want to join us!

Wildlife News: 10th August 2011

2011-08-10T14:01:00.003+01:00

Our 2012 holiday brochure has now been printed and should be winging its way out to those of you on our mailing list very soon. If you would like a copy, get in touch, of perhaps come along and see us at BirdFair next weekend! We'll be in our usual place in Marquee 3, next to The Wildlife Trusts.

Meanwhile, it's been a summer of hatching news...

A pair of Whooper Swans have bred in the East Anglian fens, the first recorded occurence in Norfolk since 1928.

Tree sparrows have nested on the Western Isles for the first time in 25 years.

A Short-tailed Albatross chick has fledged from the first recorded nest outside Japan, having survived the Pacific tsunami in March.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper news over the summer includes the first chicks to hatch in captivity and a significant new breeding population discovered in Chukotka.

Spitsbergen, June/July 2011

2011-07-21T23:59:00.004+01:00

Some last bird photos from Spitsbergen. Unfortunately I missed the pair of Long-tailed Skuas and nearby Ptarmigan that put on a wonderful show for all comers (I was too busy kayaking around icebergs, I'm afraid) and didn't have the right lens with me for the wonderfully approachable pair of Grey Phalaropes (Red Phalarope really would be so much more appropriate for these birds up here!) at Ny Alesund. I also missed the two photograph-able Ivory Gulls. And next time, I will be sure to pay more attention to the Snow Buntings around Longyearbyen, as they're not so easy to approach elsewhere.

But all in all, yep, a pretty spectacular trip and I'm definitely looking forward to returning in 2012. Fancy joining me?

Spitsbergen, June/July 2011: Land of the Ice Bear

2011-07-20T14:47:00.002+01:00

All in all, we saw 9 individual Polar Bears. Of these, one (our first) was rather distant (so much so that even through the telescope, many people were less than convinced by me that this was actually a Polar Bear stalking a couple of seals on the ice edge, rather than yellow snow...) and another was watched again at some distance swimming across the far side of a fjord.

But our time spent with the other seven was utterly, spectacularly memorable. Spectacular being the word of the trip, obviously.

One young female was watched for upwards of 5 hours as she ambled along the coast, swimming out to some low rocky islands to 'graze' on the eider colony there. She enabled amazingly close approach, and really didn't seem bothered by her admirers. Slightly more of a bother to her were the pair of Great Skuas who were very forceful in pushing her off 'their' island, frequently making contact.

Later the same day we came across a mother with two cubs, making their way across an incredibly scenic sheet of sea ice, backed by glaciers and snowy mountains. One of her cubs was having a hard job of keeping up, having managed to get itself onto softer ice and he fell in a couple of times. Meanwhile, a second large adult was rapidly moving towards the family from further down the ice... a VERY exciting encounter, as the mother clearly wanted to put as much space as possible between her family and this interloping adult, who equally obviously wanted to catch them up! And in the middle of it all, the one floundering cub who just couldn't keep up... Sitting in the zodiacs, a good few hundred metres away from the action, we could hear his cries coming across the ice. In the end, he managed to get back to firmer ice, the mother came back to get him, and the family made its way determinedly off towards the mountains, leaving the lone adult mooching about on the ice edge, looking for a different afternoon snack.

Our last two, a big adult male and a second, smaller individual were up on the pack ice, at almost 81 degrees north. Big white beasts in an expanse of white, snow flurries swirling around, Harp Seals porpoising through the water and groups of Little Auks and Brunnich's Guillemots flying past. Arctic magic!

Spitsbergen, June/July 2011: some marvellous mammals

2011-07-14T18:24:00.003+01:00

OK, I admit it, I'm teasing just a little by holding back the photos of the big white beast, the world's largest land predator and reason we were accompanied at all times by a rifle or two (even when kayaking!)
But meanwhile...

The variety of land mammal life on Spitsbergen may be pretty low, with just four species (three if you count Polar Bear as a marine mammal, and one of those is an introduced population of the Sibling Vole), but the marine mammals are pretty great, as are the lovely, stumpy Svalbard Caribou (currently thought of as an endemic subspecies, but such a different creature from the leggy beasts of Canada!).

I suspect we were a little unlucky in 'only' finding a couple of Minke Whales and a possible, maybe, distant Sei Whale amongst the cetaceans (in particular, Beluga are out there in good numbers, while Orca, Fin Whale, Humpback Whale and some of the northern dolphins might be expected too). But when you've got Walruses bobbing about in the surf inspecting the zodiacs at close range, little parties of porpoising Harp Seals around the pack ice, the occasional 'massive sausage' Bearded Seal floating past on a floe and an oh-so-friendly Ringed Seal playing with our kayaks... who needs Arctic Fox after all that, anyway? It's always good to have something to come back for...

Spitsbergen, June/July 2011: Little Auks of Fugelsongen

2011-07-13T17:26:00.005+01:00

For most of us (well, for me anyway), Little Auks are a very infrequent sighting, either as a stream of tiny black and white whirring dots over the stormy seas off Flamborough Head, struggling north again after being blown south by a winter storm or else a cute (but probably doomed) bird on a random duck pond or coastal ditch...

So it was a pretty impressive experience to find myself sat half way up a scree slope, amongst the rocks and boulders of a Little Auk colony. Pretty unconcerned about our presence (birds were sat on the rocks next to us), their main concern was the occasional passing Glaucous Gull. On an island with no raptors, these brutes are the top aerial predator and more than capable of catching a Little Auk in flight (I watched them do it!). With every pass of the gull, the whole colony would take off, whirring around together across the slope: interestingly, every time they did it, they flew in the same direction, following a clockwise loop over the sea...

Fugelsongen, the island where this accessible colony is located, means 'bird song', named after the cute burblings of the birds in the burrows.

Spitsbergen, June/July 2011: Arctic wild flowers

2011-07-11T19:45:00.007+01:00

The flora of Spitsbergen is predictably restricted, with around 165 vascular plant species: a very 'do-able' flora, especially with the help of this website.

The islands' "forests" are made up of tiny, creeping Polar Willow and Dwarf Birch, and pretty much all the flowers are equally diminutive, clump-forming or creeping 'alpines'. But get down to their level, and there's some pretty cool plants to be found!

Svalbard Poppy, Papaver dahlianum (which, despite its name, isn't endemic but also found in eastern Greenland and far northern Norway). One of the more showy flowers, a common roadside plant in and around Longyearbyen but not so obvious elsewhere.

Mountain Avens, Dryas octopetala

Pygmy Buttercup, Ranunculus pygmaeus

Purple Saxifrage, Saxifraga oppositifolia. Together with the lovely Moss Campion, these patches of purple were the most obvious bright colours on the tundra

Hairy Lousewort, Pedicularis hirsuta

Cassiope tetragona. Apparently the English name is White Arctic Bell-heather... Cassiope sounds much nicer.

A lovely yellow form of Tufted Saxifrage, Saxifraga caespitosa. Or is this Saxifraga aurea...?

Ignoring the grasses & sedges (as, I'm afraid, I did), there are only really four big-ish groups of difficult plants to worry about in Spitsbergen: buttercups and saxifrages (which aren't so hard really), the white Caryophyllaceae (which I'm afraid went the way of the grasses & sedges!) and the whitlow grasses, Draba spp. These basically end up being 'one of the yellow whitlow-grasses' or 'one of the white whitlow-grasses'... no prizes for working out this one! (which, if pushed, I'd call Draba alpina, the appropriately-named Golden Whitlow-grass).

I obviously still have a fair bit to get to grips with, with the Spitsbergen flora... maybe next year!

Spitsbergen, June/July 2011

2011-07-10T11:47:00.004+01:00

So I'm just back from a spectacular 10 day trip to the Arctic... Spitsbergen to be precise (or Svalbard, if you prefer the Norwegian name for the archipelago).

My face is still acheing from grinning inanely for 10 days straight: from sitting in the middle of a Little Auk colony to watching an exciting Polar Bear family interaction, via kayaking amongst the icebergs and some lovely high arctic wild flowers...

I'll be uploading some of the photos soon, but for now here's just a taster of what Spitsbergen has to offer... see you there in 2012!

Running for Wildlife

2011-06-16T20:10:00.004+01:00

Sometime leader and all time friend of Wildlife Travel, Jono Leadley will be running the York 10K in support of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in July.

Those of you who know Jono will know just how unlikely a prospect that is... so please consider supporting him, and more importantly the good cause of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust!

Wildlife News: 2nd June 2011

2011-06-02T21:33:00.004+01:00

The rather delightful Red-crested Tree Rat (above, photo copyright Lizzie Noble/www.proaves.org) appears for the first time in 113 years... by turning up at the front door of an eco-lodge in Colombi a!

