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.

Kaziranga explosion

I have a lot of catching up to do, after several wifi-less days in Kaziranga NP, Assam.

Our first day in the reserve was incredible. The weather was good, the birds were active and we just saw so many birds. Our guide, Rofikul, did a great job and our daily score was over 170 species! And this is with the difficulty of birding out of the jeep. In the morning we checked the eastern range, and in the afternoon we checked the central range. The wetlands are superb, and especially the adjacent woods team with birds and wildlife. Lots of One-horned Rhinos, Asiatic Elephants, Buffaloes etc. Here are some photo highlights:

Black-necked Stork - stunning bird! 

Striking wing pattern

Lesser Adjutant - like a long-legged vulture

Good numbers of Spot-billed Pelicans:

Many hundreds of the extreme Bar-headed Geese graze around the wetlands:

The father of all chickens - brilliant bird. Red Junglefowl

It was a good day for raptors, taking advantage of the good weather. We had seven eagles including Imperial, Booted, Indian Spotted and Greater Spotted.

Pallas's Fish Eagle

Grey-headed Fish Eagles

And good numbers of oriental Honey Buzzards:

Many Grey-headed Lapwings:

Several owl species seen, including Brown Fish Owl and this Spotted Owlet:

Whooosh whooosh whooosh... Great Hornbill. More to come on those...

A few images for Euro birders - first these Oriental Turtle Doves (and a Red Collared Dove):

Brown Shrike

Stejneger's Stonechat

Tickell's Leaf Warbler - one of several leaf warblers seen. 

Huge numbers of starlings and mynas everywhere, including the truly impressive Great Myna: 

The Cotton Trees are packed with birds, feeding on nectar and on the flowers themselves. Mainly starlings and parrots. Among the commoner starlings and mynas we had also good numbers of the scarce Spot-winged Starling:

And among the commoner parrots we had also some Blossom-headed Parakeets. These are Red-breasted Parakeets, seen in good numbers. 

Under the trees, Hog Deers join the feast:

But the highlight of the day came right at the end, during the evening golden hour. A stonking male Pied Harrier made a perfect fly-by. Only my camera did not perform well and shot too few frames per second, but hey, I cannot complain. What a bird.

Pied Harrier 

Here are our eBird checklists: morning checklist and afternoon checklist.

Stay tuned for more Kaziranga action.