Faversham twitching Pallas's Warbler

   With some time left during our day, we decided to check out the Pallas’s Warbler near the small town of Faversham. It had not been reported for eight days, but David decided it would still be worth checking, so that’s where we headed. The specific location was just behind a sewage farm, and it was alive with Chiffchaffs, with possibly as many as 20 different birds moving around, including some suspiciously grey individuals.

  Fortunately the gamble paid off, and after 20 minutes waiting we got on to the Pallas’s Warbler moving among the ivy. As is typical for a warbler of this ilk, it was very mobile and difficult to keep track of, but we managed to get some very nice views. It was especially pleasing when it would hover, picking insects off the leaves whilst showing its pale rump and crown stripe. We lost it for possibly as long as half an hour before we managed to get on it again. It is a shame we could not see it close, but since it has been such a long time since I saw this attractive species, it was still very enjoyable. 

-Pallas's Warbler

Undisclosed Location searching for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

  Although there were a few scarcities dotted around the southeast at this time, David and I had agreed to spend the morning targeting the most outstanding omission from my British list; Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Having dipped the species in six counties on numerous occasions, my quest for this species in the UK had become a bit tiresome. Combine that with the woodpeckers dramatic decline across the UK, and it added another layer of urgency to the mission.

  We arrived at our woodland of choice at around 09:00 and began to search. The wood was incredibly lively with commoner woodland species, but also with a few other goodies such as a smart male Brambling among the hundreds of Chaffinches. It was very enjoyable, and our woodpecker count make good progress, several Great Spotted Woodpeckers were seen and a Green Woodpecker was heard on few occasions.

  After about 40 minutes of searching, and hearing a few promising drumming notes, we managed to locate a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the canopy! Mission accomplished! Sadly it was distant and as we approached it moved off. We tried to follow it, but it kept moving and eventually we lost it. About 20 minutes later we managed to locate it, or another, nearby low down, but it was too quick for me and moved away rapidly before proper views could be had. It called a few times from the canopy but we were unable to follow it.

  After so many dips over the years, it was quite the relief to finally set eyes on this beauty! 

-Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Waxham twitching Glaucous Gull & Iceland Gull

  As usual on my way back to France, I spent a bit of time with my good friend David Darrell-Lambert doing some birding around London. Due to train issues, I did not reach London until midday, but our plan for the afternoon was to drive the two-and-a-half hours north to the north Norfolk coast to the small village of Waxham. Here a Glaucous Gull and Iceland Gull had been seen on the beach, and, given the scarcity of both species, and David fancying the trip, we made this our destination. 

  It was already late afternoon when we arrived so we had only a limited timeframe to find the birds. Fortunately the directions we had were absolutely spot on, and we found the Glaucous Gull reasonably quickly as it fed on the beach. The Iceland Gull was a little further, but again, once we were in the right area we were able to find it without too much hassle. There were a lot of large gulls to filter through, but both of the white-winged species were quite conspicuous. Sadly they were not approachable at all, and we never managed to get close to them.

  In addition to the gulls, we had fantastic time with the areas many seals. We counted hundreds of Grey Seals hauled out on the beach right next to us, as well as a few pups. I scoured through the animals for Common Seals, and eventually spotted one in the water just before we left. On the birding front, there were a couple of other nice species; Common Scoter, Rock Pipit and a Turnstone being the best of the rest. 

-Glaucous Gull

-Iceland Gull

-Common Seal

-Grey Seal

Soil Hill

  It being a blustery morning in late February, I was not anticipating a morning of anything particularly notable on my visit to Soil Hill. The rain had cleared and there was no fog, so despite the wind I hoped for a pleasant walk where most of the regular species would be recorded. This was particularly important since it was a new week in the eBird bar charts!

  As I began my descent on Perseverance Road towards Ned Hill Track at 08:40, I spotted a large gull slowly moving in a southwesterly direction. Whilst I anticipated a Herring Gull, I was in for quite a shock when I got the bird in the binoculars to see that it had creamy-white primaries; a white-winger!

  Given the paucity of Glaucous Gull records in the UK, I was fairly confident the bird would turn out to be an Iceland Gull. Still, my priority in that moment was to take as many photos as I could, which was fairly straightforward given that the bird was not moving particularly quickly.

  Once it began to fly away from me I switched to following the bird in the hope that it might land on one of the nearby reservoirs. Simultaneously, I tried to get the news out so birders lower down the valley might be able to connect.

  In the end, the Gull headed for Ogden Water, where I lost it as it dropped behind the trees in the plantation there. Sadly however, BS and JJL checked the reservoir shortly after found no sign of the bird.

  A quick check of the photos confirmed my suspicions that it was an Iceland Gull. Scenes of celebration followed! This is my 133 species for Soil Hill and represents the first Halifax area record since 2022! It was not seen again at any other locations! Also of note, the long-staying bird at Roundhay Park in Leeds was not recorded today!

-Iceland Gull

-Stonechat

Roundhay Park twitching Iceland Gull

   With work not particularly forthcoming I had a bit of time on my hands, so decided to head over to Roundhay Park to twitch the Iceland Gull that has been showing well for the best part of a week. Twitching is not usually my scene, but a local bird which is showing well is always worth a fancy if time allows.

  Armed with some stale bread I headed down to the Waterloo Lake and very quickly found the gull sat on the water with the Herring Gulls. For some reason Half of the lake edge was fenced off. Where the fence ended I began to throw the bread for the assembled Mute Swans and Black-headed Gulls, but sadly the Iceland Gull seemed reluctant to move. I decided to change location, this time trying from the area in front of the café where there was no fence. 

