Galapagos Islands day 2 - Santa Fe and Islas Plaza

The first dawn on the Galapagos Islands broke, and we were anchored in turquoise water overlooking a white sand beach - full of Galapagos Sea Lions of course. This was Santa Fe, the only place in the world where the Santa Fe Land Iguana - similar to the common or garden Land Iguana, but paler with more obvious dorsal spines. They were still just as confiding though!

Santa Fe Land Iguana

Bird wise, there weren't any real colonies of seabirds but star of the show was a ridiculously confiding Galapagos Hawk. There's showing well and showing very well...

Galapagos Hawk

The landing at Santa Fe was a small circular route, taking us up from the beach and around a rocky yet vegetated landscape. Galapagos Doves flew about, there were several Lava Herons and Galapagos Mockingbirds while Darwin's finch of choice here were Small Ground Finches. A nice Wandering Tattler on the beach was a bit skittish but showed fine in the end.

Galapagos Sea Lion

After a bit of pretty good snorkeling, we headed off early afternoon back west to the east coast of Santa Cruz and Islas Plaza. The journey took no more than a couple of hours, but enough time to see two fantastic Galapagos Petrels - the endemic pterodroma of the islands. And a few frigatebirds decided to land on the boat and suss things out.

Magnificent Frigatebird

Once we'd got our panga onto Islas Plaza, as a gull lover, I was in for a real treat. Perhaps the most beautiful gull in the world - Swallow-tailed Gull - was waiting for me in spades. They were as good as I'd expected, possibly better, and with displaying, juveniles of all ages and birds to within a metre or so the camera was hit hard.

Swallow-tailed Gulls (adults (top two) and juveniles (bottom two)

These quality birds weren't all though - hundreds of Galapagos Shearwaters coming in to land, my first Nazca Boobies, a small colony of Red-billed Tropicbirds, my first Cactus Finches plus some of the already usual suspects - Lava Heron, Blue-footed Boobies, Yellow Warbler and Brown Noddies. I also found a bonus Kelp Gull too, though it didn't linger as it flew over.

Blue-footed Booby

And there were also some pretty showy Land Iguanas too!

Land Iguana

The light again was stunning, and once again it had been a fantastic day. One thing I was happy with was having a 300mm lens; even this was too close at times, but anything bigger than this on the Galapagos and you'd be potentially taking steps back on too many occasions.

Galapagos Islands day 1 - Santa Cruz

There are very few places in the world that I've been that have well and truly lived up to all the hype. The Galapagos Islands are regularly featured on the TV or in wildlife magazines; moments of magic where sea lions beg for food in a fish market or you struggle to find your way around Marine Iguanas. I was pretty skeptical about the Galapagos Islands being a real life Spielberg-type place, this reticence enhanced with my now annual use of it as a case study as an environment under threat with my A Level Geographers!

The whole experience was absolutely fantastic though - yep it was nice and dudey a lot of the time, but that's not really a bad thing. Wildlife you had to back away from as it approached you, getting to grips with the seabirds, the finches and just taking it all in. I can't really do the place justice, and as a consequence have decided to split the next few blog posts into a day-by-day type of approach.

We traveled on the Beluga boat (thanks to a recommendation from one of Karen's friends), and lucked out with a relatively sedate group of 12 other people along with a great crew and Juan Tapia as our naturalist guide (fortunately he was a birding guide, leading for Naturetrek the week after we left). We spent 7 lovely days sailing around the islands, and then spent an additional couple of nights in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz just relaxing and taking in the lasts of the critters. So I'll start off with the first day, well the first afternoon (as we arrived late morning)...

Galapagos Penguin

Before we'd even got on our main boat, the panga (dingy) ride produced a massive surprise as I found a young Galapagos Penguin swimming about in Baltra harbour; way out of range for where it should have been and it looked a little weary. It was also time to get used to the abundance of Elliot's Storm-petrels as they just cruised about in the harbour in the midday sun. The first Magnificent Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans were hard to miss.

And after having the safety briefing and the first of many top lunches, we sailed away along the north coast of Santa Cruz for a couple of hours - reaching Dragon Hill late afternoon. Each boat is strictly controlled by the national park authorities in relation to its route and how long you're given to land. Great for the wildlife, but for somebody like me who wanted to look thoroughly at things while papping away, it took a bit of time to work out the best strategy for each landing point!

Yellow Warbler ssp.aureola

And so at Dragon Hill, after getting used to the umpteen Galapagos Shearwaters, Blue-footed Boobies, Brown Noddies and Magnificent Frigatebirds I was likely to see each day. We had a walk around the lagoon where 5 American Flamingos glowed in the evening light, while I obviously got most excited with a couple of brief Lava Gulls! 2 White-cheeked Pintails showed nicely and I got my first taster of Galapagos Mockingbirds, Galapagos Flycatchers, Medium Ground Finches and a surprising number of typically sprightly Yellow Warblers.

