Another January

We’re into the third week of storms with no prospect of birding or ringing for several days. Storm Ella is lined up to be next. 

Almost every day has been so awful that I have struggled to get out birding or ringing, even for the occasional “window of opportunity”. Everyone is pretty fed up, not least those people whose homes have been flooded.  Fortunately here in coastal Lancashire, apart from fencing panels, we have escaped any serious damage, but there’s more to come from the current cycle with its misplaced and overactive jet stream.  

UK 2020 - Getty Images 

Meanwhile the Government is happy to blame so called “climate change” for the damage and destruction while muddying the waters, diverting attention from building on flood plains; or forgetting to mention the Environment Agency’s failure to properly maintain dykes, ditches and rivers because of the European Water Framework Directive 2000. Roll on 2021 when Britain becomes again an independent nation, free from the dictats of unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, and when our politicians will be paid for making decisions of their own. 

For those of an enquiring mind willing to read other than mainstream media I recommend:

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/18/boris-tories-floods-arent-our-responsibility-blame-climate-change/

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/the-link-between-climate-change-and-britains-winter-storms-clue-there-is-not-one/

That’s the whinge over for now.  Meanwhile a few pictures from January 2011 and a holiday in sunny Egypt where we saw a somewhat limited range of species within the confines of the resort of Makadi Bay, Hurghada.  A couple of miles of beach plus 15 or so lush hotel grounds provided ample time and opportunity for birding while soaking up the winter sun. 

Makadi Bay, Egypt

 Red-throated Pipit

Bluethroat

Kingfisher

 Kestrel

Laughing Dove

Makadi Bay 

Sleepy Camel

Striated Heron

Osprey

Cattle Egret 

 Makadi Bay, Egypt

Makadi Bay, Egypt

Hooded Crow

Bluethroat

Kingfisher

Greater Sand Plover

Greenshank

Cattle Egret

We had a great time with two weeks of unbroken sunshine in the eighties when back home there would be rain, wind and whatever else the British weather might throw at us.   

I know someone who went to Hurghada just two years ago. Following terrorist atrocities in Egypt the rules are now more controlling whereby tourists are unable to leave the confines of their hotel grounds, barred even from walking into neighbouring hotel surroundings because of security concerns - such a shame.

It's raining now.  Back soon - sometime, never?

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Saturday Blogspot.

Egypt Matters

When I watched the TV news and read today’s newspaper which described the tumult going on in Egypt it made me both sad and angry.

“The Foreign Office (FCO) issued the advice for the resort of Hurghada, where violent clashes erupted earlier in the week in an area away from the main tourist section. The FCO advised that in Hurghada on August 14 there were some violent clashes, in an area away from tourist resorts. One man was killed. Hurghada police advised tourists to remain in hotel grounds, avoid all demonstrations and large gatherings and if becoming aware of any nearby protests, to leave the area immediately and to not attempt to cross road blocks erected by the security forces or protesters.” 

Sue and I enjoyed a wonderful winter holiday in the Hurghada resort in January 2011 and it grieves me to think of those poor, hard-working and proud Egyptian people suffering such turmoil. 

It’s raining hard here in the UK, so I put together some pictures from Hurghada 2011. Apologies to any readers seeing a few of these pictures again but to anyone who didn't find them until now, I hope that after seeing them you will agree that Egypt should be on any birder's or photographer's wish list.

Hopefully Egypt will recover soon from this setback and their tourist industry return to normal.

"Click the pics" for a better view of Egypt.

Hurghada Hotel

Western Reef Heron

Red-throated Pipit

Common Kingfisher

Bluethroat 

Common Kestrel

Sleepy Camel

Egyptian Lizard

Greater Sand Plover

Nile Valley Sunbird

 Striated Heron

 

Osprey

Tourist Police

More soon from Another Bird Blog but not from Egypt just yet.

Appropriately enough I'm linking this post to Anni's I'd Rather Be Birding Blog .

Looking For The Sunday Sun?

The forecast was correct. Two days of rain, Saturday and now Sunday, with the weather extracting revenge for last week’s fine days.

But this morning, bursting with optimism despite the cloud filled sky I had set off for Pilling and on the way clocked 2 Barn Owls again, one at Burned House Lane and a second one flying across the road at Lambs Lane. After yesterday’s rain the fields alongside Biker Mile were crowded with Curlew and Lapwing, several hundred of each as I stopped at Gulf Lane in the hope of seeing a third Barn Owl; I didn’t, so turned the car around and headed back to Lane Ends where in the morning quiet I picked out singing Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler then watched a nearby Willow Warbler moving through the greenery.

Barn Owl with a Rat
Chiffchaff
Lapwing
Curlew

The plan was a walk to Fluke and then back to the car park, but looking west and south all was grey. Within ten minutes the rains arrived again so I abandoned play for the time being.

Over lunch I switched on our Sky-free TV for yet more news and views on the shameful, murky world of Murdoch with its shady, back-slapping politicians, policemen, journalists and hangers-on who live therein. In disgust I zapped the remote control to “standby” and hoped the sun might shine a light into dark corners of UK life or that I might get a few hours for afternoon birding or ringing a few Swallows.

It wasn’t to be, and at 2.30pm rain still piled in from the west. It became time to sort the hundreds of photographs that clutter up the PC, abandoned for months on end as new, superior, more current ones arrive from another birding day for urgent cropping and Photoshopping for the blog.

I found a few old but respectable pictures to make the page up for today; Greater Sand Plover, Bluethroat and Cattle Egret from sunnier days in Egypt. It’s strange to look back and think that when we were there in January and February of 2011 it was ordinary Egyptians who took to the streets to sort out the corruption in the Egyptian establishment.

Greater Sand Plover
Bluethroat
Cattle Egret

No sign of the Sunday Sun then? Thank goodness.

Leftovers

Two weeks later I finally finished going through my pictures from Egypt, so picked out a number that as yet have not performed on the blog. Some of the species have appeared before, but in the absence of any birding on a wet and windy Friday and promised same again for Saturday, the bit of blue sky and memory of warm, sunny Egyptian days may cheer everyone up.

There was a particular Western Reef Heron in Hurghada that hung around the main jetty where the local lads fished with hand lines, but to amuse the tourists fed the heron by hand with freshly caught fish. The creature was so used to being fed it would stalk up and down the jetty in the hope of scrounging a meal. The Striated Herons weren’t so obliging and I would have to seek them out in quiet beach or boat spots in the early morning. In the second week of the holiday when most of the tourists went home, the beach camels took a well-deserved rest, the lizards came out to play and early mornings were the best time for Greenshank and Greater Sand Plover.

Western Reef Heron
Striated Heron
Striated Heron
Striated Heron
Sleepy Camel
Egyptian Lizard
Greater Sand Plover
Greenshank

There were a small number of very wary Stonechats about the hotel grounds which kept their distance so well I only bothered to get one photograph. I am pretty sure the ones I saw were all European Stonechats, and none of them Siberian Stonechats, although both occur in Egypt. The common crow of the area is Hooded Crow.

Stonechat
Hooded Crow

I suppose the highlight of my photography time was getting the chance to take pictures of a close Osprey, and on a couple of mornings sitting near a Kingfisher, none of which happens too often here in the UK.

Osprey
Kingfisher