Canada part 1 - big skies and bright flowers

We've just been on a month long trip to Canada. This is going to be the first of three posts giving some of the highlights of that trip.
We flew into Calgary in the first week of August and drove from there to Banff, then on to Moraine Lake, Jasper, Clearwater and Vancouver. After a couple of days there we went to Haida Gwaii, a large island north of Vancouver Island. Finally we spent 6 nights in the rainforest photographing bears!!
This first blog will focus on some of the stunning scenery and flowers we saw on the way.
Driving around Canada you cannot help but be impressed by the scenery. Everywhere we went you were stopping to go "wow" at the mountains, the forests, the lakes and the big blue skies. You really appreciate how unspoilt and unpolluted it is.

Although we were there in the middle of Summer, there was still some snow around, although most of it was now in the form of glaciers, which we came across both along the ice-fields pathway and around Jasper at the Angel glacier.

What amazed us most was probably some of the lakes we came across. The colours in the water were stunning, especially in the early morning light.

Two birds in the hand then one in the bush

Last weekend was the first really big weekend of the autumn migration, with the east coast especially being red hot with migrants. I, however, was not able to get out!! So, with an opportunity today to get away I looked for what might be worth going for. There was really no decision to be made. An arctic warbler had popped up at Landguard in Suffolk, not only showing well but caught (twice) in the nets. This was a big target and a lifer for me, so early doors start again to head to the port of Felixstowe.
I got there just before 7 and just after a massive rain storm had passed through.
Landguard is one of the main bird observatories in the UK and is situated right next to the port. It is on the site of an old fort, and is a compound (for members only) with lots of scrub inside and a large number of mist nets permanently in place. You can walk round the outside peering in though.
Birdguides gave it as showing well the previous evening near the rear gate, so I headed that way.
The bushes were alive with warblers, mainly chiffchaffs and blackcaps but also good numbers of lesser whitethroats.

Rather more surprisingly bearing in mind how rare arctic warblers are, there was only one other birder on site. For about an hour we staked out the birds favoured patch of brambles but no sign of it. The warden came back past us and commented on how the night had been quite clear and it could well have departed! Cheers for that. 

My erstwhile fellow birder was getting a bit twitchy as he had to leave by 9ish and it was not 8.45 and still no show. Then a voice from inside the compound  called out "we've trapped it again" and we saw one of the ringers carrying off two bags with birds in them. Can you tick it if you know it's in the bag but don't see it??? Probably not if you don't even know which bag!

Fortunately another one of the ringers came past and pointed us to an area of the fence where the bird was going to be released. We gathered up two other birders who were now on site and waited patiently.

The warden eventually came down and in his hand was a very smart arctic warbler.

They are part of the same family as chiffchaffs and willow warblers but look quite different.

Size-wise they are slightly larger, but without comparisons that is hard to tell. That eye-stripe is a killer though and showed really well. They are quite light coloured underneath as well, and quite long primary feathers. Their bill is also quite a bit thicker and less pointy. We all admired it for a couple of minutes as the warden showed it off. Apparently it had put on half a gram overnight since it was caught the day before, now coming in at a hefty 8 grams, so really tiny!!!

Eventually it was released and it flew off to go and feed happily in the near by brambles (and was still there 6 hours later after left). I even did a very British show of celebration with a firm handshake with my birding friend who was equally pleased, albeit now very late for work!!!.

Interestingly, the bird in the other bag the ringer had was a kingfisher. This was a very unusual bird for a coastal site to ring, and the ringers were quite excited. They thought it was a juvenile male.

The only other bird of note I saw was a fleeting glimpse of a pied flycatcher.

After that I moved about 30 miles down the coast to Hythe. This is basically on the edge of Colchester and right next door to my old university of Essex. I pretty much went past it, with the tower blocks still standing proudly over the campus.

My target was a lesser yellowlegs, a wader normally found in the USA. They are not common by any means over her, but you get a few every year. Quite often they do hang around though, and this one had already been there for 4 days.

The reserve was a relatively new one, with one large scrape/ pool. A few snipe and black-tailed godwits initially attracted the attention of about 6 of us who all arrived at about the same time. Quickly though I got onto a very smart long-legged wader at the back of the pool.

Slowly it came a bit closer but not that close and the light was awful.

I did work out though that by walking along the side of the pool, and keeping below a bank I could get a lot closer to it. That enabled me to see all the main id's needed.
Firstly, its got yellow legs! The bill is only medium sized, and very straight. The back is nicely mottled with a speckled throat and very white underneath.

If you discount its much rarer cousin the greater yellowlegs then one confusion species is the greenshank, but as you can see from these flight shots they are not too hard to tell apart.

So, a pretty good day all round. One more lifer, taking me to 347 and closer to my target of 350 by the end of the year. October is still to come, so I'm pretty hopeful!!!!

