20 : Royal Spoonbill

 

Royal Spoonbill - Platalea regia

I am taking a break from migrating old posts to the new home for Neil's Daily bird. I have an awful lot of catching up to do from my historic photo bank. The big hiatus in posting does not mean I wasn't "getting out there". Far from it. Semi retirement or however I describe my self-ejection from the law at 53 provided a great opportunity for travels with my camera. 

In February 2023 I took a month's tour around New Zealand visiting both the North and South islands. A truly wonderful place. Sadly I am now separated from my wife, Jane however it was on our bucket list and this turned out to be the last of our great foreign natural tours together discounting a short holiday to Mull the following year. The South Island of New Zealand truly has that Lord of the Rings majesty. I have to say the birdlife in New Zealand is sadly depleted in terms of diversity of species and numbers. The endemic island birds, the many highly specialised or ground nesting took a huge toll from the arrival of humans in around 1250-1350 AD. In order to see those birds that remain a trip to "Zoolandia" in Aukland is likely to produce better results than stalking through what slivers remain of the indigenous landscape. "Zoolandia" is a small valley surrounded by a fence to keep out the rats, weasels, domesticated cats and all of the other invasive predators that arrived in the wake of the biggest natural invader of them all. Long gone are the Moa's and giant avifauna that roamed the fern jungles. I have not established whether I can tick the birds I saw there but the roof is open so they can come and go pumping out successions of safe birds to the wider environment - at least those that can fly. This  story of the mass extinction of mega-fauna wasn't confined to New Zealand. It had played out hundreds of thousands of years ago on the continents of America with the extinction of megafauna with the arrival of man. The same happened after we recolonised  Britain after the ice age. Gone are the bears, lynx, horse, Aurochs and Elk to be followed in the last millennia by our Beavers and Wolves. The Maori were no way as destructive as the latter arrivals who brought with them large scale agriculture and pests. 

New Zealand retains now just 168 breeding bird species only and the most successful tend to be those that have arrived by wing from landscapes in which they had all adapted to what comes along with the naked ape. Other European species were simply introduced like Starlings and Goldfinches. Who knows what havoc we wreak when we do this. 

Towards the end of Jane's and my tour we stayed in an area called the Catlins. A beautiful stretch of coast with estuaries and cliffs and wide sandy beaches and interesting geology. Home to penguins and sea lions and many water birds. I would recommend the Catlins as a peaceful stop if you are cramming in your tour with boat trips, jet boats, helicopters and glaciers and all of the other activities that are to be found on South Island. Sadly our trip was plagued by a cyclone and the variable weather meant that many of our trips out to sea or by air were cancelled. The Catlins was our last stop before Dunedin (not pronounced a la Lord of the Rings rangers or "Dunydine" much to the mirth of a friend but Duneden - much more Scottish and cakey). The tour finished with  Christchurch which was my favourite City in New Zealand and then the plane home. 

The Royal Spoonbill has a range across Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia and the Solomons. It appears very similar to our Eurasian Spoonbill, P. Leucorodia. but is more closely related to Spoonbill species occurring elsewhere in the Old World such as Black-faced Spoonbill. 

I managed to polish up my birds in flight technique before the trip clearly. The key is to put a "stop" on to increase the exposure which seems counter intuitive with a big bright sky but that is the point. With evaluative metering the camera will average out the brightness and reduce the exposure taking away a lot of the detail from the bird. The formula becomes a little confused always however with all white birds or birds with large areas of white feathers like a Sea Eagle or a Gannet. The white areas can become "blown". The direction of they sun has saved me here. I have not taken enough pictures yet to become expert. I have recently upgraded to a mirrorless system and these new(ish) cameras will give you an accurate picture of the exposure you are going to get on their screen or through the image viewer. 

