Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. Colin Bushell.
This has to be one of the most bizarre birds you'll ever see and is one of the many species seen by Colin on his latest trip to Peru....Thanks as ever for the pic Colin.
And this is probably one of the shortest posts I'll ever do. Not enough hours in the day today, I almost ran out of them, and especially in the case of Birds2blog I nearly did.
But I must give the east coast - and south coast for that matter - another plug to put the west in the shade again, though during my 'trawling' I've come across comments like 'who needs the east coast' and 'the west coast isn't all that bad'....Well in fact I never did called it 'bad' and could never bring myself to call it such, but lets get real and consider a couple of records I came across yesterday, those of 4,500 Goldcrests and 3,200 Robins over Holme Dunes in Norfolk - and by the way these are not typing errors - and 200+ Mediterranean Gulls at The Fleet in Dorset....anyone for the west coast!
But at the end of all this I'll always remember sights like the 200+ Sanderling at Knott End yesterday, and my first six Whooper Swans for 2010, not to mention eleven Stonechats on Harrisend recently when I thought nearly ALL was lost, and many hundreds of others over the years and all mainly in the west. My passion still gains momentum west coast birding and all.
And by the way, a Red-backed Shrike at Rossall today.
I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!
Pete
ReplyDeleteYes fine, the east coast is susceptible to huge falls as north sea-crossing migrants get displaced, but the west coast is almost as good for routine daily passage and better for some species. Check out, for example, Grey Wagtail passage on east & west coasts
I also think the comments made by Ian Wallace about Rocky Point in Donegal which he used to cover with Anthony McGeechan are relevant. They found a Yellow-browed and this was a new unfashionable site, untried and untested and this YBW was elevated to 'mega' status because it was a new site and they had worked hard to identify the habitat something like that might be in.....then bingo! The thorough coverage of Heysham this week has been similar - a bit of time off work, a week of dawn to midday coverage, the return of that excellent birdfinder Tom Wilmer and it has been really good apart from my fumbling this morning!
Your last chance to find something is tommorrow according to the forecast!! Best of luck.
Pete
Thanks for this Pete which I find interesting and yes you're right about the return of the 'excellent bird finder' in Tom Whilmer who I saw the other week and was please to do so.
ReplyDeleteThe west side of the country has always done for me and continues to do so.
On a personal level my birding is taking quite an unacceptable knock at the moment with 'other things' taking up far too much of my time. In eight words....I'm a bit peed off to be honest.