From the Cheetahs at Amani Lodge, Namibia to the Wildness of the Desert at the Desert Homestead Lodge, Namibia.

Peregrine's Bird Photographer Recommendation

Remaining in Africa I am going to recommend Vincent Grafhorst a Dutch Photographer living in Botswana. His website "Khwai Photography" is HERE.

Sunday 24th February

Slept pretty well woke around seven and went outside as dawn chorus was pretty intense. There was also the lion roaring in the distance. The main birdsong was coming from a Black Chested Prinia that had a tiny nest adjacent to the bungalow

The Red Eyed Bulbul's were everywhere and there was also a male and female Scarlet Breasted Sunbird.Here is a photo of the rather drab female.


Penny and I went and had our breakfast served to us by Doreen

next to an enclosure which contained Cheetah's and this one arrived just outside window. Rather a nice backdrop to having breakfast.


After Breakfast we went with our guide on the "Big Cat Experience". We drove in an open topped 4x4 through the double gates and into the 60 hectare enclosure. It was very steep and bumpy driving down this valley. Infact so steep at one point that I had to close my eyes. We arrived at the valley bottom and the guide chucked out some zebra heart and lungs onto the ground. Within a minute five cheetahs were running down the hill towards us and stopped right beside the vehicle.


The five cheetahs were only 8 months old when they came to the Amani Lodge after being caught on farmland. Namibia is a large country with an area of 824 300 km² (321 500 sq.miles) 12 times the size of Ireland with half the population of only 1.9 million people. All regions of the country still have wildlife, including carnivores, although population numbers are often unknown . Namibia is home to approximately 25% of the world's cheetah population of which 90% live on the unique farmland habitats. It is the inevitable conflict with humans on farmland that created the demand for the establishment of these rescue centres. In nature they stay with their mothers for a year and a half. So these five have been rehabilitated and are waiting to be introduced to a national park where they can live and breed. We were told that there is only paperwork remaining before they can be released.

While we were watching there was a very loud Cape Turtle Dove in the nearby trees and a Red Backed Shrike.


We decided we had to get a move on as we had quite a long drive ahead of us. So we settled up in the office. This was the view from the office


We left Amani Lodge to drive to the Desert Homestead Lodge.

The roads are gravel and one cannot travel faster than 80k or 50mph without the danger of sliding and potentially tipping the car over.

We set off initially for Solitaire and proceeded through the bush and saw our first Pale Chanting Goshawk of which we were to see a great many.
It has to be one of the commonest birds in Namibia. You nearly always see them perched on telegraph poles. A few miles further on we saw a Yellow Billed Hornbill in this small acacia bush.


The amazing thing with Namibia is that you drive 150 kilometres and the terrain completely changes.

We went the route that Alain at Amani had recommended not the quickest but the most scenic. We left the bush into the semi desert and my main worry was whether we had enough fuel as Namibia is one of those countries that you always fill up at every petrol station as they are so far apart. Once we had left the C26 to Walvis Bay and turned left to Solitaire the countryside was absolutely vast with mountain ranges to our left and open plains to our right.

I stopped to take a few photos and a vehicle passed us and stopped a couple of kilometers in front of us which is generally a sign there is an animal or something of interest.. We caught up with it and there was the Tropic of Capricorn sign which Penny had decided she must be photographed next to.
Fortunately the Elderly Australian tourists (Assumed by the fact they had strong aussie accents and Queensland T-Shirts) were still there and took our photos and asked us where we came from I said Sydney rather tongue in cheek and they said oh are you. We are from Australia as well ☺ We left them and shortly after I spotted a Ruppels Korhaan.
After five hours of driving at this point I was pretty chuffed to see it. The Ruppels Korhaan is a near Endemic in that it only lives in the west of Namibia and a few hundred kilometers into Angola. It is in the Bustard family.

