Oahu - Day 2

Albatross Day! Mick and I were up nice and early and on the road west towards Ka'ena Point. Coffee at Haleiwa, and then out along the Farrington Highway to the very end where you can leave the car in a reasonably sized car park. Clouds were scudding along at some speed, brisk winds, but overall it felt like a good day to be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 

It is a long walk west out to the Point along a rough track, plan on about an hour, especially as you will undoubedtly stop to look at birds. Whilst there are loads of Zebra Dove, African 

The track out to Ka'ena Point. The Albatross colony is at the far end once the cliffs run out.

Silverbill and Waxbill along the track, make sure to scan the cliffs to your left and listen out for Erckel's Spurfowl and Grey Francolin. In common with most birds on Hawaii, both are introductions, but they are no less pleasant for that, and as they are naturalised they do count as a valid ABA species. 

I estimate we saw our first Laysan Albatross about half way along, single birds cruising along the cliffs. Magnificent, utterly magnificent. Little did we know. To enter the reserve at the Point you need to go through an anti-rodent gate. Once inside you walk along roped off paths between low vegetation. It's like the Farnes, but significantly more mega and the 'Terns' have six feet wingspans. My goodness, what a place. Without a shadow of a doubt one of my all time top birding experiences. In mid April there are already some sizeable chicks - huge brown balls of fluff considerably less sleek than their parents. We witnessed lots of dancing, displaying, bill-clattering ceremonies, but it is in the air that these birds are at their most splendid. Effortless gliding low over the ground, held aloft by what seem like impossibly slender wings, but complete masters of their craft. I've rarely had as much fun behind the camera.

At some point during our visit we were amazed to see a much darker Albatross with sooty dark brown plumage, surely a Black-footed Albatross. I had only very recently become aware that this species had been seen sporadically at this site, so to actually be there when one was present seemed impossibly good luck. It got even more surreal when we realised that there were two, and one was ringed so we were able to give the ranger the code when we saw her in her truck later on. One of the birds did actually land from time to time, and seemed to be interacting with some of the Laysan Albatross, seeming particularly interested in chicks. Needless to say we spent a lot of time here, periodically getting soaked as cold squalls came in from the west, but these soon passed and the constant trade winds then dried us and our gear out again. 

As early afternoon approached, and without any food and having run out of water (typical genius planning!) we reluctantly started the long trek back to the car. We spent the afternoon back at Kahuku Aqua Ponds and along the North Shore but I think our minds remained at Ka'ena as we didn't really see anything else noteworthy. Back to the beach for sunset and, as before, dinner from one of the several food trucks that are permanently stationed at Pupukea. All are excellent if rather expensive, but there are seats to sit out and eat on as you look at the sea and you don't begrudge it for the experience. It's just a great place. 

A sight for sore eyes, the incomparable Mr Southcott sporting his new attire!

Oahu - Day 1

The flight loops around Oahu and then approaches from the south. Pearl Harbour is just off to the right.

Leaving Los Angeles early morning, the flight over the Pacific to Hawaii takes around five hours or so. A big lot of nothing and the aircraft are specially certified. We landed just after 11, and as this was a domestic flight we were out and picking up our car immediately - a stonking Ford Mustang convertible. Roof down, hat on, off we go. Pacific Golden Plovers were everywhere, on every bit of short grass available. First order of business was to get Mick properly clothed, and I had previously earmarked a couple of thrift stores where I was confident we could find what was required. You will see what I mean a little further later on during these posts. I was already fully kitted out of course, this being my fourth trip, but I couldn't resist topping up the collection. A number of White Terns were seen in Honolulu itself.

With the essential shopping done we headed east along the coastal highway to the Japanese Fishing Shrine. This is an excellent spot for seawatching, as well as hosting a small colony of Red-tailed Tropicbirds which are just superb birds. My trip research had also indicated that a Red-billed Tropicbird was hanging around the area, which would be a USA tick. Stopping the car at the exact spot is a little tricky, but there is a decent car park just along from the Shrine and then you can pick your way back along the crash barrier to where the Tropicbirds are. God how I love Hawaii, what a place. A turquoise ocean, verdant green slopes, sunshine and the strange croaks of these graceful birds. There were a few Brown Noddy a bit further out, and a Sooty Tern flew past but really it was all about the Tropicbirds. And sure enough, it wasn't long until a bird with distinctive black in the primaries was seen to fly out from the cliffs were stood above. Excellent! As it was the middle of the day with the sun high in the sky the photography was a little challenging, coupled with the fact that I'd been travelling for a day and a half and in any event I often take a little while to get going. Here's the best of a primarily bad bunch but you get the picture. We came away convinced that there were actually a nesting pair of Red-billed Tropicbirds as we saw birds with clearly differing amounts of black in the wing - I suspect that there was a burrow with eggs or chicks in and that they change over periodically. I should probably look that up.

