BRAZIL: Back at the "Puma Pool".

Rusty-collared Seedeater at the "Puma Pool", Pantanal September 2008.

Rufous Casiornis, Pantanal 18 September 2008.

Couldn't resist stopping to pay our respects to the "Puma Pool" as we left Pouso Alegre. No Pumas this time but plenty of birds coming down to bathe and drink in the dry conditions. Bare-faced Curassow, Rusty-collared Seedeater, Lesser Seedfinch and best of a couple of Undulated Tinamous were watched at leisure this afternoon.

Undulated Tinamous.

Grey-crested Cachalotes.

We finally dragged ourselves away from the lodge grounds and headed south along the Transpantaneira. Chestnut-bellied Guans and Long-tailed Ground-Doves were seen on the way before Band-tailed Nighthawks and Pauraques came out at dusk as we approached our hotel on the banks of the Rio Pixaim.

BRAZIL: American Golden Plovers, Pantanal 18 Sept 2008.

We bumped into this party of a dozen or so American Golden Plovers as we left Pouso Alegre.

They were all adults and I couldn't resist spending some time with them after our encounter with the juvenile on the Solway nearly 12 months ago.

It was nice to compare the structure of the birds with the Pacific Golden Plover we saw a couple of weeks beforehand too. The longer, more "stretched" shape of the AGP struck me compared to the more squat-bodied appearance of the PGP (which is more like a "crake-on-stilts" as one birded put it).

Adult American Golden Plover (with Southern Lapwing), Pantanal 18 September 2008.

BRAZIL: Puma at Pouso Alegre Lodge, Pantanal.

OK, I was really looking forward to visiting the Pantanal again but I couldn't have predicted the events that were about to unfold as we drove up to our first lodgings in the Pantanal. Ricardo(our Pantanal guide) suddenly became very excited exclaiming "Puma, Puma!" Unbelievably there it was - a Puma at a drinking pool at dusk. We all managed to see this handsome mammal before it slipped off into the undergrowth. I even managed a second look at it on the track after I umped off the bus. Brilliant, what a start!

Photographing Greater Rheas in the Pantanal, September 2008.

Our stay at Pouso Alegre was as usual delightful. The new trail yielded a marvellous Pavonine Cuckoo, Large-billed Antwrens, Mato Grosso Antbirds and Helmeted Manakins.

Great Rufous Woodcreeper, Pouso Alegre Lodge, September 2008.

It's never quiet around the lodge, even at lunchtime. There's always a few Hyacinth Macaws around and the Great Rufous Woodcreeper (usually present first thing) paid a midday visit.

Yellow-chevroned Parakeet, Pantanal September 2008.

ARGENTINA: Iguazu 15 & 16 September 2008.

Garganta del Diablo ("Devil's Throat"), Iguazu, Argentina September 2008.

Black-fronted Piping-Guan, Iguazu 15th September 2008.

"Do you know there's a Hoopoe in D&G?"

Ochre-breasted Foliage-Gleaner, Iguazu, Argentina September 2008.

We like to spend a bit of time over the border in Argentina during the visit to Iguacu to add a bit of variety (and confuse the clients who thought they were going to Brazil!). It's a good place to see the rare Black-throated Piping-Guan though I must admit to feeling severely "gripped" by the Carsethorn Hoopoe news (only five minutes from our caravan in D&G) while watching this bird. Shallow and pathetic I know, but there you go.

Toco Toucan, KM101 Road, Iguazu, Argentina.

Plush-crested Jays, Three-striped Flycatcher, Streak-capped Anwren, Greenish Schiffornis, White-bearded Manakin, Southern Antpipit plus loads of good Atlantic Forest birds seen in perfect birding weather.

Caiman, Iguazu September 2008.

More water in Argentina ...... deep joy.

BRAZIL: Iguacu 13 - 14 September 2008.

Just back from leading a birding tour to Brazil for Ornitholidays. Great trip, marvellous birds plus a few other surprises. We started at Iguacu. The falls are indeed spectacular but to be honest it's not my favourite birding site. Nevertheless I always seem to see something decent there and this year was no exception with Rusty-breasted Nunlet my personal favourite. We also saw an Ornate Hawk-Eagle, apparently only the 4th record for the National Park.

Iguacu is a great place for butterflies though and I managed to take only a small selection of photos. You could spend all your time looking at butterflies I reckon, leaving no time for birding!

