Bird Watching Feb 21 mini-mag

YEAR OF THE LAMMERGEIER
We round up all the
best rarities of 2020
BRITAIN’S BEST-SELLING BIRD MAGAZINE
DEVON
Discover everything
from estuaries
to moorland
SEE 200
SPECIES
IN 2021!
FEBRUARY 2021 £4.70
16-PAGE PULLOUT GUIDE INCLUDING:
l 10 winter wonders to kickstart your year
l Track your progress with our ticklist
l Month-by-month expert advice
GO BIRDING
10 site guides,
from Dumfries to
Dungeness
A SPLASH OF WINTER COLOUR
Catch up with the incomparable Kingfisher
MIGHTY MIDGETS
How the Little Owl went from invader to favourite

FEBRUARY
Contents
14
8
NEWS & VIEWS
16
Weedon’s World
Mike remembers all the great
wildlife that has visited his garden
18
NewsWire
How Greater Manchester is going
green for conservation
20
26
80
19
Grumpy Old Birder
There is beauty among all the
mayhem, says Bo Beolens
FEATURES
34
IN THE FIELD
BIRD THE WORLD
67
Your Letters
One woman’s encounter with
the ‘shooting fraternity’
ON THE COVER
16-page My200BirdYear
Special inside
20 A splash of winter colour
53 Go Birding
84 Delightful Devon
72 Mighty midgets
102 2020 rarities roundup
SIGN UP
NOW!
BIRDWATCHING.
CO.UK/MY200
20
26
34
40
68
72
Colourful Kingfisher
The flash of electric blue on a
riverside walk is a marvellous
sight for any birder
A decade of birds
Facts and figures on how bird
populations have changed over
the past decade
Preventing extinctions
How conservation organisation
BirdLife International is saving
globally-threatened birds
Newcastle’s Kittiwakes
BW art editor Mark Cureton heads
to Newcastle to see how the city’s
avian residents are faring
The big question
What exactly is a bird? It’s a question
pondered by Ruth Miller following
the delivery of a new book
Little Owl
Dominic Couzens gives good
reason why we should be
concerned for this bird’s future
INSIDE: 16-PAGE
#MY200BIRDYEAR
SPECIAL!
8
14
47
53
Your Birding Month
Why Lapwing is our Bird of the
Month, plus birds to look for now
include Waxwing and Goldcrest
Beyond Birdwatching
Even deep in winter there are
unexpected natural treats, says
James Lowen
ID Challenge
Test your knowledge of birds you’ll
see in your garden during winter
Go Birding
10 great birding destinations to
head to for brilliant birding
SUBSCRIBE FOR
£2.80
PER MONTH*
SEE OVER THE PAGE
*DIGITAL ONLY WHEN YOU PAY BY DIRECT DEBIT
76
79
80
84
88
Somerset’s Starlings
Your chance to enjoy mesmerising
Starling murmurations up close
and personal!
Scottish delights
Fabulous birding with the
Heatherlea team in Scotland
Birds of Japan
Dominic Couzens visits Japan to
enjoy the many great birds this
country has to offer
Delightful Devon
There’s so much to discover here,
from estuaries to moorland
The Urban Birder
David Lindo ‘looks up’ in the
coastal city of Aqaba, Jordan
BIRDS ON THE BRINK
92 Curlew
This month, the BPOTY team look
at the plight of a beleaguered genus
of iconic waders
69
114
Q&As
Our experts identify a mystery
bird of prey and others
Back Chat
Mya Bambrick, wildlife
photographer, on her birding life
BIRD SIGHTINGS
102 Bird rarities of the year
A roundup of rare birds seen in the
UK during the past year
94
96
97
GEAR & REVIEWS
Gear
We test Kite’s APC Stabilized
12x42 binoculars
WishList
Goodies to consider include knitted
birds and a monopod
Books
Latest releases including
All The Birds of The World
4 February 2021 birdwatching.co.uk 5

NEWSWIRE
ALL THE BIGGEST BIRD NEWS & EVENTS
CONSERVATION
Green birding initiatives
Greater Manchester
region birders adopt
new initiatives to
help save the planet
New Year’s Day saw
the start of the
official United
Nations Decade on
Ecosystem
Restoration, and The Greater
Manchester Birding City
Region Project (GMBCR) has
become officially affiliated to
the project.
