http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/ Birding UK and Ireland Bird Forum en Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:38:15 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/ http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/chrissy/191-wildlife-skiathos.html Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:41:28 GMT It seems to me whenever I get on here, I blink and a few months has gone by. I have images that I am about to post up that I had every intention of... It seems to me whenever I get on here, I blink and a few months has gone by. I have images that I am about to post up that I had every intention of coming in here and getting an ID for...and it is hard to believe that that is nearly two months ago :eek:
I blame work, it gets in the way of my leisure activities! However, I thought I would share a few images of Skiathos. Hopefully, I will manage to find a few that I haven't posted on my personal blog to make it interesting for the friends I met in Skiathos too :)
I read before I went that the birds in Skiathos are somewhat nervous.

I did find that some varieties in particular were. For example, there were a lot of these little things that looked like a member of the wren family but are bigger than those in the UK. They were also seen in groups which is a little different. I apologise for the bad picture quality but I struggled to get anywhere near.
But, as previously experienced it was not quite so difficult with the crows.

The weather was a little mixed this year and this resulted in my spending a lot of time in the reed beds. Those that have visited Skiathos will know that these are abundant with wildlife and I spent many a happy hour snapping shots of damselflies and dragonflies. After a summer of snapping mainly insects, my ability to ID insects is a little better. So this is an image of a red veined darter

Among the reed beds, I also came across this little one.

Unfortunately, my bird ID skills are just about as useless as they ever were especially when out of the country!
There is a wildlife park at Koukanaries, but, for me the other place that was really good for a visit is Tsougrias Island which is uninhabited. The wildlife there seemed to be abundant and I am sure spending some time there would prove fruitful. Sadly this year, we only made it over the once.

I saw this feather in the sandy area at the back of the beach and someone else told me that they had seen gold coloured birds flying around.
Meantime I saw some very beautiful butterflies, dragonflies and wild flowers. But, I have run out of attachments :p ]]> Chrissy http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/chrissy/191-wildlife-skiathos.html http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/chrissy/38-maldivian-birds.html Fri, 08 May 2009 12:27:06 GMT As some of you may have seen from my new image folder, I have just been lucky enough to return from a two week holiday in the Maldives. It was a very... As some of you may have seen from my new image folder, I have just been lucky enough to return from a two week holiday in the Maldives. It was a very dreamed of holiday and I spent much of my time out on the reef viewing the wildlife under the water.

However, from a birding point of view, whilst there were not that many, it was still fascinating. Interestingly whilst we saw some kind of seagull from the boat, we didn't see them again for the duration of the holiday on the island of Olhuveli.

There were several herons who are very accustomed to people, so much so that you could walk up to them and if you walked softly and non-threatening, they would continue wading/fishing quite unconcerned by your presence. I confess to have loads of images, it was quite novel to me to be able to get so close. It also became quite an interesting pastime watching them fishing!

The only other birds that I saw that resembled something I knew was early one morning I did see a Snipe on the beach and two swifts flying above the island.

There were also several birds in the waters edge which I think must be some kind of a Sandpiper, these could look similar for all I know, I am not very familiar with coastal birds, sometimes in an afternoon you would see several out on the sandbanks.

When I first arrived on the island I was fascinated by the sound of some very exotic sounding birds. It took about a week before I managed to get a glimpse of them. They turned out to be rather plain looking black birds, I can only think judging by their repertoire that they must be closely related to a mynah bird. I never did manage a very good photo, they were quite shy. Every time I took the camera anywhere near, I swear they were laughing at me!

Thanks to John (Clydebirder) for the identification of the small heron that I uploaded to my gallery, I was very unsure about that one. The striated heron was captured at sunrise one morning before he flew across to the uninhabited island. I did see several of these and think there were a few including a mature one, which I captured in flight but in extremely poor light, I can only just about make it out. But, I noted three of them one morning.


Of course everywhere has to have a cleanup crew, I thought it was interesting to note that even the crows have some differences.

Other than that, well at night there was a rather large bat flying around, whilst in the day he just hung about

]]> Chrissy http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/chrissy/38-maldivian-birds.html http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/chrissy/15-spring-has-sprung.html Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:22:47 GMT I called into Venus pool on Thursday of this week and was watching some ringed plovers squabbling away. They are busy little things thats for sure, I... I called into Venus pool on Thursday of this week and was watching some ringed plovers squabbling away. They are busy little things thats for sure, I did eventually manage to take a photograph although it was a bit of a long way off.

Other than that I thought it was a little bit quiet, there were a few lapwings, a great crested grebe surfaced near to the hide but I didn't see anything too unusual.
I also went and took a look at Lena's hide which has lot of feeders, it was nice to see the sun on some of them and after a little while a Great Spotted Woodpecker came and kept me company.

Today, I went walking and have to say it was one of those days for spotting things in unusual places. I noticed that a nuthatch had quite clearly made a nest in somebodys wall and I spotted this little fella too.

Does this make him a telegraph pole creeper?;) All that time I spend trying to get a photo last week and this one just appeared.
I spotted the first swallows of the season, four of them above the fields although I didn't hear the call, I did see a cuckoo on my travels...
Then, when I got home, well this one was on my lawn :)
]]> Chrissy http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/chrissy/15-spring-has-sprung.html http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/chrissy/3-my-first-post.html Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:28:05 GMT Well, I suppose if I was like a normal birder I would be posting up all the wonderful things that I had come across during the past week...but no-one... Well, I suppose if I was like a normal birder I would be posting up all the wonderful things that I had come across during the past week...but no-one could ever describe me as normal and I don't even know what some of the birds look like that my local group keep discussing.
My wildlife/photographic days fit around lots of circumstances! It can be interesting or not as the case may be. Firstly, you need to know that we live by a small patch of woodland and my first observation on Sunday was that I could hear a different sound. Now if you can tell my what bird arrives in the Spring and sounds like a hyena, I will be interested to know :rolleyes:
Anyways, apart from all of that we were off to a remote controlled flying site in Shropshire, yep I do that too....another time!
So I wandered off to this woodland area which I have to say is a bit odd in that it is a wood but some of it is right in the middle of big pools.
I can hear the woodpecker, does anyone else here swear? I have seen this woodpecker in low light, I hear him all the time but I don't have a clue what sort he is as yet!
Anyway enough rambling on, what did I see? Nothing so special but I did get a few reasonable shots at a wren.

He did get right miffed at me and at one point was sitting on that post ranting away...:p
I also spent ages hiding away and nearly, almost just getting some shots at a treecreeper.

Oh, for a bigger lens and some light, lol.
But, hey, I got to watch him for ages flitting about. It won't be long until the whole area is carpeted with bluebells and I watched the water with some kind of odd fly creating some beautiful ripples in the reflections.
I also spotted my first butterfly this year!
]]> Chrissy http://www.birding.uk.com/forum/blogs/chrissy/3-my-first-post.html