Egypt Egret

After the near tropical weather of Egypt it’s back to wet, grey British weather today and a chance to sort through the 1000 pics I took in Hurghada. It’s also an opportunity to catch up with family and fix the daily essentials of life.

The blog topic today is Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, probably because they were everywhere we went in Hurghada, the birds unfazed by tourists and locals alike, and I couldn’t resist taking lots of pictures of this engaging species. Although I have seen Cattle Egrets all over the world, I have yet to see one in the UK where they are not yet fully established – that’s what comes of not being a twitcher I guess.

Along the Makadi Bay area the egrets spent all day patrolling hotel grounds and gardens, searching through the manicured grasses for insects, seemingly oblivious to and unafraid of passers-by. The egrets even occur in local art, like the picture hanging on the wall of our hotel dining room.

Sometimes their expressions appeared gentle, at others aggressive, the poses they adopted almost comical, their calls and demeanour reminding me of domestic chickens. At other times their determination and feeding prowess showed through as they explored every nook and cranny of the grass, sometimes crouching parallel to the ground, head and neck quivering before a rapid dart and the strike at prey. Some were not averse to climbing up on to sculpted hedges, manmade structures or even exotic flower beds in their quest for food. Although Cattle Egrets sometimes feeds in shallow water, unlike most herons this egret is typically found in fields and dry grassy habitats, reflecting a greater dietary reliance on terrestrial insects rather than aquatic prey.

The genus name Bubulcus is Latin for herdsman, referring, like the English name, to this species' association with cattle. Ibis is a Latin and Greek word which originally referred to another white wading bird, the Sacred Ibis. The Cattle Egret has two geographical races which are sometimes classified as full species, the Western Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, and Eastern Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis coromandus. The eastern subspecies coromandus, breeds in Asia and Australasia, and the western nominate form occupies the rest of the species range, including the Americas. The Cattle Egret has undergone one of the most rapid and wide reaching natural expansions of any bird species. It was originally native to parts of Southern Spain and Portugal, tropical and subtropical Africa and humid tropical and subtropical Asia. In the end of the 19th century it began expanding its range into southern Africa. Cattle Egrets were first sighted in the South Americas in 1877, having apparently flown across the Atlantic, but t was not until the 1930s that the species is thought to have become established in that area.

Cattle Egrets first arrived in North America in 1941, and after originally being dismissed as escapees, bred in Florida in 1953, and spread rapidly, breeding for the first time in Canada in 1962. They are now commonly seen as far west as California., first recorded breeding in Cuba in 1957, Costa Rice in 1958, and in Mexico in 1963, although they were probably established before that.

In Europe Cattle Egrets had historically declined in Spain and Portugal, but in the latter part of the 20th century expanded back through the Iberian Peninsula, and then colonised other parts of Europe; southern France in 1958, northern France in 1981 and Italy in 1985. Breeding in the UK was recorded for the first time in 2008 only a year after an influx seen in the previous year. In 2008 they were reported in Ireland for the first time.

Maybe this year I will get Cattle Egret on my non-existent British List?

This evening I’m sorting through more of my Egypt pictures - Chiffchaffs, Kingfisher, Osprey, Herons, waders, more pipits and Bluethroats, plus a few gull pictures for the Laridae enthusiasts out there.

The Other Face of Egypt

Late on Friday we got back safe and sound from Hurghada and The Red Sea, many miles from the shock waves emanating from Cairo and other large Egyptian cities. We acquired great tans from a wonderful holiday, and after two weeks of unbroken warm sunshine at 28 degrees, together with staving off Pharaoh’s Revenge, we felt pretty relaxed about Egypt. Because most other Europeans went home tails between their legs at the first sign of trouble, with mainly German and UK nationals remaining by our second week, the early mornings saw a cessation of hostilities in the “Towels on Sunbeds War”, when the available beds on the deserted beach easily outnumbered potential occupants by five to one.

These unexpected plusses neatly allowed me to head off for a little local birding in the by now extremely quiet but lush, well-watered, green resort of Makadi Bay where Bougainvillea clad buildings greet at every turn. I quickly established a couple of miles local patch that comprised boating wharfs, the beach and numerous garden areas of the many four and five star hotels. The locals tell you that Egypt is 95% sand, where the Red Sea resorts are built on strips of land bounded by sandy shores on one side and desert sand on the other, Hurghada being no exception to that rule. That rather limits the birding unless car hire is taken, but that wasn’t on a couple’s agenda and I found plenty of birding and photographic opportunities with morning and afternoon forays.

