Decade summary #8 - Best of 2017

Almost there! Just one more annual summary after this before my 2019 summary.
2017 was another exciting year - fieldwork season in Iberia, trip to India, summer visit to Shetland, two visits to Israel at either end of the year, and in between lots of good birds in the UK.

Early in the year I cleaned up some good divers and seaducks, including this obliging White-billed Diver in Lincolnshire:

The trip to India, with Gidon, Amir and Eli, was primarily targeted at seeing a Tiger in Ranthambhore, which we did...

A trip to Kaziranga offered excellent birding, including this stonking male Pied Harrier, surely one of the best raptors of the world:

I spent most of April and May in Portugal and Spain, doing fieldwork for my PhD with my outstanding field assistants Re'a and Daniel. We had a very successful season and a great time together, and didn't stop birding for a moment. 

Sisónes

My second visit to Shetland, this time with my family, was wonderful, how can it not be? Barely an hour after stepping off the ferry we were treated to a fantastic show by a pod of Orcas hunting seals outside Roger and Agnes's,

The UK provided me with quite many rarities; nothing as intense as in 2016, but I guess Elegant Tern, PGtips, Stilt Sandpiper, Parrot Crossbill, Black Scoter, Pacific Diver and Coues's Arctic Redpoll aren't a bad annual tally.

During a quick November trip to Israel I was treated by a friendly Red-rumped Wheatear to a private show:

Full summary of 2017 here.

Scotland #1 - Orca Superb

I have a long back-log to catch up with, so without further ado, here we go:

A week ago we left Norwich and started a three day long road-trip to Shetland. We stayed one night with our good friends in Filey, Mark and Amity. A quick morning birding session at some of Filey's best wetlands produced, well, not too much. Merlin was a good local bird 😊 And Mark was really impressed by eBird. Bird recording is actually great!

After another day on the road we stayed overnight in Edinburgh. Then another short ride to Aberdeen, to catch the ferry across to Lerwick. Beautiful weather made staying on the deck pleasant, for a while until the kids demanded food. There were Bottle-nosed Dolphins and Harbour Porpoises in the bay, some Goosanders, Kittiwakes etc. 

We were extremely lucky with the weather during our entire stay on Shetland. After we left the ferry and drove down south to our hosts in Sumburgh, we became aware of an Orca pod heading south from Lerwick along the coast. When we got to Roger and Agnes's. it was soon time to head out and intercept them on the nearby headland. 2 minutes walk from the house, 3 minutes wait and - boom! Orcas spotted. They swam in extremely close in, hugging the coast, into the smallest inlets, searching for seals. Adrenalin was rushing. Cameras were clicking. What a fantastic show. So much more impressive compared to the distant views I had in Vancouver last year.

It was a group of four individuals - a huge bull, a female he seems to fancy in recent times, another female and a cub. The bull is well known here - his local name is Busta. He's been seen in Shetland for about 20 years now. This pod travels regularly between Shetland and Iceland.

At first we all watched them from a small hill overlooking the bay, but quickly I deserted my parental duties and scrambled down a cliff to get closer to water level. They passed so close to me. I heard them breath. They splashed water with their tails (to disorientate seals) and I felt the spray. Simply breathtaking.

This fin means BIG TROUBLE 

Tasty Tystie snack in the background

Tail splashing

They passed so close to shore, searching for seals hiding in the tiniest crevices, practically climbing on rocks:

 

Before heading off south they started jumping our of the water together, apparently just for fun. Incredible.

Flipper

Then they toured the entrance to Pool of Virkie, right by the airport. They were enjoyed by many admirers on Sumburgh head too, before heading up north along the west cooast.

We were so fortunate to encounter Orcas barely two hours after landing on Shetland, and even more by experiencing in such intensity. Simply one of my best wildlife experiences ever. Wow. It's been almost a week since, but Adrenalin is still rushing when I go through my photos.

More spectacular Shetland experiences to follow soon, so stay posted.

BC day 2 - Vancouver Island - Orcas!

What a great day yesterday was. But first, good news - I think I have already overcome my jet-lag and I am delighted to announce that I had a good night's sleep.

Anyway, the night before was awful and I was grateful when the sun had come up over beautiful Vancouver. I just spent some time getting acquainted with common garden birds which was nice. Quite a lot of singing stuff. I think Bewick's Wren was a new bird for me...

After breakfast we headed out and caught the ferry to Nanaimo. While waiting for the ferry one Audobon's Warbler was singing in tall tress on a slope above the road. Though we did spend all of the crossing on the deck watching out, there were rather few birds. Some first Marbled Murrelets and Common Murres, Pacific and Common Loons, a few rafts of Surf Scoter but no marine mammals.

Surf Scoters

We started making our was north along the coast and made a few enjoyable stops. Englishman River Estuary was really good with lots of birds and good variety. Geese included quite many Black Brants, 6 Cackling Geese and a lone White-fronted Goose - I have no idea which form to expect here:

Ducks were in good variety too with Harlequins, Buffleheads, Goosanders, Red-breasted Mergansers, one Long-tailed Duck etc. Not too many shorebirds but we had a tame group of c. 30 Western Sandpipers - so pretty in summer plumage:

There was a larch concentration of gulls there. Among the masses of Glaucous-winged there was one Kumlien's Gull (need to confirm that - couldn't get a photo of it), American Herrings, Mew, California and Western Gulls.

Glaucous-winged, Mew and Bonaparte's Gulls, maybe a western on the left?

California Gull. Not sure about its age. Pretty fresh primaries and no moult yet, but already pretty bleached median coverts:

A group of the sweet tern-like Bonaparte's Gulls were foraging close in a funny fashion that included small springs and dives head-in:

Not too many passerines around, some hirundines and a small group of Savanna Sparrows:

Dedicated to my friends in the UK who dipped or didn't go for the one in Cheshire the other day:

'Pacific' White-crowned Sparrow

When we finished the circuit and arrived on the beach, Gidon was ahead of me and Amir, we were wasting time on photography. Gidon ran back to us: Orcas! We caught up with him - a pod of about five Orcas swam gracefully across the bay, too distant for photography but boy, these long dorsal fins... My first Orcas so I was pretty chuffed, stunning animals.

Gidon 

Little Qualicum River Estuary was also good with more gulls and ducks. I am just crazy about Harlequin, stunning birds:

Harlequin Ducks

Qualicum Bay was also just packed with birds. Huge numbers of loons, grebes, seaducks, alcids - I really enjoyed it. Also quite many Harbour Seals and Harbour Porpoises swimming about. Superb. Three species of scoter, Red-necked and Slavonian Grebes, Cassin's, Marbled Murrelets and Pigeon Guillemots, and lots more - great stuff.

At Fanny Bay the California Sea Lions were entertaining. The males roar is quite something, what a resonance box they must have...

In the evening we finally made it to Campbell River. As we checked in we got intel about Orcas that should be heading our was in front of our accommodation. We sat on the porch, enjoyed the sunset over the beautiful bay. We didn't see the orcas (did add Rhinocerus Auklets) but it was a lovely end to a great day.