This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
In short, the accepted view used to be that a small breeding population of Egyptian Vultures inhabited Southern Africa, but has vanished facing the spread of towns, roads and farms. In the 1970s we had two to four breeding pairs, in the 1980s one to two, in the 1990s it was zero to two (irregular breeding).
Then about a 100 km to the Ismarida Lake and Porto Lagos lagoons for breeding and migrating waders. The first thing to appear was its yellow bill – a locally rare Cattle Egret ! Farther on along the levee, there was a huge White-tailed Eagle standing on a big, old poplar. Paigeo for mountain species such as Rock Partridge.
Booted Eagle by Kostas Papadopoulos The next morning was a lazy one, a late breakfast and even later excursion. Later in the day, roadside birds included a Booted Eagle and a Levant Sparrowhawk. We also observed nests of Pygmy Cormorants , Dalmatian Pelicans , Little Egrets , Cattle Egret (with a chick), Squacco Heron , and Spoonbills.
Having observed the Cattle Egret in breeding plumage at the Derby Poo Ponds on June 19th we found ourselves at Windjana Gorge first thing the following morning. A Wedge-tailed Eagle soared overhead alongside Black Kites and Whistling kites. As we all well know there is something very different about 2020.
Depending on your particular interest, opt for March/April (spring migration), May/June (breeding season), August to October (autumn migration), or November/December when waterbird migration reaches its peak. Breeding season May – June , 261 eBirded species (yet, only about 242 breed in the country).
Nowhere else in Africa do the preconceived ideas of the continent really exist in such living detail; tall, red-robed Maasai herding their skinny cattle, endless grasslands studded with flat-topped Acacia trees and grazed by herds of zebras and wildebeest, and dramatic volcanic calderas brimming with big game and fierce predators!
For most species, the breeding season ends by the end of June and the majority of songbirds are silent and invisible now. mi farther on, there is a dirt track to the left, worth exploring in the breeding season ( Eurasian Penduline Tit , Moustached , Sedge , Eurasian Reed , Great Reed and Savi’s Warblers ).
In the breeding season, some 50 species were recorded here, including Little Bittern and Golden Oriole , both unusually easy to see, as well as Ferruginous Duck , Red-backed Shrike and Penduline T**s that bred here this spring – but all I managed to see was their nest ( again ) and not the inhabitants!
Not that long ago, Costa Rica had one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, rainforests were razed to make way for hot and chiggery cattle pasture, and bot flies probably became more numerous than some bird populations.
I should have known that birding High Island meant I would be 20 minutes away from a place where hundreds of thousands of shorebirds and waterbirds rest, feed, breed, and generally have a good time. I love American Avocets and I rarely see them in such marvelous breeding plumage, so I was in heaven. Clapper Rail. Back to the Flats.
Parasites penetrate the skin, travel through the blood vessels and finally (if you’re lucky) settle in the urinary tract where they happily breed, doing irreversible damage to it (and if you’re less lucky they might get confused and settle inside your spinal cord or even your brain). Cattle Egret 16. African Fish Eagle 1.
The Cherokee nation called them “Peace Eagles” owing to the fact that they never killed a living thing – and also that they tended to show up in numbers after battled when peace treaties were being signed, though admittedly that may have been for a slightly more macabre reason.
That Cattle Egret I found in Somerset County, August 2009? Birds of New Jersey , written by Joan Walsh, Vince Elia, Rich Kane, and Thomas Halliwell, published by New Jersey Audubon Society, was a landmark volume; 704-pages long, it presented results of the 1993-1997 New Jersey Breeding Bird Atlas. No wonder people were excited by it.)
Although they breed on the west coast of Florida, Snowy Plover is a rare stray to this part of the state. Cattle Egret: 133. Bald Eagle: 6. Shorebirds put on a good showing with a total of 18 species, despite the shrinking number and quality of sites offering adequate habitat. Tricolored Heron: 36. Reddish Egret: 1. Osprey: 26.
We were met by several Cattle Egret in beautiful breeding plumage feeding on the grass right next to the train station. It was a good location to observe Brahminy Kites , White-bellied Sea Eagles , Grey-headed Fish Eagles , Oriental Pied Hornbills and Dollarbirds. There was something “not right” about it.
Beset by poaching by cattle ranchers, habitat loss, DDT, and lead poisoning (from consuming shotgun pellets embedded in the condor’s carrion fare), populations of this enormous New World vulture fell into a serious decline in the twentieth century. A portion of all draft and bottle sales of Condor Kolsch will be donated to these programs.
Before we reached the plains there was roadkill and we observed three Wedge-tailed Eagles in a tree. It is not unusual to see Wedge-tailed Eagles around Broome, but rarely three all together. Three Wedge-tailed Eagles. They are no doubt breeding here once again this year. They are quite possibly here to breed once again.
There was a Short-toed Eagle ahead, taking flight to be replaced by another ST Eagle. In my homeland, some 800 km / 500 mi further north, these ducks are common on migration but very rare in the breeding season and I realized that these are my first young birds – ever. Lesser Kestrel. Western Rock Nuthatch. Eurasian Spoonbills.
Ferruginous Hawks breed in the grasslands of eastern Montana, but they are rare in the mountains and in winter, so this bird was certainly a surprise. A vast congregation of Bald Eagles kept watch over a herd of cattle about to calve, up to seven in a single tree — no doubt awaiting delicious placentas.
Quite often there are Australian Pelicans , Brolga and Royal Spoonbills present and the egret species often include Great Egret , Intermediate Egret , Little Egret and Cattle Egret. Although we have never observed Painted Snipe at this location, they were recorded breeding here in 1960 and 1961. Purple Swamphens. Black-necked Stork.
Continuing along the rail trail I soon add a Wedge-tailed Eagle , Spotted Dove , Striated Thornbills , Varied Sittellas , Eastern Spinebill and Grey Shrike-thrush. Two Australian Magpies had discovered a Wedge-tailed Eagle roosting at the top of a very tall tree. Wedge-tailed Eagle. Two Cattle Egrets with four cows!
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content