5 : Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Tickel's Blue Flycatcher - Cyornis tickelliae

Originally posted in May 2011 as post 5 the removal of a typo has jumped it up the list. Original photos supplemented by Banagalore picture here -

Apart from the Yala National Park on our last trip we stayed at a number of guesthouses and small hotels around Sri lanka. The first place we stayed at was Ellertons, a bunglaow in the hills outside of Kandy owned by a British couple. We arrived at night with no sense of where we were after a 4 hour drive up from Columbo. In the morning I woke up to the sounds of birds everywhere. I am sure this is familiar to all world birders but the first morning the lifers just came tumbling in one after the other.

We were at Ellerton's for 5 days and there was a very nice walk down the side of the hill to the river in the small valley below. Sri Lanka is friendly, the people are lovely and the birds are to die for. I have decided that given it is a AED 2,000 (GBP 300) 4 hour flight from Dubai it is somewhere I could get to for a long weekend every so often. I have adopted Sri Lanka.

This was the view when we woke up that first morning.

So after a big breakfast I'd set out down a narrow track with no idea of what I was likely to see. I really started taking pictures of birds as I wanted to make sure that I did not miss anything. I was without a field guide for the first couple of days.The idea of taking a picture of every bird I saw for a website had not occured to me at this stage. in the end I did not take a picture of every bird I saw in Sri Lanka - this gives me a perfect excuse to go back. I can see why Arthur C Clarke lived there. Get me onto the food another time.

My jungly track

In new place you are on edge and have no idea what will turn up. I guess that's the story of this post. Birding is an adventure and you can look at all the books and go to the right places but you just cannot guarantee in many cases what you are going to see. So this was I think 10 April 2011. I'd never heard of Mr Tickell or his flycatcher. As with many birds you hear them before you see them. Then you watch for movement and then you start to work the bird. I knew this was a flycatcher immediately. It was perched in the open and doing what flycatchers do - short little flights to catch small gnats and so on. I know now that this is a fairly common Sri Lankan bird of the mid to low wet forests. On that morning to me it was the outer edge of birding - a flycatcher that was blue. It might as well have been from Mars.

After I calmed down I got a better shot - patience is rewarded. I spent half an hour with this bird

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Cyonis tickelliae
Hills near Kandy, Sri Lanka, 10 April 2011

4 : Malabar Pied Hornbill

Malabar Pied Hornbill - Anthracoceros coronatus

This post was orginally made as number 4 at the beginning of May - for some reason it has moved up the list when I edited out a typo.

Back to the exotic again today. There are 54 species of Hornbill and I have only seen one of them. Like Bee-eaters they are spread across Africa and Southern Asia. This bird (and several others) was photographed again recently in Yala National Park in Sri Lanka while we were on a mini-safari during a family holiday.

These really are big birds and they need a big nesting hole. The threat across Asia to Hornbills is logging. Without the big old trees to nest in certain species are at risk. I read this morning that after the female lays her eggs they are walled in with mud and then the male brings food and feeds the female through a slit in the plug. Presumably this little fort protects the eggs, female and young from snakes and mongooses and other such predators and scavengers.

Around Yala these birds would gather in large roosts in certain trees - twenty or thirty at a time. I needed to remind myself that this was not the aviary in Regents Park Zoo but the real thing. I am not sure what purpose the nob or casque on the top of the bill has. It looks heavy but I presume it is fairly light like all bills.

- Anthracoceros coronatus
Yala National Park, Sri lanka - 15-18 April 2011

14 : Long-billed Sunbird

Long-billed Sunbird - Nectarinia lotenia

There are 130 species of these delightful birds according to my Collin's Birds of the World. I had never seen a sunbird until I moved to Dubai and specifically hunted one down in Safa Park. These are small birds usually but this species seen in Sri Lanka is much larger than the sunbirds I am used to seeing in Dubai.

The bills are all adapted for probing different 'makes and shapes' of flowers. They are filling the same niche as new world humming birds but are completely unrelated. It's what you call convergent evolution. Both families of birds have independantly developed long bills adapted to take advantage of the high energy food available from flowers, irridescent plumage and they can hover.

Again I'd recomend a delve into the books of Dawkins. Seals and whales are a good example of convergent evolution - both are mammals adapted to return to the sea. A whale is closer to a pig though in evolutionary terms than a seal which is of itself closer to a dog or a wolf. They have got back into the sea along a different path.

This Long-billed Sunbird really does what it says on the tin. I was suprised to learn when reading up today that they also take spiders to get a bit more protein with their nectar when breeding. This long bill is obviously highly adapted for very long tubular flowers but it also allows them to catch spiders lurking in the bottom of the flower bowls.

The photograph was taken of a bird resting on the roof of a bungalow we stayed at in Sri Lanka called Ellertons near Kandy.

Long-billed Sunbird - Nectarinia Lotenia
Hills near Kandy, Sri Lanka - 10 April 2011.