Today’s topic is a flavour of the birds I saw in Egypt, and in the next week or two I hope to post more pictures after first catching up with blogging friends everywhere, news from my local patch here in the UK and get in an overdue ringing session.

Common and numerous everywhere in Makadi Bay are Bluethroats, wintering birds from the several races of Europe.

Bluethroat

I found lots of ground-hugging Red-throated Pipits skulking about the quiet grassy areas where Cattle Egrets also fed as Kestrels and an Egyptian soldier kept a look-out.

Red-throated Pipit
Red-throated Pipit
Kestrel
Cattle Egret
Bougainvillea
Egyptian Soldier

The beach and the shore held Western Reef Herons and an occasional Striated Heron, crepuscular in their habits.

Sunrise, Makadi Bay
Striated Heron
Western Reef Heron

More soon, but doesn’t Egypt look a lot better than those television scenes from Cairo?

Postcard from Egypt

As we watch nightly CNN full of scenes from Cairo, our hotel in Makadi bay, Hurghada seems a million miles away . In fact it is a 6 hour trip by road from Cairo to the Red Sea resorts which remain unaffcted save for the absence of tourists from some nameless European countries that pulled the plug.

Cattle Egret

The Internet has been unavailable for a week but I got online for an hour just to update the blog with a flavour of the local bird scene.

The hotel gtounds are stuffed full of Bluethroats, Red-throated Pipits, Cattle Egrets, Stonechats, Chiffchaffs, Laughing Doves and Lesser Whitethroats. Two pairs of Kestrels entertain as do Kingfishers, Reef Herons and Striated Herons. I can't get close to photograph lesser throats and Sardinian Warblers but I should have a few stunning pictures of the above birds when and if I get home.

We took a bus ride into Hurghada and apart from a tank or two, everything seemed normal, but hey who's worried? We are British after all.

Crossley ID Guide

This morning the postman Kevin came with a wonderful surprise, my pre-publication copy of The Crossley ID Guide Eastern Birds (of North America). As a fan of North American birds and a previous twice volunteer to Long Point Bird Observatory, I was keen to examine this promised for sea-change in birding guides.

And folks, before I go on to look in more detail at this book, my advice is to place an order right now, because as sure as eggs is eggs, the first print of this phenomenal publication is bound to be a huge seller resulting in a shortage for birders not quick off the mark to the book store or to place an Internet order.

Crossley ID Guide Eastern Birds

The advance publicity by publishers Princeton University Press described the book as “revolutionary” in the way it changes field guide design to make better birders of beginners to experts, and anyone in between. Certainly the book is innovative, exciting even, in the way the reader can interact with what is in effect a real-life method to bird identification, reality birding, unlike the traditional pointed arrow, look-and-learn approach. Richard Crossley is an internationally acclaimed birder and photographer, birding since the age of seven and who by the age of 21 had hitchhiked more than 100,000 miles in pursuit of birds across Britain and Europe, but who now lives in the birding hot-spot of Cape May, New Jersey.

The quickest way to appreciate both the educational and fun way this book works is to take a look at some of the plates I chose with birds familiar to both US, UK and I guess mostly European birders. However birding is such a worldwide phenomenon I suspect some Far East blog readers have already tagged this book as a probable buy.

Crossley ID Guide - Common Tern

Crossley ID Guide - Peregrine Falcon

Unlike other guides which provide isolated photographs or illustrations, this is the first book to feature large, lifelike scenes for each species. The scenes, 640 in all are composed from more than 10,000 of Richard Crossley’s images showing birds in a wide range of views, near and far, from different angles, in varying plumages and behaviours and colours. The single image plate for each species is backed up by a small but accurate piece of text at the foot of the same page. I have to say that each bird scene page contains a wealth of detailed visual information that made me look at not only the overall montage of birds, but also each of the subtly different individuals, and to even then search again through the page for more birds to look at. Just like a birding trip in fact.

