ICELAND

Reykjavik Feb 20-22nd 2007

There arent many birds around! On the Golden Circle tour we saw Crows (everywhere) and glimpsed a couple of PTARMIGANS still white and thats all. On day 2, we found redwings in suburban gardens, Whooper Swans, Greylag Geese, Tufted Duck and Mallard on the central lake, then from the steam of the Blue Lagoon I saw a 'snowflake' of SNOW BUNTINGS. Day 3 we drove up to Snaefellness, stopping for some time at Bogardnes. At Bogardnes i saw a distant diving duck with white head and black body. Book says it must be King Eider...but see below. Along the coast are many Eider, occasional Red Breasted Merganser. Late afternoon we went out to the lighthouse at Grotta where i saw Redshank, Cormorants and more of those mystery ducks. Finally I glimpsed a long tail as they dived, and then i saw them swimming along with the tail erect - LONG TAILED DUCK. Magnificent.

Feb 2007: Norfolk, Suffolk

Minsmere (54): Magpie, crow, 25,000 starlings!, jackdaw, woodpigeon, blackbird, pheasant, blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit, coal tit, MARSH TIT, siskin, REDPOLL, dunnock, chaffinch, goldfinch, bullfinch, greater spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, jay, whooper swan, mute swan, greylag goose, snipe, JACK SNIPE, WATER PIPIT, mallard, tufted duck, goldeneye, gadwall, pochard, moorhen, dabchick, coot, marsh harrier, dunnock, black headed gull, robin, greater black backed gull, herring gull, lapwing, redshank, dunlin, ruff, avocet, turnstone, pintail, smew, shoveler, shelduck, teal, wigeon, black tailed godwit
Hen Reed Beds: barn owl, BITTERN

CLEY Pied wagtail, GLAUCOUS GULL, SNOW BUNTING, golden plover, dark bellied brent goose, PALE BELLIED BRENT GOOSE, black headed, greater black backed juvenile, herring & common gull, black tailed godwit,bar tailed godwit, redshank, tunstone, pintail, mallard, wigeon, shelduck, shoveler, oystercatcher, curlew, mute swan, redstart, teal, moorhen, coot, common scoter, dunlin, greylag goose, crow, jackdaw,lapwing, common snipe,little grebe

Titchwell

Robin, woodpigeon, dunnock, housesparrow, chaffinch, greenfinch, marsh harrier, redshank, spotted redshank, dunlin, bar-tailed godwit, black-tailed godwit, sanderling, common scoter, red breasted mergnaser, goosander, goldeneye, brent goose, pintail, teal, brent goose, curlew, little egret, shelduck, shoveler, skylark, coot, great tit, blue tit, black headed gull, herring gull, starling, oystercatcher, turnstone, great crested grebe, avocet, magpie, LITTLE GULL, golden plover, common gull, wigeon,lapwing,knot, egyptian goose, canada goose

Singapore & Australia Jan 2007

Singapore jan 2007

at the botanic gardens: yellow-vented bulbul, cattle egret, lesser treeduck, white-breasted water-hen, common kingfisher, scarlet-backed flowerpecker, black-naped oriole.We also travelled out to Sengei Buloh, which is a nature reserve based around mangrove swamps on the north coast facing Malaysia (one can hear the mosque across the strait). In the pouring rain we saw whimbrel, pacific golden plovers, little egret, redshank, greenshank, grey heron all very familiar from uk. But we also saw 3 enormous Monitor lizards, the biggest about 5 feet long! New birds were stork-billed and white-collared kingfisher.

Australia on our first day in Sydney we travelled out to the blue mountains and saw a black widow spider, masked lapwing, common bronzewing, eastern & crimson rosella, laughing kookaburra. We also heard a Lyre Bird and were played a recording of it imitating a variety of birds including a Kookaburra. A trip round the sydney botanic gardens yielded a tree full of ginormous flying foxes, australian white ibis, australian wood-duck, pacific black duck, dusky moorhen, silver gull, sulphur-crested cockatoo On to Melbourne: the botanic gardens/yarra river: Australasian Grebe, White-Faced Heron, black swan, little pied cormorant, purple swamp hen, black-faced cuckoo-shrike, grey & willy wagtail, brush wattlebird, bell miner, silvereye, common starling