We finally made it to Solitaire a tiny settlement in the middle of nowhere. I filled up with unleaded and ordered two sandwiches, which turned out to be one of the best I have ever had. The bread was homemade with caraway seed and totally unexpected. The only problem now was that the road we wanted to travel on had had a part of the road unpassable because of a flash flood in the mountains. So a fifty kilometer detour was in order which after five hours was not what I wanted.( We later heard a tourist in an Audi had been swept down the river, we didn’t find out whether he survived or not.) I was getting pretty tired by now and hacked off as we didn’t really know how far it was to our lodge. Things did brighten up when I spotted a pair of Lappet Faced Vultures which are becoming increasingly rare.

We also spotted a Greater Kestrel which I took a few photos off.



Finally seven and a half hours after we set off we arrived at the Desert Homestead where we were welcomed by a fresh glass of ice cold orange juice again. The sun was going down and there was a lovely sunset.
We went to our bungalow which was really a thatched room with shower and loo behind a dividing wall. It looked really nice and there was a verandah outside with a couple of chairs. We had a shower and headed for dinner which was excellent even if the meat was a bit tough.(I shared it with the lodge cat) We also arranged to go to Sossusvlei (Saus ouf fly) in a tour the following morning.

A Holiday in Namibia with my wife and as much Birding as I thought I could get away with!!!!

92.Grey Wagtail
93. Sparrowhawk
94. Woodcock

Peregrine's Bird Photographer Recommendations

As I have just come back from 11 days in Namibia I am going to recommend Chris van Rooyen a South African Bird and Wildlife Photographer. His website can be found HERE


I am going to post my trip report as a day by day blog. This holiday is the first Penny and I have been on in 19 years of marriage without the children. Over the eleven days I identified 140 different species of birds and photographed a few of them. I also drove about 3500 kilometres and probably came quite close to the divorce courts. So here is the first days diary.

We set of from Belfast Airport at lunchtime to fly to Gatwick just outside London where we were flying the 5000 miles to Windhoek in Namibia. As we were going down the runway in Belfast I noticed a Snipe flying alongside the aircraft as we were about to take off. I took this as a good omen!!

The flight to Windhoek takes about nine and a half hours and is quite a pleasant way to fly as you get on the plane in the evening and with the time difference of +2 hours you arrive at around 9.30am hopefully having had some sleep.

The plane landed at Hosea Kutako International Airport about 25 kilometres from Windhoek. It was a nice 70 degrees Fahrenheit and there were swifts and swallows flying round the airport. African Palm Swift, Rock Martin, Greater Striped Swallow and Common Swift.


We were then taken into Windhoek to pick up our hire car. On the way I was seeing all sorts of birds but had no idea of what they were which is where my bible for the next eleven days came in handy.

Ian Sinclair incidentally was born and educated in Northern Ireland

We also saw a group of Baboons on the side of the road which really made us feel as though we were in Africa.

We picked up our Dodge Nitro and the hire company gave me a short walk around a shed full of cars that had been rolled or totalled due to excessive speed on the gravel roads. It was definately a successful scare tactic as he said two people died in this one, three children died in this one etc etc. The hire companies lose 7% of their cars a year. A pretty high statistic. Our car in fact was a bit of a sore thumb and was looked at where ever we went.



We then made our way to our first stop which was Amani Lodge about thirty Kilometres from Windhoek.On the way we saw a European Bee Eater on the side of the road.


The lodge was four miles off the main road up a very rough track where four wheel drive was a necessity.


Amani Lodge is known as the highest Lodge in Namibia at 2,150 metres above sea level. It is run by Alain and Olivier Houlet, who are originally from France. Unknown to us its major attraction lies in its big cats. Orphaned Cheetahs

that have been given to them by the Africat Foundation to bring up and then release into the wild. A pair of lions
which had been appaulingly treated in captivity and were now in a 40 hectare paddock and an ill Leopard which they are rehabilitating.


For those of you in the UK who watched Simon Reeve's programme about the "Tropic of Capricorn" which started in Namibia will have seen the dishy (according to my wife) Frenchman feeding the Cheetahs. So it was very bizarre to have watched this programme and a week later be at the same place.

We walked into the reception and were met and brought a glass of ice cold freshly Squeezed Orange Juice which was a nice touch before being shown the bungalow that we were staying in. It was pretty comfortable with a deck looking out over the Bush. We were pretty exhausted and both had a kip for a few hours. After a shower I went onto the deck and saw my first Red Eyed Bulbul of which we were to realise are one of the most populous birds in the region.