One of the highlights at Iguacu is watching the Great Dusky Swifts going to roost under the falls. If you enlarge the pic above you can see some against the water swooping towards the falls.

Careful searching reveals a few of the swifts huddled together on the rocks.

Iguacu Falls from the Brazilian side.

BRAZIL September 2008.

Itatiaia National Park.

Greater Rhea in the Pantanal.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina.

Jaguar, Pantanal September 2008.

Just back. Plenty of good stuff seen - not just birds (see above)!

SOLWAY: Wader sites on the Inner Solway.

Seafield Bay near Annan, October 2007.

It seems like a good time to introduce some of the birding sites on the Inner Solway at the moment. Much of our birding is done between Gretna and the Nith Estuary to the west, with Southerness Point (on the west side of the Nith) as our base and seawatching site.

The top map here shows Annan in Dumfries and Galloway and the English side at Bowness (where most birders watch the overland passage of skuas in Spring). Important birding sites on the D&G shore shown on the map include (from west to east) Powfoot, Newbie (also good for skuas in Spring) and Dornock (Pacific Goldie Sept 2008). The "point" south of Eastriggs is Torduff Point with Browhouses just to the east off the map. Anthorn where the Pacific Goldie was first discovered in Cumbria, can be seen on this map too.

"Zooming in" a bit, the remains of the old viaduct at Seafield can be seen on the left with Seafield Bay just to the east. American Golden Plover (Oct '07) and Green-winged Teal (Dec '07) were seen from the little car park at Whinnyrig. This weekend's Pacific Golden Plover was discovered in the fields and on the beach near Dornock Cottage.

Tides and when to look: Generally most of the sites are best visited an hour or so before, and up to two hours after high tide. I have certainly had best results at Seafield and Powfoot during this period (although admittedly visits only date back 11 months!). Newbie can be good at high tide when the wader roost near Barnkirk Point can be viewed. Browhouses is seemingly OK at any time as waders feed in the pools near the houses at NY282650. The beach at Dornock was full of waders and wildfowl at the weekend, even at low water.

Images reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

SOLWAY: Pacific Goldie still about.

Started early this morning at Southerness searching the bushes at the point and behind the beach without too much joy. At least 50 Siskins heading south plus a single Tree Pipit. Goldcrests, Willow Warblers and a Whitethroat were our rewards but surely one day we'll pick up a decent passerine migrant here?

Thought we'd try Castle Loch near Lochmaben for Black Tern after the recent easterlies but no joy. Just plenty of Great-crested Grebes (including many juvs) and 26 Goosander. Back to the Solway shore then where the plover-searchers had doubled (2 from Dunfirmline) at Dornock. No show for the bird in question though so Mrs B and I decided to try Browhouses. Amazingly we were greeted by the sound of obviously a large number of Goldies on the shore there and on inspection a large flock was loafing on the mud. In no time at all the Pacific Goldie was found, dwarfed by its mates but typically the whole lot (250 of them) took off as I was phoning RBA with the news. We drove around for an hour trying to locate the PGP or birders, but failed miserably on both counts.

That's it for D&G for a while then ........ D&G 2008 = 186 now.

SOLWAY: Harrier saves the day.

Looking towards Carsethorn on the Nith.

Well today (7th Sept) would naturally be a bit of an anticlimax wouldn't it? It certainly seemed so although Southerness Point was quite good first thing with 3 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, a Whimbrel, Greenshank and 5 Sandwich Terns on the beach. Plenty of Mipits overhead and on the rocks with a couple of Wheatears and single Siskin and 2 Redpolls heading south.
Drizzle set in so we did a bit from the car, scanning fields and finding a single White Wagtail with the pipits in a ploughed field. Caelaverock was pretty quiet with the only noteworthy bird being the 5 Ruff with the Lapwings and a Peregrine overhead just as we left. We had to check out the Pacific Golden Plover of course as there had been no news and as we drove through Annan the mobile bleeped with a text to say it was there. The "D&G Grapevine" had been red hot once again as there was a crowd of one (from Newcastle!) assembled at Dornock but the plover had just flown off with Goldies having been flushed by a Peregrine. We waited around but no luck, but 100+ Pintail and 80+ Blackwits were noteworthy here.
Seafield at Annan as the tide rose was busier than we'd seen it of late with 30+ Dunlin, single Knot, 12+ Ringed Plovers and 2 Greenshank but the phone rang again as we were on our way to Newbie. It was Pat Baines with news of Marsh Harrier at Mersehead RSPB.

