Paxos 14-28 September 2015

Our second trip to Paxos and this time during autumn migration. Birding highlights were:

Large flocks of red-rumped swallows passing through

Smaller flocks of swallows with the occasional house Martin 

Usual resident flocks of twittering alpine swifts.

Migrating honey buzzards with a group of five over antipaxos.

Sightings of hobby on one occasion plus two sightings of Eleonora's Falcon

Sardinian warbler and melodious warblers seen regularly.

Spotted flycatchers seen on several occasions

Hooded Crows daily

Bee eaters heard but not seen again!

Yellow-legged gulls seen daily but few birds at sea 

A shag swimming and diving off manadendri beach

Two birds flew low over Orkos beach which might well have been kingfishers given shape and flight pattern.

A grey heron seen at Gaios 

Scottish adventure

10 to 13 September. Trip to Killin via Paisley. Little bird life at the conference but some wildlife sightings in Killin. Buzzard, kestrel and hoodie crow seen from the hotel with still plenty of swallows plus siskins. The climb to the Munro was in awful weather with 50 mph winds and driving rain. The hill of the ptarmigan yielded only a single meadow pipit! I did however see a red squirrel in the car park of the hotel.

Arnside birds again

26th August. Peregrine over the estuary plus at least ten little egrets. A sparrowhawk seen over the house too.

The Arnside osprey at last!

Friday 21st August. The osprey appears flying past the Albion looking for fish. The Albion gas to be one of the best pubs for spotting birds in the UK 

Levignac 11-15 August 2015

Our third visit to Jane and Peter's but by the far the best birdwise. Highlight was a pair of golden Orioles and two young in the poplar trees behind the garden. The splendid black and yellow male seen on several days. Also around the house icterine warbler, black redstart, hobby, serin and martins and swallows. Cattle egret and little egret and a walk to a village passed a water storage pond with passage green and wood sandpiper. A hoopoe also spotted in an orchard.

Florida

A week spent at St Pete beach brought lots of birds:

Osprey

Fish Crow

Willet

Magnificent frigate bird 

Mew gull

Laughing gull

Black skimmer

Tri-coloured heron

White ibis

Least tern

Royal tern

Forsters tern

Caspian tern

Elegant tern

Sandwich tern

Brown pelican

American coot

Wood stork

Red-crowned parrot

Great blue heron

Great egret

Snowy egret

Reddish egret

Double crested cormorant

American kestrel

Turkey vulture 

Anhinga 

Also two Dolphins at St Pete beach and two alligators seen!