We then decided to take one of the lodge trails through the bush while I birded my wife followed. I heard a Willow Warbler and then saw it an earlier tick than last year! Then I saw a Red Backed Shrike and a Pririt Batis. We were walking along this track when my wife bent down and nearly touched this object that looked dead.Until it hissed!!! It was a very deadly Puff Adder. So I nearly lost her before the holiday had really started.

Well I was told later that we would have had an hour or two to get to the hospital. Anyway it was a sober reminder that we were in an environment which isn't as safe as the UK. Needless to say from then on I looked at where I was putting my feet all the time.

We then went back to the Lodge and had a Windhoek lager which was very refreshing and just outside the seating area there was a Mountain Chat and a Scarlet Chested Sunbird singing.

We had to remain inside as a storm arrived with lightening and heavy rain. Not that different from Ireland then !!! A nice dinner followed. The most amazing thing to me was the night sky the stars were so bright and I saw the Milky Way like I have never seen it before. I never realised how much light pollution there was in the UK.

Bird Photography Websites and Some Unwelcome Visitors to my Bird Feeders

81. Green Winged Teal (Belfast Harbour)
82. House Sparrow
83. Red Throated Diver (Killard)
84. Eider Duck
85. Dunnock
86. Gadwall
87. Kestrel
88. Bullfinch
89. Iceland Gull
90. Whimbrel
91. Jack Snipe



Peregrine's Bird Photographer Recommendations

My First Recommendation is an Italian Bird Photographer by the name of Daniele Occhiato. His website is here and this image is one of my favourites.

I have a number of birdfeeders outside the front of my house and I feed peanuts and sunflower hearts. I attract Bluetits, Coal tits,Great Tits, House Sparrows, Greenfinch, Robin, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Dunnocks, Black Birds , Starlings, Collared Dove, Pheasant and once in a while a Redpoll or Siskin and the occasional passing Sparrowhawk picking up a snack as it goes past!!

But the other day I looked out and I had four rats clinging to one of the feeders.


My wife thinks I should put out traps for them but I can't see that they are doing me any harm so am going to leave them be for the moment.

In my previous post I had said that I was going to Kenya at the end of February. Obviously this plan has now changed and we are going to go to Namibia instead. So my last six months of trying to learn the names of birds in East Africa has been wasted (I suppose not really) and now I am having a crash course in Birds of South Africa. We are going to hire a four by four and travel to about four different areas over twelve days. I cannot wait!!!!


As Bird Photography is my thing I have decided to recommend a Bird Photographer every time I publish a blog. Hopefully there will be some that are new to you.

I visit a number of Bird Photography forums on a regular basis. The one I would go to first is the UK branch of the Naturephotographers.net UKNP Various Photographers post nature related photographs and other members critique them. It is a good forum sometimes I think that there isn't enough critique as you can see a particular image has 50 views and not a single comment negative or positive.

My Second place that I would visit is the Naturescapes.Net website and its Birds Forum. This is where I think that the best Bird photographs are posted on the web. I would say that it is predominantly American Photographers with a few Asian , European and Antipodean Photographers thrown in. The critiques are a to be taken with a pinch of salt as there is alot of "Your'e the Man " type of comment. There is also a prevalence for certain well known photographers to get loads of comments on sometimes fairly ordinary images. It also has a Digital Forum which can be quite interesting and certainly if you have problems processing photos or even computer problems you can get responses re your question fairly promptly. Also up until fairly recently in the Landscape section they have not allowed anything to do with man in the image. So for example the tree lined road leading upto your Tuscan Villa would not be regarded as a Landscape. They have recently relaxed this a tiny bit but still in my opinion absolutely barking mad.

I would also visit Birdguides Picture Gallery this is mainly Birds from the UK and the rarities turning up in the country. Birdguides.Com is the most visited Birding Website in the world and well worth paying the subscription.

I would also visit the Gallery in Birdforum. There is an ecletic mix of photos of Birds from all over the world posted here some good and some pretty awful.