  This began to work, with the Iceland Gull drifting towards this position with the allure of bread. It was getting to where I wanted it when my limited bread ran out, but I had hoped I had done enough to keep it where I wanted it. Sadly at this point another birder arrived, armed with his own bread, but decided to throw from the other side of the lake, from behind the fence. Consequently, now without my own retaliatory bread, the gull once again began to move away.

  Still, I was able to get some nice photos of the bird perched on the posts in front of the Lakeside Café. It was a very smart juvenile, and the first time I have seen this species since the individual on Redcar Tarn, back before the pandemic, so well overdue! 

-Iceland Gull

Tenerife Day 6; Las Galletas & departure

   Our flight was in the afternoon, so we had rescheduled our whale watching trip from the previous morning to this morning before our flight. Instead of departing from the more popular port of Los Cristianos, from where we had departed the previous afternoon, we instead headed out from the port of Las Galletas on the southwest corner of the island, with the company Biosean. I had hoped that going from a different area might produce some different species, but sadly it did not. 

  It actually took quite a while before we managed to find any cetaceans at all, but in the end we did manage to encounter a group of Short-finned Pilot Whales. They once again came close to our small vessel, and we even got to see them spy-hopping at one point. An excellent way to finish off our trip. It was also nice to see a couple of wader species, with a Turnstone and two Whimbrel in the harbour as we departed. 

  And after that we headed to airport, handed back the car and prepared to return to Paris. An enjoyable short trip, with some pleasant birding and nice marine mammal action. 

-Short-finned Pilot Whale

Tenerife Day 5; Teide National Park & Tamaimo

   Today was very much not a birding day, with all the targets wrapped up I had no need to drag Laura around trying to find any outstanding species. We booked a cable car trip up the Teide volcano in the centre of the island. While the views from the top were spectacular, because of the incredible levels of snowfall we could not walk to the caldera, and the actual area we could explore was very limited. For the price we paid it was disappointing. At least there were three Berthelots Pipits in the car park.

  In the afternoon, we returned to the area we had hiked the previous day, near the town of Tamaimo. Instead of climbing the mountains we walked the valley bottom and enjoyed the warm weather before we returned to Paris. It was enjoyable, with more Tenerife Lizard action and nice common species. A very relaxed way to spend our final afternoon on the island.  

-Tenerife Lizard

Tenerife Day 4; Corona Forestal National Park & Tamaimo

   We had booked another whale watching trip this morning, but sadly it had to be rescheduled because of high winds. So we took the opportunity to track down my one remaining target, arguably the most important; the Tenerife Blue Chaffinch. This was in the pine forests below the volcano and the lava fields. Although there were a few locations where people seemed to see them, the Las Lajas campsite of the Corona Forestal National Park seemed to be the most reliable so that is where we searched.

  All the intel I had suggested the bird was very common here. That was not our experience, and despite an hour exploring around the car park and campsite we found no sign. There were a few birds of interest, including the local flavour of Great Spotted Woodpecker and African Blue Tit, but no Blue Chaffinch.

  Laura suggested we go for a short hike, taking the trail heading east from the campsite, and eventually on this trail we managed to find the bird. In the end we had three individuals, two males and a female, and the male especially showed phenomenally well, perching right next to us in a young conifer. Sadly I was a little slow on the camera so I didn’t manage any photos of this moment, and was generally restricted to photos when the birds were perched above us in the trees. Still a superb bird and a great one to see.

  In the afternoon, after returning to the AirBnB for lunch, we hiked the hills above the town of Tamaimo. This was not for birding at all, but was still an enjoyable walk and obviously it was not possible to escape from the birds. At the top of the mountain we found two Berthelots Pipits, and at the bottom there were a few Sardinian Warblers. This was also the only place where we found Tenerife Wall Lizard, which we had expected to be common. 

-Tenerife Blue Chaffinch

-African Blue Tit

-Great Spotted Woodpecker

-Berthelots Pipit

-Tenerife Lizard

Tenerife Day 3; Barranco de Ruiz & Los Cristianos

   Thanks to yesterday's very poor views of Laurel Pigeon, I took us around the north side of the island to the deep ravine called Barranco de Ruiz where it was supposed to be reasonably easy to find, at least according to eBird data. From the first viewpoint I could see many pigeons perched up in the trees below, but they were just too far to identify and all the ones I was able to ID were clearly Bolle’s Pigeons. 

  After an hour searching here we drove a little further to the road bend further up the ravine. Here the pigeons were closer, and every bird we saw was a Bolle’s! I tried so hard to find a Laurel Pigeon but with no success. There were other birds to keep us entertained here as well: Goldcrest, Sardinian Warbler, Atlantic Canary, Canary Islands Chiffchaff and some flyover Plain Swifts. 

  After a couple of hours we made tracks to move off, but called off at the first viewpoint for a short look before we left. No sooner had I got out of the car than a Laurel Pigeon flew alongside the top of the cliff at eye level, nice and close. I was not ready, but I followed the direction of the bird and not long after encountered it or another individual again. This time I managed a couple of poor record shots!

  During the afternoon we decided to do a last-minute whale-watching trip, not on a small vessel but a more relaxed larger boat from the town of Los Cristianos. Despite a rather chaotic parking situation, we had a very enjoyable time with a pod of Bottlenose Dolphin and a very showy pod of Short-finned Pilots. There were a few birds as well, with a Northern Gannet and a few Mediterranean Gulls close to shore. A very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.  

-Laurel Pigeon

-Bolle's Pigeon

-Goldcrest

-Common Bottlenose Dolphin

-Short-finned Pilot Whale