James Walsh, also known as
the Mancunian Birder, said:
“The next decade is vitally
important to the future of the
earth’s ecosystems. We have
had the scientific reports and
the warnings and now it really
is time to ‘save the planet’.
Ecosystem restoration is key to
finding solutions to some of
the biggest environmental
problems on the planet, such
as climate change and the
destruction of the Amazon
Rainforest. 2021 to 2030 is
certainly the decade to ‘act
local, think global’.”
He said that as the birthplace
of the Industrial Revolution,
Manchester has a big part to
play in the UN Decade on
Ecosystem Restoration.
The GMBCR Project used
2020 as a springboard to the
decade, starting a number of
projects to bring focus to the
city’s environment, including
The Perfect Ten, 10 bird species
selected to represent its
boroughs, and the eco-birding
cycling initiative, The Big Year
in Greater Manchester.
Perfect Ten
It staged the Greater Manchester
Natural Capital Conference at
the Chamber of Commerce back
in February 2020, the online
premiere of ‘The Perfect Ten’
film at the virtual Manchester
Festival of Nature 2020, the
virtual Greater Manchester
Green Summit 2020,
worked with Friends of
Carrington Moss on ‘Plan Bee’,
and supported the
Wigan National Nature
Reserve bid.
Shaun Hargreaves, of
the GMBCR Project, said:
“We have managed to
communicate better this
year with organisations
on Zoom, Webex and
Webinars than we
would in a ‘normal’ year. We
also renewed our pledge and
are looking to build on all the
projects that we have initiated
since the start of the GMBCR
Project in March 2018, in
particular the Birding
Cycling Initiative.
“Birding and cycling
addresses two of the biggest
issues of our time, the
biodiversity crisis and the
climate emergency. We are
calling for both birding and
cycling to be given a higher
profile and increased
investment in the Greater
Manchester city region.”
James Walsh added: “We are
looking forward to the United
Nations Decade on Ecosystem
Restoration, and to using the
skills we have in book writing,
ecology, journalism and
promotion to inform, educate
and inspire people about the
environment.”
The GMBCR Project will be
working with Lancashire
Wildlife Trust, Manchester
The Manchester skyline
Festival of Nature, the Bee
Network, Wigan National
Nature Reserve bid committee,
the Friends of Carrington
Moss, Save The Greenbelt, the
Greater Manchester Green City
Region staff, the office of the
Greater Manchester Metro
Mayor and all the borough
councils, towards the aim
of Greater Manchester
becoming a “world-leading
Green City Region”.
l Further information is
available at:
decadeonrestoration.org or to
watch the Greater Manchester
Birding City Region Launch
Film visit: youtu.be/
ataRCr1lcEw
SHAHID KHAN/ALAMY*
NEWS IN BRIEF
Statue honour
Emily Williamson, who founded
the all-female Society for the
Protection of Birds in 1889 (it
later became the RSPB), is to
be honoured with a statue at her
former home in Fletcher Moss
Park in Didsbury, Manchester.
In partnership with the Emily
Williamson Statue Campaign,
the RSPB is inviting sculptors to
submit designs to commemorate
its founder. The short-listed
maquettes will be unveiled in July
2021, marking the centenary of
the Plumage Act. The public will
then vote for their favourite.
As good as income
High biological diversity in our
immediate vicinity is as important
for life satisfaction as income, say
scientists from Senckenberg, the
German Centre for Integrative
Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and
the University of Kiel. The
researchers showed that all across
Europe, the individual enjoyment
of life is correlated to the number
of bird species in one’s
surroundings. An additional 10%
of bird species in the vicinity
increases the life satisfaction of
Europeans at least as much as a
comparable increase in income.
Nature conservation thus
constitutes an investment in
human well-being, they say.
Breeding success
Blakeney Point in Norfolk enjoyed
its most successful breeding year
for Little Terns since 1994, with
Common and Sandwich Terns
also doing well at the National
Trust site in 2020. Although
there was bad weather in June,
a lack of human disturbance
and few predators seem to have
been the reasons. Nesting Little
Terns fledged over 200 chicks,
a welcome boost to the seabird,
which has been in serious decline
nationally since the 1980s.
The National Trust is asking
for donations to the Everyone
Needs Nature campaign via:
nationaltrust.org.uk/appeal/
everyone-needs-nature-appeal
TOMSPHOTOS/ALAMY*
This month, Bo finds beauty among
all the mayhem
You will not be surprised to see me
called a grumpy old birder. Indeed, I
have been called a miserable old git
ever since I was a miserable young
one. The way the world is, it seems
appropriate to rail and grouse against agri-business,
unhampered mega corporations and governments
who form committees to think about what inaction
they can spread over the longest possible period.
