Spain - Day 3

We set off in the wee small hours again the next day, this time in search of the secretive Dupont's lark.  Its shyness meant us standing in line motionless on the site off the road to La Yunta in near freezing temperatures. Well we heard it clearly enough but it seemed to have disappeared by the time there was reasonable light and we only saw one or two bits and bobs on the way back for breakfast. 

Setting off again in the van we stopped briefly for some common cranes that were posing nicely in a field, not daring to get out in case we disturbed them.

Cranes posing

This was on the way for a walk in the hills near Tornos looking for larks, which were well-camouflaged and the one I definitely saw was Thekla's Lark.  Unfortunately my photography skills were again much challenged as many sightings were at considerable distance and several photos came out blurry.  Hopefully I can find an app to rescue some of them

Later we headed to the other side of the laguna, where there were some flamingos at reasonably close range, mainly keeping their heads down.  I think this is the best view I've had of flamingos to date.

Flamingos

There were a good deal of both marsh and hen harriers around and another walk near Las Cuerlas, after a period of seeing bits and pieces at distance, we hit on an area where a large number of raptors were flying overhead, almost as if participating in an air display.  In addition to those already encountered, they included a totally new sighting, the black-shouldered kite (never heard of!) and, almost as an afterthought, a couple of golden eagles...

Of all of them I got nothing but blurry silhouettes so it was a bit of a surprise, on returning to the lagoon near Dirigida, that I managed to get a passable shot of a mass of cranes right on the far side of the lake, many hundreds of yards away.  I must have got the zoom spot on for once.

Cranes at distance

When we first got there, there was also a nice white wagtail close by but the main birds in evidence where great and cattle egret, the latter showing no yellow as still in winter plumage.  I learned you can still tell them apart by the fact that the great egret has a much longer neck.

Great Egret

Cattle Egret

White Wagtail

Great egrets are starting to be seen in the North of England but cattle egrets are still a rarity, though I saw lots of them in the West Indies.  The white wagtail is also infrequent.

However the strangest thing we saw on stopping further down was three roe deer that had apparently decided to swim the whole length of the lagoon in very cold water.  We saw the last part of their journey, lasting several minutes with one pulling ahead to leave the other two straggling behind.

Roe Deer

Also sighted in this area and on the way back to the hotel were: little bustard, stonechat, linnet (lots of), black redstart and spanish sparrow.

In the evening I had a bit of reflection on the photography angle and decided to increase the focal length of the birdwatching auto facility on the camera.

Of course serious birdwatching photographers will tell you you really need to use manual settings...

Slovenia - Day 2

On our second day the early risers in the group saw quite a few birds around the hotel and I did manage my first ever definite photo of a white wagtail while waiting for off.

White Wagtail

Generally though I couldn't see much of what the others saw in the way of birds during the whole trip and took a mental note to get an overdue eye test once back home again.

Eventually we set out to look for fresh meadows near the village of Hrastovalje, not far from the farm where the previous night's impromptu birdwatching session took place.

Obviously the main target was butterflies and on and after an upland walk, we found plenty to look at including clouded yellow, plenty of scarce swallowtail, holly blue, more skippers, wall brown, mallow skipper and grizzled skipper.  Particularly pleasing for me was my first encounters with Reverdin's Blue and Eastern Short-tailed Blue: 

Several grizzled skippers were seen near a puddle in the path we used, where there also there were a large number of wood whites puddling. The interesting thing here is that their black spots have shown up far larger than they appear to the naked eye:

Wood Whites puddling

I had mixed feelings when we came across the first small blue I've ever spotted but arrived on the scene late and only got very blurred and useless shots of it...

However the most spectacular photo opportunity, possibly of the whole trip, was presented by the newly-hatched European Swallowtail that flattered around the van when we got ready to move on and hung about for ages as if posing for the cameras.

European Swallowtail

While moving on to the afternoon venue, we saw a couple of white storks from the bus that even I couldn't fail to see.

White Stork

The next venue proved to be a disappointment.  The meadows looked promising and one or two butterflies briefly appeared but after twenty minutes the clouds moved in and, although it never properly rained and stayed warm, butterflies were scarcely to be seen at all.

I think the only one a I noted was a marbled white that remained stoically attached to the same bit of knapweed for ages with wings closed:

Marbled White

When in such circumstances others turn to birds I turn these days to insects but would be hard put to name any of the ones I saw apart from the nine-spot and red wave moths.