My plan is to move to taking my pictures in Raw which allows you to put right far more errors with exposure. I also want to migrate to fully manual. I normally use the setting that ties me to manipulating the aperture. For small birds up close to large birds a fair distance away I try to get as large an aperture as I can - the smaller numbers (F5 or thereabouts). This of course allows for the fastest shutter speeds possible with the equipment which is critical when using a long lens. I am using an old 100-400 m Canon grey lens. If I make 2000 birds on this site I will upgrade to a new lens. There is an incentive. I am not sure I could ever trade in my old warhorse though. With a lens comes camera shake if the shutter speed drifts down to 400 and for birds in the sky it can be unavoidable. You really need a tripod and it's better if the birds are at eye level. Bird photography is a very technical game. 

Royal Spoonbill - Platalea regia

Catlins, South Island, New Zealand, 10 February 2024 

 

19 : Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl

 

Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl - Gallas lafayetti

A historic post from the origin days of the Daily Bird. The task of migrating these posts would be a lot quicker if I didn't stop to read every one but then I am reliving moments and its filling with the juice I need to "get back out there". I am at least ironing out the spellos of a man in his very early forties who was in a distinct hurry to get a post up every day. 

Yes thi is a chicken. Along with 3 other distinct jungle fowl the grandaddy, no ancient "all-father" of all domestic chickens. They are part of the pheasant family and clearly this is the male bird given its striking plumage. The female bird will be brown and a little more drab in order to stand an even chance of sitting on a clutch of eggs on the ground for a couple of weeks.

This photo was taken in the Yala national park and if he looks a bit hurried you have to understand that he has mongoose, wildcats, jackals and leopards all perfectly willing to despatch him. This bird is endemic to Sri Lanka. At some point either Sri Lanka was cut off or an ancestor wildfowl made it onto the island and they went their separate course. It is not just plumage that makes a species - it will have a separate foraging and breeding strategy possibly all developed in balance with its surroundings. When people worry about free range chickens and looking after them its those scratching and roosting behaviours that they look to. The depressed chickens in those babies battery sheds could only dream of the high octane life that this bird lives. Yes he can run from a leopard - hence the blurred photo. 

So "all-father" chicken - I am assuming that the journey to the depressing broiler house began thousands of years' ago. Perhaps you should have kept running and not taken the spilt grain. If only you had have known what was in store for your ancestors. A contrarian argument is this the most evolutionary successful bird in the world. There are 30 billion domesticated chickens making up 12-14 % of the total number of birds on the planet. In terms of biomass (the mass or weight of the birds themselves in aggregate) they could constitute anything between 50 and 75 % of the total. So on the evolutionary scales of life in terms of passing on his genes, and in pound for pound terms the first chicken that hung around humans took the crown. 

I don't know anything about the history of the domestication of fowl but this bird was definately wild ! The Bear Grills of chickens. Keep running "all-father" chicken. I'd rather you fed a beautiful leopard than an obese middle aged man on his lunch break. 

I will leave you with the view from our tent flap that morning just to remind myself of what is out there. 

Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl - Gallus lafayetti

Yala National Park, Sri Lanka 15-18 April 2011

18 : Green-backed (Striated) Heron

Green-Backed (Striated) Heron - Butorides striatus

Not a bad picture given that it was taken with my old camera in the pre-Canon age in 2010. 

Another Mauritius bird but a little more obliging than a Pink Pigeon. The photo was taken in the botanical gardens in Pampelmouse. This bird in turns danced on stalks and cavorted on lily leaves no doubt relieving the gardeners of some of their fish stock.

It does have a glint in its eye - if you woke up and one of these was perched on your bedstead I accept that it would cause you to start. I am sure it just has a decent focus for grabbing little fish. I know some people don't like birds because of their bills, feet and eyes. We tend to project our own emotions onto them. Believe me this bird is not malevolent - it's just doing its thing.

There are a lot of herons, egrets and bitterns - 63 and according to my mate Collins 5 are vulnerable and 3 endangered. 2 or 3 species are known to have become extinct since 1600. 