When local councils appoint a tree warden (and will
soon be obliged to come up with a tree-planting
programme) I am not even slightly dumbfounded
when they happily chop down mature native trees
wholesale and plant a few non-native saplings.
Local politics seems founded on dumb!
I am too scared of litigation to ever accuse a local
council of taking kickbacks when they build houses
that locals can’t afford; too far to commute from,
on a floodplain. They have rooms so small even a
two-piece suite is impossible to house; beds have to
be built in situ, as the stairs are too narrow to carry
up anything bigger than your mortgage bill and the
only good thing is there isn’t room to swing a cat.
I cannot offer you the comfort this month of my
normal irascibility. Of course, plenty drew steam
from my ears as Palm Oil Armageddon came ever
closer and the edge of the rain forest ever further
away. I could bemoan the lack of brain that
champions a new rail track for the sake of the
environment and pushes it through Parliament with
the same ease that it will be pushed through
numerous ancient woodlands! This month I won’t
raise your blood pressure attacking pet owners,
plastic purveyors or pesticide sprayers.
Instead, let me share a little warmth and wonder.
Enjoy it while it lasts, as I did, safe in the knowledge
that normal service will shortly be resumed.
NEWS & OPINION
GRUMPYOLDBIRDER
Glancing from my bedroom window, I was
surprised by the absence of avian distraction and
was about to open the window to peer down at my
tiny pond to see if any Frogs were in evidence, when
movement stayed my hand. There is a large
red-leafed bush between the pond and the feeders.
Being in the soft south-east, it usually keeps its
leaves all year and blossoms at least twice.
However, this year we have had more than our
usual two frosts and a succession of storms that
blew the leaves into The Channel, or the next
county. Nevertheless, its twigs are dense enough to
hide a Long-eared Owl (not that it ever has) so it’s
still much loved by House Sparrows, Dunnocks and
Blue Tits. As I gazed at it, an odd thing happened.
Suddenly a dozen sparrows swooped to the top of
the bush… nothing new there. Then, as one, they all
dropped two feet deeper into the bush. It was like
watching a highspeed lift descend!
The reason followed – with deadly grace,
a Sparrowhawk swept below me clipping the top
twigs where the sparrows had been, then flying a
foot off the garage roof, over the road and down
into the local park 300 yards away, almost without a
wing-beat. An immature male or female, the view
from above was of that warm, plain olive brown
back almost the colour of a song thrush.
It wasn’t a garden ‘first’, but it typified for me the
magic of birds and birding. Birds that predate
other birds can be marvellous and majestic, while
being cold-blooded killers. Nature equipped them
to be red in beak and claw, but has wrapped their
steel in beauty.
Bo Beolens runs fatbirder.com and other
websites. He has written a number of books.
GET IN
TOUCH
Do you agree – or
disagree – with Bo’s
comments? Email us at
birdwatching@
bauermedia.co.uk
Left Magical
Sparrowhawk
18 February 2021 birdwatching.co.uk 19

SPECIES KINGFISHER
WINTER
COLOUR
Anyone on a riverside walk who has caught the flash of electric blue from
a Kingfisher will appreciate what a marvellous sight it is...
WORDS IAN PARSONS
I
lowered my binoculars and quickly
placed my hands back into the warm
depths of my fleece-lined pockets.
Winter birding on an estuary can be
rewarding, but it can also be very
cold. It can also be a bit colourless. Grey
skies above the grey water, and the
cloud-filtered sunlight that does get
through is still bright enough to reflect off
the exposed, grey-brown expanses of wet
mud, bleaching out any colour in the
hundreds of waders that are probing the
mud in front of me. But not even the
general greyness can mute the colours of
the next bird I see.
A short, sharp, high-pitched call
followed by a searing bolt of electric blue,
zipping arrow-like over the grey mud – a
Kingfisher, the exotic gem of winter
estuary birding.
Kingfishers are tiny birds, about the size
of a House Sparrow, and in the wide open
space of an estuary they look even smaller.
Any other bird would be lost in the
landscape, but not this one. The colours
are beautiful and that blue on their back is
so vibrant that it just can’t be dulled.
