Marku & Keijo both arrived today and they are first people to actually "twitch" the yellow Crowned Night Heron Successfully as they saw it just on 19:00hrs. Okay now back to today's news / posting.
Started the day off at Paul da Praia . Peter had to leave today so a quick browse and then coffee. Peter departed at 08.45 and I retuned back to in order to get some photos. The usual ducks were present today with the Great Blue Heron and the American Coot showed well enough to get some photos.
Whilst at the Paul da Praia the heavens opened and the rain came in with a driving north east wind that peaked at around 70KPH as per wind guru. During a dry spell I made my way to the harbour but another down pour made me retreat for a coffee and then a haircut. After the rain passed through I made my way to the quarry taking in the harbour/fishing port where the Slavonian Grebe was still present. On route to the quarry walking along the lava fields there was 2 Whimbrel but unbfortuantley neither of them were of the Hudsonian race.
Note the difference in bill colouration between each Whimbrel, I really hoped that one of them would be a Hudsonian but not this time.
Whilst scanning the rock pools of the lava fields I was pleased to finally catch up with a single Purple Sandpiper which was another new species for my Azores list and also a year tick.
After the lava fields I reached the quarry where I managed to get shelter from the persistent wind. The resident Semi Palmated Plover showed and the Lesser Yellow Legs just had to be photographed again.(photos below)
After leaving the quarry I returned back to the harbour/fishing port where I met with Marku & Keijo. We returned to Praia and had a coffee mid afternoon. They left for Angra and I got settled to do the pre roost gathering of Gulls. The wind really didn't help matters with sea state choppy to say the least. A good collection of 27 Ring Billed Gulls came in and out, the only Med Gull to be on the beach was the same colour ringed individual as yesterday with 2 others remaining on the water. Azorean Gulls came in to the beach today to see what all the fuss was about as I had attracted a lot of BHG's and 6 Common Gulls with the bread I had been throwing out. The 1st winter American Herring Gull was present again as it loafed on the water mid way between the beach and the harbour wall.