American Flamingo

White-cheeked Pintail ssp.galapagensis

But, to be honest, the birds played second fiddle - absolutely loads of Marine Iguanas typically spitting their load while the Land Iguanas were pretty cool customers, just lazing about while checking us out.

Land Iguanas

Not a bad first few hours on this wildlife paradise. Perhaps it was worth all the hype after all!

Ecuador part 2 - Sacha Lodge and the Amazon

We spent three nights at Sacha Lodge in the Amazon. It took us two attempts tow get there though, as the first flight we took had to turn back to Quito due to torrential rain at Coca airport. Guess it's not called the rainforest for nothing! Anyway, the way it works is this - you fly to Coca, get picked up and then taken a couple of hours on a motorised boat down the Rio Napo where eventually you reach Sacha Lodge (and other popular lodges). Complete with nice rooms, good food and importantly dry boxes for all your electrical equipment it's a place that caters for tourists wanting their 'rainforest experience'. Piranha fishing, canopy walkways and night walks spotting tarantulas and tree frogs plus toucans, parrots, caiman and monkeys... that's what the punters pay for. And so it started, as on arrival by the lake was a nice showy Hoatzin, a prehistoric looking species I'd always wanted to see since I was a kid: -

Hoatzin at Sacha Lodge

Due to the flight being late in, we were a bit limited daylight wise on the first afternoon, but White-winged Swallows were nice, as were smaller numbers of White-banded Swallows, along with Speckled Chachalaca and Spix's Guan amongst others. A night walk did indeed produce the expected tarantula as well as a few tree frogs.

Tree Frog sp. at Sacha Lodge

The next morning was time for a canopy walk, and we spent a few hours above the trees. In fairness, it was relatively quiet, but I still enjoyed a good number of new birds. Nice to get back into Neotropic birding after a dozen years away, with a Rusty-belted Tapaculo being one of the first birds seen as we headed up towards the canopy walk! White-throated Toucans, Russet-backed Oropendulas, Black-tailed Tityras, White-browed Purpletufts and lots of Cobalt-winged Parakeets were joined by some pretty impressive Red-bellied, Blue-and-yellow and Chestnut-fronted Macaws. Pied Puffbirds seemed pretty confiding, while a handful of tanagers included stunning looking Green-and-golds and Paradise.

Paradise Tanager at Sacha Lodge

Pied Puffbird at Sacha Lodge

On the way back down to the lodge, a couple of Crested Owls were located in their usual roost site and a male Wire-tailed Manakin blinded us briefly with a bit of colour!

Crested Owl at Sacha Lodge

The afternoon was spent in the wet forest and on its waterways. It was significantly quieter than the morning, but that was to be expected, but the target Agami Heron did put in a brief appearance - very satisfying!

Agami Heron at Sacha Lodge

Black-mantled Tamarin at Sacha Lodge

The next day, after a night of rain, dawned predictably gloomy and it wasn't a surprise that the parrot lick (an area of clay bank where parrots come down to take minerals to help their digestion) was pretty disappointing. Just a few Dusky-headed Parakeets. However, the Rio Napo did provide a load of other species such as Large-billed Tern, Oriole Blackbird, Black-fronted Nunbird, Violaceous Jay and Ringed Kingfisher.

Plumbeous Kite at Yasuni NP

We headed into Yasuni NP, where heading up a tower to view the canopy proved really fruitful with loads of species - including some showy Plumbeous Kites for starters, Channel-billed Toucan and Ivory-billed Aracaris, Yellow-tufted and Cream-coloured Woodpeckers, Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak, Purplish Jacamar, Plum-throated Cotinga, several species of tanager and woodcreeper as well as some really nice flyby views of Blue-and-yellow Macaws.

It was up the Kapok Tower back at Sacha Lodge in the afternoon, but not before the boat journey there disturbed a Sungrebe. Birds were a lot closer here than in the morning at Yasuni, and though with not as much about, some nice Gilded Barbets and flocks of tanagers and euphonias entertained until the sun started to go down. That evening, we had a cruise around the lake after dinner and saw a couple of Black Caiman staring back at us.

Gilded Barbet at Sacha Lodge

So that was that, because the next morning we had to start our journey back to Coca for our flight back to Quito. The heavens opened, and the walk (run) back to the boat was pretty grim. But, at the end of the day, without the rain there wouldn't be all the biodiversity we'd experienced. A pleasant trip to the Amazon, though on reflection I think the birding was tougher than I expected and without hummingbird feeders, photography was a bit of a struggle at times.

