I was attending a conference in St Paul, Minnesota at the end of November 2018 and took the opportunity to head a couple of hours north the following weekend to do some early winter boreal birding. November 27th A morning walk along the Mississippi River in St Paul prior to the conference starting produced a few birds. The highlights were American Tree, Swamp and Song … Continue reading Minnesota, December 2018

A return to Gabrovo Province in central Bulgaria. I was interested to see how the birds seen this week compared with the same time last year. The most obvious difference on the approach to Sofia airport on Oct 6th was the lack of snow on the surrounding mountains, and the high teens temperature. The days were still, sunny and warm though early morning (dawn was … Continue reading Central Bulgaria, October 2018

We flew into Madrid airport from Edinburgh on June 30th and drove the 5 hours north to the house just north of Siresa near Hecho that we had rented for the week. The house itself was about 5km along a track up the in Val D’Espetal, the valley that runs parallel to and just to the west of the Echo (Hecho) Valley. We spent the … Continue reading Spanish Pyrenees, July 2018

A more relaxed day today, with a trip to the Secret Lagoon in Flúðir. The group of exceedingly confiding Ptarmigan in the horse paddock just beyond the pool was an additional bonus to the soak. It was then off to Geysir for the err….. geyser, and Selfoss for the waterfall. On the drive north through the quite extensive areas of agricultural land, flocks 30 and … Continue reading Iceland, March 24th 2018

A grand tour today, heading east all the way to Jökulsárlón to check out the glacier lagoon some four hours to the east. We briefly stopped on the road to take a look at Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that erupted in 2010 causing travel air travel chaos for several weeks. We then called in at Reynisfjara beach to admire the incredible black sand beach, Reynisdrangar offshore … Continue reading Iceland, March 23rd 2018

The bulk of the morning and late afternoon was spent pottering around Strandakirkja, with similar birds seen as yesterday but this time in excellent sunlight, making the Harlequin Ducks look even better. Early afternoon we headed out to the geothermal mud pools at Krýsuvík which we were appropriately impressed by (and the sulphurous fumes were great too). We then paid a brief visit to the … Continue reading Iceland, March 22nd 2018

We changed bases today, moving to a house SE of Reykjavik at Strandakirkja. It was snowing for much of the day and we saw very little in the way of wildlife on the drive. A brief stop along the way at the Írafossstöð hydroelectric station and a couple of other vantage points along the River Sog failed to turn up the hoped for (and I … Continue reading Iceland, March 21st 2018

A quiet day spent visiting the geothermal heated outdoor pool at Stykkishólmur, which was great. A wander down to the shore by the house at Hraunháls produced a large flock of Oystercatcher and what appeared to be Arctic Fox tracks. A return visit to Kolgrafarfjördur produced Black Guillemot (rather surprisingly the only one of the trip) and the drake King Eider once again, but no … Continue reading Iceland, March 20th 2018

The weather forecast was reasonable for the day, certainly in terms of less rain even if there was still a noticeably cold wind, and so we spent the day driving around the Snaefellsness peninsular. We had a lot of places to pack in and we therefore only stopped briefly at the points of interest. At Kolgrafarfjördur we saw very similar species to the day before, … Continue reading Iceland, March 19th 2018

The morning of the 18th was windy and grey with frequent rain. It was a case of putting on the waterproof (and windproof) gear and just getting on with it. A wander around the fields and shoreline close to the house at Hraunháls revealed 10-20 Red-breasted Merganser, 20 Wigeon, 50 Eider, and 10 Mallard, as well as 3 Cormorant, 6 Whooper Swan, 7 Greylag Goose, … Continue reading Iceland, March 18th 2018