WA Zoologist

Bynoe's Gecko

2012-02-01T12:15:00.000+08:00

On a camping trip out to the vast Salmon Gum woodlands near Hyden, about 3 hours drive east of Perth, we came across a nice Bynoe's Gecko (Heteronotia binoei). This is a short video of this beautiful little gecko, she's a little sleepy, but still a wonderful reptile to look at. These geckos are very interesting from the fact that they don't need a male to breed, some populations are totally female! They have three set of chromosomes instead of the usual two and basically form clones of each other. Oh no, I'm starting to feel a bit redundant!

The Salmon Gum woodlands are part of the disappearing Great Western Woodlands, a fantastic ecological area in Western Australia and a very sad loss if they were to go. For more infomation about this interesting area, have a look at Great Western Woodlands site and the informative PDF.

West Coast Ctenotus

2012-01-30T09:29:00.000+08:00

This is a short video of a nice West Coast Ctenotus (Ctenotus fallens) I found at an old abandoned farm in Wandoo forest, east of Perth. These large skinks are found along the lower southern half of the west coast of Western Australia and moderately common around Perth, especially in low coastal vegetation on sand, but are also found in the Perth hills, especially near granite areas.

You can see a nice glint of sunlight in his eye, most of the time you just see a tail disappearing into the bushes with these fast agile skinks.

Lithuania - One from the archives

2012-01-25T08:28:00.000+08:00

In August 2008, we were in Lithuania for a cultural and birding holiday. My family came from Lithuania after the Second World War, so it had always been a desire of mine to see the 'old country', with the added bonus of some very good birding.

I've dug these pictures out from my archives, after requests from some members of my family to see them. I hope they and you enjoy them.

One of my favourite pictures, the Three Crosses at Three Crosses Hill above the capital Vilnius. Crosses have stood here since the 17th century, because of three monks who were crucified on this hill. The Soviets bulldozed the originals after WWII, the Lithuanian people have rebuilt them!

Liz at the Vilnius Museum.

One of the beautiful parks in Vilnius, Sereikiskiu Park..

The view of Vilnius from Three Crosses Hill.

The park near Three Crosses hill.

The Bernardine Church in Vilnius.

The church of St. Anne, made of 33 different types of red bricks. So fine a church, Napoleon wanted to take it back to Paris!

Another of my favourite photos, the beautiful Church of St. Catherine.

The Presidential Palace in Vilnius, used by Napoleon during his march on Moscow.

The main tourist street in Vilnius, Pilies Gatve (Castle Street).

One of the nicest hotels right in the centre of Vinius, The Narutis Hotel.

Cathedral Square with The Vilnius Cathedral (first started in 1387) and bell tower, looking more like a lighthouse. The square once had a moat that ran around the square's perimeter, so ships could sail to the cathedral door. The moat had walls and towers on the inner side, the bell tower is the only one left.

Inside the Cathedral.

Time for a 'small' beer. I did order a smaller beer, but the staff got it wrong, oh well no worries!

The Baltoji Voke fishponds, great birding area with over 200 species recorded, about 30 km from Vilnius. We saw Bitterns and large numbers of Spotted Redshanks here.

Great bird habitat, numerous ponds with old fish feed towers.

Some of the old feed towers are put to good use as bird viewing platforms.

Images of rural Lithuania.

Liz anf our birding guide on the hunt.

Lots of edible fungi in Lithuania, but this isn't one of them.

Beautiful Lithuanian forest.

Some of the wooden carving are fantastic. This one looks like Jesus has a tooth ache!

Birding out on the big bog.

Looking towards Poland.

Something really likes small pine cones, a squirrel or woodpecker?

Observation tower at the big bog.

Merkys River, Dzukija National Park.

Good walkways and hide.

The young Marsh Frogs are on the move.

Loads of them. How many are in this photo?

The old KGB Headquarters in Vilnius, now a museum.

A dark place with a dark history.

The padded room, you were put in a straight jacket and bashed, the padding helped deaden your screams!

Lots of small dark underground cells.

Another wonderful KGB room, you were made to stand naked in the darkness on that small plate. If you fell, you fell into the basin of freezing water, then were made to stand on the plate again, maybe for days!

I finished with this nice photo, which to me depicts the future of Lithuania and it's people, rebuilding all they have lost and looking forward to a brighter future.

I look forward to returning to Lithuania one day, to see more of the culture and my heritage, and to do some more wonderful birding. I can recommend to anyone looking for a interesting country to go birding or just looking around, go to Lithuania.

Spotted Pardalotes

2012-01-22T14:05:00.000+08:00

While at our room at Mountain Valley in Loongana, a pair of Spotted Pardalotes had decided to nest in a small sandy bank, under a tree near the front door. Most of the time we were there, the light was terrible or the pardalotes weren't playing the game, but I did manage to get a couple decent shots of these beautiful little guys.

With beaks full of tiny insects, it's feeding time for the babies.

Tasmania - Loongana and Richmond

2012-01-20T16:09:00.000+08:00

It's been a busy two weeks in Perth, but I finally have found the time to post the last part of our Tasmanian birding holiday.

After Strahan, we journeyed to the famous Cradle Mountain area, one because we had never seen Cradle Mountain, secondly we still needed those Tasmanian endemic Scrubtits. We had been told that the camping area was the place to look. Near the camping area, this endemic Black Currawong gave us great views.

Fantastic! The camping area paid off, we now had Scrubtit on our bird list! Now we could enjoy some of the area's walking trails, such as the waterfall trail.

The great walkway to Dove Lake.

The morning had been cold and wet, but by lunch the clouds were clearing.

Some wonderful buttongrass areas and maybe Ground Parrots?

Time ran out and we had to head to our stop for the next two nights, Mountain Valley, a private nature reserve at Loongana. A shy Rufous-bellied Pademelon greets us at the gate.

Mountain Valley is a great place for Tasmanian wildlife. The endemic Tasmanian Native Hens were common on the property.

At night Tasmanian Devils come out to fight and feed on meaty titbits. We saw and heard a number of devils, but missed out on the Spot-tailed Quolls that I wanted to see. Oh well, maybe next time.

These guys are in big trouble in Tasmania, due to a facial cancer that is spread through contact, especially by bodily fluids such as saliva. For more information about this strange cancer see Devil facial tumour disease and Save the Tasmanian Devil.

A warm sunny morning greeted us for our walk towards Black Bluff.

The birding was quite good on the walk up, with our once elusive Scrubtits now appearing on a regular basis, often within a couple metres of us. Such is birding!

We ran out of time to reach the top of Black Bluff, but the views and birding had been wonderful.

Tired, we returned back down to the river near Mountain Valley.

It had been a long hot steep walk up and down, now time for some cold beers.

Next day, it was time to head towards Sorrell, via the lovely little town of Wilmot with the original home and store of G. J. Coles, the founder of the mega big Coles supermarket chain.