My hands are quickly out of my pockets
and on to my binoculars, and I follow the
bullet-like flight of the bird before it
smoothly arcs around and over a shallow
area of water, it hovers momentarily and
then dives into the brackish water below,
remerging with a small fish clamped tight
in its bill. The straight flight resumes, this
time over the main channel of water,
heading away from me towards the far
side of the estuary.
My hands are still cold, but the sudden
splash of colour has certainly warmed up
my enthusiasm once again!
Within continental Europe, many
Kingfishers migrate during the winter
months, the cold and the ice forcing them
to move from their breeding grounds.
Some of these travel long distances, with
southern Spain being a popular
destination. But others travel relatively
In life, Kingfishers are
surprisingly small
(smaller than, say,
a Starling)
@HERTSKINGFISHER/ALAMY
20 February 2021
birdwatching.co.uk 21

SPECIES KINGFISHER
The ‘blue’ colours vary
greatly depending on the
angle of the light
SPECIES FACTFILE
KINGFISHER
Scientific name: Alcedo atthis
Length: 16-17cm
UK numbers: 3,800-6,400 breeding pairs
Habitat: Lakes, canals and rivers in
lowland areas
Diet: Fish and acquatic insects
BLICKWINKEL/ALAMY*
short distances, often wintering on the
coast. In Britain, where the winters are
much milder than in continental Europe,
most of our birds are resident, but there
are some that do move, heading to the
coast and to the estuaries, where the risk
of the water icing up is almost nonexistent.
We don’t tend to think of the Kingfisher
as being a coastal bird in Britain, but now,
in the winter, there are a few that are, and
with a bit of luck you can find one. I can
remember the first time I noticed one at
the seaside – it was a still day and the tide
was almost fully out. Jutting out from the
sand, and into the sea were several
concrete groynes; and sitting out on one of
these Bladderwrack-covered structures
was a Kingfisher. It was sat there gazing
down at a large open rock pool that had
been created by the receding tide, I
watched it for several minutes, surprised
to find a Kingfisher indulging in a bit of
rock pooling, and in that time the bird
didn’t move once.
Halcyon days, halcyon bird
I was soon distracted by some Gannets
plunge-diving far out to sea and, as is
typical of these things, the Kingfisher had
vanished when I returned my gaze to
where it had been sitting. Despite being
disappointed that it had gone, it did make
me think how often you get to switch from
watching a Kingfisher to watching
Gannets. Since then, I have found
Kingfisher a few times at the seaside,
always on calm days though, when the sea
is flat and glass-like. If there are waves
ESTUARIES ARE A BETTER BET FOR FINDING
KINGFISHERS IN THE WINTER, ESPECIALLY IN
PLACES WHERE THE ACTIONS OF THE TIDE
CREATE AREAS OF SHALLOW WATER...
PJRNATURE/ALAMY
and the water is churned up, you are
unlikely to see them by the sea. But if it is
one of those ‘halcyon days’, look out for
the ‘halcyon bird’ on anywhere that gives
it a perch overlooking the water.
Groynes, jetties, the structure of piers
and even boats moored in a harbor can all
be used by these small fishers, so they are
always worth checking out if you are
partaking in some seaside birding.
Estuaries are a better bet for finding
Kingfishers in the winter, especially in
places where the actions of the tide create
areas of shallow water. It is here that you
are likely to find the Kingfisher practising
its hovering technique. The lack of perches
means that for the bird to see what is
going on in the water below, it has to hang
in the air, beating its wings to keep itself
steady, in a manner very much like the
Two fish at once!
JOSH HARRISON/ALAMY
Fish catching takes
an instant
ALANTOOKTHIS/ALAMY*
22 February 2021
birdwatching.co.uk 23

SPECIES KINGFISHER
GARY COOK/ALAMY*
In general, males have all black
bills and females have some
orange on the lower mandible
Target located, dive initiated
Kestrel employs over grassland.
A hovering Kingfisher is a beautiful
sight and a real burst of colour, guaranteed
to brighten up any winter’s day birding,
on an estuary or not.
Winter hazards
The birds can, of course, still be found
inland during the winter; rivers, streams,
large ponds and gravel pits are all great
places to see them, and most of our
Kingfishers will remain in these habitats
throughout the year. Wherever they are,
though, they are birds that are very
vulnerable to cold weather. Being small,
they have a larger body surface area to
body volume ratio, and this means that
they lose body heat much more rapidly
than larger birds do. This in turn means
that they have to proportionally eat more
food than larger birds do to be able to
sustain themselves, particularly in
colder weather. It is estimated that a
Kingfisher must consume 60% of its
bodyweight daily to survive.