Ghosts of Gone Birds: coming to BirdFair in August and London in November... get those dates in your diary! (and see you there!)

Iberian Lynx project in Portugal recognised by EU. Now all they need are some Lynx...

Avocets moving North.

Scottish Mink: days numbered?

Nightingales missing: shocking 50% drop in just over a decade!

Blast from the Past: New Zealand

2011-05-26T21:39:00.002+01:00

A shingle-and-shell spit on the edge of a shallow bay. A flock of small wader dozing away at high tide roost.

Fairly plain waders, silvery grey above, white underneath with a mid-length, dark bill and mid-length, dark legs. Fairly standard wader fare...

A lazy stretch: so they have a white wing bar. And a vague hint at a plover-like patch at the chest sides, perhaps?

A turn of the head...

... and an otherwise fairy unimposing bird turns into one of the world's 'must see' species, a real one-off. The location, of course, is New Zealand, more specifically the water treatment works just outside Auckland, back in January (feels like SO long ago now!). And the good news (for me, anyway!) is that most of my photos have been recovered from my smashed hard drive. Hence these Wrybills!

Aragon Pyrenees: orchid-tastic!

2011-05-25T23:28:00.005+01:00

A superb week in the mountains, where the sun shone and the spring was a good couple of weeks early (apparently, in complete contrast to the eastern Med/Balkans where I've been for much of the spring).

A highlight for me, and something of a surprise, was the variety and particularly the sheer numbers of orchids in flower: on every roadside, under every patch of trees.

As well as the following photographed species, I also happened upon Sword-leaved Helleborine (one of my favourite orchids, and flowering just about everywhere!), White Helleborine, Broad-leaved Helleborine, Dense-flowered Orchid, Early Purple Orchid (mostly heading over), Champagne Orchid (a single spike past its best, presumably most have finished by now), Serapias lingua and (to my eyes, anyway) Heath Spotted Orchid. There are also Bee and Woodcock Orchids out there for the finding, as well as some well-guarded Lady's Slipper. Something to look for next time!

Pyramidal Orchid

Fragrant Orchid

Orchis langei

The ever-spectacular Lizard Orchid

Lady Orchid, together with Greater Butterfly and Lang's Orchids, one of the commonest orchids in the area, found everywhere from the high alpine meadows around 2000m to hot lowland (relatively) roadsides.

Military Orchid

Burnt Orchid

The Dactylorhiza orchids are one group that, to me at any rate, are more bewildering even than the Ophryses. These stocky, chunky, deep purple spikes in wetter areas in the alpine meadows, I guess, must be Dactylorhiza majalis... although quite why, I have no idea.

Whereas this tall, elegant, almost 'traunsteineri' plant growing in an area of rushy riverside wetland would seem to fit with Dactlyorhiza elata. Perhaps.

Phew. At last, a Dactylorhiza that's pretty straight forward!
Elder-flowered Orchid, which comes in two colours: this lovely buttery yellow, and a pinky 'rhubarb and custard' form.

Greater Butterfly Orchid. Everywhere!!

Lesser Butterfly Orchid. I have to admit that, after finding this spike, I stopped checking the position of pollinia and just enjoyed the spectacle!

Ophrys sphegodes, the Early Spider Orchid. Quite what it has to do with spiders, I haven't the foggiest...

Ophrys insectifera, the ever-appealing Fly Orchid

Is there anybody out there?

2011-05-22T18:25:00.000+01:00

I sometimes wonder to myself, when sorting out photos at the end of a busy day in the field, 'but does anyone actually read your blog?'

So... do you? And if so, what do you think? Is it interesting?? How did you get here, and will you be coming back again??

See that button down below, 'comment'... please leave me one!

Cheers!

Philip

Aragon Pyrenees: 22nd May 2011

2011-05-22T16:54:00.002+01:00

And behold, there was sunshine... blue skies, fluffy white clouds, spectacular mountains. The perfect backdrop to a day of wandering the lanes. Perfect weather for butterflies, and for big soaring things. The skies were permanently full of raptors today (what do all these vultures eat??), with Booted Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Hobby and a very noisy Peregrine new for the trip.

At a smaller scale, butterflies were VERY active today, with 30 species putting in an appearance: highlights were my first Spanish Heath, together with Pearly Heath, Spanish Fritillary, Southern White Admiral and Berger's Clouded Yellow.

By the river, Subalpine and Melodious Warblers and Nightingale seem in permanent competition to see who can sing loudest, although all lose out to the noisy chorus of the Iberian Water Frogs.

And now I'm off out again... Citril Finches just up the road are proving too tempting!

Egyptian Vulture

Agrilus sp. Just days after bemoaning how I never seem to see Jewel Beetles, in the last two days I've found three different species, including this handsome fellow who has a 'thing' for yellow flowers, and the beautiful Anthaxia salicis, a metallic blue and red concoction that unfortunately wasn't quite such a good poser as its larger, greener cousin.

Southern White Admiral

Spanish Heath

Aragon Pyrenees: 21st May 2011

2011-05-21T16:28:00.004+01:00

Mainly a day of sunshine, walking and butterflies (21 species stood still long enough for me to put a name to them). Oh, and a rather nice adult Ladder Snake crossing the path that paused long enough to have his photo taken before hissing at me and disappearing into the grass. I wasn't going to argue...

Spanish Fritillary

Glanville Fritillary

Adonis Blue

Little Blue

Wood White

Grizzled Skipper

Trumpet Gentians never fail to entertain!

Aragon Pyrenees: 20th May 2011

2011-05-20T22:07:00.004+01:00

In the Pyrenees for a few days, sorting out a possible new Wildlife Travel itinerary... looking pretty good so far!

Coming out of a restaurant after a very nice lunch, I looked up to see a kettle of raptors circling over the village... Red Kite, Black Kite, about 40 Griffon Vultures, 5 or so Egyptian Vultures, an adult Golden Eagle and, best (and first!) of all, an adult Lammergeier.

At the head of the valley, the tinkling finches feeding on the roadside dandelions weren't Goldfinches, but Citril Finches.

Orchids are flowering in profusion: Lizard, Burnt-tip, Lady, Military, Early Purple, Lang's, Elder-flowered, Pyramidal, Fragrant, Greater Butterfly, Dense-flowered and Early Spider Orchid, Sword-leaved Helleborine, at least two species of Dactylorhiza and Serapias lingua... and so far I've not strayed beyond the roadside!

Add in Green Lizards seemingly at every turn, a photographable (just!) patch of Ramonda and plenty of butterflies on the wing, together with what feels like the first sunshine I've found all spring and what's not to love?

Citril Finch. Finally!

Western Green Lizard.

Ramonda

Oberthür's Grizzled Skipper

Urban Wildlife: 17th May 2011

2011-05-18T00:00:00.002+01:00

The last few days have involved some great urban wildlife experiences during a brief trip 'up North'.

While changing trains on the East Coast mainline, a pair of Black Redstarts were chasing about the train station and nearby derelict buildings, all shivering-of-tail and buzzy-of-song.

From the train window I also saw Red Kite and Marsh Harrier.

In Newcastle, the amazing urban Kittiwake colony was a real treat: their calls normally associated with much 'wilder' places. Indeed, the CCTV images of the Kittiwakes on the Baltic Mill Centre for Contemporary Art was the best thing about the place which, in its expansive six storeys otherwise only managed to find the space for a dozen very unimpressive monochrome watercolours and a single video installation!

And a surprisingly suburban pair of Peregrines were wonderful to watch at their nest, as they prepared for the imminent hatching of their eggs, while keeping a beady eye on passing dog walkers and kids on bikes.

Bulgaria: Bourgas wetlands, 5th May 2011

2011-05-05T20:01:00.002+01:00

A day exploring the wetlands around the not-particularly-salubrious city of Bourgas. And despite the backdrop, they're pretty impressive wetlands!

During the day, a steady stream of raptors and other migrants passed overhead: Short-toed and Lesser Spotted Eagles, Levant Sparrowhawk, Red-footed Falcon, Bee-eaters, White and Black Storks, Honey Buzzards and hundreds of Steppe Buzzards.

The sun came out, for a change, and with it the butterflies: Eastern Dappled White were particularly common, with Small Copper, Grizzled and Mallow Skippers and Brown Argus all new for the trip.

Also enjoying the sun at the Poda reserve were an amazing number of snakes: we must have seen at least 40 Dice Snakes, 15 Grass Snakes and two massive (compared to any of the other snakes we've seen so far) Blotched Snakes in the rockier areas.