Red-billed Tropicbird

Red-tailed Tropicbird

After a decent amount of time being wowed by these graceful birds we carried on around the coast, stopping first on the road above Makapu'u Beach. Although we didn't have scopes we could see Sooty Tern, a Wedge-tailed Shearwater, and a couple of Red-footed Booby, these latter both new birds for the trip. We continued up to Kahuku, quite a long drive but also spectacular. A good introduction to the topography of these islands, with small sandy beaches, tropical trees, and then huge forested slopes. It was great to be back. Kahuku had been chosen as a spot that seemed to hold a few birds - around the golf course and also the fish ponds a few miles up the road - we started at the Golf Course. I can't now recall all these months later what exactly what we were looking for, but this was where I saw my first Laysan Albatross. It was brief, but monstrously exciting  as well as a littel frustrating as this huge bird glided low over the vegetation and then instantly vanished. How does something that large just disappear? As before Pacific Golden Plover (hereafter PGP) were dotted all over the place but proved impossible to approach. As the golf course changed into low vegetation I noticed a wader running away from us through some low scrub. Initially I thought Whimbrel but it gradually dawned on me that I was looking at a very rare Bristle-thighed Curlew, another brand new bird. Somehow these enigmatic birds, Alaskan breeders, migrate directly across the Pacific to winter in small numbers in Hawaii, and somehow the fact that Kahuku on Oahu was the best place to see them had completely escaped me. So much for research! Other birds seen here included Common Myna, Red-whiskered and Red-vented Bulbul, Spotted and Zebra Doves, all Asian species that have been introduced, as well as a Red-crested Cardinal from South America. A Pheasant called from the bushes. What a place!

Pacific Golden Plover

Bristle-thighed Curlew

At the fish ponds a short distance away we found our first Hawaiian Coot, lots of Black-necked Stilt and some Black-crowed Night Heron, mostly juveniles, but there didn't seem to be a great deal going on and you can only really observe the ponds from the outside. Quite late in the day now, we crossed over to the North Shore and found our accomodation opposite the aptly named Sunset Beach. Oh yes! This is what it's about. A couple of beers were quickly purchased and we saw out the day gazing out over the Pacific.

Sunset Beach, Pupukea

Oahu - Logistics and Itinerary

So this time I went to Oahu, and this time I took Mick who had for a long time wondered what the fuss was about, and also seemed quite taken with the stupid travel arrangements. Oahu was the only major island in the chain that I had never visited barring a flying visit to connect from one flight to another for reasons long forgotten. Unlike previous trips which I booked in August, one of the few months of the year when Laysan Albatrosses are at sea, or once in March to Maui which has no Albatrosses, this was was pencilled in for April. And Oahu has a big breeding colony on its western tip. Finally!

Logistics

• A seven day trip in mid April, leaving after work on a Wednesday to Budapest, and arriving on Friday late morning local time - Thursday was basically spent getting to Los Angeles. We left Hawaii late on Monday evening, overnight back to LA, with Tuesday morning spent birding there before catching an onward afternoon flight to London which arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and after which we had to return to Budapest via a back-to-back to complete the ticket. So whilst it took seven days only four of those were actually spent birding, the rest being travel. As you know I also enjoy the travel part, but it is a very long way away. 
• Flights were on British Airways within Europe and transatlantic, with the flights to Oahu being with American Airlines. The pointless and wasteful hops to Hungary reduced the cost of the trip by approximately 60%. I'm not in charge of pricing, this is just what airlines do. Note that although far cheaper this is a pretty risky strategy, as had we missed the departing flight from Budapest we would have lost the ticket - you cannot just hop on in London. And back-to-backs also require an element of research and planning.
• Car hire via Avis I think, there must be some kind of cartel as all were priced the same. Naturally, and as this was Mick's first trip, we spent the cash and went for a Mustang convertible which was predictably wonderful.
• We stayed at Pupukea on the hipster North Shore, a long way from Honolulu, in a backpacker place where thankfully we got our own room. It's a far cry from the other side of the island and much more pleasant, albeit with a much higher crusty dude ratio. It was also a fraction of the cost of the chain mega-hotels down near Waikiki Beach. 
• We visited five key birding sites on the island; the Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline (south-east) around the Japanese Fishing Shrine for seabirds, the 'Aiea Loop Trailhead for endemics, Kahuku Beach, Golf Course and Ponds for general birding, the Kaelepulu Wetlands, and of course the famed Ka-ene Point for the Albatrosses. The rest of the time was spent chilling out, eating poke, snorkelling at Electric Beach, and generally remarking how lucky we were.