A visit to an unexpected good birding area at the strangely named town of Oatlands, provided us with extra birds for our holiday birdlist. The wetlands provided 3 species of cormorants, Great, Little Pied and Little Black.

A beautiful morning at the historic town of Richmond with the oldest bridge still in use in Australia.

The beautiful little church at Richmond.

And it's colourful graveyard.

Old gravestones.

A postcard shot of Richmond.

A beautiful English-looking town.

Ok, how old are we?

The lookout at Wineglass Bay in the Freycinet National Park.

Besides the fantastic scenery, our mission was to try and see Spotted Quail-Thrush.

The scenery was great, but we dipped on the Quail-Thrush.

The steep walk down to Wineglass Bay beach and back was good exercise!

Our last little fauna surprise for the holiday, was this friendly White's Skink (Liopholis whitii) on the walk up from Wineglass Bay. A new reptile species for us.

So ended a wonderful birding holiday in Tasmania, which got us all 12 Tasmanian endemics and a total birdlist of 96 species.

Tasmania - Melaleuca & Strahan

2012-01-10T15:12:00.004+08:00

We were looking forward to our landing at Melaleuca - main mission, to see Orange-bellied Parrot. Notice I didn't say our flight, as both Liz and myself hate flying in small hot 'buzz boxes', especially after a flight many years ago where the guy in front was throwing up for the whole two hour flight!

Our plane to Melaleuca - us, and about eight keen hikers heading there to start the 5 day overland walk back towards Hobart.

Co-pilot Liz, smiling but probably not too happy to be in a small hot plane.

Me, yeah, I can see myself as a pilot. Captain Richard

We have landed and I'm keen to start looking for the Orange-bellied Parrot (OBP).

Due to forecasted afternoon thunderstorms back in Hobart our full day trip has been cut to a half day, leaving us only about 2 hour to find the OBPs.

Our target.

A scope in a must for birders at Melaleuca, as the OBPs are best seen in trees, often a fair way off across swampy sensitive heath.

A volunteer kindly takes us to the new hide (basically a small tent) with the new feeder table. After an hour, no luck, but we do see the Beautiful Firetails feeding.

Looks like a good area for Ground Parrot and Striated Fieldwren, but we are so low on time and still no OBPs. We did have excellent close views of a Fieldwren, right at the airstrip just before leaving.

The old hide, not in use now due to Starlings and Currawongs (and some selfish photographers) disturbing the OBPs at the feeding table.

Sadly leaving Melaleuca, but also very happy we saw a Orange-bellied Parrot just before the flight, mainly thanks again to the volunteers there. As this beautiful parrot appears to be heading towards extinction shortly if nothing is done, please support the project to save it at Save the Orange-bellied Parrot on facebook.

The hour long flight back to Hobart has some stunning scenery.

This is one of my favourite photos from the holiday - commercial Atlantic Salmon fisheries. The big Salmon burgers in Tasmania are fantastic!

Next day we headed towards Strahan, with a quick stop at Mount Field National Park to look for Scrubtits. Again no luck, but we did stop at the lovely little mountain town of Westerway.

A less lovely town was Queenstown, an old mining town where years of toxic chemicals falling on the hills have destroyed most of the vegetation. The small river running through the centre of the town was bright orange, the river rocks also covered with an orange paste!

Once forest, now the top soil has blown away and it's mostly just rock. A clean up and revegetation project is in place, so hopefully there's a bright future for Queenstown, but it's going to be hard work for many decades.

The afternoon storms gather over Queenstown, but we are heading west towards Strahan.

Strahan turns out to be a beautiful little coastal town and the stormy morning finds us wandering around the wet swampy heath looking for Ground Parrots. A beam of light appears, is that where they are? After a couple soggy hours, we finally get good views of 2 pairs of Ground Parrots flying close to us.

Hogarth Falls near the People's Park at Strahan. Still looking for Scrubtit.

This is my favourite photo of the holidays, the docks at Strahan. Wonderful soft morning light just moments before it disappeared and the heavens opened up.

Now it was time to head towards Cradle Mountain, an area a visiting birder said he saw Scrubtits, those damned elusive little Scrubtits.

Tasmania - Bruny Island

2012-01-09T08:33:00.001+08:00

Christmas in Perth is normally very hot, well not this year, it's actually very mild, but we had planned our 2 week holiday in lovely cool Tasmania months before, plus we needed to have the 12 endemic birds there on our Australian birdlist.

First main stop, Bruny Island, were you can get all 12 endemics if you're lucky.

The scenery on Bruny is wonderful.

A resident Red-necked or Bennett's Wallaby poses for a photo.

Slightly cold and wet after morning showers....

but the sun's soon out and it's warming up.

Still cold enough to force Liz to wear gloves. We got 11 of the 12 endemics fairly quickly, but Scrubtit has avoided our searching eyes. No Scrubtits on this wet mountain trail, but plenty of hungry leeches!

The scenery at the wonderfully named Adventure Bay.

The long climb to the lookout at the Little (Fairy) Penguin and Short-tailed Shearwater viewing area.

A long wait for dusk, as with daylight saving it doesn't get dark until well after 9 pm.

The wind's getting a little cold now.

A new bird for our Australian list, Short-tailed Shearwater.

Inala Cabin, fantastic place to stay especially if you're a birder. The much sought after Forty-spotted Pardalotes just outside the bedroom windows!

A skink rescued from inside the cabin, but I'm not sure which genus or species it is, as at least three skink genus in Tasmania are very similar. I didn't bring my microscope for counting body scales!

The coastal scenery around Bruny Island Lighthouse is fantastic.

Another Tasmanian endemic, Green Rosella (looks more yellow!).

A Pacific Gull, very similar to the Kelp Gulls we were looking for. Adventure Bay turned out to be a good spot for the Kelp's.

Pied Oystercatchers were common on the sandy beaches.

A mystery wader. We think it's a young Hooded Plover.

One of the must-do things on Bruny is to go on the coastal Adventure Bay Cruises, rated one of the best 100 boat trips in the world.

The skipper shot the high-speed boat through the gap between the cliff and the stack, with only a couple feet to spare either side!

After 2 hours of coastal scenery we reach the end of the trip at an isolated Fur Seal colony. The wind has picked up and sea's getting rough, so it's time to head back to Adventure Bay.

One last look for those elusive Scrubtits in this beautiful creek near Adventure Bay, but no luck. It's time to leave Bruny Island and try at some other spots on the mainland near Hobart.

Scarlet Robin Fledglings

2011-12-15T08:42:00.000+08:00

It's December and the start of summer in Perth, Western Australia. The last of spring's Scarlet Robin nestlings have fledged and the parents are busy finding enough food.

This is a video I took of some fledglings in the Wandoo woodlands to the east of Perth.