Our last stop of the day was on the shores of Mandra Lake, where a single Dalmatian Pelican sailed serenely past, tens of thousands of hirundines hawked over the water and a spectacular flight of 600+ White Pelicans passed overhead, returning from their day's fishing at some inland waterway.

Black Terns, Poda Nature Reserve

Eastern Dappled White

Bulgaria: Ropotamo, 3rd May 2011

2011-05-03T20:03:00.003+01:00

Today was spent in the company of one of Bulgaria's best herpetologists and in one of the most herptile-species-rich areas in the country. Alas, the weather wasn't quite playing ball, and much of the day was fairly sun-free and slightly damp... and yet we still came home at the end of the day having seen 16 species, 2 more than can be found in the entire country back home!!

We started 'herptile day' with a bird... a massive adult White-tailed Eagle just by the road! And while watching him, we stumbled across our first 'herp' of the day (and a long-awaited 'tick' for me!), a big adult European Glass Lizard (photo above): a jumbo Slow Worm, kinda like a walking stick with the face of Voldemort!

And from there we didn't look back...

Nose-horned Viper #1, a female

Nose-horned Viper #2, a dark little male. He's about to shed his skin, hence the beautiful if slightly off-putting opaque blue eyes...

Eastern Grass Snake Natrix natrix persa, with two pale stripes running down the back.

Dice Snake

Eastern Slow Worm Anguis (fragilis) colchicus

Balkan Crested Newt Triturus karelinii

Eastern Spadefoot

Spur-thighed Tortoise

Bulgaria: Strandja, 2nd May 2011

2011-05-02T20:42:00.003+01:00

A lovely day in one of the loveliest parts of Bulgaria, the Strandja mountains. At last the sun came out, and with in the lizards... of which, fingers crossed, many more tomorrow!

Other highlights of the day were a calling White-backed Woodpecker, a sadly dead Levantine Mole and some interesting plants. But the main highlight today must surely be the sun! At last!!

Meadow Lizard Darevskia praticola

Snake-eyed Skink Ablepharus kitaibelii

Balkan Wall Lizard Podarcis tauricus

Bulgaria: Veleka, 1st May 2011

2011-05-01T17:14:00.004+01:00

May 1st, Snakes Day (according to a book of Bulgarian folklore we picked up in Varna...) when we're supposed to stamp around the village boundaries scaring off the snakes. Well, hopefully we'll not scare them too much, as the plan is to be joined by a local herpetologist in a couple of days time!

Meanwhile, we spent the day down towards the Turkish border, around the Veleka River.

Our first roadside stop revealed a fresh-in Roller perched in a small bush, with Woodchat Shrike and Cirl Bunting nearby also new for the trip.

Down at the river we were serenaded by the now-familiar songs of the Marsh Frogs and Nightingales. Some very nice woodland ground flora included the lovely Fritillaria pontica, a piece of plastic rubbish hid a small Grass Snake and a pair of Ortolan Buntings were in the scrub nearby.

Out at the river mouth, a small marsh provided a quick pit stop for a mixed group of waders, made up of 10 Wood Sandpipers, 3 Ruff, 2 each of Greenshank and Little Ringed Plover and a single Temminck's Stint. Meanwhile, at the back of the marsh, a European Pond Terrapin decided to take a walk across the meadow...

Heading homewards, we stopped at a rocky beach (which, by the smell, coincided with a small sewage outfall...) which had attracted a good group of marsh terns to wash and feed, as well as a single Little Stint, yet another wader for the trip list.

Finally, we paused at Arkutino Lake where massive numbers of hirundines fed low over the water, occasionally panicked by the local Hobby, and a single calling Penduline Tit gradually came closer and turned into a wonderful group of at least 6, showing brilliantly in the nearby willow scrub. A lovely end to another good day.

Fritillaria pontica

A longhorn beetle Pedestredorcadion pedestre, being suitably pedestrian and walking across the road...

Temminck's Stint

European Pond Terrapin, a little camera shy...

and a gorgeous little Penduline Tit. Blatantly not my photograph, alas, but copyright Mladen Vasilev, our guide on this trip. His website includes other photos taken on our tour (recent pictures, numbers 2948 onwards)

Bulgaria: Kavarna to Sozopol, 30th April 2011

2011-04-30T19:57:00.002+01:00

Essentially a travelling day, moving from Kavarna in the north to Sozopol in the south, but with plenty of stops along the way.

At our first stop, Mladen picked out an adult Eagle Owl roosting on the cliff, while a piece of roadside wood revealed a lovely Balkan Green Lizard.

Next up was an impromptu roadside stop for a wonderful display of Summer Snowflake Leucojum aestivum together with the tall buttercup Ranunculus velutinus in an area of wet woodland. The woods also turned out to be home to Semi-collared Flycatcher, with a couple of singing males showing very well. And finally, an adult Aesculapian Snake put on a good performance, being very confiding.

The day's herptile theme continued at our stop in the oak woods, where two Eastern Green Lizards and a very friendly Agile Frog posed for photos while yet more Semi-collared Flycatchers sang and checked out nest sites. The local woodpeckers were a little shyer, but we did hear four species (Green, Great Spotted, Middle Spotted and Grey-headed), although only the Green put in an appearance.

Our journey also coincided with brilliant migration conditions (winds coming from the south east, several periods of warm blue skies enabling the soaring things to get over the Balkan Range). Birds seemed to be on the move all day (the most impressive 'vis-mig' I've ever seen), with just some of the highlights: a flock of around 30 Squacco Herons dropped in on the bay below our hotel just after breakfast; a nice Lesser Spotted Eagle low over at our lunch stop, followed five minutes later by a Short-toed Eagle; Black Terns passing overhead quite regularly; a wonderful flock of 96 Red-footed Falcons low over roadside fields. Not bad for a travel day!

Aesculapian Snake, Baltata

Agile Frog, Goritsa

Eastern Green Lizard, Goritsa

Semi-collared Flycatcher. Alas, the 5+ singing males seen during the day were all too high and too active to get a photo, so you'll just have to make do with this little female, fresh from inspecting a nest box.

Bulgaria: Kaliakra, 29th April 2011

2011-04-29T15:46:00.005+01:00

One of those days that start well and then get better and better...

Despite a very civilised start time, we still managed to arrive at Cape Kaliakra before the general tourist arrival and had the place pretty much to ourselves. Amongst the interesting Byzantine ruins we had good views of three species of wheatear (Pied, Isabelline and Northern), with low flying Alpine Swifts buzzing us.

Just offshore attention first went to the birds, with good numbers of Black-throated Diver gathering together, many in smart breeding plumage, and smaller numbers of Black-necked Grebe and fly-past Yelkouan Shearwaters. We were then distracted from the birds by a small group of Harbour Porpoise (the endangered Black Sea sub-species) feeding some way offshore... and then, further out still, a pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins moved through, heading purposefully north.

Moving back inland a bit, we had a stop on some fantastic flower-rich steppe grassland, where we soaked up the spectacle of the amazing colours of the dwarf irises (two species grow alongside each other, the pale yellow and sweetly smelling Iris suaveolens and the incredibly variable and slightly less scented Iris pumila), the dazzling yellow Adonis vernalis (photo above), the crimson Adonis flammea and the deep red Paeonia tenuifolia, a very special plant of the Pontic steppe just bursting into flower. Calandra Larks sang overhead, one or two fresh Swallowtails sheltered amongst the vegetation and a Spur-thighed Tortoise hunkered down, but the plants won the most admiration.

From the steppe, we dropped down into a wonderful hidden valley. While examining some otter spraint on the bridge at the bottom, I looked up to see an animal striding across the path a little further on... an animal with tabby stripes and a long, bushy, dark-tipped tail... rather amazingly, on my second visit to the area, my second Wild Cat! Even more amazingly, this one actually hung around long enough for everyone to get a look at him, as he paced through the vegetation, turned to look over his shoulder from a small rise and then dropped down into the reeds behind. Wow...

(what's even more amazing, only 20 minutes and less than 1km earlier, our driver had watched not one but two Wild Cats (presumably a mother and well-grown kitten) walk across the road in front of him, while we were all scrabbling about on the steppe nearby photographing the flowers! If you want to see a Wild Cat, get yourself to Bulgaria...)

Bulgaria: Shabla and Rusalka, 28th April 2011

2011-04-28T17:26:00.002+01:00

Another day of mixed weather but great wildlife.

A pre-breakfast wander down to the beach revealed some amazingly showy Nightingales on territory and a typically drab (but actually rather exciting!) female Common Rosefinch passing through.

