Belated BY - 6th year! Herman&Kit

[Kitsafari]

215. Wandering Whistling Duck

 

[Kitsafari]

216. White-crowned Shama

 

[Kitsafari]

217. White-throated Fantail

 

[Kitsafari]

218. Yellow-breasted Warbler

 

[Kitsafari]

That's the list - quite a few endemics - for the Sabah trip. Next will be the UK trip, but I'll have to wait for Herman's photos. 

[Peter Connan]

An amazing collection!

[xelas]

Great selection of birds, calling me (us) back to Malaysia. Thanks for the bulbuls. @Kitsafari!

[PeterHG]

Beautiful collection with very special species and great photos of them!

[Galana]

Some very good photos indeed. Looking forward to seehow you coped inUK.

[Kitsafari]

Just back from back to back trips to Bali and Yogjakarta. The first for birds and the second for culture so no birds for the latter. That will come later. 

 

Now, travelling onto the UK!

 

We flew to London on May 25 on Emirates and celebrated with a birthday cake onboard for Herman! We picked up a rental car - i think it was a toyota though I can't recall the model but it served us well enough - and drove about 5hrs (including a stop for  lunch) to The Ship at Dunwich. 

Thanks to the wonderful input from all you guys, we settled on the following itinerary for our short visit: 

May 25-May 27 Dunwich for RSPB Minsmere

May 27-29  stops along the way to Briarsfield Hotel for RSPB Titchwell  Marsh

May 29-June 1 Manor Court hotel in Bridlington for Bempton Cliffs and Yorkshire heath

June 1-4 London for Kensington Park - we were told to try London Wetlands for more birds but I was tired to go further afield and we couldn't get the Little Owl at the park so Herman tried for 3 mornings until finally he got it on the last morning!

 

We were guided by Chris Lotz, a really nice South African guy with Birding Ecotours for Minsmere and Titchwell, and by Richard Bunce of Walking Photographer for Bempton and Yorkshire. 

Minsmere on May 26 was windy that kept some of the birds away. It was mostly quiet, unfortunately. and to get the main subject out of the way, yes the great bittern flew by twice but it was so fast and dived down so quickly that Herman couldn't get his settings right and I was silly enough not to attempt even an EBC shot as I was too excited to see it. We tried again the next morning but it didn't want to show. so no pic for the bittern, and no count.   

 

One key reason we wanted to see waders in the UK was to see them in breeding colours. Some species were in lovely attire but they were too distant to see the plumage well, so we failed in that respect. 

 

Minsmere, Titchwell up first. On the way in, there was a sign on a post that indicated that Avian Flu had been discovered in the park and to instruct people not to pick up any dead birds along the way. we saw a few dead birds in the park on the isles as well - mainly black-headed gulls. I hope it's blown over by now. 

 

219. Barnacle Goose, Minsmere

 

 

(the others counted later)

Edited October 23, 2023 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

220. Eurasian Blackbird, Minsmere/Dunwich

 

Male

 

female

[Kitsafari]

221. Black-headed Gull

 

 

 

 

plenty of chicks among the species. 

[Kitsafari]

222. Black-tailed Godwit, Minsmere

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

223. Collared Dove, Sculpthorpe

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

224. Common Buzzard

 

[Kitsafari]

225. Common Chiffchaff, Titchwell

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

226. Common Cuckoo, Manor House

 

I met a gentleman while admiring the stars at the hotel and upon learning that we were birders, he said a common cuckoo was a resident at the hotel. Sure enough, the next morning, I could hear the Common Cuckoo singing the so familiar song - Cooo-Coo. Coo-coo. 

But the cuckoo played punk until Chris turned up and located the bird for us - way up in the very tall pine tree. so a near black blob was all what we could get. 

 

[Kitsafari]

227. Common Gull, Minsmere

 

Another very distant bird. 

 

[Kitsafari]

228. Common House Martin - not sure we got this as we were moving from Dunwich to Titchwell. 

 

[Kitsafari]

229. Common Linnet, Minsmere

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

230. Common Pheasant, Dunwich

 

It may be common in the UK but it was a spectacular bird for us!

 

 

 

female

 

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by Kitsafari

[Tdgraves]

Just catching up - cool partridges!

[Kitsafari]

Thanks @Tdgraves

 

231. Common Pochard, Titchwell

 

male

 

female

 

and chicks!

Edited October 24, 2023 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

232. Common Redshank, Titchwell

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

233. Common Reed Bunting, Titchwell