Migration

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dquO_by8GI8

Ben picked me up early as the dawn just brushed the horizon but within 20 minutes it was light as we walked out onto Chippenham Fen.  Heading West to the ringing site the exotica of Yellow-browed Warbler song pierced the subdued autumnal chorus - Rich evidently had sprytefever and hoped to attract a 6 striper with the tape loop.  I'd not been to this ringing site before - a step up in scale and potential from the scrubland at Queen Adelaide that had been a ringing focus for some years.

Long rides between the scrub, fen and woodland allowed for long chains of nets and Rich had already got a round of catches to process.  A Redwing was in one bag, to be pipped to the post as my woefully late first of the autumn by a bird seeping overhead.  There were definitely birds on the move with Song Thrush, Skylark and Meadow Pipits vocal overhead.  I settled into the rhythmn of a ringing session enjoying seeing the birds up close, learning and revisiting the process of feather and moult analysis, species by species, allowing us to age and sex most of them. 

A later trap round revealed my only Spotted Flycatcher of the year, and a late one at that, sitting a top a dead tree.  The bags filled with Warblers and buntings and things got very busy for Rich after a large Tit flock moved through and lots ended up in the nets alongside a couple of Treecreepers. 

From the restful recline of the patio chairs both Marsh Tit and Nuthatch were vocal in bursts over the delicious song of Redstart from the tapes. Towards the end of the session I glanced behind and across the clearing and called the Sparrowhawk that was gliding across the back.  Rich raised his bins and declared "male Gos" and thankfully the bird glided back across in front of us before dropping vertically into the western woodland, scattering the Woodpigeons like snooker balls after a powerful break.  Really nice views of a Cambridgeshire and Ely10 mega, my first in over a decade.  Doing a little Google map work I reckon the nearest territory is in the Brecks just over 6 miles away, so perhaps we should expect more, it was Richard's second of the year at the site.  Ben's rule of thumb still works "Jesus on the cross - not a Gos" and the bird was good to that alongside more conventional ID features.  The silhouettes below, from photos, show this subtle but consistent structural/jizz feature nicely.  You can't always judge size readily but below it's clear to my eye - the Sprawk is Jesus on the cross, the Gos is at the Crossroads.  

Andy Butler's flight ID info is very good and worth a regular retread, no matter your experience with these enigmatic raptors.

http://andybutlerdiaries.blogspot.com/2020/03/northern-goshawk-flight-identification.html?m=1

Corcovado

 Everything But The Girl - Corcovado - YouTube

I'd planned a visit to Madeira, to fall before the tubenose altar, prior to the global pandemic but it's taken a few years to get back to doing something about it.  In the meantime the many hours of UK seawatches and pelagics have been exhilarating and delivered far beyond my hopes with Fea's and Wilson's Petrels in the South West and an Albatross and White-billed Diver in the North Sea amongst all the shearwaters, terns, incoming passerines and the odd Sabine's Gull.  

Our seabirding on Maderia fell into 3 types - Seawatches, pelagics and nocturnal breeding site visits.  We went out on 3 long pelagic trips with Windbirds which allowed for fantastic views of seabirds both in transit to our chumming points and when working the oily slicks.  Seawatching gave us fantastic and repeated experience with seeing petrels and shearwaters in a different context - we seawatched daily from just after dawn and we only encountered Barolo's Shearwater through this approach, trawling through large feeding flocks of shearwaters drawn to pods of Dolphin's.  A highlight, amongst many highlights, of the trip was being guided to the Zino's Petrel breeding cliffs high in the mountains.  The experience was magical but taking the plunge to buy a thermal imaging camera for this made for something exceptional.  Using the camera we could not only hear the haunting wails of the petrels, we could look down the sheer cliff face and see Zino's Petrels emerging from the cloud below us and hang and dance upon the ferocious updraft of the cliff.  We used our ears and the camera at Ponta do Garajau to enjoy Cory's Shearwaters flying around their small colony, the air filled with crazy loon calls.  Braving the rocky outcrop at the end of the path we were overjoyed to hear the finger rubbing on glass squeeks of Madieran Storm Petrel hopefully returning to breeding spots.  A video will follow in time but here are some pics to whet the appetite.

The Stage

Madeira is rugged and dramatic in it's scenery, we bumped into some great vista's and coastline and sunsets during our birding.

The Stars

Desertas Petrel

This chunky bird with a beast of a bill is very likely to be a Deserta's Petrel.  Every Pterodroma experience is an adrenaline laced tingle fest.  We had many visits from birds on the boat and seawatching produced many birds from land - reliving that UK find over and over again was delicious.

Fea's/Deserta's Petrel

Zino's Petrel

We saw 3 (possibly 4) birds at sea, and a bird from a seawatch that we were as sure as we could be was a Zino's and several birds at the breeding cliffs.  I hadn't even got my camera out of the bag for the exceptionally close views of our first which took off from a small flock of Bulwer's Petrel at the bough of the boat as we headed out on our first pelagic, the photographs of our next zipping around the boat, in evening light still show the lighter structure, bill size and white underwing markings of this enigma.  Word's can't convey the experience of watching this bird whip headlong towards us, banking feet from the boat and returning over our heads their mountainous breeding sites etching the horizon below.

Supporting Cast

White-faced Storm Petrel

We hadn't any realistic hope that we'd bump into one of these - hugely enjoyable bird to watch and it returned a couple of times as it bounced along the slick.  A cracker.

Maderian Storm-Petrel

I won't wade into the taxonomy of Band-rumped Storm Petrels.  We saw a couple of these at sea and enjoyed them immensely.

Bulwers Petrel

Abundant at sea but fantastic value throughout

Great Shearwater

Just the one, it got a bit sidelined as both a Zino's and Fea's type joined the slick almost as soon as it appeared.

Cory's Shearwater

Abundant and fantastic birds.  Close views and huge flocks were spectacular.

Land Birds

Madeira has a limited but interesting avifauna with island races verging on the edge of bona-fide endemics.  Trocaz Pigeon took a while to show itself really well and the Maderian Firecrest frequently heard but harder to see, although some birds performed including a bird feeding young.  Plain Swift, Berthelots Pipit and Canary were new to me as was the Maderian race of Chaffinch and the endemic island Lizard.