More recently Artie Morris the celebrated American Bird Photographer has set up another Forum in direct competition to Naturescapes and Naturephotographers. His site is called Birdphotographers.net. Initially I was quite impressed with it but now I think its really just a marketing tool for Artie to sell equipment IPT's etc. Artie posts a photo and everybody seems to fall over to post comments especially the team of moderators and if there is a criticism it is very quickly countered. I admire Mr Morris for his guidebooks on Bird Photography. But as a friend of mine said he's a Big Bird Photographer and in Florida in particular you can get really close to them unlike here in Europe.

Bird Photography in the Digital Age isnt difficult. If you have the camera and decent quality glass(lenses) and the patience to get close to them its really quite easy. Even if you expose incorrectly you can fix it in photoshop. Also with digital if you take five hundred shots the probability that one or two of the images will be good is quite high. When I was taking photos of the Purple sandpipers below I filled a 4Gb memory card and kept about 15 out of 392 photos.

So i dread to think how many I am going to take in Namibia!!!

A Beautiful Afternoon spent with Purple Sandpipers, Turnstones, a Grey Plover and some Great Northern Divers

62. Peregrine (Belfast Harbour Reserve)
63. Great Crested Grebe 30+ Belfast Harbour
64. Linnet
65. Barrows Goldeneye
66. Long Tailed Tit
67. Whooper Swan
68. Siskin
69. Little Gull
70. Skylark
71. Wren
72. Water rail
73. Jay
74. Redwing
75. Buzzard
76. Barnacle Goose (Donegal)
77. Little Grebe
78. Red Breasted Merganser
79. Raven
80. Great Northern Diver (Killard)

Peregrine's Bird Facts: The Great Northern Diver or Common Loon, as it is known in the USA, needs a long distance to gain momentum for take-off, and is ungainly on landing. Its clumsiness on land is due to the legs being positioned at the rear of the body: this is ideal for diving but not well-suited for walking.

If you double click on an image it will open in an another window



Yesterday I came home from work and it was the first day this year that we have had clear blue skies and bright sunlight and I was in a really good mood . I wonder if I am affected by SAD or Winter Depression as it is sometimes known, as my mood can really be brightened up if its a beautiful day.

I decided to take Pickle my dog out to my favourite local spot Killard. I took my camera (Canon Eos 1d2n plus a 400mm f5.6 lens) with me. It was very windy, bitterly cold yet extremely bright. My outdoor thermometer had it at 2C and take that with the windchill I dread to think what it was. The first bird I noticed was a Great Northern Diver out on the water at this point too far away to get a shot and it wasn't until I came back about three hours later that I saw that there were three of them quite close to the shore.



The conditions were absolutely ideal as the tide was high which meant the small waders, Turnstones, Purple Sandpipers and Redshanks were all feeding on the seaweed at the high tide line. I found a spot where I had the sun behind me and gradually got closer and closer to the birds. There of course is one problem Pickle gets jealous of me and tended to run in towards them making close up photography quite challenging to say the least. However once she had been chastised she decided that hunting for rabbits was a better option. After I had been lying in this particular spot for at least a couple of hours she just came and lay down beside me and the waders were totally unconcerned.

The Turnstones were generally the first to come the closest and then the Purple Sandpipers.They were feeding on the seaweed and just in the surf line. The waders were calling to each other and having arguments and then flying up as a wave was about to wash them away. It was a wonderful sight.



There were a couple of redshank nearby but they tend to be more shy and one in particular was coming closer and closer and then it would fly away screaming its alarm call. On one occasion it flew right over my head.



It never came as close as the Purple Sandpipers. There were about twelve in all and ten Turnstones. The Purple Sandpiper is a migrant and winters along the rocky Atlantic coasts.Their breeding habitat is the northern tundra on Arctic islands in Canada and coastal areas in Greenland and northwestern Europe. They nest on the ground either elevated on rocks or in lower damp location. The males makes several scrapes; the female choose one and lays 3 or 4 eggs. The male takes the major responsibility for incubation and tends the chicks. The young feed themselves.