Crossley ID Guide - Red-necked Phalarope

The publishers quite honestly annotate this book as a “guide” rather than a “field guide”, a subtle but realistic difference when considering that the book weighs in at 700 grams and measures some 200 x 250mm. This is not a criticism, but rather by the natural depth of the publication’s subject matter and spectacularly innovative design, we should applaud the eventual compactness even if it does not fit in a pocket. Rather I see this book as a “stay at home, or preferably in the car” back up to a pocket guide, something to refer to and consult with when returning from the immediate bird encounter.

A hugely pioneering aspect to this book is an interactive website crossleybooks which as planned will include expanded captions for plates and provide species updates as they come along.

Whilst Crossley ID is primarily aimed at a US audience, I predict there will also be a large demand for it across the pond, not only for European birders who go to the US, Canada and Central America, but also from birders who look for Transatlantic vagrants over here.

Now here is the even better news - The truly remarkable and outstanding Crossley ID Guide will be available from March for the unbelievable bargain price of $35 or £24.95. Read more about it here

Crossley ID Guide – Black-bellied/Grey Plover

For Locals Only

With the wind picking up to cancel out any ringing I turned to a spot of birding this morning and headed up to Conder Green as the first stop, where I picked up a decent little list of birds from the car park, the pool and the creeks.

The highlight was finding 3 Spotted Redshank together with the wintering Common Sandpiper in the creek below the bridge. It seemed that many Common Redshanks Tringa totanus left the area in the early winter cold but these spot-reds were an agreeable birding bonus today. The more predictable stuff was in low numbers with just 3 Curlew and 4 Redshank, but an increase in Teal to 65, 24 Wigeon, and on the pool a single Goldeneye. Up at Glasson Dock I counted 32 Tufted Duck, 2 Goldeneye, 46 Coot, 2 Cormorant, and 8 Mute Swan, with passerines represented by 3 Pied Wagtails and 12 Goldfinch.

Spotted Redshank
Common Sandpiper
Redshank

From the top of Hillam Lane a quick look west revealed that many of the local waders were on either side of the road feeding in the saturated fields, with approximately 900/1000 Curlew and 180 Redshank. Down alongside the marsh in the hawthorn scrub I counted 40 Chaffinch and 8 Tree Sparrows plus a single Pied Wagtail.

Heading back towards Lane Ends a brief look at Braides proved that the Buzzard is now a regular, sat on a post below the sea wall again, but apart from a few more Curlews, the fields here, whilst appearing equally wet don’t seem to hold the same attractions as the flashes less than a mile away.

At Lane Ends I clocked the 2 now regular Goldeneye than took a a wander around the old ringing site, hoping to find maybe a Long-eared Owl. I settled instead for 4 Woodcock that flew off from my feet, each of them in quick succession from the now brambly, overgrown paths. The Woodcock that arrived in our area back in December seemed to have moved on south and west, and I wondered if these were birds new in ahead of the promised cold weather for the weekend?

More wet fields at Backsands Lane held just 3 Golden Plover and 1 Black-tailed Godwit amongst 700 Lapwing, 4 Curlew and a hundred or so Pink-footed Geese, the geese increasing as I watched when more turned into the stiff northerly before they dropped into the field.

Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew
Pink-footed Geese

It was an enjoyable morning proving the point that even the most well-worn of paths turn up welcome surprises now and again, but also that it’s hard to beat a bit of local birding.

Not More Bramblings?

The BBC’s promised fog and frost didn’t materialise this morning so after a couple of quick texts at 0730 I set off to meet Will near Lancaster for a short ringing session where we hoped for a Brambling or two and more winter Blackbirds.

Sunday morning roads are fairly quiet at 8am so I wasn’t entirely surprised to see a roadside Barn Owl sat on a post along Burned House Lane at Stalmine. Trouble was I was alongside before I saw the owl, and had I stopped the car to wind down the window the bird would surely have flown off. In any case although I had my camera on the passenger seat, it had the short lens attached in readiness for birds in the hand, and fiddling changing lenses by the roadside would also result in the owl flying off. So at Lane Ends I pulled in to the lay-by and changed lenses in the hope that another Barn Owl might show between there and Lancaster. Amazing luck, half a mile down the road I spotted ahead a second Barn Owl sat on yet another roadside post, as Barn Owls are inclined to do on undisturbed mornings. Yet again the light was pretty dismal, and a sunny morning would make a change, but I rattled off a shot or two at ISO800 then dashed off to meet Will for 0815.