We started, in the rain, at Shabla Lake, with plenty of ducks including good numbers of very smart Ferruginous Ducks, some nice waders and some wonderfully smart male Collared Flycatchers in the bushes.

After lunch, we moved on to the archaeological reserve at Yailata, where distractions from the archaeology came in the form of a male Pied Wheatear, plenty of singing Calandra Larks, some close-in Yelkouan Shearwaters off shore, a great display of the lovely dwarf irises Iris pumila and a good population of (as yet still in bud) Peonia peregrina.

We ended the day on an area of surviving 'virgin' steppe, land never cultivated and almost carpeted in the wonderful little irises. Short-toed Lark sang overhead, a pair of Stone Curlews stalked around and a superb male Rock Thrush gave a great display as he hopped about on the steppe, somewhat lost on his way north. But even he couldn't compete with the irises...

Pied Wheatear. A lovely male, and a long-awaited 'tick'

Green Toad. So much smarter (and friendlier!) than the toads in Cyprus

Just some of the many colour variations of the superb Iris pumila, a lovely dwarf iris of the surviving areas of coastal steppe. For some reason, I only took photos of the purple colour varieties, but there were just as many yellows, creams and whites... more tomorrow!

Bulgaria: Lake Durankulak, 27th April 2011

2011-04-27T19:48:00.004+01:00

A great day around Lake Durankulak, in the north of Bulgaria, an area I was last in in February 2010. Not the most scenic part of the world, with a definite feel of the Fens about the Dobruja Plains at times. But the wildlife more than made up for it...

The real spectacle was the marsh terns, with hundreds of White-winged Black Terns, smaller numbers of Black Tern and Little Gull, a handful each of Whiskered Tern and Mediterranean Gulls and a lovely pink pair of Slender-billed Gulls, all hawking over the reeds and open water.

Herons put on a good show too. Purple Herons flew back and forth, at least three Bitterns were around, a couple of Squacco Herons, a flight of 8 Great White Egrets and a lovely male Little Bittern which flew across a pool and then sat out in the open for everyone to get a good view.

A wonderful party of Red-footed Falcons were feeding over a ploughed field, following the tractor together with a White Stork.

In the reeds, several loud, croaking Great Reed Warblers were heard and seen, a Savi's Warbler briefly popped up and then straight back down again, and a singing Paddyfield Warbler was determined not to be seen, and very nearly managed it!

Oh yes, and then there were the flowers... some interesting arable weeds growing in the fishponds area included Ground Pine and the lovely, bright red Adonis flammea (photo above).

Not bad for a first day...

Crete: 21st April 2011

2011-04-21T19:51:00.005+01:00

A somewhat turbulent last few days in Crete, weather-wise, not helped any by the news filtering through from home of a spring heat wave... grr...

But a good few days, critter-wise!

Freshwater Crab, Potamion potamios kretaion. One of two found crossing the road and helped across to the other side. Not that either was particularly grateful...

A scorpion! The first time I've ever seen a scorpion in Europe... before this I had sort of assumed there were one, maybe two species. So I was quite surprised to find there are at least 27 European species of Scorpion, and they're pretty hard to identify!

Who's watching who? A female Cretan Wall Lizard, giving me the eye from within her hideaway...

Cretan Ebony, Ebonus cretica

Orchis papilionacea ssp alibertis

Orchis anatolica

Ophrys creberimma, an endemic fusca-type

Crete: 18th April 2011

2011-04-18T13:53:00.003+01:00

Another ambling day, this time around the headland of Akrotiri Kakomouri. Another day of scattered sunshine, with a fairly chilly wind at times. Another day of confiding butterflies, new orchids and gruesome plant life!

A very friendly Cretan Festoon

and the Festoon's food plant, Aristolochia cretica. If there's one group of plants that could challenge the Araceae in the gruesome stakes, it's the Birthworts. Of course, Crete being Crete, it has to have its own endemic species. And as with elsewhere, the rule of 'follow the festoon and you'll find the birthwort' worked a treat!

The orchids today weren't present in such spectacular numbers as near Spili, but there was still a good variety to be found amongst the spiny phrygana vegetation, including a nice group of Ophrys herae, the very impressive O. grigoriana and a couple of spikes of O. candica (above).

Crete: Amazing Arums, April 2011

2011-04-17T17:26:00.008+01:00

Am I the only person who thinks the Araceae are great?? There's something very impressive about these bizarre flowers, and any day with a new Arum is a good day. Over the last couple of days we've found three, as well as the leaves of Arisarum vulgare, and there are more out there... I wonder how long it would take to see all of Europe's Araceae? Now there's a challenge...

Arum concinnum, a common plant of the shadier places around here, especially in the old olive groves around the village.

Arum creticum, on a dry hillside near Kissos

The arum to beat all arums! oh, except it's not actually an Arum... the utterly superb Dragon Arum Dracunculus vulgaris, (or 'that horrid plant', according to my travelling companions!) in full flower in the olive groves around the village. Worth the price of the flight just to find this!

*edit. How could I have failed to mention the smell (some might say stench!) of this plant... purported to smell like rotting flesh, I'm not so sure... but it definitely smells of something pretty bad! But for me, it's not a patch on the small of that lovely little Bisarum from Andalucia...

Crete: 17th April 2011

2011-04-17T17:06:00.005+01:00

The weather was a bit more unsettled today: a fair bit of cloud, one or two showers and a good deal of sun too. Rather than strike out further afield, we spent the day ambling about quite close to where we're staying, visiting the monastery at Preveli in the morning, and then wandering down the lanes to Plakias in the afternoon.

The atmospheric grove of Cretan Palm Phoenix theophrasti down on the beach at Preveli, at the mouth of the fantastically named Megalopotamos River. The surrounding hillsides and the grove itself seem to have been burned through in the last few years, but the palms at least have survived well.

The rather handsome (if you like that kinda thing) Cretan Water Frog. These two had managed to get themselves stuck in a water tank near the village and were making quite a racket.

Yet more orchids... this seems to be Ophrys herae, just a single spike growing on the burned hillside at Preveli. Similar to the cretensis we saw yesterday, but larger, with more obvious 'shoulders' on the lip and a rusty brown 'throat'.

Serapias bergonii (probably), the commonest orchid we've come across so far, growing just about everywhere...

Crete: 16th April 2011

2011-04-16T21:40:00.006+01:00

For the orchid-addicted, there can be few better places to find yourself than western Crete in mid April... which is where Philip is on holiday for a week!

Ophrys cretica. The star of the show, so far...

Ophrys cretensis
one of the mammose-sphegodes group, a very delicate little plant, much smaller than the Cypriot mammosa/alasiatica/morio. Told from the similar O. herae by the dark, not gingery 'throat'.

Ophrys episcopalis

Ophrys heldreichii, a big, showy scolopax-type

Anacamptis boryi

Orchis pauciflora

Orchis quadripunctata, a much deeper pink colour here than in Cyprus, where the majority (at least around the Akamas) seem to be a delicate white

just to prove there is more to life than orchids... fields full of the stunning red Tulipa doerfleri

Cyclamen creticum, yet another endemic

and it's not just the plants! We've already caught up with all three of Crete's lizards. Indeed, this one piece of wood was sheltering two of them: a large Balkan Green Lizard and a wonderful pair of Ocellated Skinks (including this chap, above), who certainly aren't hanging around to have their photos taken!

The Dark Peak, Derbyshire: 9th April 2011

2011-04-12T21:22:00.003+01:00

A sunny Saturday was spent exploring the cloughs and moors of the Dark Peak in Derbyshire, on a beetle hunt...

The main target of the day was to try and find Violet Oil Beetle Meloe violaceus, as part of Buglife's Oil Beetle Hunt. And very successful the hunt was too, with three males found during the day, all of them bumbling about in the sunshine, in areas of thin acid grassland on the south-facing slopes of the clough.

As well as being pretty striking looking creatures, oil beetles have a remarkable life cycle. After mating, the females dig a nest tunnel, in which they lay up to 1000 eggs. The larvae hatch and climb up amongst nectar-rich flowers where they wait... until a passing solitary bee stops for a top up of nectar, at which point the oil beetle larvae jump aboard and hitch a ride back to the bee's nest! Here they grow up, chomping away on the bee's stores of pollen and nectar, as well as bee eggs. They overwinter in the poor bee's nests, before emerging next spring as an adult oil beetle, ready to bumble about the grassland again! Pretty cool...

The three we found were all males, as shown by the odd kink in the antennae.

Less glamorous perhaps, but no less interesting, we found four species of carrion beetle hanging around the bodies of a Red Grouse and a Mountain Hare, including the wonderful Red-breasted Carrion Beetle Oeceoptoma thoracicum (below).