Ecuador part 1 - Quito's birdlife

This is the first of a few posts on the summer holiday just gone. Karen and I spent just shy of a month in Ecuador and the Galapagos, and while moving around, the central hub for a lot of our travels was Quito. At the start of the holiday, we spent three nights in central Quito - not everyone's birding ideal, but I quite liked it for a bit of South American culture too.

Easing yourself in with a few common species, the best introduction to Quito's birdlife is the botanical gardens in Carolina Park. I made a couple of visits - Great Thrushes and Eared Doves everywhere, and the stars being the first couple of hummingbirds, Sparkling Violetear and Black-tailed Trainbearer, as well as both Black and Masked Flowerpiercers. Standard stuff in the scheme of things, but nice to see first off.

Sparkling Violetear Quito Botanical Gardens July 2015

Great Thrush Quito Botanical Gardens July 2015

Quito's the second highest capital city in the world (after La Paz, Bolivia), so going up on the cable car above it means you're going pretty high up. And to the paramo grassland habitat where, as well as realising that altitude affects my body, a couple of species such as Plumbeous Sierra Finch and Plain-coloured Seedeater seemed common.

Plumbeous Sierra-finch Quito Teleferico July 2015

Between trips to the Amazon, the Galapagos and Cuenca, we kept returning to the Hacienda La Jimenita in Pifo (just 15 minutes from the airport). As well as being one of the most pleasant hotels we've stayed in, the grounds weren't bad for birding either. Hummingbird feeders and extensive trails gave me good opportunities to watch dry forest/lower slope species including Southern Yellow Grosbeak, Rusty Flowerpiercer, Western Emerald, Blue-and-yellow Tanager and Streak-throated Bush-tyrant. And it was a good place to unwind too.

Southern Yellow Grosbeak Hacienda Jimenita August 2015

Swinhoe's on the Azores pelagic again but...

It's good to be back in London, with another August Azores Pelagic tour under the belt. I'm still getting the odd throwback whiff of chum that's stuck into my skin, but this year's sacrificial clothes were left behind on Graciosa.

I had it very hard this year; in fact, it's a miracle in itself that we got out to the Bank of Fortune this year. After going out on Tuesday for a few hours (detailed in the last post), Wednesday was storm force - big winds and high seas. So much so that walking back on Wednesday evening with the wind still pushing 40+ mph, I told the group that we wouldn't reach the Bank of Fortune at all on this trip. And so people wanted to leave Graciosa (we saw nothing scouting about the island on the Wednesday bar three Long-tailed Skuas past Ponta da Barca) and head back to Terceira. But Rolando had surprising news on Thursday morning and said 'let's do it!' and so we all headed back from the SATA office and quickly got our boat gear on.

We were off to the Bank of Fortune! Having been seawatching the evening before and the sea looking abysmally rough, it had flattened out remarkably though there was still a swell. I opted to purely focus on chumming for the participants so left my camera behind. Bulwer's Petrels were seen on the way out to the bank, but we didn't stop much until we got to one of the 'annual' GPS points. Monteiro's Storm-petrels found my petrel liquor very quickly, and half an hour later I called the first of two Wilson's Storm-petrels - they showed really nicely this year. An adult Arctic Skua and then an adult Pomarine Skua (complete with 'spoons') joined the party.

Monteiro's Storm-petrel at the Bank of Fortune

We then moved off to a second GPS point, and knowing this was going to be our last real chance of anything mega (with Friday's weather looking poor), I really went for it on the chum front. It started off slowly, with a few Monteiro's Storm-petrels and another Wilson's Petrel and an adult Long-tailed Skua. Slowly, momentum gained, and then there was the call from Bob Swann of 'dark-rumped petrel' that quickly turned into 'Swinhoe's Petrel' when a few others got onto it. I was chumming and with a low vantage point, failed to get onto it first time around. Then it did another circuit - never close - and then a third, when finally I could be happy that for the fourth year running (and fifth successive trip!) the Azores Pelagic team had recorded a Swinhoe's Storm-petrel. A couple of shots were rattled off too from what I gather. Once again, the flight action was very different to the nearby Monteiro's, being distinctively butterfly like and slightly more erratic.

So all was well despite the tricky weather, and to cap it off on the way back a Little Shearwater showed for all too. So with lots of Great Shearwaters, and the Sooty Tern earlier in the week, (nearly) everyone was happy.

