June 2012 - Mongolia update

Well about time for another update...im currently sitting in Bayankhongor airport after a brilliant loop through the Gobi desert on the Mongolia tour.
Highlights so far have included all the hoped for specialities including Altai Snowcock (distant), Oriental Plover, Pallas's Sandgrouse, Relict Gull (3), Falcated Duck, Mongolian Lark, Amur Falcon (hopefully more to come), Azure Tit, Wallcreeper, Lammergeier, Pallas's Gull, Swan Goose (i guess?)! Pallas's Fish Eagle, Demoiselle Crane, Kozlow's Accentor, Mongolian Ground Jay, Saxaul Sparrow.
Then there are the sibes, migrants and supporting cast including Oriental Honey, Black Vulture, Saker, Upland Buzzard, Steppe, Golden and Booted Eagles, Lesser Kestrel, Long-toed Stint, Pacific Golden Plover, Greater Sandplovers, Ferruginous Duck, Pacific Swift, Hoopoe, Beeeater (2-3 record for Mongolia), Asian Brown, Dark-sided, Red-throated and Yellow-rumped Flycatchers, Blyth's, Richard's, Red-throated and Olive-backed Pipits, Pallas's Reed, Black-faced, Little, Godlewski's Buntings, Daurian Jackdaw, Daurian, Desert Grey and Brown Shrikes, Hume's, Asian Desert, Sulphur-bellied, Pallas's Grasshopper, Pallas's, Dusky, Thick-billed, Oriental Reed, Arctic, Two-barred Warblers, tristis Chiffchaff, Black Stork, Isabelline, Pied & Desert Wheatears, Oriental Turtle Dove, Red-necked Phalarope, Temminck's Stint, Caspian, Gull-billed and White -winged Terns, Citrine and Amur Wagtail, Alpine and Brown Accentor, Daurian Redstart, Common, Beautiful and Long-tailed Rosefinch, Mongolian Finch and Rock Sparrow.
All of these birds have been seen in stunning scenery, a few nights camping and with a good selection of mammals thrown in...namely Corsac Fox, Long-eared Hedgehog, Tolai Hare, Goitered Gazelle, Siberian Chipmunk, Daurian Pika and 2 souslik species.
Now heading north to Ulaanbaatar, and on for Siberian Rubythroats, Red-throated Thrush, Azure Tits, Amurs, White-naped Crane, Oriental Cuckoo, Grey-headed Woodpecker and lots more.
Here's a few taster photos....

26 mei 2012 - off to Mongolia

Yet again it's been a long time between blog posts, this time a combination of my stag do in Spain and survey work.
The highlights of Spain included seeing Iberian Lynx and some great raptor passage as well as just having lots of fun with a great group of friends.
Survey work has seen me all over the place and in that time some good birds as well including Black-shouldered Kite, Baird's Sandpiper, Corncrake, Marsh, River and Savi's Warblers, Spoonbills, Great Egrets, Black Tern, Long-eared Owl, Woodcock, Nightjar, Garganey, Bittern, Bluethroat, White Storks, Hobby and probably several other things i cant remember right now?!
The last week has been nice and warm in the Netherlands, several days of 28-31 degrees....nice if you're on a beach, not so great when you are trying to sleep after working all night.....
Today im leaving for Schiphol, no early train so it's a hotel for the night before leaving for Mongolia tomorrow afternoon, via Berlin and Moscow.
I have posted many photos of Mongolian birds before so now it's time for some scenic shots, it's such a beautiful country.

27 april 2012 - Home from Morocco

Well it has been way too long since my last blog post, no excuses really as i did have internet in Morocco, but never had the time to do anything here as i was busy posting photos on facebook or to my new photo hosting website http://jameslidster.smugmug.com/