Australian Spotted Crakes

2011-12-12T07:31:00.001+08:00

Heavy late spring rains in Perth have kept the water levels in the local lakes up and have created excellent crake habitats. Thomsons Lake, normally with only a large patch of water in the middle and dry reedbeds all around, has about 2 inches of water throughout most of the reeds, a perfect crake environment. After reading the numerous birder emails going backwards and forwards about 'Crake Heaven' at Thomsons, it was time to visit the lake myself!

It's certainly is 'crake heaven' at the moment! I have never seen so many Australian Spotted Crakes in one area before, maybe a dozen or more. Normally you can see or hear the dark Spotless Crakes at Thomsons Lake fairly easily, but this time we only managed to see one, the area has been taken over by the Spotteds!

This area is usually dry mud and reeds by now, but it's looking pretty good this year.

The Spotted Crakes were not too concerned about us and approached unusally close, more interested in catching the small invertebrates on and under the water.

The south-east section of Thomsons Lake in probably the most ideal crake habitat at the moment.

The beautiful little Baillon's Crakes were also making an appearance, but in lower numbers. These little guys are my favourite crake species I think!

It was a wonderful morning spent watching all 3 local crake species at the one spot, normally quite a challenge.

The weather forecast looks windy and a little stormy for this week in Perth, but if there's a chance, it may be time to drag the big video camera there and try to get some crake footage!

Western Glossy Swamp Skink

2011-12-08T13:35:00.001+08:00

The name of this skink is a bit of a mouthful, a generally shy, secretive and fast-moving skink, it will be gone before you call out it's name! The Western Glossy Swamp Skink (Lissolepis luctuosa) until recently (2008) belonged to the genus Egernia, but now belongs Lissolepis which is represented in Australia by 2 species. These semi-aquatic skinks are related to the similar Egernia skinks, but are solitary and very shy.

Around Lake Seppings at Albany, where this photo was taken, they tend to be more easily seen, especially when sunning themselves in the open sunny patches on the lake's edge. They may be more use to seeing people here, but they still don't stray far from thick vegetaion and if you come too close, they're gone at lightening speed into the reeds, even diving into the water.

Perth is about the northern limit of their distribution, but they are more commonly found at the swamps, lakes and creeks along the south coast as far as Cheynes Beach, east of Albany. Around Perth the Swamp Skink is disappearing, mainly due to urban development and wetland habitat destruction.

The Glossy Swamp Skinks are sometimes confused with the larger King Skinks (Egernia kingii), which also occur in these southern coastal areas. As the name suggests, the Glossy Swamp Skinks are more glossy, have a different pattern and only grow to 34 cm.
The other Lissopelis skink, the Swamp Skink (Lissopelis coventryi) is found only along the southern edge of Victoria. These two skink species populations were probably once connected, but are now separated by almost 2000 kilometres, due to the drier climatic conditions and environment in southern Australia.

I'm looking forward to my next trip to Albany and seeing these beautiful skinks again, and hopefully getting some good video!

Down to Albany

2011-12-07T11:04:00.001+08:00

It's the start of Perth's long hot summer, but you wouldn't know it yesterday, as there were huge thunderstorms and heavy rain all day long! Perth seemed to have thunder and lightening all day, even the airports were closed.

It's the quiet time of year for my fauna work, so we decided that a few days in Albany on the south coast would be a nice break, wonderful scenery and cool weather, what more can you ask for! Another reason for heading to Albany was to see if it could be a good place for a future home, as Perth is only getting drier and hotter as the years go by, and the future doesn't look too bright with a rapidly increasing population and shortages of water and power.

One of the many beautiful old buildings in Albany, the Church of Saint John (1841), the oldest consecrated church in Western Australia.

The Rectory next to the church, built in 1850. Looks like a place that might have a few ghosts?

The old gun emplacements along King Geogre Sound, built to defend Albany during the war.

The scenic walk from the town to Emu Point.

The old Lighthouse Keeper's Home.

The coastal heathlands provide great habitat for many of the southwest honeyeaters.

Beautiful swimming areas near Emu Point.

The calm waters of Oyster Harbour at Emu Point.

Big eucalpyts line Emu Point.

The circular walk around Lake Seppings is an excellent place to see local birds and wildlife, including Western Glossy Swamp Skinks, a reptile species that I hadn't seen before and is becoming rare around the lakes near Perth. I'll have some info about them in the next blog post.

Many of the local birds at this time of year are moulting or are young birds, here a scruffy-looking Grey Fantail appeared to wish us goodbye.

Istanbul - The Birding Tour

2011-11-09T10:55:00.000+08:00

It was time for our long-awaited Istanbul & the Bosphorus Migration birding tour with Naturetrek. The history part of the holiday was on hold, now it was time for some proper birding. We met the group of 11 keen birders, including our local guide Kerem Ali Boyla, excellent guide, nice guy and a great birder that we can recommend for an birding in Turkey.

The next day we were up in the Büyük Çamlıca, a great raptor watching hill that overlooks Istanbul. Groups of Levant Sparrowhawks were the only things moving through that area in the morning.

It's a popular spot with Istanbul locals, so birding there on a Sunday morning can be interesting.

The migration may have been occurring in another area, so we headed towards the Black Sea and decide to bird at Lake Terkos. A wonderful birding location with Pygmy Cormorants, Little Egrets, Marsh Harrier, Redstart, Reed Bunting, Golden Oriole, Squacco Heron, Snipe, and even a Grass Snake.

Next stop, a fish lunch at Riva on the Black Sea, and view of Red-backed Shrikes, a Hoopoe, Green Sandpiper, Kingfisher, Short-toed Eagle, Red-rumped Swallows and a migrating flock of 50 Common Cranes.

More Black Sea birding.

I had to go and feel the waters of the famous Black Sea.

It was time to head to Bursa the next day, so another wonderful ferry from Eskihisar to Topçular, beautiful trip. Good birding along the way as well, Honey Buzzard, Short-toed Eagle, Bee-eaters, Kingfisher, Mediterranean Gulls and Baltic Gulls.

We arrive in Bursa.

The view from the rooftop restaurant at our hotel, the nice Burcman Hotel in the centre of Bursa. Time for a quick wash at the hotel, then it's off to explore Bursa with our guide Kerem.

The inside of Bursa's Great Mosque.

The Green Tomb of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I, built in 1421.

Wonderful artworks, mostly of blue-green tiles cover the tomb.

The next day found the group birding on Mount Uludağ. The mountain has a number of vegetation zones with their different birds. Here we are in the Black Pine forest zone, having just seen 3 Kruper’s Nuthatches (new and must-see bird for Liz and me). We are very happy!

Kruper's Nuthatch.

The ski resort near the summit at 2500 metres.

A beautiful day for watching Water Pipits, Black Redstarts, Willow Warblers and Stonechats.

We hunt for our main target bird in this area, Red-fronted Serin.

The Serin hunt went on, but alas we ran out of time.