6 : Herring Gull

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Herring Gull - Larus argentatus

Can I be really honest. I just do not like gulls. They love waste sites and eat detritus, they are hard to identify, they pretend to be things you really want to see. They need some good PR.

A Herring Gull I admit is a proper sea gull. This one is next to some lovely seathrift on a sandstone sea cliff near the Lake District. Not a spot of rubbish in sight. They are one of the archetypal sounds of the english seaside. They serenade each ice cream you buy.

This is a picture I can benchmark. As we go on I can give myself a little class in gull identification. Part of the trouble with gulls is how they age - I have made life easy by choosing a mature herring gull here. This is a medium to large sized gull with pink legs and a yellow bill with a red spot on its lower mandible. It has black and white primaries. It has a light grey back and wing coverts. It is a Herring Gull. I will reluctantly try and explain why any other gull I post is not a Herring Gull.

I have spent hours sifting through black headed gulls looking for mediteranean gulls. I have listened to guys in hides explaining to me why a first winter Yellow Legged Gull is not a Herring Gull only for the next bloke to enter the hide and say "Ah - a Caspian Gull". I bought myself a video narrated by Bill Oddie and learned and forgot gull identification a dozen times. I don't think I am on my own in having a slight Gull issue. Couple the Identification problems with the smell of a landfill site and I just got to where I wondered why I was bothering. I get a bit annoyed by the chick stealing as well. That's wrong because they are only making a living.

He is handsome I guess. I should not write off all Gulls before we have started. I can already tell you that I will be making an exception for Little Gull. I have a good story to go with Laughing Gulls as well.

For now its safe to say that my dream birdwatching moment would not involve a Gull. Please do tell me what I am missing if you stop by and are an ardent Gull lover.

Herring Gull - Larus argentatus
Bempton Cliffs - Cumbria
Late May 2008

3 : European Robin

European Robin - Erithacis rubecula

I like this picture. I think it is one of the few feather perfect pictures of a bird I have ever taken and it is no suprise.

First of all to clear something up the inclusion of the "European" is to avoid confusion with the other Robins that will have to meet on our 27 year journey (I am still grappling with the sheer stupidty of this task). All bird names have been given at least two names now. You'll find lots of "Northerns" as we go along for example.

I am not sure exactly what larger bird family this Robin falls him - some books have them with Chats and Thrushes and my Collins Birds of the world has them with "Old World Flycatchers". We won't worry for now and the confusion perhaps illustrates a point. Around the world there are dozens of robins that fall in different families but still have the name Robin. The nicknames also for many birds around the world are Robins and thats because as European men spread and travelled it would have been one of the very few species that they all would have been familiar with from home. Any nice looking, confiding and similar sized bird would be labelled a Robin.

Man and Robin must have formed a bond thousands of years ago the first time that cultivation took place. When I started gardening I used to take great delight in any robin that would come and grub about as I turned soil. They hop and then look at you sideways out of that big shiny dark eye. Waiting for the next turn of the trowel or spade.

This picture was taken at RSPB Conwy, the Christmas before last when we flew home for the holiday to see my wife's Mum. I remember trudging round the lake that day and seeing a few distant views of some ducks, the odd Great Tit, a Coot or two but really nothing special - and then - oh "just" a Robin, sat on a post by a hide. I had had nothing much else to look at. As I did though it dawned on me that in Dubai I would not be seeing too many Robins. I took a picture. Like those first European wanderers and settlers I would be looking at new Robins now.

Its a feather perfect picture because thats how close a Robin will let you come. They will let you feed them by hand over time. So not just a Robin after all or a cliche from a Xmas card. Actually the Robin that made me realise I had left England for quite some time. I think you appreciate some things from a distance.

European Robin - Erithicus rubecula
RSPB Conwy - 28 December 2009

2 : Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper - Tringa hypaleucos

Probably one of my favourite waders. I think they might be every travelling birders' friend. A touchstone.

I live in Dubai now. I have been here about 2 and a half years. Its not everybody's cup of tea but if you take the politics out of Dubai you are left with an awful lot of birds. I saw this Common Sandpiper overwintering in the man made harbour next to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. In amongst the luxury yachts perched on the concrete of the Jetty he reminded what great travellers birds are. Common Sandpipers seem to turn up everywhere next to water - and especially at migration time. They are quite confiding but if you get too close they will set off on a big semi circular flight to get about 30 or 40 yards ahead or behind you. They fly low over the water with stiff wingbeats and show a white bar along the top edge of the flight feathers. They have a fairly characteristic bob or flick of the tail and pick small insects and larvae from rocks on river edges and shorelines. So here he was a degree or two North of tropics - I'd just bought my Mum and Dad and family a pizza for lunch and we were walking it off along the jetty. Queue "family man" dancing up and down the walkway trying to get a snap of this bird.

