A good walk spoiled?

With the weather looking good, possibly for the last day before Christmas, I took one of my remaining days off with the intention of a 20+ mile walk around the Cissbury and Chanctonbury Rings. 

My only concession to birding at Cissbury Ring was to walk at high speed around the perimeter checking the bushes for a Great Grey Shrike (there was one for a day a couple of weeks ago – surely long gone – but I’ve always fancied that there should be one up there one winter).  My plans were thrown into disarray when I actually found one.  It played the usual Shrike game of hide and seek , but ended up showing beautifully: what a shame I only had my compact camera, but it was meant to be a long walk.

The hour spent there meant that plans had to be changed, and the day turned into a shorter walk, returning to Cissbury in the afternoon, to meet up with Karen and my SLR.  The light was now awful and the bird utterly uncooperative, but it finally deigned to sit around for a couple of pictures.

(It ended up at 16.5 miles)

A short peregrination

I wasn’t up to much today, having just got back from a week working in Japan.

A short walk over to the reedbed just east of us failed to produce the hoped-for Jack Snipe, but 6 Snipes and a Woodcock were good, and this Peregrine flew into a pylon above us.

Madagascar Photos

The photos from my last few posts are now in one place in Madagascar 2019

There are more photos, and better quality and higher resolution copies of the ones posted here on my OneDrive.  It might be a bit slow: there’s a lot of big files there.

 

 

Maadagascar V

The last lot, this time from our trip up north to Ampijoroa.

A Coquerel’s Sifaka takes the low road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Madagascar IV

Nearly there.  This batch is from our stay in Perinet.

Indris, singing in the rain.

Madagascar III

Another batch, this time from the spiny forest and wetlands near Ifaty

Madagascar II

Another batch, this time from Anja park, where the Ring-tailed Lemurs were, Zombitse, an excellent reserve with Verreaux’s Sifakas and around Toliara with a boat trip to Nosy Ve.

Madagascar 1

A wretched day, with horrible weather and a major disappointment in the World Cup final.  Still, at least it gives me some time to get back to the photos.  This lot is from our first location at Ranomafana.  I’ll put them all and more in better quality and resolution on my OneDrive and put a link up when they’re done.

Dodging the showers

A day of dodging showers, with the rain eventually winning in the afternoon.  That didn’t stop us from seeing some amazing stuff though, particularly the superb Collared Nightjar and a chance to sing along with the Indris.  Possibly the most amazing thing was the Leaf-tailed Gecko.

Prickly Heat

Here’s a couple more photos from the Spiny Forest of Ifaty, a weird and wonderful (and hot) place.

Lots of superb birds and beasts, and an unexpected swimming lesson (when a former world record holder offers to improve your stroke you don’t refuse) has made it a real highlight of the trip.

We’ve now moved on and are at Perinet, where the WiFi is distinctly patchy.  The birds and beasts are not, though, more on that once if the uploads work.