Picture Canyon

My wife and I had made a trip to Picture Canyon on Saturday September 13th, but we had not seen too much. I made another trip three weeks later on October 4th, this time with Tom and Eric.

One big difference was in the number of Lewis's Woodpecker. We had 20, a big difference to the 1 we had in September. But otherwise we did not see much that was very different. Still lots of Chipping Sparrows along the creek; a Green-tailed Towhee in the same spot etc. And some baby Round-tailed Horned Lizards along the road.

We did find 3 Cedar Waxwings as we were nearly back at the car, my first in Arizona this year.

But the morning's highlight was not a bird, but a meteor. We saw a fireball streak across the sky, making no sound, around 8am.

Glendale Recharge Ponds

After dropping my wife at Sky Harbor I went to the Glendale Recharge Ponds to spend a couple of hours looking through the birds in some excellent shorebird habitat. In all I had 13 species of waders including Stilt and Pectoral Sandpipers, new for the year.  There was also some early waterfowl, including 3 Greater White-fronted Geese, but most of the ducks were in dull plumage. The one exception was a pair of beautiful male White-cheeked Pintails. Presumable escaped birds, but a couple of Pacific hurricanes had blown through in the previous week ...

White-cheeked Pintail

Stilt Sandpiper

American Avocet

Walnut Canyon

There were many reports of Sabine's Gulls in Arizona in the first half of September. This included one that Tom found on the Walnut Canyon Ponds on Wednesday September 18th. I hd dno tiem to chase that day but went after my swim on Thursday morning and found it quietly sitting on the water on the far pond. Indeed the bird was so cooperative that I went back later that day with my camera. The bird had moved to the nearer pond but again stayed peacefully on the water. 

Sabine's Gull

Glendale Recharge Ponds

After taking my son to the airport on Sunday September 7th my wife and I made a quick stop at the Glendale Recharge Ponds. For once the wet ponds were closest to the entrance and we were able to start looking through the waders (shorebirds) almost as soon as we arrived. A number of Western Sandpipers were scattered through the Least Sandpipers and I found a few of the larger Bairds. But the birds of the day were a pair of Black Terns - a long awaited state bird for me.My sixth state bird of the year.

Killdeer

Least Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher

Mercer Slough Nature Park

We spent Monday night in Renton, a suburb of Seattle. A cell phone tower next to the hotel had nesting Ospreys. We spent an hour and a half on Tuesday morning, August 12th at Mercer Slough ahead of our flight back home. We wandered around the reserve in light drizzle, and the birds were quiet. But we did see both Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees in the trees and a Swainson's Thrush on the forest floor. We go to pick blueberries that had sprawled from a farm onto the reserve.

Glaucous-winged Gull

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Osprey

Whale Watching Pelagic

On Sunday August 10th we spent the day on a whale watching trip in Puget Sound that started in Bellingham and ended up as far north as Vancouver, British Columbia. As well seeing a small pond of orcas we had a reasonable day for pelagic birds - Pigeon Guillemot, Common Murre, Marbled Murrelet, Rhinoceros Auklet - but alas no Tufted Puffin.

On Monday August 11th we visited the Seattle Aquarium where we got to see Cassin's Auklets, Rhinoceros Auklets and Tufted Puffin at close quarters!

Orca

Ring-billed Gull

Tufted Puffin

North Cascades National Park

We spent Thursday August 7th in North Cascades National Park. We had spent the night in Mount Vernon and so we were soon on the North Cascades Highway. Our first stop of the day was at a pick-your-own blueberry farm; an organic farm with its own shop featuring homemade ice cream. We stopped off for a treat both ways!

The National Park was beautiful but not very birdy. The bird of the day was a surprising group of 14 California Gulls on lake. But the days' highlight was a 4 mile hike through the forest to an alipine meadow where we sat for a while - plagued by mosquitoes - watching a Hoary Marmot and wtahcing and hearing Pika!  
 

California Gull

Anacortes, Washington

On Wednesday August 6th we spent some time in Anacortes, where my son was to spend two weeks in a summer program.On the drive there we had seen many Glaucous-winged Gulls flying around, not a bird I have seen very often but the common gull of the northwest.

We went to Washington Park in Anacortes where we saw Pigeon Guillemot and Marbled Murrelet in the sound, and a number of species of passerines in the wooded areas, including a Varied Thrush and a number of very dark Song Sparrows. As we were leaving the park a Black Oystercatcher flew onto a rock near the car park.

We stopped by the ferry terminal as we left Anacortes and found many Pelagic Cormorants nesting on the piers as I had researched earlier.

Black-tailed Deer

White-crowned Sparrow

American Robin

Heading back

On Friday August 1st I headed back to Flagstaff having seen 121 species of bird in Europe - 120 in England and Rose-ringed Parakeets in Belgium.Of these 107 were new for the year and I ended July on 389 species for the year.

I added three life birds on my trip - Short-toed Eagle, Wood Sandpiper and Little Gull - and twitched and dipped on some others. The Black-winged Pratincole left the north Norfolk coast the evening before we tried for it (relocating to Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire where it was still being seen two weeks later); the Collared Pratincole was seen just minutes before our arrival at the Minsmere scrape but d was not visible while we were there. This bird was also around for at least another week. I am pretty sure I saw Wood Lark in the Ashdown Forest, but not certain enough for a lifer. I heard Cetti's Warbler and Stock Dove but did not see these birds.

I saw Common Frog, Red Fox, European Rabbit, Eastern Gray Squirrel, Field Vole, Muntjac, Harbour Seal and Grey Seal on the trip, but despite looking for Adders in the Ashdown Forest, Suffolk heaths and then at two sites in Havering with David on July 29th this reptile continues to elude me.  

Six-spot Burnet Moth

Carrion Crow

Brussels surprise

I traveled overnight to Brussels on Monday July 23rd to visit my brother-in-law. On Tuesday morning, July 24th I did a number of tourist sites in Brussels including the royal palace. In the Parc du Bruxelles opposite I found a number of Rose-ringed Parakeets. I had trued for this bird in London but did not know there was a population in Belgium. I saw more of these birds in the grounds of the African Museam in Tervulen on Wednesday 25th.

Mute Swan

Eurasian Coot

Eurasian Blackbird

Oare Marshes and Cliffe Pools

On Saturday July 19th my brother and I headed to Kent to bird in a couple of spots - the lovely Oare Marshes and the RSPB Reserve at Cliffe Pools.

I was still missing a few possible waders and both Gray (Black-bellied) Plover and Golden Plover had been reported at Oare Marshes along with, what would be for some, a twitch bird - a Bonaparte's Gull. We spent an hour and a half at the reserve mostly in the drizzle and dipped on all these birds. But we saw lots of Black-tailed Godwits, Curlew and Redshank on the mudflats and Lapwing, Ruff and Common Sandpiper on the Flood.

Black-tailed Godwit

Common Sandpiper

Black-winged Stilts had bred at Cliffe Pools this year, although the young were predated, and I had some hope of adding this bird to my UK list. However local birders said that they did not know if the adults were still around. The pools were pretty disappointing although we had a close view of a Hobby chasing a Swift and a distant view of a Whimbrel on the mudflats of the Essex side of the Thames.

Black-headed Gull

A long delay at the M25/A13 roundabout - we moved half a mile in one hour - forced us the long way home and we took back roads from Wennington to Langdon Hills. As luck would have it we found a couple of Red-legged Partridges on the road near Bulphan!