My mother-in-law was quite fond of my birding antics although she did think that I was a bit of a ticker and lister - stamp collecting she called it. Anyway she sent me a card once - true comic brilliance - "Egrets - I've had a few - but then again too few to mention". I then got a plate with an Audobon Heron picture on it. Little Egrets were a real excitement when they swept round the UK in the last 15 years and turned up near my parents in law - global warming ? All herons (perhaps not Bitterns) make for good photographs for obvious reasons so we should be seeing quite a few on them on these pages. I am having one of my evenings when I am wondering whether I can actually keep this up for 30 or more years to complete the Task but I can certainly make a real go at denting the herons as they are easy I think. 

Diversity is the celebration of life. I was looking at a list today of a party of five Dutchman who spent 3 weeks in Ethiopia and saw 500 birds species. They also saw 20 species of ungalates, different wolves, jackals and foxes, monkeys - the lists went on and on. What a haul - what witnessing. 

I think the lists are just to try and cause you to remember how much you have seen. I have checked the flight prices and schedules to Ethiopia - all very doable so that might be my first mad dash in the Summer when the families desert Dubai leaving the males to sweat out the Summer eating bad food and drinking to much beer ."What are you doing this weekend Neil ?" Ah - flying to Ethiopia to go and photograph an Abysynian Roller (not even sure if thats a bird). Its quite close from here - a short 4 day hop to add a Ground Hornbill or too - if I saw a rare Ethiopian Wolf it certainly wouldn't be a wasted trip. When I am at 9000 with 900 to go this post will make sense - to me I hope. Even 5000 with 5000 to go would be stupendous. I think my first milestone will be 100 birds as that will be 1% of the Task complete. We will be there by the end of the Summer. 

Sorry to ramble and muse this evening - this heron is perfectly adapted for stealing fish in a botanical park - its quite a good photo by my standards and a handsome bird. 

Striated Heron - Butorides striatus

Mauritius - Pampelmouse botanical gardens - July 2010

17 : Pink Pigeon

 

Pink Pigeon - Naseonas mayeri

My post from 2011 on the elusive Gerald Durrell's elusive Pink Pigeon. 

I had to reach for my "Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands" to find the latin name for this bird. We are of course on Mauritius this evening and the tale of the Pink Pigeon is a tale that we will come back to again and again. Unique birds classified as island endemics with an extremelylimited range and the arrival of man or man-made invasions causing catastrophic problems.

Firstly the photo - I took the family on a hike through the last big tract of indigenous forest left on Mauritius in the grim knowledge that it was my best chance to bag as many of the island's endemics as I could. Now I am a little unfit and the boys were I think 9 and 6. My wife was probably the most adapted to walking long distances. When the guide told us after about 20 minutes that the projected route was 14 km I started to convert that back into old money. Divide by 8 and times by 5 I think. Well 8 into 14 was not working well but I got to 1 and 3/4 and then applied my five. Holy moly guacamole - 8 and 3/4 miles. What then took place was an all day conspiracy to hide the fact from our children that we had "bitten off more than we could chew". "How far is it" is not something we needed to hear after about half and hour. I worked out in my head that with the difficult terrain at times this was going to be about 4 hours plus with a stop for lunch and the odd photo. 

I probably have walked more than 8 miles no more than than ten times times in my life - let's be honest for most of we reach a point where kind of wish the walk was finished. There is usually though the sense of achievement at the end and hopefully a decent pint and packet of Bovril crisps. I had not planned an equivalent for the end of this walk. We had the scenery and the place was fascinating. The guide was good at picking out odd plants and other things such as giant snails and bugs - he was a botanist at heart. He amused the boys along the way with plants that popped when squished i.e. the botanical equivalent of bubble wrap - thank heavens for any diversion. 

It is a different thing with a 9 and a 6 year old. You don't want them to get miserable half way round even if the misery is creeping into your own feet and legs. They did very well. I could not walk down some steps the next morning. The walk was slippery at times and very steep - we saw some birds though, and lizards and Monkeys and got a sense for what the island was like before man arrived and turned it over to a cash crop - sugar.