When my hands were virtually not functioning I decided to call it a day. I was following the coast back to my car when the Grey Plover, that has been wintering out at Killard for the last three years,flew up and landed quite close by. I have been trying to get good close up photographs for ages and this particular bird is pretty shy. I have never been able to get close to it. I hoped that this would be my opportunity. I crawled through rock pools and over seaweed encrusted rocks gradually getting closer and closer all the time fearing Pickle would scare it off. I was also getting pretty wet. These are the results.






When I was nearly back to the car there were four Red Breasted Merganser feeding close to the shore these were the two males.




As I was driving home I realised that I am at my happiest being outdoors in the company of birds and photographing them. Especially if I come home with a few decent shots.

I would also like to thank my brother in law Tom Hill and his wife Lizzie for giving me a 4gb memory card for Christmas without which I would have run out of memory long before half these photos were taken.

Happy New Year and a Mention in the " Birdwatcher's Yearbook "2008

1. Jackdaw
2. Rook
3. Goldfinch
4. Bluetit
5. Coal Tit
6. Brent Goose
7. Blackbird
8. Magpie
9. Curlew
10. Oystercatcher
11. Starling
12. Shelduck
13. Wood Pigeon
14. Chaffinch
15. Greenfinch
16. Great Tit
17. Redshank
18. Robin
19. Common Gull
20. Turnstone
21. Black Tailed Godwit
22. Dunlin
23. Golden Plover
24. Mallard
25. Lapwing
26. Wigeon
27. Hooded Crow

all the above seen from my living room window.

28. Pheasant
29. Grey Heron
30. Black Headed Gull
31. Pied Wagtail
32. Fieldfare
33. Bar Tailed Godwit
34. Herring Gull
35. Meadow Pipit
36. Snipe
37. Stonechat
38. Cormorant
39. Rock Pipit
40. Teal
41. Purple Sandpiper
42. Shag
43. Carrion Crow
44. Sandwich tern
45. Grey Plover
46. Reed Bunting
47. Yellowhammer
48. Goldcrest
49. Song Thrush
50. Collared Dove
51. Great Black Backed Gull
52. Mistle Thrush

28-52 All seen out at Killard, Co. Down

53. Ringed Plover
54. Greenshank
55. Knot
56. Greylag
57. Coot
58. Moorhen
59. Shoveler
60. Goldeneye
61. Mute Swan

53-61 Seen around Castle Island Hide Quoile Co. Down

Peregrine's Bird Facts There are 113 species of Starling in Europe , Africa and Asia.


A Brent Goose flying a few hundred yards from my house.

I got up this morning with soreish head and decided that to start with I would start my new list from the house. I sat in the living room nursing a cup of tea and a bowl of porridge and was able to see 27 species. It was an absolutely miserable grey day and foggy to boot. So camera was left in bag.

I have been looking forward to restarting my list in the hope now of exceeding last years total of 201. ( Which incidentally I reckon I will do by the end of March) This will be due to the fact that my father is very kindly giving Penny and I a trip to Kenya at the end of February. I just hope their present troubles are sorted by then so that we can actually go!! I have been studying "Birds of Kenya & Northern Tanzania" by Zimmerman, Turner & Pearson so that I have some idea before I go of the birds I am likely to see.

Well I headed out to one of my favourite spots Killard Co. Down with Pickle my working cocker spaniel. No real surprises birds wise apart from the wintering Sandwich Tern and the Yellowhammers which I have not seen out there before. Two years ago it took me until September to see a Yellowhammer so pleased to catch up with it so early in the year.

One of the presents I received for Christmas was "The Birdwatchers's Yearbook 2008" It is in my mind an invaluable book if you like to Bird watch in the British Isles. Its a Diary, it has the British Ornithologists Union (BOU) List as well as Lists of Dragonflies and Butterflies in the UK.It has a good trade directory whether it be Bird Garden supplies, Optics dealers, Clothing or Birding Holiday Companies. It lists all the Bird Reserves and Observatories in the UK. Then it has a county directory listing Bird Recorders, BTO regional representatives, RSPB Local groups. Finally it has a National and International Directory of Bird related Organisations. It also has an Annual Website Survey of which this is one!!!!! For which I have to thank Gordon Hamlett for my inclusion. (If you go HERE and scroll down to June 4th you can see my day out in Norfolk with Gordon.)