The following day, a journey to Lake Ulubat and the village of Gölyazı. The area had some wonderful birds such as Marsh Harriers, Squacco Herons, Pygmy Cormorants, Bee-eaters, Water Rails, Ferruginous Ducks, Lesser Grey Shrike and 3 Little Bitterns!

Interesting rustic buildings in the village, including some ancient Roman baths (that were closed, damn it).

We were back in Istanbul and time for the history part of the Naturetrek tour. It was good to see the obelisk at the Hippodrome on a sunny day.

Something I had not noticed on the obelisk base last time, a carving of how the obelisk was moved there.

A visit to the grand Tokapi Palace, the main residence of Ottoman Sultans for nearly 400 years.

A newer and different style ceiling artwork, compared to the other buildings we had seen in Istanbul.

The Sultan's widow must have been small!

While standing here, we saw an amazing flock of 250+ migrating Levant Sparrowhawks.

After Tokapi, the rest of the group went on to explore the Basilica Cisterns, but seeing Liz and I had already seen those, we explored other areas of Istanbul, such as the nice coffee shops!

Time to catch the ferry back to our Hotel Harem. It had been a long but enjoyable day.

The last morning before the group flew out, we decided to go back to a good migration birding spot we had visited some days before, the hill of Toygar Tepesi. By lunchtime we had seen 319 Lesser Spotted Eagles, 50 Short-toed Eagles, 19 Booted Eagles, with double-figure counts of Steppe Buzzard and Levant Sparrowhawk, two Black Storks and to cap it all a sub-adult Steppe Eagle.

At the end of the 8 day tour, we had logged 122 bird species. We are looking forward to our next Naturetrek tour, probably in Peru.

After another couple days in Istanbul by ourselves, it was time to head back home via Dubai. We had a fantastic birding holiday, seen lots of history, visited family. On the flight home we were already planning our next trip, yep, maybe it's time to head towards South America!

Istanbul - Chora and Galata

2011-11-07T11:52:00.000+08:00

The birding tour was almost upon us, but there was still time to see a few more of the ancient places of Istanbul. Chora and Galata were sites I hadn't thought about visiting, but I'm so glad we did, even though the day turned into quite an adventure.

The remains of the great Palace of the Porphyrogenitus.

Our walk began near the Golden Horn in the Western Districts of Istanbul. A word of warning, don't fall for the dropped brush by a shoe-cleaner trick, we did. It's in the big Loney Planet guide to Turkey, but not in our smaller Istanbul guide. A shoe-cleaner guy walks by and drops his brush, offers a shoe clean for picking up his brush, then bingo, tries to charge you a huge amount for cleaning you shoes! We didn't give him much in the end, but it was an unpleasant start to the day.

The palace complex was built in the 13th century, now theres a lovely little park at the base for the local residents.

The wonderful Byzantine palace after the 1453 conquest was used to house wild animals, a brothel and as a poor house for the Jews.

Amazing brickwork, as in many Byzantine buildings.

The Theodosian Walls, with restoration work. The walls are vertical and very high as you can see, something I would dread shortly!

The old and the new. I like this photo of a modern children's play area set in walls built around 400 AD.

This is where my dread of the walls really began. As I have become older, I now have a fear of heights. To get on top of the walls (which we wanted to do) there are steps, very steep narrow ones, with no rails. You can see them past the trees, they look like a vertical section of the wall.

I'm smiling, but I'm not too happy, I have to get down yet.

Liz has no problem, but either side it's a 4 storey sheer drop onto the road below.

Great view of Istanbul, but 'Stay away from that edge!'

These are the steep crumbling steps. Beyond that edge you can see, the steps are narrow, short and at about an angle of 70 degrees. It was worse going down, but I didn't die, so it was a good day!

'Get out, I'm not doing that!' The next section of the walls was higher and even steeper with smaller steps!

We went to Chora Church instead.

The amazing Chora Church, tucked away in the back streets of Istanbul.

A fantastic looking brick church built in the 5th century.

For a small church, the amount of wonderful mosaics and paintings is staggering.

'Reflection'. I like this photo of Liz at Chora.

Another of our destinations, The Galata Tower, across the Golden Horn in the crowded Istanbul suburb of Galata.

Narrow winding streets lead to the top of the hill and Galata Tower.

The beautiful and interesting Galata Tower.

It's 67 metres tall, has a shop, restaurant, observation deck and lots of stairs.

The bridge we had to cross to get to Galata from the main part of Istanbul, with the Aya Sofya, Blue Mosque in the background, and smaller New Mosque in the foreground.

Looking down the Golden Horn. Wonderful 360 degree views form the observation deck, which is almost 52 metres above the ground. I have no height worries if there's a good rail!

The Golden Horn entrance into the Bosphorus, looking towards the Sea of Marmara.

Our hotel somewhere on the other side of the Bosphorus and the Camlica Hills, where our birding tour would take us tomorrow.

Istanbul - Aya Sofya

2011-11-05T16:55:00.000+08:00

If you go to Istanbul and have to only see one site, it is without doubt Aya Sofya (also known as Hagia Sophia in Greek). This was my main ancient site that I wanted to see in the whole of Turkey.

This is a wonderful view of Aya Sofya along the tree-lined road from the Hippodrome. The tourist queue to get into Aya Sofya can sometimes stretch to almost this point, it's very popular!

The size of the building and amount of bricks used to build Aya Sofya is staggering. An interesting note, there has been a church here since the year 360 AD.

Once in, you enter the first hallway, which is massive in itself....

You then enter the main dome area dwarfs everything.

The dome is an amazing 55.6 metres (182 ft) above the floor.

Constantinople fell to the muslims, Sultan Mehmed, in 1453. Aya Sofya was then converted from a church to a mosque. Today it's a fantastic museum.

The Sultan could attend prayers in his lace box, without being seen by the public.

The apse mosaic of the virgin mother and child.

Lots of wonderful stained glass windows.

The main dome has fantastic artwork, a lot of it restored.

The central muslim artwork.

Strange looking angels at the corner points.

The tomb of Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice, who in 1204 diverted the crusaders to attack Constantinople, a fellow Christian city, purely for greed. A disgraceful event, but tradition says that after the conquest of the city by muslims in 1453, his tomb was opened end his bones were thrown to the dogs!

The Omphalion, inlaid marble where Byzantine emperors sat on their throne, while being crowned.

Ancient Christian symbols on the ceiling, showing through the over laid muslim designs.

Marble that looks like some Aboriginal design. Many relics and artworks were stolen by the crusaders in 1204 and others removed after the 1453 conquest.

Hallways surround the main dome area.

Some wonderful light streaming onto an interesting (modern looking) design.

The ramp entrance lead to the upper level, it becomes quite narrow and claustrophobic, as it twists it's way up.

The view from the upper level is wonderful.

The upper level hallway.

The large green medallions with the names of God, Mohammed and the early calipahs, were erected in the 19th century.

The chandeliers look great.

People are dwarfed by the size of the church.

Tourists admiring the famous Deesis Mosaic (The Last Judgement).