Mauritius was of course the home of the Dodo. Perhaps the only extinct bird that "White Van Man" can name. As with many islands that lacked predators birds had a hard time of it when man (and rats) arrive. On some islands hedgehogs of all things have ran amuck. There is an albatross being ravaged by killer mice on one ocean island. Mostly though the island story seems to be about felling indigenous forests to clear the way for more people and new crops. Many of these islands also had people "imported" in order to work the fields and they in turn needed to be fed. More forest goes down. So many threatened birds are on small islands. 

The Pink Pigeon was a simple victim of habitat loss. It was recognised that the numbers had dropped dramatically by about the 60's and 70's and then steps were taken. I do not know the exact number but the population would have happily made up a feeding party in a town park. Luckily it was one of the early beneficiaries of captive breeding programmes and island habitat conservation. It was saved at the brink - a small offshore satelite island was used as a sanctuary (another mainstay of saving island endemics).

So after about 8 miles we descended into more humid and lush forest.

At this stage the guide said we should stop for lunch. I have to say I wondered why half way round wasn't a good option. By my reckoning the walk was 90 % over ! Also we had stopped next to a hornets nest which had "Uncle Fret" as I am known in some circles a bit concerned.

I guess the theme of this post is that much of the time you have to work for your birds. Equally though with some research you could walk 300 yards from a different car park ! 

Yes - This pigeon was perched about 300 yards from the end of our walk. I would love to say that I spent more than 2 minutes with it. My feet were sore, my back ached, my children were still good but possibly not as captivated by the pigeon as me. Was I captivated ? To this day I have to say it was never quite as Pink as I wanted it to be after 8 miles. More off an white pink than a rose blush. How rude of me is that. I really did want to see a Pink Pigeon and I got one - it just wasn't that Pink. I did see an Echo Parakete, a Mauritius Kestrel and so on (for another post). I will need to get some exercise though as another limitation on the success of this "voyage of birds" could be my fitness. I am proud of that Pink Pigeon - but probably more proud that my 9 and 6 year old walked close on 9 miles. All the way down from the top.

Thank you Gerald Durrell and the people of Mauritius. The world is a better place with the odd Pink Pigeon in it. 300 yards would have been cheating. 

Pink Pigeon - Neseonas mayeri

Mauritius, South Central Highlands, July 2010

16 : Pallid Harrier

 Pallid Harrier - Circus macrourus

These happy shots were taken by my then brother in law, Mick at the Pivot Fields in Dubai. I am utilising the "with the photographer" rule today - they record my tick and I was talking to the photographer at the time - actually out on a trip with them. I am not going to use this rule to post pictures on mass twitches taken by complete strangers. Mick had a long lens and I do not and this was a long lens job ! 

It is a happy series of pictures because they told me it was a Pallid Harrier and not a Montague's Harrier. It comes down to very fine detail with some of these birds and perhaps without a picture I would still be "at sea" as to the identification. The face pattern has a dark cheek patch which contrasts with the light ruff-collar. On a "Monties" this contrast is not there. Luckily it shows up well in this photo.

The Pivot Fields is a big nursery basically where they sell plants and also grow turf commercially which is watered by those great big wheeled contraptions that trundle around whole fields in a circle. When you fly across an arid country and see circular fields this is what you are looking at. Things need a lot of watering in the desert. As there is so much water lying and spraying about the place it has become a haven for birds on migration, overwintering and right now (late May) there are many pairs of other birds breeding. So it's an artificial oasis and magnet for the relatively few birders who are in Dubai. As a footnote sadly this site is no more much to the disappointed of the old hands of Dubai birding. 

Mick and I watched this bird for quite a long time quartering the scrubby overgrown margins of the site and then circling overhead

The face pattern is distinct on this photo as well. Also the colouration underneath is very orange which makes it a juvenile bird according to everything I have looked at. 