Itinerary

Day 0: Late evening to Budapest, overnight at the airport.

Day 1: Back to London to catch the flight to Los Angeles. Overnight LA.

Day 2: Mid-morning arrival into Oahu, followed by birding around the Japanese Fishing Shrine for Tropicbirds etc, and then around the Kahuku area.

Day 3:Early start along the Farrington Highway to Ka-ena Point colony, where we spent the morning being mesmerised by not one by two species of Albatross. 

Day 4: The whole morning walking the 'Aiea Loop trail, mostly in the hope of Oahu Elepaio. Afternoon on the east side, taking Nu'upia Ponds, Hamakua Marsh and the Ka-elepulu Wetland before driving back around the coast to the North Shore.

Day 5: We spent the morning around Kahuku, and then visited the Lyon Arboretum. The afternoon was spent sea-watching and then we had a quick look at the Wiliwilinui Trail before we had to get to the airport for our flight.

Day 6: We hired a car from LAX and visited a few sites not too far away including Playa del Rey, Ballona Marsh, and Ken Malloy Harbor.

Day 7: Getting home.

The North Shore

Lisbon

Back in March I went to Lisbon for a long weekend with my son. No particular aim, just to wander the city, take in the sights, eat a bit of nice food, some nice wine. Possibly take a photograph or two? It ended up being one of the last outings for my old Canon camera, at least in the context of a city break. As well as my birding lenses I had a collection of wide angles and intermediate zooms. Things like a 16-35, a 24-105, and a 70-200. Like the camera itself they were huge lumps, but they did the job. Heavily. Note the tense - had.

Henry meanwhile carried a tiny Sony mirrorless job that he could fit in his pocket. It and the lens, a basic zoom, weighed a combined 711g, the image quality and general abilities totally fantastic. My camera body alone weighs 1525g and certainly doesn't fit in any pockets! Add the lenses and I was lugging around close to 4kg. My mind was made up. As soon as I returned from a trip in July where I wanted a particular Canon lens I was going to sell the lot and make the switch. And that's exactly what I did. Ebay'd the whole lot. Did I lose money? Yes, loads. Do I regret it? Well, nobody likes losing money, but I'd had great use out of those lenses for years, in some cases a decade. It was time to modernise.

But this isn't about that. It's about Lisbon, one of the great capital cities in Europe. It is staggeringly beautiful, with wonderful buildings, an eclectic tram system, very hilly and views galore. We had a brilliant time. It is so long ago now I can barely remember how long we were there and what we did. Two nights I think, and largely we walked and walked. And, apparently, clicked and clicked - the photos will no doubt remind me. I've only just been through a very large set and made a small selection. Despite that this is a very photo-heavy post. 

Lisbon is heavily, perhaps excessively, tiled. It's really quite extraordinary.

I like this photo, it reminds me of a very similar one I took in Valetta which also had a old lady on a balcony. Apologies old lady, but you know how it is.

There are tiles, and then there are tiles. These are tiles.

Lisboa sits astride the mouth of the river Tagus, at that point more of an estuary. A huge bridge, the ponte 25 de Abril, which celebrates the 1974 revolution which eventually ushered in democracy, spans the strait.

Wonderful

The city is ridiculously hilly, and you don't feel remotely bad tucking into large lunches having tackled so many slopes and steps.

Trams feature heavily, especially in some of the older narrower streets around Alfama. They're used by a healthy mix of locals and tourists - easily separated! 

So do Tuk-tuks!

There are lots of scenes like this, though you often have to wait quite a while to get just a solitary figure like this.

Whilst the tiles are quite blue, many of the buildings are on the warm spectrum - yellows, reds, pinks, browns. 

I took about a million photographs of trams.

More tiles. Just because.

The Caixa Geral de Depositos, the National Savings Bank, is a huge 1990s half-temple half-citadel in the Arco de Cego district. Worthy of a slot on any itinerary. We decided not to try and photograph the entirety of this behemoth of a building, but just went for small elements of it.

More of the Caixa

There are several colonades like this.

This mural reminded me of Colombia

Oooh look! A tram!

Yet more steps.

"No way!?"

Breakfast. Sometimes we were forced to have several breakfasts.

Anyway, that's a small flavour of Lisbon, an excellent place in which to spend a few days. Not far away, and not expensive. I can also recommend White Port and tonic as a very refreshing mid-afternoon drink. 

Crowded and definitely not Solitary

I spent last Saturday in a wooden box. Death foretold. In keeping with a recent promise to myself to do more interesting things that traipse around Wanstead seeing nothing every Saturday morning I once again abandoned the patch. More interesting eh? Well, if you count sitting in a hide filled with middle-aged men as interesting.....