Jesus in the centre, Mary on the left and John the baptist on the right.

The remains of a truly fantastic mosaic from the 14th century.

Beautiful colours, similar to the ones in our house.

The view through the upper floor widows looks pretty good too.

Originally the church would have had oil lamps, but the chandeliers were Ottoman additions.

Amongst the fine carvings and artwork, a lone pigeon sits!

The Emperor Comnenus and Empress Eirene mosaic.

The Empress Zoe mosaic. The funny story here is that, she outlived most of her husbands and had a new face put on the mosaic every time one died and she married a new one, well except for the last one who outlived her.

Multiple beautifully coloured arches.

Solid doors, but these were no match for the muslim conquest in 1453.

'In 1453 Sultan Mehmed laid siege to Constantinople, driven in part by a desire to convert the city to Islam. The Sultan promised his troops three days of unbridled pillage if the city fell, after which he would claim its contents himself. The Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage, becoming its focal point as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures of the city. Shortly after the city’s defenses collapsed, pillagers made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors. Throughout the siege the Holy Liturgy and Prayer of the Hours were performed at the Hagia Sophia, and the church formed a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city’s defense. Trapped in the church, congregants and refugees became booty to be divided amongst the invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, and occupants enslaved or slaughtered; a few of the elderly and infirm were killed, and the remainder chained. Priests continued to perform Christian rites until stopped by the invaders.When the Sultan and his cohort entered the church he insisted it should be at once transformed into a mosque.'

The fountain for ritual washing before entering the mosque.

An interesting piece of artwork outside, that looks more South American.

It's been a long day and I'm tired and need a strong Turkish coffee to keep me going.

We had a rooftop dinner to end the day. I love this photo, as in the glass reflection you can see the outline of Aya Sofya, where we had a day I shall always remember.

Istanbul - A Byzantine Walk

2011-11-04T12:09:00.000+08:00

We had two days before our birding tour began, so like all the bygone travellers of old to Instanbul, we had to try and see the main classical ancient sites. A big challenge as almost every corner has some wonderful historical relic.

We decided to start near the centre of old Istanbul and work our way outwards, but I also wanted to see the the legendary massive sea walls of Constantinople, so it was going to be quite a walk.

Supplies are of course needed for a long walk. There are lots of these sweet shops full of different types of Baklava and Turkish Delights.

Near the ferry docks and Spice Bazaar, looks old but it's called the New Mosque.

Our first must-see site, the Hippodrome. An ancient chariot racing arena built by Emperor Septimius Severus around 200 AD. You can see what's left of the amazing green Serpent Column in front of the obelisk.

The Obelisk of Thutmose III brought from Egypt in 390 AD by Emperor Theodosius. The obelisk is in fantastic condition, seeing it's 3500 years old!

It rests on this base with carvings of Emperor Theodosius and his court. This is the top most segment of the obelisk, as it was cut in 3 pieces before being brought to Constantinople.

The ancient Egyptian carving are in good condition.

What the Hippodrome may have looked like, from the website Byzantium 1200.

You can see an obelisk (there were 2, a Walled Obelisk and Thutmose's) and 3-headed serpent column.

Next stop, was the small but wonderful church of Little Hagia Sophia.

Beautiful restored artwork at this important Byzantine site.

Nicely carved doors with brass locks.

Beautiful inside as well.

Wonderful light.

You can buy almost anything in the huge bazaars of Istanbul.

The beautiful Aya Sofya dominates the area.

What remains of the beautiful Palace of Bucoleon in the city sea walls, built around the 5th century. This was a Byzantine site I wanted to visit, again after having read Norwich's history books.

A disgraceful event occurred at Constantinople in 1204, with crusaders heading to the middle east, instead attacking and sacking the city of their fellow Christians. An interesting piece of history about this site states;

In the 1204 sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, Bucoleon was taken by Boniface of Montferrat who: "rode all along the shore to the palace of Bucoleon, and when he arrived there it surrendered, on condition that the lives of all therein should be spared. At Bucoleon were found the larger number of the great ladies who had fled to the castle, for there were found the sister of the King of France, who had been empress, and the sister of the King of Hungary, who had also been empress, and other ladies very many. Of the treasure that was found in that palace I cannot well speak, for there was so much that it was beyond end or counting." (Villehardouin)

For a 360 degree look at the remains of the palace click here.

How the palace may have looked, from the website Byzantium 1200.

Two lions guarded the seaward doorway.

One of the lions, now at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Some people have their homes in the old city walls, many of the older homes are now deserted.

Narrow roads allow residents to get through the old city walls.

A lot of the homes in old Istanbul were made of wood, which resulted in fires often destroying large portions of the city, when fire-fighting was almost non-existent. It's good to see that many resident are now restoring the old wooden homes, some to become tourist hotels.

The orignal train station in Istanbul for the famous Orient Express. I had to take a picture here!

One of the most amazing sites below Istanbul is the Basilica Cistern. It can hold 80 000 cubic metres of water and has 336 marble columns, 9 metres high!

Amazing brick work on the ceiling to support the city above.

A surreal place with big Carp swimming in the dark underground waters.

Dark and quiet (well first thing in the morning before loads of tourists arrive).

No this photo isn't upside down. It's one of the 2 famous Gorgon heads on the base of 2 columns in the cistern.

This one is sideways.

No one is really sure why they are here, as the other columns don't have anything like this.

Some columns do have interesting carvings.

The cistern was a place I didn't know about, but turned out to be one of the most interesting sites in Istanbul (or under it).

Istanbul - The Blue Mosque

2011-11-03T14:16:00.000+08:00

The next few posts cover the last segment of our recent European holiday, a history and birding visit to Turkey, especially Istanbul. I had long wanted to go to Istanbul, or Constantinople as it used to be called. I have read most of the history books by John Julius Norwich, the history of 'Byzantium' trilogy were one of my favourites. I think if I had been born in a different part of the world, I may have studied to become an Archaeologist (of ancient history), my other passion after birds and natural history.

A sunset view of Istanbul from the Asian side.

We didn't see much of Istanbul (except cars) the first afternoon, as in a city of almost 18 million people, traffic is usually bad, and our taxi ride from the airport to our hotel on the Asian side took over 2 hours.

The excellent view from our hotel room at the Hotel Harem. The cars are already queuing early in the morning to get onto the ferries bound for the centre of old Istanbul. The hotel was also great for viewing distant groups of Yelkouan Shearwaters (a new species for us) as they travelled up and down the Bosphorus.

The ferries are a wonderful and cheap form of travel in Istanbul.

A good way to watch birds as well. Shags, Cormorants and Yellow-legged Gulls.

I love the ancient romantic names in Istanbul. Here we are in the middle of the 'Bosphorus' looking towards the 'Black Sea', behind me is the 'Sea of Marmara' and to the left is the 'Golden Horn'.

The Galata side of Istanbul with the Galata Tower. It's on this side where most of the big cruise ships and expensive big yachts dock.

