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PENDLE HILL SNOW BUNTINGS

A gorgeous male Snow Bunting on lookout on Pendle Hill

SUCH BEAUTIFUL BIRDS KEEP ME GOING UP PENDLE. The small winter fllock of Snow Buntings can be tricky to pin down on the summit as they range widely over the cold and steep Downham scree slope on the northwest side of the big end, anywhere between the spring and the second stile. Mark Varley, Martin Naylor and I eventually built up to nine birds on a clear and bright morning today, starting with ones and twos and then a foursome that was ultimately joined by another five. There has been a small flock of Snow Buntings on Pendle each winter in recent years but numbers are now a far cry from the peak of 80 in December 2003. Just like the declining dotterel, I wonder for how long they will continue to visit Pendle? We also heard what was almost certainly yesterday's Lapland Bunting overhead but against the sun. We eventually ran out of energy and enthusiasm having seen last autumn's obliging bird so nicely and abandoned our search for it. The views from Pendle were also nice, with a snow-capped Snowdon in north Wales clearly visible, although behind a wall of wind turbines. Other birds on Pendle included three European Golden Plovers, one Meadow Pipit and around 10 Red Grouse, now marking their territories ready for next spring. 

Mark Varley on a very bleak Pendle Hill

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TEXAS WHOOPING CRANES

A pair of Whooping Cranes fresh from Wood Buffalo in Canada with their new addition!

ONE OF THE WORLD'S TOP 100 BIRDING EXPERIENCES WITHOUT A DOUBT is a visit to Aransas NWR in South Texas. It has been on my 'to do' list for a long time and after this year's RGV birding festival I finally got around to it. With such conspicuous birds it is more a case of how close the birds are rather than whether or not you are going to see them and the classic way to do this is via a Whooping Crane Tours boat trip out of Rockport on Captain Tommy Moore's 'Skimmer'. The boat trip was very enjoyable, happily on a still and sunny day, it was even quite warm at times out on the water. Captain Tommy is great fun, very knowledgeable and tries hard to point out as many birds as possible, not just the cranes and we saw a good variety of waterbirds including most of the herons and egrets and several shorebirds, including plenty of (Western) willets. Kevin Karlson told me recently that research has suggested that all Eastern Willets spend the winter outside the USA so all east coast birds in winter are likely to be Westerns. A total of around 50 species included a Peregrine sheltering under the heron nesting platforms in Carlos Bay and a pair of Hooded Mergansers on a small pool near Sundown Bay.

Whooping Crane with a blue crab - the mainstay of its winter diet

It is the cranes that are everyone's main desire on the boat trips and, whilst interesting, other birds are incidental for most folks aboard. Being 1.5 metre tall they can be seen from a vast distance and are easily identified from the many Great Egrets by their usually horizontal backs. We were lucky that there were a couple of family groups fairly close to the main shipping channel, otherwise our views could have been much more distant. The coastal landscape here is truly massive and it is very easy to underestimate the size of the vast bays enclosed by the barrier islands... until you check the scale of the map. One of the pairs was also calling to each other, apparently a warning call referring to us so we did not pause here too long. There are not too many birds down to three figures in North America and it was a special privilege to spend some time with the Whooping Cranes.

Captain Tommy Moore on board 'Skimmer'

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'COS YOU AINT GOT TIME TO CHECK IT!

Sickle-winged Skipper, Falcon Dam State Park

I HEARD THIS LINE VERY RECENTLY and it made me think of the way I have to identify many unfamiliar butterflies these days (and a few birds too). I can't see anything wrong with this as it leads to fewer mistakes and with so many butterflies around at the lovely butterfly garden at Falcon Dam State Park and so little time to study them it seemed my best option. Some of the Texan skippers look superficially Metalmark-like to me that it took me some time to find Sickle-winged in the book (nod to Kenn Kaufman for keeping me on the right track!).

Large Orange Sulphur - there are some spectacular sulphurs in the valley!

It was impossible to miss the many beautiful and colourful butterflies in the valley this year and to quote Greg Neise 'There were so many butterflies in the air that it was difficult to scan for raptors at times'. Now that is something! I did not devote nearly as much time as I would have liked to looking at butterflies this year so I am hoping to attend the Texas Butterfly Festival in Harlingen next time, which is immediately before the birding festival 1-4 November 2014... and hopefully to photograph the unspeakably beautiful Mexican Bluewing.

Southern Skipperling = scientific name minima, the smallest of the lot!

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ROADRUNNER, ROADRUNNER!

Greater Roadrunner, Falcon Dam State Park

ROADRUNNER IS ONE OF THE MOST CHARISMATIC BIRDS OF THE SOUTHERN DESERTS and having not seen one for a few years I decided on an early morning drive up the Rio Grande Valley to Falcon Dam. The valley’s seemingly endless franchise strip fizzles out after Rio Grande City and better looking desert scrub takes over from here westwards.

Just downstream from Falcon Dam, the Rio Grande River at Salineño was very productive. No rarities but a gorgeous lemon-yellow Audubon’s Oriole was singing in trees near the small feeding station there and several Altamira Orioles were also hanging around in the same area. An osprey was perched by the river and dived in for a fish at one point, while several more flew overhead. A pair of huge Ringed Kingfishers zoomed past and paused for a while before parting company – one heading up and one downstream. Eventually a local guy backed his pickup to the riverbank to fill a water tank and it was time to move on. Mexico is only a stone’s throw away, on the opposite bank of the river and has a very strong influence in this area. The radio was jammed with Mexican music stations and most homesteads had at least three or four election boards for offices such as Mayor. It was strange to see what looked like a completely open border here. The river was very slow flowing and would only have taken minutes to cross!

I eventually managed to find a handful of roadrunners, foraging furtively on the scrub edges of the access roads. One of them dispatched a large stick insect and woofed it down in one - being a ground cuckoo, roadrunner has a massive bill and a very long tail - it is always a challenge to squeeze the latter into the frame.

The roadrunner whacks a stick insect!

...we're in love with this feelin' now and we'll be out all night!'

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