Bird of the day!

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

wow Kazakhstan?! was that a natural history tour, a holiday, or work? was it good?

All 3 actually! It was my 5th tour out there + it's a fabulous country for whatever interest in natural history you have-plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, etc.

I usually get sent as a general naturalist on the botany tours, so plants are the main focus, but we certainly look at everything- up to 5 spp of vulture, many raptors, in summer Rollers, Bee-eaters, various Asian specialities, many butterflies including various apollos, Camberwell Beauty. I've seen more snakes here than countries where you might expect to see quite a few. Also Isabelline Brown Bear, Siberian Ibex, Arkhar (a wild sheep), but I'm not really expecting to see Snow Leopard, but they are at 1 of the places we visited- I'll have to make do with the tatty specimen in Almaty museum!

Sadly not my full time job, but it's great to get a couple of tours a year. I've got Gambia to look forward to in a couple of months or so, which will be a new place for me + this time emphasis will be birds.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

All 3 actually! It was my 5th tour out there + it's a fabulous country for whatever interest in natural history you have-plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, etc.

I usually get sent as a general naturalist on the botany tours, so plants are the main focus, but we certainly look at everything- up to 5 spp of vulture, many raptors, in summer Rollers, Bee-eaters, various Asian specialities, many butterflies including various apollos, Camberwell Beauty. I've seen more snakes here than countries where you might expect to see quite a few. Also Isabelline Brown Bear, Siberian Ibex, Arkhar (a wild sheep), but I'm not really expecting to see Snow Leopard, but they are at 1 of the places we visited- I'll have to make do with the tatty specimen in Almaty museum!

Sadly not my full time job, but it's great to get a couple of tours a year. I've got Gambia to look forward to in a couple of months or so, which will be a new place for me + this time emphasis will be birds.

Sounds absolutely fantastic, Steppe habitats?
I soooo enjoyed my natural history trip to Madagascar I would love to do similar elsewhere I was considering Peru but perhaps somewhere a little off the beaten track may be more appealing! were there many other tourists?

Oops off topic..... perhaps continue the conversation in a PM?

[Tursiops2]

I almost trod on my bird of the day!



It let me pass within two feet, just blinked a few times

[Reptilian]

Originally Posted by John

Well off to Anglesey we went, not knowing that the Black Stork had flown off the night before. We carried on to South Stack and at least I got my bird of the day there with a pair of Choughs showing fairly well, albeit a bit distant.

Below are some heavily cropped shots. I must admit I like the back drop of heather behind the birds.




John

Lovely pictures!

There are a fair few Choughs here at the moment. I wish i had the equipment and experience to take shots like that, thanks for sharing them.

[John]

Thanks Reptillian. Much appreciated although to be honest I am not happy with those photos. the weather was totally against good images on the day.

My BOD yesterday was at the Prory Water WAB dragonfly meet when late in the day a Common Buzzard drited over our heads.







John

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Oscar2006

Sorry for delay in posting, but my bird of the day for Friday is Swift.



This little fella was found on the ground at my workplace about 3 weeks ago.
We could not find a nest anywhere to put him back, so a couple of the girls in the office started to feed him with soaked mealworms and live crickets.
He stopped feeding Friday morning and we felt it was time for him to leave.



He flew from the fella's hands around us for a few moments before gaining height and joining his cousins high in the sky above us.
Good luck Buzby, hope to see you another time.

Nice one Oscar, congrats to all that helped raising the youngster. It's rare for it to succeed so it must have been especially pleasing when it flew away!

[vinnychameleon]

My bird of the week let alone the day has to be this Kingfisher who I decided to have a go and photograph on my local river . The river has a very large kingfisher population and as I know a favourite perch (the one this female is on ) I only have to wait around 20 minutes before one turns up so i count myself lucky to have found such a place. The ideal thing about the habitat is the area is only accesible by kayak and most people turn back before they reach the area that the perch is located so these kingfishers are very undisturbed and I intend to keep it that way This female was only on the perch for a while but I always love the moment she skims past me, only 4 feet away as im stood in the river. Their blue backs shimmering with their darker wings almost invisible with the speed they travel and watching them slow down and land on the perch is magical. This time I also had two rival males chasing eachother around the area and they were constantly whistling their shrill cry and chasing eachother and evry now and again they would fly past me. The female returned to the perch but the conditions seemed unfavourable as the sun was not shining in the area around the perch sos he moved off. I hoped to catch them on film diving but they did not but last time i watched them for half an hour diving
P.S sorry for the lengt of this post Kingfishers are a subject i could talk about forever and i feel priveledged every time I see them

[rlchew]

My bird of the day is the adult White-winged Black Tern at Abberton Reservoir which has been present there since 10th August .... my 1st in Essex and 4th in the UK.

No photograph unfortunately .... it was very distant even through my telescope.

Richard

[Cazzie]

Well this is my bird of the day, and a new one for me and my garden!!!

It was here for a good couple of hours mooching about the shrubs and seemed very relaxed....



Then I spied it having a munch on a snail or two - I didn't even know they ate snails?!? It's certainly welcome back any time if it's going to keep my mollusc population down lol! Sorry, piccy none too good, was on full zoom for this one

[aeshna5]

Interesting behaviour shot, especially for what is an often elusive species, despite being common. Jays, like most corvids, are omnivores + will exploit almost anything going, so I'm not surprised it's taking a snail, though I'll admit I've not seen it myself!