Other ferries that travel to different locations on the Bosphorus don't carry cars, but are for passengers only.

Our first view of one of the great Istanbul sights I wanted to see, the Blue Mosque.

Walk to the other side of the fountain, and you have the even more famous Aya Sofya. A place I wanted to see for a very long time after reading Norwich's books!

The Blue Mosque is a fantastic ancient building, built in the early 1600's and still an operating mosque.

The domes of the Blue mosque were designed to lead your eyes upwards to heaven.

The great central courtyard, usually full of tourists and devout muslims.

Stunning outside, domes upon domes.

Even more stunning inside.

Designed with lots of stained glass windows and four giant 'elephant's feet' pillars that hold up the main dome.

The pillars are massive and the ceiling artwork is amazing.

Into The Great Victoria Desert

2011-10-27T15:42:00.000+08:00

Normally our birding holidays take time and have a lot of planning, but having read a recent report about sightings of rare Princess and Scarlet-chested Parrots at Neale Junction in the Great Victoria Desert, we headed off within a couple days notice. It turned into an exciting 5 day, 2600 km journey.

We must have picked the worst week weather wise to go, as many outback areas had record rains. Most of the pictures on the post were taken during sunny spells that don't show the huge thunderstorms that usually built up during the afternoons, dumping vast amounts of rain.

When we first arrived in Laverton after our 950 km, 10 hour trip from Perth, there was a massive thunderstorm that seemed to circle the town, with a spectacular lightning show and pouring rain that flooded the area. We wondered if our parrot quest was going to be very short indeed, as the local people warned us about heading out into the desert, as most of the roads will probably be closed due to flooding if the rains continue!

The next morning dawned to mostly blue skies, so we took the chance and headed out along the Great Central Road towards the Great Victoria Desert. Even after all the rain, the road was very good, but how would the Point Sunday Road be? We needed to get to at least Point Sunday Camp for the night.

Princess Parrot

Scarlet-chested Parrot

Our 2 main target species, the Princess Parrot and Scarlet-chested Parrot.

The good rains this year had made many of the desert plants flower, such as these Desert Greilleas, which brought in big numbers of White-fronted and Grey-fronted Honeyeaters. By the end of the trip we had 13 honeyeater species!

A good birding spot called 'The Pines', about 120 km east of Laverton along the Great Central Road. This area alone had trees filled with hundreds of beautiful Budgerigars, probably 2000+ birds, and big numbers of Cockatiel as well.

A male Central Military Dragon (Ctenophorus isolepis), these guys were common in all sandy locations. Another reptile that was also common in the area, were Lozenge-marked Dragons (Ctenophorus scutulatus).

The Point Sunday Camp, wonderful location to set up camp and a place where Princess Parrots had also been seen recently. The Point Sunday Road had turned out to be quite smooth and mostly dry, even after all the recent rain.

One of the weird looking plants near the camp, a Caustic Vine, a species of Sarcostemma.

It's great fun sleeping in our swags, they are mostly rainproof, but it did rain during the night causing us to pack up a wet camp the next day.

Our quick-to-pack-away camp setup. Most of the evenings were lovely, but you could often see the lightning and thunderstorms on the horizon.

Some of the mornings were not so nice, with rain and a cold wind.

Due to the weather, we decided not to risk getting bogged (maybe for days) by going all the way out to Neale Junction, but decided to only go as far as Yeo Homestead along the Anne Beadell Highway. Yes, this is a good section of what is called the Anne Beadell Highway. There was a good birding area, along the 'highway' at Stoney Point.

The Homestead, another good birding area and a great place to camp. We read the visitors book, which stated that probably no one had been there for over 10 days. Not many people had visited this remote area lately.

Lots of interesting local information on the history and wildlife.

We only had time for a some quick birding and lunch, as the skies grew very dark with lots of rain clouds. We decided to return to the Point Sunday Camp for the last night, as the section of the Anne Beadell Highway we had travelled, was often very muddy and low-lying, and could become flooded very quickly if it rained hard.

The local shower.

The local well for your washing water needs.

But watch out for the snakes!

On the journey back out along Point Sunday Road, we came across this Thorny Devil (Moloch horridus).

A fantastic lizard that feeds on small ants.

Liz has a new friend.

We had not heard or sighted any Princess or Scarlet-chested Parrots during our journeys and thought that this trip was going to be fruitless, until we passed this spot (28⁰ 00’ 45.9’’ S 123⁰ 58’ 36.2” E).

17.5 km north of Point Sunday Camp on the Point Sunday Road, we saw a small parrot fly to some low trees.

We got to the trees expecting the parrot had flown off, but Liz sighted it sitting quietly on a branch. It was a female similar to the one in this pic (not mine), but had more blue on the face and more vibrant colours. We had finally seen one of our target birds!

We were very happy to say the least, travelling back towards Laverton. That was a difficult and beautiful parrot to see! Even the Point Sunday Road seemed more colourful.

Sections of the road had wonderful wildflowers, such as these beautiful Parakeelya (Calandrinia sp.).

On the way back to Perth, near Marvel Loch, different species of Grevilleas were in flower attracting more honeyeaters, such as Tawny-crowned, White-eared and Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters. We had wanted to try and find Gilbert's Whistler, but many of the roads were either closed or flooded.

A nice end to our trip was to see this beautiful Western Blue-tongue (Tiliqua occipitalis), near Southern Cross.

It was a great trip, it would have been better had it not rained, and we probably would have got out as far as Neale Junction. Oh well, it leaves somewhere else to explore, maybe next spring, and get those Princess Parrots out there!

Lots of driving, lots of storms, wind and rain, but we did manage to see 78 bird species at the end of it, and one fantastic desert parrot.

Opticron GS52 Scope

2011-10-20T08:54:00.001+08:00

Birders are sometimes crazy. We just read a report about a birder's visit last week to a remote area of Western Australia in the Great Victoria Desert, where he saw good numbers of Princess and Scarlet-chested Parrots. Now we are quickly packing the 4WD to head out there!

You have to understand why. These parrots are sort of the holy grails of birding in Australia, rare desert parrots that are usually very hard to get. After years of drought the desert at the moment has had good rains and the parrots have bred and are moving. This may not happen again for a long time. So it's pack and drive the 950 km to Laverton, then head out on basically two wheel ruts 250 km into the desert to Neale Junction. We shall see how it goes!

Anyway, this post is to provide a some information about the fantastic little scope I bought at the British Bird Fair, the Opticron GS 52.

The Opticron GS 52 GA ED

For most Australian birding we have our old Leica 77 Televid, which is a fantastic scope, but very heavy by modern standards and often a pain to carry overseas. We were looking for a small travelscope that we could take on overseas birding holiday and leave the Leica purely for Australian Birding.