The Morocco tours were brilliant, below is the tour summary i sent to the WINGS office after the trips:-
I am just home after two amazing tours to Morocco, both very similar and yet still quite different! On both trips we recorded many of the hoped for species including Northern Bald Ibis, Moussier's Redstart, Tristram's, African Desert & Scrub Warblers, Levaillant's Woodpecker, Seebohm's, Red-rumped and White-crowned Wheatears, Black-bellied and Spotted Sandgrouse, Pharaoh Eagle Owl, Cream-coloured Courser, African Crimson-winged Finch, Egyptian Nightjar, Thick-billed, Hoopoe and Temminck's Larks, plus all the exciting 'new' species (or species in waiting). The latter included Moroccan Wagtail, Maghreb Magpie, Ultramarine Tit, Atlas Chaffinch, Desert Grey Shrike and Atlas Horned Lark. There were other constants as well from the healthy picnics of sardines, fresh vegetables and local bread, mint tea and tastey tajines to the stunning scenery and friendliness of everyone we met.
So what was different between the two tours? The weather for one. The first trip saw some wet days, some windy days ending with some pleasantly sunny days along the coast. Snow was limited in the Atlas and there was no lake in the Sahara....roll on 2 weeks and there is still no snow in the Atlas, but a lake several miles long in the Sahara!! The day after our arrival in the Atlas we then had 40cm of fresh snow fall, providing some quite dramatic scenery....or rather making already dramatic scenery even more beautiful!
Where one tour missed out, eg no Maghreb Wheatear on the first tour, but they did see Crowned Sandgrouse. In fact, of all the hoped for species those 2 were the only ones that were only recorded on one of the tours.
Migration differed between the two trips of course, the first trip finding some nice surprises in the form of a male Pallid Harrier, several Isabelline Wheatears and a small group of Little Crakes. The second trip was rewarded with a few of the later migrants such as European Roller, Golden Oriole, Rufous Bush-robin and even larger numbers of European Bee-eaters.
Could I choose between which tour was the best, no chance! Morocco remains a top class birding destination.....the only downside, I wish I was going back for a 3rd trip!

There has been quite a lot of talk of late of seeing Houbaras in Morocco. I have now seen 2, but the release project is now so large that seeing a genuine wild bird must be nearly impossible (or impossible to prove). There are now 3 breeding centres, releasing 2000 birds a year for the Arab hunters. Someone told me it's like counting Pheasants on your British list or White Storks in the Netherlands. The former i can agree with, the latter are (as far as i know) not supplemented by huge releases each year.

All the photos from both tours are now on the smugmug site, with labels. Im hoping that that site will be the definitive place for all my photos. The idea being that it will be fully searchable, by both english and scientific name, or by country. I have thousands of photos sitting on hard drives that although i dont think they are great photos they may well be of value to someone with regards ID features (Eastern & Western Ollys for example, Pallid Swifts).

Im working backwards with putting photos online, and am currently at 24th jan 2012......long way to go.

In the meantime the self employment is going well. The taxman sends me more letters than the average stalker, work is coming in, and basically i cant remember the last time i had a day of doing nothing. Next week Spain.....

20th maart 2012 - Off to Morocco

I will shortly be leaving for Morocco, to lead my 70th tour for Sunbird/WINGS. Hopefully i will have internet on a few days to keep you up to date with what we are seeing and to upload some photos.

12 march 2012 - update

To say it has been hectic since we arrived home would be something of an understatement....
In fact the first week flew by with unpacking, washing clothes, downloading photos, catching up on post etc.
After that i made the giant leap to become self employed. Basically i will still only be guiding for Sunbird/WINGS but will not be working through agencies in the Netherlands. This has involved numerous meetings with intelligent people, people with calculators, desks and large collections of pens.....
Anyway it's now nearly all sorted, registered with the chamber of commerce (KvK) and insurances are in place.
Somewhere in the middle i have sorted my taxes, been arranging my stag do and am now in the UK. After a few days in Dorset, seeing family, friends and lots of Med Gulls i was collected by BBRC secretary Nigel Hudson and his wife Danni. They then drove me to Minsmere, seeing Red Kite along the way, for the annual BBRC meeting. Our chairman Adam Rowlands is the main man at Minsmere and he arranged our digs in Scott Hall cottage. This was just a few minutes walk from Island mere hide where we saw Otter, Bittern, Cetti's Warbler, Glossy Ibis, Med Gulls and Marsh Harriers over two pre breakfast visits.
On the saturday we broke our meeting for a quick look at the scrape, where several Yellow-legged Gulls were in residence although without a scope i didn't see any Caspian Gulls.
Sunday morning we continued with the meeting, and once again it was great to see everyone. After lunch Martin 'super chef' Garner and i had a quick look for Dartford Warblers at Dunwich, seeing at least 4 birds. After leaving Dorset 4 years ago it seemed strange to be exerting myself to find a Dartford! Martin then kindly drove me to Sandy where i could catch up with the Sunbird crowd (well Steve at least).
A quick trip to the office this morning and im now near Newark for a few days before flying home on thursday. One week tomorrow i will be off to Morocco.....