If there is a cold snap and
temperatures plunge, then they
also face the other problem of the
water freezing up. Kingfishers prefer
to fish in still or slow-moving
waters, which provide the bird with
the best visibility conditions. But it
is these waters that are most likely
to freeze up if the thermometer
drops below zero.
A coating of ice, even thin ice, is an
impenetrable barrier for the Kingfisher.
If the water in their home area freezes up,
then they have to move, but Kingfishers
are highly territorial at all times of the
year, so if they do move they have to do so
to an area of water that doesn’t already
IT IS ESTIMATED THAT A KINGFISHER MUST
CONSUME 60% OF ITS BODYWEIGHT DAILY TO
SUSTAIN ITSELF...
have a Kingfisher in residence. This is
when they can start to turn up on our
estuaries and coasts.
The winter, then, can be a challenging
time for Kingfishers, and many succumb
to the cold and lack of food during this
period. For us, at this time of the year,
a Kingfisher fishing on an estuary or
perching over a rock pool is a welcome
splash of colour, but for the bird, it is all
about survival.
BW
ARTERRA PICTURE LIBRARY/ALAMY*
24 February 2021

MAGAZINE
Welcome to
My200BirdYear
2021
l 10 winter wonders to kickstart your list
l Track your progress with our ticklist
l 2020 vision: learn from a remarkable last year

MY200BIRDYEAR LAUNCH
VARIATIONS ON A THEME
Sign up for
My200BirdYear 2021
It’s fun and flexible and you can set your own rules, so why not sign up to
our 2021 birding challenge? We’ll give you all the help you need!
It’s fair to say that, this time
last year, not one of us would
have predicted just what an
extraordinary 12 months was
ahead, and it would be a brave
person who stuck their neck out
now and said they know what to
expect in 2021.
But we do know that birdwatching
has played a big part in getting many of
us through the difficult times, providing
a focus for vital exercise, a connection
with nature, with all the rewards and
consolations that brings, and a sense of
achievement at a time of almost
overwhelming circumstances.
We hope our #My200BirdYear
challenge has played its part. Many of
you reached the 200 species mark
despite the restrictions placed on travel,
to which there is only one possible
reaction – BRAVO!
That’s even more of an achievement
than usual, because recording 200
species is never easy.
But others tweaked the parameters of
Birds are everywhere and
anywhere you look... and
you don’t have to go
birdwatching alone
the challenge a little to keep things
interesting, and that’s the beauty of
#My200BirdYear.
Because it’s really very simple – we
challenge you to see 200 species of
bird in 2021. The rest is entirely up to
you. Good luck and enjoy it!
l You can set whatever
geographical restrictions you like
– on your local patch, in your
county or bird club area, or across
the whole UK, and beyond.
Download and print off our 2021 #My200BirdYear ticklist to track your progress throughout
the year... to sign up to the challenge go to birdwatching.co.uk/my200
TOM BAILEY
DAVID CHAPMAN/ALAMY*
Gardens make a great
starting place for a year list
l You can decide what’s tickable and
what isn’t.
l You can include ‘heard’ birds, or
just those you’ve seen.
l You could even, as one reader
suggested, count subspecies, which
would certainly be a great way of
sharpening up your ID skills.
Waxwings would be star
birds in any year!
Whichever rules you choose, we can
guarantee a few things. We’ll be with
you all the way, providing expert
advice and tips in the magazine, on our
website at birdwatching.co.uk and at our
dedicated Facebook group:
facebook.com/groups/My200BirdYear
You’ll finish the year with a better
knowledge of birds than you started with,
no matter how many you ultimately see.
You might also find that you shed a few
pounds, and get fitter, too!
DONNA APSEY/ALAMY*
If you’re confident, or if you’ve completed
the challenge before and want a fresh slant
on it, you can add your own twist. Here’s a
few you could try…
Self-found birds
1 Two-hundred would probably take some
doing in the UK, without a lot of travel and
luck, but it’s possible if you get to go further
afield (even if it’s only a beach holiday in
Spain). So, no twitching, and no looking at
your bird club’s sightings page. It will improve
your ID skills enormously, especially in picking
birds out of flocks (you’d probably need to find
the likes of American Wigeon among Wigeon,
for example).