When I came back to birding as an adult I started looking for a "patch" to call my own. I lived in South London and worked in the City so I started to regulary walk along a stretch of river from Thamesmeade to Erith. Over time and with the passing of the seasons you could start to predict when Common Sandpipers would turn up. But where were they going or coming from ?

They nest by running water and you find them (if you are British birder) in the sorts of places where you also find Grey Wagtails and Dippers. For about 4 years we lived in the North West and the Lake District was a couple of hours away. We took a cottage one Witsen (Late May) and not far from us was a typical upland small river. So here is a Common Sandpiper - back where he or she "belongs". My kids were paddling nearby and the sun was out. A real jam sandwich with white bread English day. My guess was that there was a nest nearby in amongst the shingle, rocks and low bushes on the shore as there was a lot of disapearing off and furtiveness. Again a one to one with a bird and finally an idea of where they all go.This was the first time I ever saw a Common Sandpiper next to an upland stream.

The bird overwintering in Dubai could now be next to some river in upland Iran or Georgia or the Turkish mountains.

Common Sandpiper - you always turn up (predictably) when I least expect it and you always have a travellers story to tell.

Common Sandpiper - Tringa Hypaleucos
May 2007 - Lake District/December 2010 Jumeirah Beach Hotel Dubai
75 Points

1 : Chestnut Headed Bee-eater

Chestnut Headed Bee-eater - Merops leschenaulti

I might as well start with a bang and not a wimper. To me this is bird porn. I took this picture a couple of weeks ago in the Yala National Park in South-East Sri Lanka. You can click on the picture for a slightly blown up view.

There are 25 species of Bee-eater in the world distributed across Southern Europe, Southern Asia, Africa and Australia - quite frankly I am convinced that if you have seen one you have not seen them all ! Most - 18 out of 25 species are found in Africa. I've never birded in Africa and consequently I think I've only seen 4 or 5 species so far in my life (I am currently consolidating my world list from various holiday lists, ticked guides and notebooks etc.) I certainly only have a picture of two species I think (I'll save that for a rainy day). Africa here we come ! If I stick with this project this will be the beauty of it. I will let you know from my rocking chair when I am heading off to Africa and then I'll be able to tell you if it was worth the journey - worth pouring over the books. If you are a commited bird man you will know the answer. Collecting without keeping;hunting without killing.

Bee-eaters perform. They hawk for insects and chatter all the time, looping and whirling around their colleagues. I have seen perhaps 20 in a tree together in Southern Spain. They seem very social birds. You will rapidly realise that I am no ornithologist - just a bloke who likes birds.I will try not to read in human emotions - but these are birds that seem to really enjoy going about their daily routine.

This individual stayed perfectly still on a branch about 8 feet from the side of our safari truck while we were on an early morning game drive. A perfect jewel. The lemon yellow, the chestnut on the back, the greens from a childrens felt tip set. For me amongst all the leopards and elephants this was another perfect moment.

Later at our riverside "glamp" I watched a pair on an overhanging branch. In turns they would dive down to catch something only to pop up right next to their mate. I stopped following the flying bird with my bins and started watching the empty space on the branch - after a while I stopped worrying about whether the second bird was about to pop up. This was a clearly a pair. In some species I learn from Collins, a mated pair will stay together for life. Now I don't know if thats true of Chestnut Headed Bee-Eaters - its a different strategy I guess from species to species but within a season they are monogomous. It shows. If this pair had been together for a season or two then how special. If they were both starting out for their first season or just one season and were bonding, then again - how very special.

After a chatter and a look around together off the other bird would swoop. Turn by turn. This went on for at least half an hour and with a Lion beer, a notebook full of new birds and my feet up it doesn't get much better.

I did not get a photo of the pair. I will need a big fat Canon lens and some spare cash. I got a good photo of the individual in the morning sun a few feet from the truck. My wife says that I was lucky with the quality of the branch for this photograph. Quite frankly I think they would look good on a breezeblock in the middle of a rubbish dump.

The family Meropidae - "a favourite with birdwatchers" says Collins Birds of the World. Well its a good place to start. Í've thought about some sort of points system - a bit like Parker points for fine wine. I think birds are a bit like a good wine - the moment, the atmosphere, the behaviour, the light - it all comes together so it has to be a very very subjective.

I am a bloke who likes birds, not a poet and certainly not an ornathologist. A scoring system will not elevate the task to anything more or less worthy. Every bird has its place and value whether I like them personally or not. There is birding Nirvana and I'll explain it when I post about it. Rest assured sitting with a beer next to a Sri Lankan river writing up your notes and being entertained by a pair of Chestnut Headed Bee-eaters is about as good as it has got so far.

15-18 April 2011, Yala National Park Sri Lanka
Chestnut Headed Bee-Eater - Merops leschenaulti
+ a very good start to what will have to be a lifetimes' work
Bon Voyage and happy hunting