Below is a photo I haven't posted before. I took it in November and I think is one of my best images of 2007.



Happy New Year and I hope all your Birding wishes come true.

Merry Christmas to All that visit this Blog. Birdguides.Com "Photo of the Week"

201. Woodcock

Peregrine's Bird Facts The tiny feathers that are located at the tip of the Woodcock's wings are referred to as "pin feathers" and these are much sought after by artists for fine painting work.



On Thursday when I came home from my office christmas lunch, which was absolutely superb, at "Ginger" in Belfast I found I had been chosen for Birdguides.com "Photo of the week" for the above photograph with the following citation.

Better known as the author of Peregrine's Bird Blog and for his photos of the rarities passing through Northern Ireland, Craig Nash has this week submitted a delightful seasonable image of a Goldfinch perched on a holly sprig. Despite their stunning appearance, Goldfinches are often overlooked by bird photographers and have never before been the subject of a BirdGuides Photo of the Week. Craig's portrait perfectly captures the warm tones of the weak winter sunlight, the red on the bird's face and single berry standing out against the complementary green background and holly leaves. The side lighting provides such strong modelling that you feel you could touch the holly, whilst the bird's pose and the catch-light in the eye bring the shot to life.

Photo of the Week citation, Thursday 20th December 2007

So I was understandably on a high.Birdguides is an excellent site if you want to know where the rarities are in Britain and want to see photos of them as well. I have been taking a few photographs of birds sitting on a hollybush recently. I had hoped for a Robin but it never came close enough.However here is a nice one of a Greenfinch.


Now I have three days off over christmas and I am really hoping for some nice light so that I can go out and take some more photos.

So I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope that it goes smoothly. Just remember if it doesnt you can always slip outside and do some birding:-)

A Milestone. My 200th Bird of the Year and it was a Lifer. Ferruginous Duck.

200. Ferruginous Duck

Peregrine's Bird Facts The Ferruginous Duck used to be called the White Eyed Pochard



I am one of those birders that will go and see a rarity in my own time.(and consequently quite often miss out) I rarely race off to see something that has been spotted unless I am a few minutes away. So I decided that as it was a reasonable looking morning to head off to Lough Corbet which is near Banbridge as there had been reports on Flightline ( Flightline is Northern Ireland's Birdline which can be found on 04428 9046 7408 to hear the latest bird news. It is a free service provided by the Northern Ireland Birdwatchers Association) of a Ferruginous Duck. A scarce migrant to the UK.
Here is the single species action plan for the Ferruginous Duck of which one of the authors is James Robinson the Conservation Manager at the RSPB in Northern Ireland. He also volunteers at the Belfast Harbour Reserve Hide with his wife on alternate sundays from myself.


Well I arrived at the Lough which has decent parking facilities due to the fact that the Lough is used by fishermen. There was at first glance about a dozen Mute Swan, lots of Coots, some Mallard, lots of Little Grebe, Pochard and Tufted Duck out on the water. There was also about a dozen House Sparrows feeding near the waters edge as well as a Pied Wagtail.






I scanned the water for the Ferruginous duck but couldn't see it. The sun had gone in at this time and it was fairly grey looking so there was little contrast.

I then noticed this Coot which had a fishing spinner caught in its left foot



It looked really uncomfortable and was hopping along and even in the water it swam in an odd way. I wasn't really sure what to do. As I thought the chances of it being caught were not that high and would probably stress it further. On looking at the bottom photograph I think it is actually beginning to work its way out. Well lets hope!

The sun finally came out and I scanned all the ducks on the lough and thank goodness spotted a deep mahogany/coppery coloured duck in the distance.SUCCESS. First of all I tried digiscoping with my nokia N95 not easy and not a very good photo so I walked round lough to get closer. It went further away and I thought I wouldnt get a shot at all. So I made my way back to car park and after about half an hour having lost site of it I noticed it about a couple of hundreds of yards away. So every time it dived I ran towards it and every time I thought it would re emerge I lay down. Then it was close enough to get a reasonable shot . Bingo my day had been made.