With singing Ring Ouzel, Curlew and Golden Plover, several handsome Mountain Hares still in very white pelage and an amazing flight of 100 or more male Emperor Moths over the moorland on the hunt for the hidden, recently-emerged females, all in all it was a wonderful day on the moors...

Danube Delta: 5th April 2011

2011-04-05T20:27:00.003+01:00

The last few days of Chris and Henry's jaunt on the Danube Delta. The birds continue to arrive, with Bearded Tits and Savi's Warbler already abounding in the reedbeds, booming Bitterns and hundreds of Avocets and Black-tailed Godwits at Sacalin.

Danube Delta: March/April 2011

2011-04-03T21:45:00.003+01:00

Chris and Henry are currently in Romania, spending a few days on the Danube Delta in the company of George and Calin from Delta Travel.

While they've been having a great time with the birds (not to mention the great food that is always a feature of our time with Delta Travel!), the real 'now I'm jealous' moment came with a young Raccoon Dog who spent fifteen minutes watching the watchers watching him at just a few metres range. Wow...

Migration season is well underway. White Pelicans are just arriving from their wintering groups in the northern Nile (from one of the world's great deltas to another!), together with a handful of Dalmatian Pelicans.

Ferruginous Duck, Garganey, Ruff and Black-tailed Godwit are all arriving in good numbers. The wet woodlands are home to drumming Grey-headed Woodpecker, while large flocks of Glossy Ibis can be found in the meadows. An exciting time to be in the Delta... and migration has only just begun!

We have a full trip visiting the Delta in May, towards the end of the spring migration period, but there are plenty of spaces for our autumn visit, when the birds are moving more leisurely southwards. Contact us for details or to book a place!

Portugal: the Alentejo Plains, 29th & 30th March 2011

2011-04-01T17:11:00.002+01:00

A couple of pretty spectacular days out on the plains and rolling hills of the Baixo Alentejo, between Mertola, Beja and Castro Verde.

All gripes about the pre-dawn start went out of the window with the views of the rising sun over the plains and the impressive total of 161 Great Bustards in a single 180 degrees view... The males were mostly in full display mode, their big white meringues spotting the hillsides with groups (or should that be droves) of females clustered around, sizing them up.

Much harder to come by were Little Bustards: each day we eventually found a handful of males, with at least one starting his leaping/flapping display and their delicate raspberry calls audible much more than the birds themselves were visible.

Elsewhere, the birds came thick and fast: five Black-bellied Sandgrouse, including a pair scoped on the floor; a pair of Great Spotted Cuckoos, another bird much more often heard than seen; three Black Vultures (a pair of adults and a juvenile) circling low over head, sizing us up for a quick snack; the wonderful antics of Lesser Kestrels at one of the largest remaining colonies in Portugal; a swarming flock of a couple of thousand Spanish Sparrows covering the road in front of us; Black-winged Kite, Bonelli's Eagle, Spanish Imperial Eagle... the list goes on!

But really, the highlight was simply the experience itself, two full days spent in such a wonderful, wildlife-rich part of the world.

(Photos from last year's day on the plains are here.)

Portugal: Cabo de Sao Vicente, 27th March 2011

2011-03-28T22:32:00.003+01:00

The south-west-most point in mainland Europe... Gannets flying north, a male Peregrine circling overhead, Chough, Thekla Lark and Blue Rock Thrush around the rocky terrain and one or two special plants.

Cistus palinhae, endemic to this coastline. A very, VERY sticky plant...

and another endemic, the very VERY spikey Astragalus tragacantha ssp vicentina

Portugal: Castro Marim, 26th March 2011

2011-03-28T22:19:00.003+01:00

A quick catch up...

26th saw us at Castro Marim, looking across the river towards Spain, enjoying flamingos, Collared Pratincole, Spectacled Warbler, Red-crested Pochard and some interesing plants...

Cistanche phelypaea, an impressive parasite of saltmarsh plants.

Cleome violacea, a lovely delicate little annual

Moraea sisyrinchium, the Barbary Nut. When it opens, it's time for lunch.

Spergularia purpurea

Paronychia argentea

Portugal: March 2011

2011-03-28T17:03:00.003+01:00

A couple of nice lizards from the last few days... nice, in that they're lizards I've never seen before. And it's always nice to see new things...

Three-toed Skink. Baixo Alentejo, 28th March 2011
Rock turning seems to be something of a herpetologists pastime. The difference between me and a herpetologist being that when they turn rocks, they find interesting things. When I turn rocks I find ants... and slugs... and the occasional centipede. This morning, however, I finally turned a rock and found what I was looking for, a lovely Three-toed Skink, four tiny little legs away from being a Slow Worm. Result! Now, where are those Worm Lizards...

Spanish Psammodromus. Algarve, 25th March 2011
The common lizard of the south of Portugal seems to be the Large (or Moorish) Psammodromus, of which I've seen plenty, usually skuttling off through the undergrowth. Luckily, this dinky little lizard stayed still long enough for me to grab a photo.

Portugal: Barrocal, 25th March 2011

2011-03-25T21:42:00.002Z

A wonderful warm and sunny day in the rolling limestone hills of the Barrocal, just inland from the Algarve coast.

Today was supposed to be a plant day, but amongst the botanising we also managed to enjoy both Short-toed and Bonelli's Eagles, both species of Psammodromus lizard, a delightful Empusa pennata praying mantis and a surprising number of butterflies enjoying the weather, including Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail, Spanish Festoon and Cleopatra, all impressively showy beasts.

We go to bed tired, but certainly very happy!

Ophrys vernixia, the Lusitanian Mirror Orchid.
We found a wonderful colony of this local speciality, growing alongside its commoner cousin O. ciliata. Told by the paler fringe of hairs and the longer 'arms'.

Ophrys picta, one of the 'scolopax' group, told by its relatively small flower, with long, narrow, almost linear petals.

The ever popular Ophrys lutea. Just lovely....

A juvenile Empus pennata mantis.

Paeonia broteroi, one of the highlights of the day

Cyprus: 14th March 2011

2011-03-14T18:04:00.003Z

A wonderful day on the Akamas peninsula: blue skies, little fluffy clouds, a day-long walk that was almost entirely downhill, good company, some fantastic wildlife and a brilliant taverna lunch... what more could you want from a day?

Today was above all a day for the orchids. Along 5 km of lane we found an amazing 22 species, plus a single spike of Serapias not yet in flower (compare to a year ago, when a single field along this walk was full of the spikes of four different Serapias species! A very different season this time round).

It's difficult to pick out any highlights, although the single spike of the gorgeous endemic Ophrys kotschyi on the roadside must rank pretty highly, judging by the look of shock on Yiannis's face!

Equally worthy of note were two bizarre freaks: an Ophrys elegans entirely lacking the 'lip' petal, but with two conjoined sepals forming a pseudo-lip; and an Ophrys flavomarginata with a double lip!

Overhead, our third Bonelli's Eagle of the trip was being mobbed by a Peregrine, while a couple of Red-rumped Swallows were new in.

(PS, the bright red Crown Anemone is from yesterday... but just too good a flower not to use a photo!)

The stunning endemic Ophrys kotschyi at a new location

Ophrys lapethica, another endemic Ophrys

Orchis italica

Orchis quadripunctata

Ophrys flavomarginata flower with a double lip

Ophrys elegans entirely lacking in the lip, but with two conjoined sepals in its place!

Cyprus: 12th March 2011

2011-03-12T15:39:00.004Z

At last, after a few days of dodging the weather, the sun chose to shine. It's amazing how much the spirits can be lifted by a bit of blue sky!

We spent today enjoying the pine woods and limestone outcrops of the Pegeia Forest: the late season meant we didn't quite make it to ten orchid species for the day, but we made up for that with two species of sand crocus: the beautiful purple Romulea tempskyanus and a second, smaller and considerably rarer (for the island) white R. ramiflora.

Birds were still few and far between, although a sub-adult Bonelli's Eagle overhead was pretty impressive.

For the first time this week, the reptiles were out in force today. We enjoyed close up encounters with all the common lizards: Budak's Snake-eyed Skink slithering through the leaf litter, the ever-friendly Snake-eyed Lacertid, several Troodos Wall Lizards including a heavily gravid female and a sun-bathing Starred Agama on a cliff face. Back at the hotel, a couple of Banded Skinks were by the road, but best of all was a spectacular Mediterranean Chameleon back at the hotel!