Photographed birds
2 You need a record shot of each one – it’s
that simple. It doesn’t have to be anything
award-winning, but it should be recognisably
the species in question.
Greener birding birds
3 Our own David Chandler did this in 2020,
more or less, birding only within two miles of
home. He’s lucky enough to live next to a great
reserve, and he did use a canoe at times, so it
wasn’t all walking, but you get the idea – set
some transport restrictions (birding by bike, or
birding by public transport, for example), and
off you go.
Heard birds
4 To be honest, most birders do this to an
extent. Your chances of seeing a Tawny Owl
can be pretty slim, for example, but most of us
will hear them and tick them confidently. The
same might be true of species such as Water
Rail, Cetti’s Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler,
and even Nightingale. But you could make this
the year you get to grips with noc-migging
– listening to the calls of birds flying over at
night (you’ll probably have to record them). It’s
hard work, but it can turn up the likes of
Common Scoter over the most landlocked,
water-free patch.
Family-listed birds
5 What’s better than passing on your
knowledge of, and love for, birds? So it’s not
just you that ticks each species – your partner
has to as well. And your children? Anyone else
in your household? Your regular birding gang?
We even know one or two birders who keep a
bird list for their dog…
So, what are you waiting for? Sign up at birdwatching.co.uk/my200
and join the thousands already rising to the challenge.
2 My200BirdYear 2021
birdwatching.co.uk 3

DON’T DELAY
JOIN OUR 2021
My200BirdYear
CHALLENGE!
We hope we have inspired
you to sign up for our
#My200BirdYear challenge.
Don’t forget, we’ll be with you
all the way, offering expert
help, so you can see more
species than ever before!
TOM BAILEY
Join today at: birdwatching.co.uk/my200

View from the observatory
DAVID
LINDO
THE URBAN
BIRDER
KEY SPECIES
RED-THROATED PIPIT
Aqaba, Jordan
A wealth of brilliant birds await you in the coastal city of Aqaba –
but you may want to leave your telescope at home
DAVID LINDO
White-crowned Wheatear
Sardinian Warbler
BLICKWINKEL/ALAMY
Western Reef Egret
Little Stint
PAUL STERRY/ALAMY
The Red-throated Pipit is typical member
of the pipit tribe: cryptic and sometimes
difficult to identify. In the UK it is a
sought-after birders bird. Superficially
similar to the more familiar Meadow Pipit
while in non-breeding plumage, its breeding
garb is very distinctive with varying degrees
of brick-red on its throat and upper breast.
It is a native of the boreal regions of
northern Europe and Asia migrating south
into southeastern Asia, Africa and locally in
the Middle East. In the UK, they principally
show up sporadically during the autumn and
never seem to hang around for long. In
places like Eilat and Aqaba they are
common migrants that sometimes
overwinter to be found inspecting sports
fields and waterside edges for food.
Aqaba is the only coastal city in
Jordan and is situated in the
southernmost part of the
country. It borders Israel and
indeed, is directly opposite
Eilat, a location that is well known for its
birding riches. I travelled during November
2019, having been invited to explore the
wider country as well as to indulge in some
quality urban birding in Aqaba itself. I
stayed with my hosts the Hyatt Regency
Aqaba Ayla Resort, an extremely swish
five-star hotel complex set in the grounds of
a high-end golf course – itself a fascinating
birding venue. More about that later.
I spent the ensuing days on excursions
visiting cultural sites such as the amazing
Petra, and Star Wars-like dramatic
landscapes at Wadi Rum. I encountered
incredible desert birds such as Sinai
Rosefinch, Brown-necked and Fan-tailed
Ravens and larks galore, like Desert,
Bar-tailed, Temminck’s and Greater Hoopoe
Larks. Perhaps the most fabulous bird was a
brief but good look at a Desert Owl at Dana
Nature Reserve.
Unfinished hide at
Aqaba BO
Formally known as Hume’s Owl, it is a
species that has attained legendary status
among world birders, as it has only been
relatively recently discovered and is very
range-restricted. I had to work for it though,
as it entailed a steep late-night trek into a
mountain range that actually left me feeling
quite sick. The reward was to hear two of
these enigmatic owls calling with their
distinctive Collared Dove-like hoots, before
seeing one closely flap past, illuminated by
the moonlight. Utterly incredible!