The king of fishers

I'm only recently back from a 4 week trip of Canada including some superb grizzly bear watching, which I will post up in the next couple of weeks. Saturday routines need to be continued though, so despite the rain I was down Maple Lodge again early doors. Only Martin and Colin were around and the weather was so poor Martin called off doing any serious work around the reserve straight away!! After a leisurely cup of coffee and a very light bit of moving rubbish around I gave up on any serious activity and decided to go and spend some time in Long Hedge hide. There has been an osprey around recently, but it is also a decent enough place to spend a couple of hours.
On the down I very nearly stepped on what I thought was a slug but on closer inspection turned out to be an elephant hawk-moth larvae!

I found out later that it had been seen earlier in the week as well, and I can only presume the rain must have washed it off the plants as it was in the middle of the path. I helped it to the side to make sure it wasn't flattened later on!!

When I got to Long Hedge, Wendy Marks was already in there (check out http://winowendyswildlifeworld.blogspot.co.uk) but there was no sign of the osprey and the kingfishers were keeping to the far bank.

Still, there was always the very large juvenile grebe  to keep us amused.

After I suppose 30 minutes Wendy gave up with the fateful "I'll try teal hide, I suppose the osprey and kingfisher will turn up here now". Well, the osprey was a no show but the kingfisher sure did turn up, just after Pauline and Judith walked in.

Right below the hide are some twiggy branches left deliberately as perches for it, and I have seen it on them but normally only fleetingly. This time it came in and sat, fished and groomed for what seemed like a long time, but was actually only 8 minutes according to the time stamps on my photos.

Firstly it just sat looking around and checking out the opportunities. Then it had a succession of dives into the lake - probably 8 or 9 times - and came up with food in two occasions. First was a very small crustacea or beetle (I think) which it threw down its throat.

This required a bit of preening to be done after that, which it took really seriously which you can see on this video link.

Kingfisher having a preen

Then it decided it was still hungry so had another dive and came up with a decent sized fish this time.

 After a bit of light bashing of the fish to stun/ kill it, it manoeuvred it round and let it slide down it's gullet. I don't like the way the fish does still seem to be looking at the kingfisher on the way down though!!!

Slightly bizarrely it then turned round to look up at us as if to say "well, how about that then?" and flew off over to the far bank.

That was the signal for us to leave, a stunning bird giving a great display at almost point blank range. She about the osprey though!!!!

Close but not close enough

I only need 5 more lifers to get to 350 in the UK, so chances when they crop up need to be taken. As we head into late July and early August there are normally opportunities to be had on the wader front. Over the last few days there have been some nice birds around, but that pesky work has got in the way. Today though I had the chance to take a day off. The only potential target left was a broad-billed sandpiper at Frampton Marsh, near Boston in the Fens. The plan was laid, the sandwiches and coffee made, the alarm clocks set for an early night. Then birdguides came up with "flew off at 3.40, no further sign by 19.30". Damn!!! Well, it might come back so worth a try.

I got to Frampton about 8, later than I wanted but the A1 was closed with an accident so I had to divert. Still, it was a nice not too hot day and only a short walk to the hide. This is a new RSPB reserve on the north edge of the Wash, mainly scrapes and reeds. Apparently only 6 or 7 years ago it was beet fields so it is still maturing and it looked quite nice. There were lots of birds around.

In the 360 hide (named for its all round view) were 4 other birders. No sign of the BBS! As I got there though someones phone went and their friend in another hide called in a white-rumped sandpiper. These are reasonably rare - I've had 4 before in the UK - and a good back up. We did a quick relocation to the other side of the reserve and the people in the hide had the bird on view. It was a long way off though. 

It is in this photo, just to the right and this side of the little ringed plover. Basically, they are small waders, between a dunlin and stint in size, with a bright white underside in flight. When they open their wings, they have a white rump!! You can hopefully in these photos see it's slim profile. It never came close and over the next 3 hours the heat haze started to build on the marsh and it became almost impossible to pick out, much to the chagrin of the birders arriving with the usual cry of "is it showing?"!!!!

As a supporting cast, there were lots of waders. Curlew sandpipers were another year tick for me. Dunlin made of most of the small waders.

The most numerous of the larger birds were the black-tailed godwits. I should think there were a few hundred of them in all, mostly loafing around but a few came close enough to see them mainly in their smart breeding plumage.

Once the flock lifted off and whirled over the marsh before settling back down again.

Other waders included ruff

common sandpipers, redshank, little ringed plover, greenshank and lapwings as well as some non wading birds such as this smart yellow wagtail and it's plainer pied cousin.

So, not a  bad day in all, and I topped it off with a cheeky little wood sandpiper at Gypsy Road on the way back, but a shame the BBS was a no show!! Still want to get to 350 through the Autumn though.