Romulea tempskyana

Mediterranean Chameleon

Cyprus: March 2011

2011-03-06T19:33:00.004Z

In preparation for our group's visit to Cyprus tomorrow, I've just spent the past seven days on a whistlestop circumnavigation of the island. Starting on the Akamas Peninsula, we headed clockwise, up across the 'green line'/de-facto border to the Kyrenian Mountains, then down across the plains to Famagusta, and back round the bottom of the island via Larnaka, Akrotiri and Paphos, finishing back here on the Akamas a couple of hours ago... and relax...

Spring seems to be quite late in arriving this year, with the flowers a couple of weeks or so behind 'normal'. Which was actually pretty good news, with two early flowering species that we missed in 2010, Orchis punctulata and O. collina both still out.

Although migration is only just starting, it makes for an interesting mix of species; Cyprus Warblers are back on territory (much easier to find in the northern part of the island, especially when compared with the Sardinian-saturated Akamas), and the first Ruppell's and Eastern Subalpine Warblers are just arriving, while at the same time wintering Moustached Warblers are starting to sing and the Armenian Gulls were in splendid breeding plumage, before heading off east for the summer.

Spectacled Warbler, Cape Greco

Cyprus Warbler, Kourion

Cape Greco

The peaceful Bellapaix Abbey, in the mountains above Kyrenia

The crusader castle of Buffavento, looking south onto the plains, with the Troodos looming in the distance

The spectacular ruins at Salamis

Orchis punctulata

Orchis collina

Ranunculus asiaticus

Cyprus: Armenian Gulls, Larnaka, 4th March 2011

2011-03-06T18:55:00.004Z

During a week spent circumnavigating Cyprus, one of the highlights (well, apart from the weather, the food, the history and the scenery) was a small group of Armenian Gulls that gave good views around Mackenzie Beach in Larnaka.

2 adults and 2 first winters: a new species for me, and one which I don't remember seeing many photos of. The adults were in very smart breeding plumage: very slightly darker grey above than Yellow-legged Gull, with a more rounded head, dark eye and short, stocky bill with the characteristic bill pattern. The first winters had the same 'gentle' structure as the adults, with paler underwings than similar aged Yellow-legged Gulls.

Gulls are perhaps not for everyone, but with about 100 Slender-billed Gulls and an adult Mediterranean Gull nearby, along with Black-headed and Yellow-legged, there was plenty to entertain around Larnaka!

Japan, February 2011

2011-02-11T13:34:00.004Z

Some more photos from 10 days in Japan: Hokkaido and the Tokyo area.

Mandarin getting frisky on the pond in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo

Dusky Thrush, Yoyogi Park, Tokyo
Amongst the commonest roadside birds... but pretty stunning none the less!

Pale Thrush, Yoyogi Park, Tokyo.
Other thrushes in this park included a couple of Brown-headed Thrush and a big, bold White's Thrush that slipped away before I could get my camera out.

Brown-eared Bulbul, Tokyo.
The northernmost bulbul, and a common, noisy town bird

Glaucous-winged Gull (front) and Kamchatka Gull,
Hokkaido harbours are a good place to enjoy some good Pacific gulls. Glaucous and Slaty-backed were the commonest, together with smaller numbers of these two, Vega Gull and a few Black-headed Gulls

Black-eared Kite, a common scavenger, here at Akan crane feeding station, Hokkaido.

Pintail, Hokkaido

Sika Deer, Lake Furen, Hokkaido.

Brown Dipper, Rausu, Hokkaido

The first plum blossoms had started to come out by the time we left...

Largha Seal, Rausu, Hokkaido.
A pack-ice seal, smaller and paler than the Harbour Seals which are present closer to shore.

Blakiston's Fish Owl: Rausu, Japan, February 2011

2011-02-11T11:12:00.002Z

Blakiston's Fish Owl is an impressively large owl, amongst the largest, with a very small, endangered population (perhaps only a few hundred pairs), of which around 35 pairs make Hokkaido their home. And for one of these pairs, home can be found in a small valley just north of the town of Rausu, in the spectacularly mountainous north east of the island.

Here they form one of the great 'set pieces' of winter wildlife watching on Hokkaido.

At about 5.30 each night, the local innkeeper puts on a wonderful meal for her guests, including all sorts of marine delights (think king crab, sashimi, kelp salad, sea urchin, all sorts of delicious-ness!). And then, at about 6.30 each night, two sets of spotlights are switched on, illuminating the small river in front of the inn, and she provides a slightly less elaborate banquet for her other visitors, in the form of a net full of live trout which are flipped into a small basin in the stream.

Then, with her guests now settled into their cars, everyone waits... If only the photographers in their cars didn't have their engines running (essential, to keep the heaters on: it's cold in Hokkaido in February!), they'd be able to hear the low bass notes of the owls calling from behind them. Soon enough, the calling stops and the male swoops down, first to a small tree on the far bank and then down to the river: dinner is served.

a quick bite to the back of the head, then down in one.

During our visit, the inn was visited by three different individuals, an adult pair and their fledged youngster from earlier in the year. Last year's chick is also around in the valley, although he didn't put in an appearance on either of our two nights. At one point, all three were sat together in the small trees opposite the inn, watching with interest (but entirely unbothered) the chilly photographers in their cars.

On the second night, we didn't venture out to the car, but instead watched from the comfort of our inn room with a beer in hand...

The view from my hotel room at midnight. Two very big owls...

Red-crowned Crane: Akan, Japan, February 2011

2011-02-10T19:59:00.003Z

The 'Tancho' feeding station at Akan, Hokkaido. Around 100 Red-crowned Cranes spend their days here, feeding on corn and, at 2pm each day, fish thrown out onto the snowy field.

Red-crowned Cranes and White-tailed Eagles don't get on so well, apparently!

Wildlife watching, Japan-style. 2pm on the dot, out come the big lenses.

Snow Monkeys: Japanese Macaques, February 2011

2011-02-10T19:47:00.002Z

Steller's Sea Eagle: Japan, February 2011

2011-02-10T18:44:00.004Z

A 5am start to take a trip out on an icebreaker to the edge of the pack ice may not seem a very sensible thing to do just after having stayed up til gone midnight sat in a car waiting for a big owl to appear (more of which later). But that's just what we did, from the port of Rausu. And oh, was it worth it...

As the sun rose over the 'Northern Territories' (the islands off the north coast of Hokkaido which are currently occupied/owned by Russia, much to the consternation of the Japanese), we found ourselves surrounded by upwards of 100 large eagles, the majority Steller's Sea Eagles as well as smaller numbers of White-tailed Eagles. And the camera took a bashing...

(For a country so famous for its love of all things technological, there was an amazing lack of internet availability in Japan... or at least in the bits I visited!)

Sydney: Royal National Park, 28th January 2011

2011-01-28T06:55:00.005Z

After being city-bound for a couple of (amazingly hot and sticky) days, I decided it was time to get out of Sydney and head bush-wards. 'The Bush', in this case, being Royal National Park, a very do-able 30km south of town along highway 1.

After a not-very-early start, I headed to the north end of Lady Carrington Drive, a famous 10km track running alongside the river, through dry forest, rainforest and areas of sandstone outcrops. And, despite my not-very-early start, the birds sure performed!

Lady Carrington Drive is famous as one of the easiest places in the world to see the wonderful Superb Lyrebird, one of those iconic Australian birds. I had just stopped to have a look at a Grey Fantail (and to convince myself that, yes, a totally different bird to the supposedly-cospecific New Zealand Fantail), when I heard a moving and a scratching in the leaf litter. And there, just off the side of the road, a male Superb Lyrebird... easy as that! Well, easy to see, not so easy to photograph in the shade of the understorey.

And oh, what a tail! To be honest, the day belonged to the Lyrebirds. By the end of my time in the Royal, I'd had brilliant views of around ten, including, at the southern end of the track, a male paying court to a female and singing away to her, almost displaying... he was putting on a good show with his famous mimicry (including a very good impression of a chorus of kookaburras!), but alas his tail just refused to raise...

Very happy with my first Lyrebird sighting, it was quite a shock when I looked up and locked eyes with someone else who had been busy watching me watch the lyrebird, while also keeping half an eye on the lyrebird's scratchings... just a few metres away, at eye height in the tree, a Powerful Owl... wow...

Just round the corner from the owl, I heard a strangely familiar growling noise... now where have I heard that before? Turned out to be a fruiting fig tree, with a group of at least ten Satin Bowerbirds stuffing themselves on figs, as well as chasing each other and a group of Pied Currawongs around the tree.

Kookaburra, Lyrebird, Bowerbird... the three archetypal aussie birds!