Meanwhile, back at base, there was no
let-up in the excitement. The golf course
around the hotel had been designed with
nature in mind, with areas of bushy cover
along with a couple of water bodies. The
shrubs harboured Sardinian Warblers and,
perhaps more exotically for me, Scrub
Warblers. They have a weird vibe for a
warbler reminding me of a tiny babbler,
round bodied with sticky-uppy tails.
White-crowned Wheatears were also
fairly prevalent, even in the heart of urban
areas; the males being handsome birds with
their black plumage relieved by white
DAVID LINDO
EILAT
JORDAN
ISRAEL
GULF OF AQABA
AQABA BIRD
OBSERVATORY
AQABA
undertail coverts, outer tail
and crown. Overhead, Rock Martins were
regularly swooping. These swallows were
clearly paler than the closely-related Crag
Martins that I was used to in Spain.
Every evening, after our daily excursion,
I made it a habit to check the larger lake
Enter for great birds
DAVID LINDO
(which was still quite small). Birds like
White Wagtail were plentiful and I
watched Kingfisher and Pied Kingfisher
– the latter species dramatically hovering
over the water before plunging after fish.
Striated, Squacco, Purple and Grey Herons
all frequented the small lake, along with
Great White and Little Egrets. Late one
evening, I stumbled across a Western
Reef Egret. Its dark plumage stuck out like
a sore thumb. Apparently, it was the first
record for the site!
Largely ignored area
The urban birding pièce de résistance was
visiting Aqaba Bird Observatory. Those of
you who have visited the Bird Watching
Centre in Eilat could be forgiven for
immediately comparing Aqaba’s offering
as a poor man’s version. Wandering around
an underdog among the more recognised
urban birding jewels in the world appealed
to my sensibilities.
Like the former site, Aqaba is a series of
managed lagoons with areas of scrub. Some
of the basins are reed-fringed, whereas
others are quite bare of vegetation. While
the Israeli site is designed with walkways,
hides and a visitor centre, Aqaba Bird
Observatory has none of these luxuries, yet.
Whatever species that has famously turned
up at the bird watching centre has
anonymously turned up in Aqaba. It simply
is not visited by many birders.
SAVERIO GATTO/ALAMY*
My guide, Feras Rahahleh, and I walked
around its lagoons tracing the recent tracks
of the tractors that were still carving out the
paths. Being the manager of the
observatory, he was very keen to show me
every single bird on site.
We carefully approached the basins to
observe hundreds of Cormorants nervously
loafing at the opposite end of the lagoons.
Hanging out with them were good
numbers of Black-winged Stilt, Spur-winged
Lapwing, Ruff, Little Stint, Snipe and
Red-throated Pipits. Black-headed Gulls
were numerous standing alongside some
inconspicuously hidden and superficially
similar Slender-billed Gulls.
A lone foraging Whiskered Tern, in
non-breeding plumage, broke my gaze as
I was sifting through the bobbing Pintail,
Wigeon, Teal and at least five Ferruginous
Duck – always nice birds to see!
Sleeping giant
Feras saved the best to last. As I watched
a couple of Greater Flamingos stride in
another lagoon, he pointed out a couple
of species that were complete newcomers to
the scene: around 20 Egyptian Geese and
a lone Lesser White-fronted Goose that
had taken up permanent residence the
year before. The Lesser White-front was
a lifer for me and a perfect way to end
my Jordanian birding experience.
Aqaba is certainly another sleeping
VINCENZO IACOVONI/ALAMY*
giant within the ornithological world.
I must make you all aware of one major
issue when visiting this incredible country
to enjoy its wildlife. You may not be able to
bring binoculars, telescopes and cameras
into the country! My entry into Jordan at
Aqaba Airport wasn’t the most welcoming.
I was held up for 45 minutes being
questioned by authorities over my
possession of a telescope. After threatening
to confiscate it, I eventually convinced
them otherwise. The very warm welcome
offered at the hotel afterwards certainly
helped to calm my frayed nerves. Leaving
the country was not much better. I was
stopped a total of five times over my
telescope and nearly missed my flight as
a result. There does not seem to be any
official advice regarding getting permits
for optics and cameras.
Thanks to: Hyatt Regency Aqaba Ayla Resort
https://www.ayla.com.jo/
Feras Rahahleh at Aqaba Bird Observatory
jdtours.com/the-aqaba-bird-observatory
Reference Guide: Collins Bird Guide
BW
DAVID LINDO
88 February 2021
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