As I have been writing this I have had a delivery from the postman.It was calendars of birds I have photographed in the last year that I decided to get made as Christmas presents. I got them done by Photobox and I am really pleased with the result. So much so that I am about to order some more. If you are interested drop me a line. I think they will be around £14.

Hen Harriers, Red Squirrels and the International Wildbird Photographer Awards

198. Kingfisher
199. Hen Harrier

Peregrine's Bird Facts A CORRECTION. Last time I said there were 6 races of Dunlin. Well a Gentleman emailed me to say that current thinking was there were 10 sub-species/races (Waterbird Population Estimates: Delany & Scott; Wetlands International 2006): the most recent to be formerly recognised being C a centralis (Wennerberg et al. 1999)

Namely they are:

Calidris alpina alpina Breeds N Europe/NW Siberia
C a centralis - North central Siberia
C a schinzii - Iceland, Baltic & GBI
C a arctica - NE Greenland
C a sakhalina - Kolyma river to Chukotsky
C a actites - N Sakhalin
C a kistchinskii - N Sea of Okhotsk amchatka and Kurils
C a arcticola - N Alaska & NW Canada
C a pacifica - SW Alaska
C a hudsonia - Central Canada


Well I haven,t blogged in a while. However I have been out with the camera a fair amount of the time. Yesterday I was very relieved that I had it with me because as I was driving out to Killard to walk the dog this bird of prey crossed my path. My very first thought was its not a buzzard or peregrine then I thought Osprey and then as it was flying away from me I realised it was a harrier. I stopped the car as soon as humanly possible and fired off some shots at a rapidly disappearing bird. It had black wing tips was grey on its topsides and had a white rump. I had seen Northern Irelands first Montague Harrier last year and realised it couldn't be that as I didnt notice any bars on its wings and it didn't look as though it had as long or for that matter narrow wings.So I was unsure whether it was a male Hen Harrier or a Marsh Harrier. So when I eventually got home I sent off the heavily cropped images to Anthony McGeehan for an expert appraisal.


He first of all came back with the idea it might have been dirt on my sensor, which made me giggle, but on further looking thought it was a Hen Harrier. A lifer for me. Anthony a couple of weeks ago found Ireland's First Mourning Dove on Inishboffin of the Co. Galway coast. Here is his account on Eric Dempsey's Birds Ireland website.

I find it strange with birding in that sometimes you dont see a bird all year and then two come along within a matter of days. I was beginning to wonder whether I would see a Kingfisher this year. Well I was in Dundrum making my way back home and I stopped off at a little inland tidal lagoon at Ardilea when I watched this Jackdaw mobbing this Kingfisher that was sitting on a fallen branch in the stream . It then flew towards me and disappeared. Two days later I am watching the gulls on the Kinnegar shore and another one flies past me towards the Belfast Harbour Lagoon. Now that is a bird that I would like a close up shot off. As I was leaving the beach I saw a Red Breasted Merganser on the other side of the road which allowed me to photograph it quite unconcerned.


I have been recently told where I might get close up photographs of Jays which is in Belvoir Forest Park (Right across from the RSPB Northern Ireland Headquarters) at a Red Squirrel feeding station. Well I have been up there a couple of times and no Jays I have heard them but not seen any. I have however seen a couple of Red Squirrels and lots of Grey Squirrels and a very inquisitive Robin. I will have to spend more time at this site.





I am presently in a state of indecision as I have about twelve days to enter some photos into the International Wildbird Photographer Awards and I cannot make up my mind which photos for which category. I am hoping that this photo of a Redshank "Walking on Water" which I took last week will do well.


Any suggestions are welcome. Visit my Bird Photography Site HERE
and leave a post on the site .I am entering five categories
1.Birds in Britain
2. Birds in Flight
3. Bird Behaviour
4. Birds in Landscape
5. Best Portfolio (For this I am going to do a collection of Godwit images)