And so the day went on. I didn't walk the whole length of the Drive, but covered two or three km at each end and had a pretty excellent day of it! Variegated Fairy Wren, five species of honeyeater, Eastern Whipbird running through the rainforest like a bizarre roadrunner, Eastern Shrike Tit looking like a real bruiser of a mini-shrike, Green Catbird and a nice collection of scrubwrens and thornbills, together with New South Wales' only endemic bird. Not a bad day out!

Rock Warbler, NSW's only endemic bird, hopping about on sandstone outcrops exactly as it said it should be in the book...

Eastern Spinebill, for some reason the one bird I most wanted to see in Australia!

Bassian Thrush, a skulking forest Zoothera...

Sydney: Centennial Park, 25th January 2011

2011-01-25T04:12:00.003Z

Another day, another city park... this time, a 'proper' visit to Centennial Park, not too far from where I'm staying.

I arrived early enough to beat the majority of the dog walkers/pram pushers/joggers and other assorted 'why aren't you at work?' types and managed to get a good (and exhausting!) five hours of park-wandering in before the heat finally beat me...

Unfortunately I failed miserably to find a Musk Duck, one of which is supposed to be resident on each pond. I checked at least 7 ponds... no Musk Duck... Nor could I find the Tawny Frogmouth (although I didn't look all that hard, it has to be said, after stumbling upon one yesterday). But those two apart, I had a great morning! Now how do I turn on the air conditioning??

Little Corella

and Long-billed Corella, another couple of very engaging cockatoos.

Sydney's corellas are descended from escaped/released cage birds, the 'real' wild corellas being birds of inland areas.

I also had a couple of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and a wonderful (enormous and oh so very noisy!) Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo during the morning.

New Holland Honeyeater, a common nectar feeder, fighting over the flowering bushes with the much larger (and much less attractive!) Red Wattlebird.

Crested Pigeon

Australasian Figbird. Several of these unobtrusive orioles were hiding in the trees.

Australasian Little Grebe

Australian Pelican

Broad-leaved Paperbark, Melaleuca quinquenervia. A great place for Tawny Frogmouth to hide... which they did very well indeed, so much so that I couldn't see any.

Sydney: Royal Botanic Gardens, 24th January 2011

2011-01-24T06:48:00.004Z

A day of re-adjusting: no more relaxing New Zealand, where you can tick off everything in the field guide in 3 weeks without having to get up before dawn and still have time for sushi... this is big, brash Australia, with a whole new fauna to get to grips with... and there's lots of it!

I took it easy today, easing myself in gently to the urban wildlife to be found in the rather lovely Botanic Gardens (as well as a brief stop in Centennial Park... mainly because I got off the bus in the wrong place. I'll be coming back to Centennial Park tomorrow for a better look round).

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos

Buff-banded Rail

Superb Fairy-wren

Laughing Kookaburras. One of those childhood 'must see' birds, thanks to Johnny Morris... on someone's tv aerial!

Wandering around the gardens, I was just thinking 'I wish I'd had the foresight to ask someone where the frogmouths roost... there's so many trees here I'll never find one'... looked up, and there in the tree next to me, a Tawny Frogmouth! Big and very mean looking... he obviously saw something in the distance that didn't appeal, as he was hissing away!

Of course, not everything that flies is a bird... the Gardens are famously a day-time 'camp' for large numbers of Grey-headed Fruit Bats, the wonderfully charismatic flying foxes that can be seen each evening flying out over the south of the city... and making their nightly appearance on tv as they fly over the cricket!

Eastern Water Dragon. A big, beautiful lizard.

New Zealand:Hauraki Gulf, 22nd January 2011

2011-01-23T05:48:00.004Z

the star of the show, slipping over a wave...

"watch out for the black dot with the white rump"

Known only from a handful of specimens dating back to the 1890s, the New Zealand Storm Petrel was long assumed extinct, until found feeding happily in the Hauraki Gulf in 2003. Their breeding sites are still unknown, but likely to be one of the rat-free islands in the Gulf.

A flock! Two of the five NZ Stormies, together with White-faced Storm Petrels.

Buller's Shearwater. The entire world population of 2.5 million pairs nests on the Poor Knights Islands, just north of here.

Flesh-footed Shearwater

Parkinson's Petrel (=Black Petrel). Another Hauraki Gulf endemic, nesting only on Little Barrier and Great Barrier. Dark legs, slightly darker plumage and greeny-yellow bill differentiate from the surprisingly similar Flesh-footed Shearwater

Cook's Petrel. Yet another New Zealand endemic, around a million birds may be present in the Gulf, nesting almost entirely on rat-free Little Barrier with just a handful on Great Barrier and a second population of around 5000 pairs down on Codfish Island, off Stewart Island.

Is it just me, or does this bird seem to have a slighter bill when compared with the Cook's above, to go with the extensive dark eye patch, very short supercilium and more developed dark grey collar? Which could make it a Pycroft's Petrel... but without any books at hand, I'll have to leave that one pending...

White-faced Storm Petrel. A little bird in some very big seas.

New Zealand: Tiri Tiri Matangi, 21st January 2011

2011-01-23T05:37:00.003Z

As promised...

Kokako, singing his endangered heart out

Stitchbird

Whitehead. The commonest bird on the island, but the most difficult to get a good photo of!

North Island Saddleback.

New Zealand: 20th/21st/22nd January 2011

2011-01-22T08:18:00.003Z

A few days on my own in Auckland, chasing down the last few endemics...

Wrybills and New Zealand Dotterels posed beautifully for photos at the water treatment works (glamorous, I know...)

The famous Wildlife Travel luck continued on the return to Tiri Tiri Matangi, with the very first birds I raised my bins for being a pair of Kokako blundering through the canopy. As if that wasn't enough, just after finding a pair of Brown Teal (the last remaining, do-able endemic landbird) on the pond over by the Emergency Landing, another male Kokako started to sing from a nearby patch of trees... and did so quite happily from an open perch. Amazing... Thankyou Tiri Tiri!

And finally, today was spent in a tiny little boat out on what must be the roughest seas I have ever had the (dubious) fortune to experience, on the Hauraki Gulf: winds of 35 knots, waves about 2 metres high... but oh so very worth it. Thousands of Cook's Petrels, Parkinson's (or rather more prosaically Black) Petrels, delightful White-faced Storm Petrels all common, a White-necked Petrel (a big vagrant Pterodroma from the Kermadec Islands) and the reason for it all, five New Zealand Storm Petrels together feeding on a chum slick and posing nicely for photos...

Oh yes, those photos. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait. The laptop has come a cropper, and I am in need of an 'expert' (or more accurately, a nerdy teenager) to help get my photos off the hard drive...

New Zealand has been amazingly kind. Bird-wise, 126 species, including 61 endemics. Fingers crossed the next stage of my travels (to Sydney) is as successful!

New Zealand: Nuggets Point and Dunedin, 18th January 2011

2011-01-18T08:48:00.004Z

The day started with a wonderful flight back to the mainland from Stewart Island in a nine-seater plane.

Driving through the hidden valleys of the Catlins, we arrived at Nuggets Point in time for lunch. The now-usual hundreds/thousands of Sooty Shearwaters were milling about off shore, with a colony of 20 pairs or so of Royal Spoonbills on a rocky crag.

Then it was down to the hide, to wait...

And then, as if on cue, an early Yellow-eyed Penguin jumped out of the surf and onto the beach, an adult returning from its daily fishing trip to feed a youngster hidden somewhere on the scrubby slopes behind us. Oohs and aahs ensued...

'Excellent', says I, 'just the two marine mammals left... oh, there's one of them!'. A young male Hooker's Sealion appeared out of the bushes a bit further up the beach and made his way down into the surf!

And so our last full day of the Wildlife Travel tour finished with 16 very happy travellers dining on freshly caught Blue Cod onboard a catamaran, while Northern Royal Albatrosses and Stewart Island Shags flew overhead... We never did catch up with that last marine mammal (Hector's Dolphin, a New Zealand endemic and perhaps the rarest marine dolphin). And four do-able endemic land birds eluded us too: the Fiordland Crested Penguins have all gone out to sea, the Rock Wren just wasn't playing ball, Tiri Tiri's Brown Teal weren't on their (tiny) pond and we only heard the wonderful Kokako.

All in all, an amazingly successful trip: I'm not sure we could have hoped for anything more!

(And I'll be back on Tiri Tiri Matangi before the week is out, to try and claw back Kokako... fingers crossed!)

Wildlife Travel will be returning to New Zealand in a couple of years, and we also have plans to visit Tasmania in the company of Mark Hanger in 2012 or 2013. If you would like further details of either trip, let us know.