Barn Owl

A couple of nets sufficed for the short session and we caught 16 birds, 13 new and 3 recaptures. Birds caught: 6 Blackbird, 4 Brambling, 2 Great Tit and 1 Goldcrest, plus 3 other Blackbirds the recaptures.

Our Blackbirds still carry visible fat, but perhaps a little less than recent cold weeks, with the eight birds today varying between a more normal 97 grams and somewhat overweight 121 grams.

Blackbird

Goldcrest

Apologies then for yet more pictures of Bramblings, but this winter has seen the group catch more than 70 individuals, many more than we catch during the average mild UK winter. This has been a chance to get to grips with ageing and sexing birds on a regular weekly basis, with all ages and sexes in direct comparison on the same day, rather than ones and twos caught on different occasions. And let’s face it, a “Brambling Winter” may not happen again for several or more years, and they are simply stunning birds.

Brambling – juvenile male

Brambling – adult female

Note the broad and rounded tail feathers on the adult female above and below, plus the well-defined, orange edged tertial feathers, compared to the paler edged tertials of the juvenile female.

Brambling – juvenile female above, adult female below

A juvenile female has more pointed tail feathers and less well-defined edges to the tertial feathers.

Brambling – adult female

Brambling – juvenile female

Brambling – adult female left, juvenile female right

Other birds seen this morning, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Jay, 3 Bullfinch, 1 Sparrowhawk, 15 Redwing, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker.

The weather forecast for the week ahead suggests the wind may prevent us getting another crack at Bramblings or indeed much else; but as ever we’ll see.

Mostly Finches

Will and I were back to his Garstang garden this morning in the hope of another catch of finches as we had on Tuesday. We knew that just a few days later, the turnover of birds using the garden is such that most, if not quite all of today’s birds would be different individuals.

It turned out that the overall numbers caught today were similar to those of four days ago, but in differing proportions. At 0815 it was obvious we would catch Siskins because as we put up our single 60 net across the far side of the garden, many were arriving for an early feed, with our first catch consisting of 9 Siskin and a Robin, with many other Siskins still calling from the overhead alders.

In our 4 hour session we caught 53 birds, 42 new plus 9 recaptures from our own previous ringing sessions here, and an additional 2 Siskins bearing unfamiliar ring numbers, i.e. ringed elsewhere by other ringers. The two Siskins involved are X343298 and T879956, both adult males, and I suspect ringed last winter, but not necessarily in the North West of the UK. Obviously these will be entered on IPMR and the details eventually come to light, but if there is a ringer out there who reads the blog and recognises these numbers, please let me know.

New birds: Siskin 18, Chaffinch 12, Brambling 1, Goldfinch 2, Great-spotted Woodpecker 1, House Sparrow 1, Coal Tit 1, Dunnock 2, Robin 2, Blackbird 2.

Recaptures: Chaffinch 4, Robin 2, Blackbird 2, Siskin 1.

Siskin – adult male “T879956”
Great-spotted Woodpecker
House Sparrow
Blackbird
Brambling – juvenile male
Brambling – juvenile male

The changeable nature of the recent weather (frost and fog today), coupled with the dynamic nature of finch flocks almost certainly accounts for the drop in numbers of feeding Brambling and Chaffinch from a few days ago, with this morning less than 10 Brambling and perhaps 120 Chaffinch, but a rise in the Siskin count to approximately 80 individuals.

A catch of four Robins today was notable and may represent the first signs of birds new to the locality prospecting for, or setting up garden territories. The 3 Blackbirds we caught continue to hold good fat reserves with weights of 105, 112 and 121 grams. An adult male Chaffinch with a wing length of 95mm was a recapture from 13th April 2010 but not in the intervening period, and it may be a larger continental bird.

Robin

Other birds seen from the garden this morning, a female Sparrowhawk, 60 Redwing, 4 Fieldfare, 8 Greenfinch, 4 Collared Dove. So it was very much another morning of finches, but who would ever grumble about that?