The Leica 77 Televid

After looking at quite a few scopes at the bird fair and reading some reviews about the GS 52, the GS appeared to be the best scope for us. It doesn't have all the clarity and brightness of the big scopes such as Leica, Swarovski or Ziess, but it excellent within it's limitations. It's light and can fit in you coat pocket! A perfect scope that you just throw in your backpack or big pocket, just in case you want a closer view.

Funny looking, but a great scope

The protective cover for the GS 52 was also quite reasonably priced compared to the big scopes, such as Leica, where I ended up making my own cover for the 77 Televid from some left over canvas.

The GS 52 protective cover

So far we have been very happy with our little 'pocket rocket' as we now call it, but we shall see how it really goes on further overseas holidays. I must admit that I feel very happy when I see other birders loaded with gear and lugging the big scopes, while I have an excellent view still but with almost no major weight!

Here's some Opticron info about the scope, plus a link for further information.

Introduced in response to increasing demand for quality travel scopes, the GS 52 GA ED sets new standards for light transmission, resolution and colour contrast offering today's birdwatcher a practical and versatile alternative to larger heavier telescopes in situations where size and weight are an issue.

Fitted with full-size 24mm prisms from the larger GS, the models deliver optimum light transmission from the 52mm twin-element ED objective lens. Using the HDF T 12-36x eyepiece set between 12x and 18x, the instruments transmit exceptionally bright high contrast images with excellent depth of focus - perfect for hand held or tripod mounted observation between 100m and 200m. Unlike other telescopes of similar size, the GS 52 GA ED retains it’s performance up to 36x, delivering superior colour fidelity for longer range viewing, even in comparatively low light..

Images are not just brighter, they are sharper too. Fitted with the HR2, HDF T or SDL eyepieces, the GS 52 GA ED compares well with the standard GS 665 GA for resolution at magnifications up to 30x. Field of view is also enhanced with certain eyepieces; +30% against the smaller MM2 52 ED with the HDF T 13xWW, and +20% with the HDF T 18xWW.

At just 200mm long, the GS 52 GA ED is designated a Travelscope but features the centrally positioned twin focusing system from the full-size GS models to allow accurate focusing adjustment at higher magnification settings. For garden birdwatching and photography, close focus has been set at just 2.5m.

Fully rubber armoured and nitrogen gas filled for protection against the elements, the models are fitted with a lightweight magnesium tripod sleeve offering -/+ 90° each-way rotation for easier positioning when viewing from the confines of a hide or vehicle.

http://www.opticron.co.uk/Pages/gs52_scope.htm

British Birdwatching Fair

2011-10-19T09:59:00.000+08:00

Yep, it was that wonderful time of year for UK birders, the British Birdwatching Fair. Our holidays in the UK were centred around a 2 day visit to the bird fair at Rutland Water Nature Reserve in August. It first started in 1989 and we had gone once before some years ago for one day and found that just a day there really wasn't enough!

We had looked forward to this day for a long time and yes, we were on our way!

It was an early start and the crowds had arrived already making long lines at the shuttle bus from the train station to the fair and at the entrance, but we were in.

Just like my wife Liz, 'Small but perfectly formed'. Had to take this picture!

We were lucky most of the 2 days, with sunny weather for the fair.

Lots of birders enjoying the birds at the big bird hide, which is part of the visitor centre at Rutland.

A good birding area at one of the other hides at Rutland Water, where we saw Hobbies and Marsh Harriers skimming the reeds.

Over 9 big marquees and numerous outdoor displays, with everything a birder could want.

Due to our travels to Borneo and lots of Asia, the Oriental Bird Club stand was of special interest.

If only pittas were this close and easy to see! Can anyone name the 2 pittas on the hat?

One of the huge marquees, with a Bill Oddie picture. We did see the real Bill Oddie checking out scopes and I told Liz to run up and give him a big hug, but she wouldn't do it.

The displays just blow your mind away!

The marquees go on forever.

One of the optics marquees. 'Oh, what's this?'

'Ok, lets do a deal'. I ended up buying a small scope, the Opticron GS 52, the little 'pocket rocket' as we now call it.

The British Birdwatching Fair was fantastic and everything we expected. It was probably the birding highlight of our holiday. We just wish we could visit it every year!

Travels in the U.K.

2011-10-18T13:30:00.002+08:00

We were back in the cold weather of the UK again, after the hot humid conditions of Dubai. This holiday was the usual birding type of holiday that we often go on, but we also had to visit more of the family this time.

Arriving in Ellington in the northeast of England, our first morning's plan was to head down to Cresswell Pond. As you can see it's a little wet and misty, and of course cold!

The view from the hide at Cresswell Pond, lots of Dunlin, Redshank, Snipe and Lapwing.

It's good to be back at this great birding spot.

Some of the locals look a bit strange!

Soon we were travelling a bit further a field, such a Kielder.

Interesting countryside, but lots of biting small midges at Kielder.

An unexpected find was this beautiful bird hide hidden in the forest near Kielder Castle.

Very artistic with different shaped windows at various levels.

Bird feeders were almost at every window allowing good close views of birds, such as this Chaffinch.

Next day a trip to Hauxley north of Cresswell, but as you can see not many birds.

I like this surreal photo of a coastal church, south of Cresswell.

Liz dressed for the cold, at another good birding spot west of Newcastle, Bolam Lake.

We headed over to Manchester to visit Liz's brother with a visit to nearby a great bird reserve, Martin Mere.

The great bird hide at Martin Mere. Fantastic!

We even got a warm sunny afternoon to spend with Liz's brother and family.

It was off east to Lowerstoft to do some Noffolk/Suffolk birding. Thanks to Steve from Miri whose house we were able to use as a base.

It was a sunny, but very windy day during our visit to Hickling Broad, but a wonderful area.

A big bird area with lots of hides. Maybe a Short-eared Owl, that would be nice!

One of our main targets were Bearded Tit, there's a few somewhere in the reeds, but we couldn't get on to them. The broads are interesting places with lots of canals, often we would see big white boat sails that appeared to be travelling across the land.

No luck at Hickling with Bearded Tit or Cetti's Warbler, our other main target, so it was off to the great reserve of Minsmere. A Common (Viviparous) Lizard (Lacerta vivipara) enjoying a warm rail on a Minsmere boardwalk, watches us.

The Sizewell nuclear reactor is really close to Minsmere! Hope it's ok!

A still day.

The weather at Suffolk has been kind and Liz enjoys the afternoon sun in Steve's garden.

The Mute Swans may be common in the UK, but are always stunning.

Liz scanning the fields of Minsmere, lots of snipe and other waders in the wet fields.

An afternoon drink at the Blue Boar pub, toasting our success at getting some of our target species, Bearded Tit and Short-eared Owl.

We headed northwards birding and found Great Yarmouth.

A interesting coastal town with weird beach sheds.

Hmmmmmmmmm?

The Cley Marshes were more our style with the modern visitor centre.

The classic windmill that is the well known symbol of the Cley Marshes. A fantastic birding area, shame we didn't have more time here.