Various Bugs

I feel I should be able to identify the bee, which I first thought was a nomad but, having considered colletes and yellow-faced bees, I don't have a clue.

Amongst other animals we came across during the day were a pool frog, a green lizard and a wall lizard.   

Pool Frog

Green Lizard

Wall Lizard

After dinner we returned to the farm area to look for Scops Owls, which duly did not turn up, though we did see a kield skimmer (dragonfly), raven and dulbentan bat and, learning from past experiences, I decided video was the best media to catch the non-stop flight of the hummingbird hawk moth.

Humming Bird Hawk Moth

Altogether quite a productive day the talk at dinner was already about the relative shortage of butterflies compared to previous years due to poor weather throughout Europe..

Holiday am Bodensee

I cycled round Lake Constanz last week, starting and finishing in Bregenz. This wasn't exclusively a nature trip but I was keeping my eyes open as usual for interesting sightings.

On the first day, I took a detour around a part of the Rhine Delta, which quickly demonstrated that the main duck to be seen was the great crested grebe. There was also some sort of long-tailed pipit that didn't hang around, a theme that was to be repeated several times during the week.  Checking in the books it looked like a paddyfield warbler (Feldrohrensanger) but the location was wrong. Out on the lagoon there were a few reed warblers (probable) on the move

In a way the most interesting discovery was a good look at some long-tailed tits that got quite close when I stopped.  At first I thought they were juveniles, but research made it clear that they are a good deal paler than the UK variety and have almost totally white heads.  Of course, a couple of wagtails I

White Stork

saw were of the white rather than pied variety.

Moving on from the delta to the farmland on the edge of the nature reserve, there were a couple of white storks.  I saw storks in Bavaria seven years ago but this time I got a much better photograph.  I also noticed a nuthatch near Arbon that was tapping on a tree trunk as it fed, almost like a wee woodpecker.

Stopping to watch a guy fish (using maggots under an enormous float) there was a single common blue butterfly.  This was to be a rare occurrence.  The weather most days was overcast and the total butterfly sightings throughout the holiday amounted to three common blues (one female), a couple of red admiral, a few assorted whites and one brown, probably an argos (Mohrenfalter) of some kind.

The second day of the trip from Arbon to Gaienhofen was an almost total washout from a nature point of view as the weather was appalling and I spent most of the day cycling into a storming gale with a German couple.

Maine Coon

Before the weather worsened I was slightly amused to be sitting behind a maine coon that appeared to be looking out to sea near the harbour at Romanshorn.  I decided to photograph it when all of a sudden it atrted making for the harbour itself - the reason being that a fishing boat was coming in.

Fragmentary sightings were a kestrel, a red kite and a panicky treecreeper.  There was also a very dark squirrel that I thouight might be a black squirrel, but they don't occur in Germany so it must have been a 'maroon' red squirrel.

Seals On The Nith

Following the discussion about the possibility or otherwise of a seal being sighted in the Nith after my most recent post, there is now conclusive proof in the form of a photo taken by a chap called Keith Gallie. This clearly shows a seal and the bottom of the caul in the centre of Dumfries in the background.

Thanks to Rohan Kleem, wicketkeeper-batsman of Sydney Australia, for finding this conclusive evidence!

Skunk Cabbage

Meanwhile I have been slow to update my latest activities, which anyway have been restricted to one bike ride to Crocketford last Wednesday, when not much was noticed. In fact the most remarkable nature sighting was a display of skunk cabbage a mile or so north of Crocketford. I must have cycled and driven past this spot many times without ever noticing it before. Apparently it is an import which doesn't grow naturally.

Otherwise there were a couple of great-crested grebes on Lochrutton.  For a time I thought they were going to go into display mode, but in the end they contented themselves with whingeing at each other as lovers do.  But there weren't even any goldfinches at Lochfoot and every virtually woodland bird sighted turned out to be a chaffinch.  Did get a couple of good close-up views of pipits over the Glenkilns, but there wasn no black swan on the reservoir.

Other notable non-sightings were wheatear, swallow and stonechat. And of course skylark.

Meanwhile white wagtails have been spotted on the coast, so must keep an eye out for them.  I did wonder about a rather pale-looking wagtail I saw a couple of weeks ago but thought no more of it.