This is a bird of the Steppe whose heartland is Kazakhstan and the vast Asian interior. I would hazzard a guess that as it was early April 2010 (whenever Easter was) this young bird was on its way back up the Gulf from whereever it had overwintered. Reading up there is a huge raptor passage up the Eastern edge of the Black Sea hemmed in by the Pontic Alps. On the other side of those mountains a similar movement up the edge of the Caspian Sea. This was where this bird was heading - back to its Summer breeding grounds on the Steppe. One of just a few thousand Pallid Harriers on the move then and taking advantage of the oasis of the Pivot Fields to refuel on the move.

If I am ever going to progress seriously with this task one day I will have to post a picture of a Montague's Harrier (and they are very similar) and make a call the other way. That will be a nice jigsaw puzzle to sort out and probably like this bird it will be the photos that save me. I think I am learning a huge amount by looking at my photos and hitting the books as I go along with this. At least I now know what a Montagues Harrier does not look like - thats a start ! 

Pallid Harrier - Circus Macourus

April 2010 - Pivot Fields, Dubai

15 : Long-billed Sunbird

Long-billed Sunbird - Nectarinia lotenia

There are 130 species of these delightful birds according to my Collin's Birds of the World. I had never seen a sunbird until I moved to Dubai and specifically hunted one down in Safa Park. These are small birds usually but this species seen in Sri Lanka is much larger than the sunbirds I am used to seeing in Dubai.

The bills are all adapted for probing different 'makes and shapes' of flowers. They are filling the same niche as new world humming birds but are completely unrelated. It's what you would call convergent evolution. Both families of birds have independently developed long bills adapted to take advantage of the high energy food available from flowers, iridescent plumage and they can hover. 

Again I'd recommend a delve into the books of Dawkins. Seals and whales are a good example of convergent evolution - both are mammals adapted to return to the sea. A whale is closer to a pig though in evolutionary terms than a seal which is of itself closer to a dog or a wolf. They have got back into the sea along a different path but lost their legs and have adapted to power through the water. 

This Long-billed Sunbird really does what it says on the tin. I was surprised to learn when reading up today that they also take spiders to get a bit more protein with their nectar when breeding. But then I have heard of otherwise vegetarian birds eating Hyena poo to get calcium for development of egg shells. This long bill is obviously highly adapted for very long tubular flowers but it also allows them to catch spiders lurking in the bottom of the flower bowls.

The photograph was taken of a bird resting on the roof of a bungalow we stayed at in Sri Lanka called Ellertons near Kandy.

Long-billed Sunbird - Nectarinia Lotenia

Hills near Kandy, Sri Lanka - 10 April 2011.

14 : Brown Shrike

Brown Shrike - Lanius cristatus.

A post from May 2011 copied across to its hopefully final resting place. 

I am not sure if this is an ordinary Brown Shrike or perhaps a sub-species from the Philippines. I am not counting sub-species in my long journey. I have to give myself half a chance with The Task. I am posting this as a Brown Shrike. I think it probably is just a Brown Shrike. The Philippine subspecies has a "clear grey crown and mantle" which is not so evident on this bird. 

This is my last catch-up post to put me back on a bird a day. This is not best photo today but if you read "The Task" you will note that I reserve the right to post bad photos as necessary in order to "stamp" a species on my web-site.

Yes you guessed it - Yala again, Sri Lanka. One of the 80 or 90 new species I saw in 48 hours. At one point I was seeing one of these birds every 20 or so yards. I love shrikes. They are an "ooh ah" bird for me. Probably because they are extinct as a regular breeding bird in the UK. The Red Backed Shrike held out in Wales and the West country for a while but then died out at its last regular breeding location in 1989. It is only seen on migration now. I expect there is the odd breeding pair but if there is they will be hushed up. So to me shrikes are rare, beautiful and exotic creatures. What a shame. 

They are pugnacious vicious little things and take all manner of small prey from large insects to small rodents, chicks and reptiles. I expect in Sri Lanka geckos, small skinks and the like would have a good chance of appearing on the menu.

This was a first for me and quite a handsome bird with the black bandit mask and buffy tones. I will make up for the poor shot of the bird with another Yala shot. You can see elephants in the same sort of numbers as you can in Africa at Yala National Park - delightful.