Typical pebble beach in the UK.

A good place to stay when birding in the Norfolk area is the Gate Lodge in Hunstanton.

Another of the great English bird reserves, Titchwell Marsh.

The old bird hide and the mega modern new hide at Titchwell.

Titchwell is one of the best birding place we have been to in England and it was here that we got our long awaited Cetti's Warbler.

The big new hide is fantastic with lots of bench space and big sliding windows.

A Spotted Redshank, one of the many nice birds at Titchwell.

The blackberries were sweet and ripe, attracting us for a feed as well as the birds!

The last great bird reserve we visited was Welney with it's long entrance walkway. The only trouble is as we found out, if you arrive before the visitor centre is open, you cant get into any of the reserve because the only way in or out is via the walkway which starts inside the centre.

The walkway is an amazing piece of work.

Welney reserve has this wonderful big heated hide, for long hours of watching the huge number of geese and swans that gather there during the cold winters.

A small break for birding with a day in the historic city of York.

York Cathedral.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm? Bile beans?

The weather was a bit stormy at first, but a walk along the ancient York city walls is a must.

So that's how they mow the grass along the steep city walls, a remote control lawnmower.

It's a long walk around the city walls.

One of my favourite photos of the holiday, the historic city of York.

It was then off to Wales to meet up with the rest of Liz's family. We even got a nice warm afternoon for drinks outside.

Almost time to leave the UK and fly to Turkey for some more birding and history. A few drinks with Liz's cousin in Bath before we leave.

One of the foods I have long wanted to try were Faggots. Not something you would say out loud in Australia!

Faggots are basically a big meatball made of liver and onions, usually served with some hot big green peas. Very nice indeed.

Birding in the UK was pretty good even with the rainy windy weather we usually had, with 7 new lifers (Bearded Tit, Marsh Tit, Cetti's Warbler, Grasshopper Warbler, Short-eared Owl, Stock Dove and Common Scoter) and a total of 127 species.

Dubai Birding

2011-10-12T15:06:00.000+08:00

After Malaysia, it was time to begin the main part of our holidays by stopping over at Dubai in United Arab Emirates, with one day on the way to the UK and back, devoted entirely to UAE birding. The temperatures were a humid 45+ Celsius and it was Ramadan (no food or water during daylight hours), but it was a place to get some good desert birding done.

The view of Dubai from our hotel room.

Dubai with the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa dominating the skyline.

Sensible people are in the pool, but birders start exploring the gardens for birds, such as the family of Grey Francolin we got in the gardens.

We organised a car with the hotel to take us birding the next day, expecting a small car with a driver. This big luxury car turned up with a nicely dressed driver to take us birding at a few of Dubai's swamps. Nice! I could get use to this, birding in style!

First stop for the morning was one of Dubai's best birding spots, the Pivot Fields.

Large wet grassed areas of the Pivot Fields that had large numbers of birds.

Good birding area. We got our targets which included White-tailed Lapwing, White-eared Bulbul, Southern Grey Shrike, Graceful Prinia and Purple Sunbird.

It was getting hot at the fields, so it was back in the luxury air-conditioned car and off to Al Warsan Lake, but due to massive development in the area we couldn't find a a way into the lake itself. Ras Al-Khor Wildlife Sanctuary was the next stop, another of Dubai's great birding locations with good hides.

The Dubai skyline from Ras Al-Khor. Burj Khalifa looks impressive, I must go to the top next time we are in Dubai.

The tide was out, but the birding was still good. Little Stint, Kentish Plover, Little Ringed Plover and Striated Heron.

Liz looking out of Flamingo hide. It's hot out there and only slightly cooler in the hide.

As the name of the hide suggests, yes there are Greater Flamingos out there.

The long hot hidden walkway to Flamingo hide.

In the cool of the afternoon, we went down to Dubai Creek and the creekside park with it's cable cars.

A beautiful park with some interesting buildings.

At Dubai Creek we got our target Socotra Cormorants and Sooty Gulls. Dubai Creek Park had the largest number of Hoopoe we have ever seen, 50+. It seemed like every tree had a pair!

On the return leg of our holidays we stopped in Dubai again, this time having booked a birding day with local birder/guide Tommy Pedersen. A great day with an excellent guide.

First early morning stop was at Green Mubazzarah, a watered area in the desert hills.

The bird highlights were Egyptian Vultures, Brown-necked Ravens, Turkestan Shrike, Desert Lark, Eastern Olivaceous and Upcher's Warbler.

One of the birds we very lucky to see in this arid rocky area were the elusive Sand Partridge.

Next stop, the mountain of Jebel Hafit (Haffet), a great place for Pale Crag Martins.

A good place to also see White-spectacled Bulbul, Blue Rock Thrush, Pied and Hume's Wheatear.

Time to head down the mountain to a parkland area (with Isabelline Wheatear), and then take the road to the coast to Khor Al-Beida. We missed the cool air of the mountain.

Not my picture, but our target species at the coast, a Crab Plover. We ended up seeing about 450 of these birds and agreed that this was probably our best bird of the holidays. A fantastic looking bird!

In Sarawak Again

2011-10-10T10:50:00.000+08:00

Continuing our Malaysian holiday adventures from the last post, we had engine problems on the aircraft which forced us to turn back to KL, from half way to Miri. It was a long half hour back with the engine making bad grating noises and my wife Liz looking very worried and not appreciating me saying a couple times, 'Boy, that doesn't sound good!". We found out later, people on the plane were making calls on their mobiles, basically saying goodbye to loved ones! But, all's well that ends well. We landed in KL and were back on a new plane heading to Miri within an hour.

We may be going down, but there's always time for a glass of fine wine. Only joking.

Great to be on the ground again and birding at Mulu.

Good birding along the river at Gunung Mulu National Park. Last time I was here, I saw a fruiting tree full of Asian Fairy-Bluebirds and Green Broadbills.

The new accommodation at Mulu is fantastic.

I'm very happy.

Nice modern rooms.

But no muddy boots inside!

Birding is serious hard work.

A great dinner back in Miri with our friends Musa and Sara.

A day's birding with Sara at Lambir Hills National Park. Sara dwarfed by the rainforest.

Wonderful location.

Hard to get these little people off your back sometimes.

Another beautiful Lambir rainforest stream.

Musa, an expert on Bornean fireflies, shows us one of his favourite locations near Miri.

A morning's birding at Taman Awam Miri (Miri Public Park).

The bridge and walkways are great locations to get eye-level views of birds.

One of the residents at the park is this Striped Bronzeback Tree Snake (Dendrelaphis caudolineatus).

Good friends birding, Jen, Liz and Steve.

So ended our first part of holidays with Jen, having seen 71 bird species in Sarawak (6 new for Liz, 3 for me). Liz and I still had 8 weeks of birding holidays in Dubai, the UK and Turkey to look forward to. Lots of mileage and lots of birds.