Loafing quackers at Mersehead - there's a Garganey there somewhere!

Viewing from the Meida Hide seemed the best harrier-finding tactic at Mersehead so we headed straight there with ducks flying around over the marsh there just had to be a harrier out there? Mrs B came good finding a female Marsh Harrier (a D&G lifer for us) flying along the back of the marsh being harassed by gulls. Top spotting - eleventh hour stuff and we never saw it again. About 200 Starlings were coming into roost and a Peregrine was causing havoc out there too. A scan of the ducks on the cleared marsh (some nice reserve management having been completed of late) revealed a Garganey in with the Teal and Shovelers. Another great day in D&G.

SOLWAY: Pacific Golden Plover at Dornock 6 September 2008.

Saturday morning did not look promising to say the least. Strong NE winds, a heavy sky with the promise of rain and the forecast was worse. The tide was not promising for pushing any waders close inshore on the Solway either. We'd have to wait until late afternoon for that but Browhouses is always worth a look just over the border. Conditions were pretty dire though and not too much on offer either - 25+ Golden Plover, 5+ Bar-tailed Godwits, 6 Snipe and a single Dunlin. With rain threatening we decided to a bit of exploring and tried a few new roads down to the Solway shore. Redkirk Point looked good but with the tide well out there was little about and a road out of Old Graitney produced little of note.

Pacific Golden Plover (centre, facing right with Golden Plovers and Lapwings), Dornock D&G 6 September 2008.

I was all for throwing in the towel and checking Castle Loch or chickening out completely and surrendering at Caerlaverock with the promise of coffee and hides. Mrs B on the other hand is made of sterner stuff and insisted that we check the remaining couple of roads west of Eastriggs. A large flock of Golden Plover and Lapwing were in a field at the top of a road to the shore at Dornock looked worthy of checking. The strong wind made things very difficult indeed but the rain held off as we started to search through the flock. One bird immediately caught the eye; a partial summer plumaged bird but with a "spangled" gold, black and white back. Suddenly the whole lot took off, spooked by a Sparrowhawk and landed out of sight. After a little while we relocated our "suspect" - very small compared to the Goldies, white supercilia, black belly with black bars invading a white flank and a dusky grey underwing seen on several occasions. Sure that it was at least a "lesser" Golden Plover I called Chris Baines, whom I knew was birding near the Nith and by the time he arrived the all-important tertial length had been noted (reaching almost to the tail-tip with very little primary projection noticeable). I managed just one shaky record shot (above) in the gusting wind.

Just before Chris arrived the whole flock (including a Ruff) was flushed once again by a Sparrowhawk and they flew down to Dornock beach (photo above) where we managed to relocate it and Chris put the news out - Pacific Golden Plover at Dornock (a first for D&G subject to acceptance).

After drying off and changing (I went up to my knees in the saltmarsh) we headed off to Southerness where we celebrated my 200th D&G bird with a nice bottle of Chilean Merlot.

LANCS: Rain, hides, a phalarope and more rain!

Juv' Red-necked Phalarope, Martin Mere WWT 5 September 2008.

Needed to pop out to get some optics today and although there are a few options in Lancs the arrival of a Red-necked Phalarope at Martin Mere WWT made the choice quite easy.

The rain didn't stop all day today, but this afternoon it just alternated between persistent and teaming down. I went straight down to the Ron Barker Hide where the phal' had been reported about an hour earlier. Come to think of it why are there hides here in the NW named after comedians? Eric Morcambe up at Leighton Moss ....... OK so this one isn't named after THE Ronnie Barker anyway. Just as well the Avenue Hide at Caerlaverock wasn't named after the guy who opened it - Herbert Bonar. Just imagine ..... if they called the hide, yes ....... The Herbert Hide. What? Hmpph.

Anyway, back to the phal: Nice juvenile bobbing around in the rain and flying short distances every now and then. Needle thin black bill, dark mantle with a few pale grey scapulars and buffy-white braces, greyish-buff suffusion to the breast sides. Watched it for about an hour and a half before braving the next downpour and dashing to the Eddie Izzard, I mean United Utilities Hide. Never been in so many hides alone before. Few Pintail, 5 Pochard and a couple of Goosander and a Sparrowhawk flying in front of the Out of Focus shop.

Spent far too long chatting in the Out of Focus shop and delaying Tony from getting on with his work before making for the car. Peregrine darted over the car park - least this Robin had the sense to hide under my wheel arches.