New Zealand: gull parade

2011-01-18T08:46:00.001Z

Spot the difference... New Zealand's three gull species: Black-billed and Red-billed Gulls (both endemic), and Kelp Gull. OK, so that last one is easy...

New Zealand: Ulva, 17th January 2011

2011-01-17T04:02:00.003Z

The star of Ulva, one of a family party of around 6 Yellowheads.

South Island Saddleback. Slightly smaller wattles, a different song and a different juvenile plumage differentiate this from its North Island brethren, which is similarly restricted to offshore islands with active predator control.

Weka, the top ground predator... a voracious hunter and scavenger, and thief of cakes...

A Weka confrontation. Not bad for a flightless bird!

South Island Pied Oystercatchers. Yes, I know they look just like 'normal' Oystercatchers... but then, don't they all?

New Zealand: Stewart Island, 16th January 2011

2011-01-16T21:50:00.003Z

With the weather chasing us down South Island, it was a pretty choppy crossing for those of us who chose to take the boat to Stewart Island. Definitely worth it though, with views of Buller's and White-capped Albatrosses, Broad-billed Prion, Common Diving Petrel and Mottled Petrel amongst the thousands and thousands of Sooty Shearwaters.

Thus far, Stewart Island has been damp (!!) and chilly... but oh so very, very good...

After all, where else can you go out for a post-dinner boat trip and enjoy not only the sight (and sound) of three kiwis working the beach for sandhoppers, but also a big female giving a smaller male a swift kick to the side of the head as he got just that bit too close for her comfort!

These are Stewart Island Brown Kiwis, the second largest (after Great Spotted Kiwi), and bizarre, bizarre creatures they are.

Elsewhere around the island, during the day, we had a walk in the drizzle ('very Scottish' is how one of the group described Oban!), and enjoyed good views of Red-crowned Parakeet, New Zealand Pigeon, around ten South Island Kaka (much more approachable here than the high forest birds we've become used to on the other two islands) and, in the harbour after the day's strong winds, a little group of Little Blue Penguins and a couple of Buller's Albatrosses. And we've not even been to Ulva yet...

New Zealand: Fiordland, 14th & 15th January 2011

2011-01-16T21:38:00.003Z

The last few days have been wifi-free and weather-filled. Travelling to Fiordland, we arrived in glorious sunshine and headed straight down the Eglington and Hollybrook Valleys to Homer Tunnel to enjoy the stunning views, always remembering that this is one of the rainiest places in the world...

Unfortunately, the weather was so very good that the birds in the beech forest had quietened off in the heat of the day (hence no Yellowhead, now one of the hardest to find of New Zealand's endemics), and the Rock Wrens of Homer Tunnel must have headed high up to enjoy the insects on the higher cliffs (imagine looking for a Wallcreeper on a massive cliff, only the Wallcreeper is the size of a wren. and pale grey green. and doesn't fly about looking like a butterfly... one brief glimpse of a tiny tail-less bird, and I gave up).

Next day, the weather had arrived. Our trip out on Milford Sound was in low cloud and pretty constant drizzle. Not that that put off the Bottle-nosed Dolphins, of course!

A Kea, begging for food from passing cars. All it got were a whole load of camera lenses shoved in its general direction. Mine included!

The damp conditions obviously appealed to this young South Island Robin as well, who seemed to particularly enjoy catching the sandflies which were biting my hand as I lay on the floor, a couple of inches away from him... This photo was taken with the lens normally reserved for flowers...

New Zealand: Aoraki/Mount Cook, 12th January 2011

2011-01-12T08:02:00.003Z

Yet another day of perfect weather exactly when perfect weather was needed.

We started off under low cloud at a local wetland, where we were treated to the extraordinary spectacle of 7% of the entire world population of the critically endangered Black Stilt... that is, seven out of the roughly 100 individuals currently in existence.

We then travelled up to the Hooker Valley, at the base of Aoraki (Mount Cook), the highest mountain in New Zealand, where the clouds parted, the sun came out and we enjoyed crisp clear views of the mountain. We also tracked down the Mountain Stone Weta, another 'must see' NZ invertebrate... trust me, they're cool! At times too cool, as the Mountain Stone Weta can survive being frozen solid! Some good flowers included the showy Celmisia semicordata and some nice South Island Edelweiss.

After walking up to the foot of the Hooker Glacier, we retired to the nearby hotel for some ice cream in the 23degrees sunshine...

Back in the bus, five minutes down the road, the temperature had dropped to 12degrees, with a strong wind and horizontal rain. Now that's what I call timing...

Black Stilt, perhaps the rarest wader in the world (assuming there are more than 100 Spoon-billed Sandpipers left, but no more Slender-billed or Eskimo Curlews...)

Mountain Stone Weta. A jumbo nocturnal cricket...

South Island Edelweiss, Leucogenes grandiceps

Celmisia semicordata, another very 'showy' alpine daisy

Aoraki. The highest point in New Zealand.

New Zealand: Kaikoura, 10th January 2011

2011-01-10T05:36:00.002Z

Yesterday we were up a mountain, today we were bobbing up and down in boats. Well, three boats to be precise (for me, anyway). The room is still lurching from side to side as I type, but it was so very worth it... six species of albatross, seven other tubenoses, Little Blue Penguin... two superb male Sperm Whales and a spectacular pod of around 300 Dusky Dolphins. Kaikoura... words fail me. So the pictures will just have to do.

Northern Royal Albatross (of which, more later)

Gibson's (Wandering) Albatross: a big breeding female, bullying the petrels (and everyone else) out of the way.

Salvin's Albatross

Northern Giant Petrel, doing the bizarre 'funky chicken' aggression display.

Sperm Whale number 2, heading down for another squidy snack

Dusky Dolphin acrobatics.

New Zealand: Blackbirch Peak, 9th January

2011-01-09T09:07:00.003Z

A day of spectacular weather, spectacular views and some great alpine flowers...

Aciphylla colensoi, one of the spectacular 'spaniards', a group of tall, spiny umbellifers

Haastia pulvinaris, the giant vegetable sheep. From a distance, they really do look like flocks of sheep grazing across the scree slopes.

Leucogenes neglecta, the North Island Edelweiss... which just sneaks into the northern half of South Island too.

Notothlaspi rosulatum, the Penwiper, a lover of mobile scree slopes.

Epilobium pycnostachyum, one of several alpine willowherbs

New Zealand Mistletoes

2011-01-07T01:33:00.004Z

New Zealand’s mistletoes are amongst the few truly colourful flowers we’ve come across. Parasites, usually of the southern beeches, the three species we’ve found are much showier than our humble mistletoe. The flowers have a evolved a closer relationship with the honeyeaters, Tui and Bellbird, which have to bite the top of the flower tube off in order to open the inflorescence.

All three are heavily susceptible to browsing by the introduced Brush-tailed Possum and declining rapidly as a result.

Yellow Mistletoe Alepis flavida, Nelson Lakes National Park, 7th Jan

Red Mistletoe Peraxilla tetrapetala, Tongariro National Park, 5th Jan 2011

Large Red Mistletoe Peraxilla colensoi, Nelson Lakes National Park, 7th Jan 2011

New Zealand: 7th January 2011

2011-01-07T01:32:00.003Z

We’re now on South Island, in Nelson Lakes National Park.

The crossing was pretty calm, but amazingly windy at times for those foolhardy enough to be out on the bow. But the birds certainly made the effort worthwhile!

Leaving Wellington, we had a couple of Spotted Shags flying past, greyish cormorants with a black and white striped neck and bright yellow feet. The first Fluttering Shearwaters and White-fronted Terns also appeared, including a large group having a feeding frenzy.

Out of the harbour we encountered large numbers of the beautiful Fairy Prion, a small grey and white relative of the shearwaters and petrels, plus a Little Blue Penguin on the water, which dived out of the way of the boat as we passed.

As we reached open water, the wind really got up and the viewing conditions were quite difficult. However, there were still birds to be seen. Several medium sized, all dark seabirds included at least a couple of Sooty Shearwaters, with their silver wing lining, and a couple of Westland Petrels. The majority, however, had to go down as ‘not sure’ in the viewing conditions… A couple of Northern Giant Petrels were a bit more easy to identify: the first a dark immature, followed by a paler grey bird, both were very large, with a relatively long front half and a big heavy beak.

The big bird we really wanted to see, however, waited until quite late in the voyage. Just before we turned into Queen Charlotte Sound, a White-capped (Shy) Albatross came in close across the bow, towering up giving great views even to those sat inside in the warm!

Turning into the shelter of Queen Charlotte Sound, we were back in the domain of Fluttering Shearwater, White-fronted Tern and Kelp Gull, with a handful of Pied Shags on the rocky shores.