Salina salt pans: January 24th 2016

A new site and three new species

A report this morning of a Cattle Egret at Salina salt pans prompted me to hop on a bus and explore the area for the first time. Just 10 minutes from where I am based in St.Paul's Bay, the salt pans are overlooked by multi-story buildings on the outskirts of Qawra.

Salina salt pans looking east.

Some of the pans held water and it didn't take long to find the Cattle Egret. After a few minutes it flew off west, hopefully leaving Malta safely (or possibly just heading off to feed in the nearby fields). I have not yet seen the much more common Little Egret in Malta.

Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis. January 2016.

A Shelduck feeding in one of the deeper pans was a nice addition. A few have been reported over the last two weeks from both of the reserves and passing offshore.

Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna. January 2016

The westernmost pan had three Little Stint and one of three Common Sandpiper picking through the mud between rusty cans and semi-submerged plastic bags. 

Little Stint Calidris minuta. January 2016

Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos. January 2016

Alongside the usual White Wagtails and Spanish Sparrows other birds of note included a large mixed flock of 470 Black-headed Gulls and 20 Mediterranean Gulls with a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls passing over. A scope would have been useful to scan the distant flock.

The end of the pans looking towards Qawra Point

Rdum Tal-Madonna: January 22nd 2016

Wind-chasers in the distance

A late afternoon visit to Rdum Tal-Madonna revealed a high count of 18 Black Redstarts, alongside Meadow Pipits and Western Stonechats in the Garrigue, and Chiffchaffs and Robins in the scrub.

A Golden Plover flew north calling, possibly an escapee as many of this species are held in captivity on Malta

A seawatch turned up the usual Yellow-legged Gulls and Sandwich Terns but the undoubted highlight were the Yelkouan Shearwaters that began to appear in small flocks after 17:00. Although at least 3km away, their size, distinctive flight and counter-shaded plumage were diagnostic.

Their name 'Yelkouan' derives from the Turkish 'wind-chaser', a suitable name for the species although the lack of wind on this occasion kept them from showing off their acrobatic abilities.

Moonrise over the Mediterranean

Small Larids of St.Paul's Bay

Worth a closer look

Strong winds over the weekend has led to large numbers of gulls sheltering in Maltese harbors. I have not yet had a chance to visit the larger gull roosts but St.Paul's Bay has small numbers early in the mornings. Today I took the opportunity to take some photos (in some very overcast conditions) of three members of the Laridae family roosting together.

Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus, Mediterranean Gull Larus melanocephalus and Sandwich Tern Sterna sandvicensis. Xemxija, Malta. January 2016

By far the most common gull at this time of year is the Black-headed Gull. A non-breeding visitor to Malta like the other two species in the photo, flocks of over 200 birds can be found in sheltered bays around the island. Referred to as a 'two-year' gull, the Black-headed Gull takes two years to reach adult plumage. A 1st-winter individual can be seen on the rightmost end of the metal beam, whilst the others are winter plumage adults with varying amounts of black (actually a chocolate brown) on their heads. The single Mediterranean Gull in the photo is the left-most bird on the same beam, again a 1st-winter individual, although this slightly larger species has three age classes. The Sandwich Tern, a winter plumage adult, is the back-centre bird. 

Mediterranean and Black-headed Gulls. Xemxija, Malta. January 2016.

This angle clearly shows the difference in structure between the two smaller gull species. The Mediterranean Gull on the left is longer legged and slightly larger than the Black-headed Gull next to it, with a less rounded head and a stouter bill. This group had individuals representing all the age classes of both species but an opportunity to photograph them decently did not arise. Notice the variation between the two 1s-winter Mediterranean Gulls due to moult timing.

2015 - A Retrospective

A year of travel and fieldwork

After a busy Christmas season and one week into a new job, I'm taking advantage of this stormy weekend to look back over 2015 and pick out some highlights.

The year turned out to be one of the busiest I can remember, here is a quick run-down:

January - Australia. The last of a four month position collecting data on Red-winged Fairy-wrens for Australia National University in WA.
169 species seen.