Oh this hobby, I don't know what to say. Let me start by saying that I dipped. Well, we dipped, as I convinced Tony to come too. Sorry Tony. The weather was vile, we wouldn't have seen anything at home, and to be fair we did see quite a lot from the hide in the four or five hours we were there. Just not a Solitary Sandpiper. The previous day it had been parading around like a superstar, but of course that was Friday. We were at work and naturally the dreaded bunk happened. 

I've dipped Solitary Sandpiper before, on Scilly. I can't remember the exact circumstances but Bradders, Nick and I were definitely going to Scilly for one as well as a pretty fabulous supporting cast. On the boat over birders already there found a Black-and-White Warbler at Lower Moors and I can still remember Baggers, or I think it was Baggers, jumping up from the deck and shouting the news. Maybe I'm wrong.

Baggers was in the hide at Stodmarsh on Saturday, chatting away. He knows everyone and everyone knows him. Book reviews seemed to feature quite heavily for some reason, with many people (of a very similar demographic you would have to say) sympathetic to what I assume was the first edition. I've not read it, can't say I intend to, and thus had little to say about it then or now. The oft used phrase that 'everyone has a book in them' should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt however... Despite his literary setbacks he's quite cheery and I find it hard to believe anyone could find him offensive in person. The only reason I mention his presence is that there seems to be a very strong correlation between him being around and me dipping Solitary Sandpiper - I certainly won't be twitching one in Sussex!

What a bummer. I've not dipped for ages and it reminds me what most dislike about twitching. Not reminds me, it is what I most dislike about twitching. Well, that and hides full of middle aged men. Men like me, except they seem to have read more books. In the time I was there a Green Sandpiper flew in three times. The hide exploded into life each time, it was fantastic to be a part of I have to say.

Nevermind, I'll no doubt get another chance in another 12 years. I'll be 60. At least it was only about an hour and a half away. Imagine driving to Cornwall and dipping. 

Woodpigeon Day

Who reading this finds Woodpigeons exciting? Nobody. Stupid, fat, slow birds that are forever getting in the way. And getting killed by things for all of those reasons. Most of us ignore Woodpigeons as inconsequential. Sure, I look at them pottering around in the garden but not with any great affection. 

Once a year that changes though. Woodpigeon migration. It seems to happen like clockwork, always at the end of October or the beginning of November. You need a nice clear morning, one that might be a bit chilly but has blue skies and light winds. Shortly after first light you will witness one of the great spectacles in British wildlife. Or I think so anyway.

Thousands of Woodpigeon will fly over you in a south-westerly direction, or perhaps west along the coast if you're down that way. Somehow these daft and vaguely comical birds find enough brain cells to gather in huge numbers and set off together for pastures new in which to over-winter. This year it happened on November 6th, basically bang on time. I was minding my own business at home, pottering around my bedroom in much the same way as a Woodpigeon potters around my garden. Fewer seeds, more coffee. I vaguely became aware of a movement of birds across the sky, and peering out discerned many many specks. I found my bins and resolved these into Woodpigeon, and not just a few. A thousand! I guess it would have been about five past seven in the morning.

It was over almost as soon as it began. Twenty-five minutes of mayhem, the sky filled with just incredible and uncountable flocks stretching in huge lines. A thousand, fifteen hundred? Where and how do they gather? In the space of a few minutes I estimated around 7000 birds had passed over, and I suspect the true number will have been much bigger as I can only look out of one side of the house at a time. There was no way to do a proper count, so I just estimated what small bit of sky contained about a hundred and extrapolated from there. Most birders probably do the same. Exhilarating, so so exciting. When was the last time you said that about a Woodpigeon? 

Yesterday the same thing happened, but in an even more concentrated burst. At first light there was nothing. But at about quarter past seven the floodgates opened and I counted another 6000 in the space of about fifteen minutes, and then just like that it stopped. I estimated the biggest flock to be over 2000. And of course these birds don't just fly over Wanstead. Other sites in East London recorded the same phenomenon, and doubtless elsewhere too. A broad front, a massive push. Imagine the numbers, hundreds of thousands. My oh my. 

And then today there were none, but it was a murky and drizzly day and I wouldn't have fancied it. Truly great birding, and something to look forward to all over again next year.

Vibrant

Just got back from another trip, and although I had grand plans to blog about trips earlier this year, for now here are a smattering of photographs from Buenos Aires, one of the world's great cities. A non-birding holiday for once, with Mrs L and sans enfants. In short (maybe there will be a long) brilliant fun.