But what this year has taught me is that birders are a difficult bunch, or at least some are. With my normal line of work being in a 'challenging' London school this week was comparatively difficult, and the behaviour of some people in times of adversity left a lot to be desired. Peter and I run these trips (and don't get paid!) to explore the pelagic potential of the Azores, and yes we're having good luck with Swinhoe's Storm-petrels, but anyone coming in the future needs to approach these trips as follows: -
- the weather can be bad and therefore it is not our fault if we can't get out to sea
- there are few birding sites known on Graciosa (though we did find a Spotted Sandpiper this year) so if we don't go out, there may need to be a lot of relaxing time
- please don't shoot the messenger if you don't get Swinhoe's Storm-petrel (or in one case this year, South Polar Skua!!)
- enjoy the Monteiro's Storm-petrels, Sooty Tern(s) and just being out in the mid-Atlantic

Anyway, we got flown back to Terceira on Friday evening by Captain Monteiro, which was a nice coincidence. And with an hour to spare, I did a mad dash around Cabo da Praia quarry and found three juvenile Semipalmated Sandpipers (presuming one to be from last weekend) and an adult White-rumped Sandpiper still. And then it was back to the airport, ready for a nice long stint in London to unwind at work next week!

two of the three Semipalmated Sandpipers at Cabo da Praia, Terceira 28th August 2015

Looks like we're already fully booked for 2016 too but do contact me if you're interested as you never know, we may have more spaces/trips come up.

Poor weather mid-Atlantic

The second update from this year's August Azores trip. Unfortunately though, the Azores High has long since departed and today (and especially tomorrow) is revved up wind wise. Leading a group of expectant birders and telling them that the weather's going to get in the way is never ideal, but that seems to be the case currently.

However, we managed to get out on the boat this morning in ever increasing seas. With a couple of circuits of Ilheu da Praia, I managed to safely locate target number one for several of the birders - Sooty Tern. A juvenile showed pretty well in the end, coming to the boat and the chum I'd thrown out. Really encouraging that for a second successive year, the species has bred on the island (the only breeding site in the Western Palearctic). No sign of either adults, though choppy weather didn't help...

juvenile Sooty Tern off Ilheu da Praia, Graciosa 25th August 2015

And so to that Azores' endemic - Monteiro's Storm-petrel. Having seen a couple of mid-distance birds on the Terceira to Graciosa ferry (along with two Long-tailed Skuas, a couple of Bulwer's Petrels and several Great Shearwaters), I managed to bring one in by chumming relatively close to Ilheu da Praia. I'm hoping that's not the only one of the trip, but as it stands, getting to the Bank of Fortune this year could be slightly problematic. We'll see...

Anyway, just one new wader to add since the last post - an adult Pectoral Sandpiper arrived at Cabo da Praia, Terceira on Sunday morning and was still about when we all left the site yesterday afternoon.

adult Pectoral Sandpiper Cabo da Praia, Terceira 23rd August 2015

Azores time - Cabo da Praia delivers again

I flew out from London yesterday morning, a couple of days in advance of the guys that I'll be taking on the now annual Azores pelagic. After a smooth flight, I arrived on Terceira early evening and naturally headed straight down to the quarry at Cabo da Praia. With expectations pretty low after what seems to have been a pretty static summer mid-Atlantic, I was overjoyed to find three new yanks - best of all was a juvenile Least Sandpiper (is this the earliest ever juvenile in the WP?): -

juvenile Least Sandpiper Cabo da Praia, Terceira 21st August 2015

I was also a bit pumped up with this juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper. As I say every year, you can't call it the autumn until you've got your first displaced Nearctic youth wader under your belt. A nice long-billed bird, presumably a female fresh out of the far eastern Canadian Arctic.

juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper Cabo da Praia, Terceira 22nd August 2015

Semipalmated (left) and Least Sandpiper (right) Cabo da Praia, Terceira 21st August 2015

Predictably for this time of year, the third new yank was an adult White-rumped Sandpiper. And along with Semipalmated Plover and Redshank (a decent bird out here), that was an eventful first evening and as always really good to be out here again.

Today was a bit of a relaxation day, what with the manic nature of the two days I was in school doing all the results stuff being sandwiched in between coming here and getting back from Ecuador. Nevertheless, there was still some good birds to be had with a similar line up in the quarry to yesterday, less the Least Sand but with a Hudsonian Whimbrel and Curlew Sandpiper instead. And a trip up to the centre of the island was typically hard work, though a Glossy Ibis that has been about for a while decided to show itself at Lagoa do Junco.

Glossy Ibis Lagoa do Junco, Terceira 22nd August 2015

A fair bit of time has been spent with the atlantis Yellow-legged Gulls in the harbour at Praia da Vitoria. Loads of photos to delight you with at a later date of course.