Red-winged Fairy-wren Malurus elegans.Western Australia 2015

February/March - Thailand. Ten days birding in Phetchaburi Province with Kaeng Krachan Nature Reserve on the Burmese border being the highlight.
229 species.
I then worked in Henan Province, China for Beijing Forestry University on Black-throated and Silver-throated Tits.
100 species.

Red-billed Blue-magpie Urocissa erythroryncha. Henan, China 2015 (photo by Josefina Pehrson).

April - UK

May/June/July - USA. I worked the seabird breeding season on the Farallone Islands, California, for Point Blue Conservation Science.
222 species.

Tufted Puffin Fratercula cirrhata. Farallones, California 2015 (photo by Julia Gulka).

August - UK

September/October/November - Eilat, Israel. Worked as a Ringer in one of Europe's greatest migration hot-spots.
283 species.

Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse Pterocles lichtensteinii. Eilat, Israel 2015

December - UK

A fantastic year filled with great people and birds, let's hope 2016 can live up to it!

Total species seen: 769
Total countries visited: 6
Total continents visited: 4
Total blue whales seen in a single hour: 24! (Farallones, California)

Week One: Birding highlights

A quick review of my first week of birding in Malta

I am taking advantage of the rain sweeping across St.Paul's Bay to look back briefly over the birds I managed to see during my first week in Malta, with the idea of more detailed site and species based blog posts to come in the near future.

With it being winter and Malta being a small island with an overabundance of active hunters, bird diversity is limited at the moment. The ever present Spanish Sparrow is the most common, their winter communal roosts creating unbelievable din. The less common Tree Sparrow can also be found in more rural areas.

Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus). Majjistral Nature Park. January 2016.

The Sardinian Warbler is a common resident, even found in urban gardens, while the tiny Zitting Cisticola is easily noticed due to its distinctive display flight and call. The Blue Rock Thrush breeds on the cliffs around the island, it's song surprisingly beautiful.

Winter passerine visitors include large numbers of Starling, Chiffchaff, Black Redstart, European Robin and Meadow Pipit, while the odd Blackbird, White Wagtail and Western Stonechat are here in smaller numbers.

I visited both the two wetland nature reserves in Malta over the weekend. Simar produced Teal, Moorhen, Coot, Little Grebe and Common Snipe while Ghadira was quieter with more Teal and a Common Sandpiper.

Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago). Simar Nature Reserve. January 2016

Multiple short sea-watches revealed Yellow-legged Gull, Black-headed Gull and Sandwich Tern with a single Northern Gannet and a couple of Mediterranean Gulls.

The most interesting sighting to date was an adult Baltic Gull seen from Rdum Tal-Madonna on Thursday evening. Considered a subspecies of Lesser Black-backed Gull by some and a full species by others, Larus (fuscus) fuscus breeds around the Baltic Sea and migrates to Sub-saharan Africa. Having seen these elegant, long winged gulls in Israel last Autumn, it was fantastic to see this declining taxa in Malta.

The only new species for me this week was the Yelkouan Shearwater, a species I will become more familiar with as my work for Birdlife Malta on the LIFE Arcipelagu Garnija project continues.

And finally, a Chameleon.

Mediterranean Chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon). Ghadira Nature Reserve. January 2016

To Malta

A fresh start for 2016

I have been in Malta for a week now, settling in to a new job at Birdlife Malta and getting my bearings. Weighing in at a combined 120 square miles, the three small islands that make up the Republic of Malta lie south of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea.

Famous for its long human history stretching back over 7000 years (including two of the worlds greatest sieges), its balmy Mediterranean climate and its unfortunate reputation as being home to more hunters and trappers per square mile than any other country, Malta is a place that punches above its weight.

Malta lies south of Sicily, further even then Tunis.

Over the next seven months I will use this blog to post photos, upload trip reports, and generally muse on the state of birds and their conservation in Malta.