Trinidad & Tobago April & May 2013

Wildlife sightings from Limosa Holidays tour to Trinidad & Tobago April/May 2013.

Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus)

White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus)

Silkmoth species (Rothschildia vanschaycki)

Butterfly Orchid (Psychopsis papilio)

Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus)

Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)

Rufous-tailed Jacamar (Galbula ruficauda)

Trinidad Motmot (Momotus bahamensis)

Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis)

White-bellied Antbird (Myrmeciza longipes)

Trinidad Chevron Tarantula (Psalmopoeus cambridgei)

Green-rumped Parrotlet (Forpus passerinus)

White-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgas cayennensis)

White-bearded Manakin (Manacus manacus)

Rufous-vented Chachalaca (Ortalis ruficauda)

Green-backed Trogon (Trogon viridis)

Great Antshrike (Taraba major)

Green Honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza)

Purple Honeycreeper (Cyanerpes caeruleus)

Green Honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza)

Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)

Hercules Beetle (Dynastes hercules)

Common Otter (Lutra lutra)

Black-bellied Dipper at Thetford

Black-bellied Dipper at Thetford is now wandering from the small steam that it spent the winter. Photo taken 28 Feb. 

The Gambia January 2013

Photographs from a recent Limosa tour to The Gambia

African Thrush (Turdus pelios chiguancoides)

Guinea Baboon (Papio Papio)

Little Bee-eater (Merops pusillus)

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Clouded Flat (Tagiades flesus)

Small Orange Acraea (Acraea serena serena)

African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus)

Blue Savannah Sapphire (Iolaus menas menas)

Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis)

Greater Painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis)

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia)

Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus)

Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides)

West African Crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus)

Malachite Kingfisher (Alcedo cristata)

Abyssinian Roller (Coracias abyssinica)

Long-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus climacurus)

Pink-backed Pelican (Pelecanus rufescens)

African Finfoot (Podica senegalensis)

Black-bellied Dipper Thetford

Front cover!!

Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) & Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) Whitlingham Country Park Norfolk 13th December 2012

Lucky morning as these two would normally be in the most distant sections of the Great Broad.

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni hornemanni) Aldeburgh Suffolk UK GB December 2012

Can't resist tame birds. Perhaps surprisingly it was still very tricky to photograph well. At least it didn't fly away, but it could spend a couple of hours missing and feed in the no-go area of the yacht club car park. Other little difficulties included its rapidly moving bill as it continually munched away on Long-horned Poppy seeds. It spent long periods partially obscured by the Long-horned Poppies and in sunny conditions the Poppies cast distracting shadows on the bird. In dull conditions it was awkward to balance the depth of field with high shutter speed to stop bill movement. You would need a good to get depth of field to enable both the bill and wing to be in focus (especially as it is such a podgy thing).

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)

As you may know there have been a few about.

Black-bellied Dipper (Cinclus cinclus cinclus)

Popping over to the Midlands couldn't resist dropping in at Thetford.

Norfolk storms

Photographs from a wet windy Saturday.

Little Auk (Alle alle) Salthouse

Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) Burnham Overy Staithe

A selection of birds photographed at Stiffkey Norfolk

Photos taken during the murky, foggy conditions 23rd October 2012. Amazing what the latest cameras can cope with despite the exceptionally poor light and visibility.

Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus)

Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus)

Not so Black-headed Gull Suffolk October 2012

Leucistic Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)

Slavonian Grebe (Podiceps auritus) Oulton Broad Suffolk October 2012

Initially identified as a Black-necked Grebe. Was this a case of mass hallucination or were there really two birds involved?

Speckled Bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima)

Came across this on a family walk on Mousehold Heath, Norwich

Grey Squirrel swimming

While on an electric boat from Martham we came across this Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) swimming across the Candle Dyke.  Watch out any Red Squirrels thinking they are safe on their islands.