White Storks

by Amy Posted on 12 December 2008

Earlier this week I mentioned a BirdLife story about mysterious White Stork deaths at the sewage works of Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. We visited those ponds and the sight of thousands of White Storks coming in from the mountains was remarkable. You’ll have to click on the below photo and view full size to see what I’m talking about.

Migrating Storks

White Storks were always one of our favorite birds to see when we lived in Europe. We saw a ton in Andalucia (Spain) last year. Here’s a nest with some chicks. It’s hard to tell but there are about 5 sparrows on the bottom half of the nest that also make their home in the huge structure.

Stork Nest

Be sure to check out Bird Photography Weekly to see all of this week’s submissions.

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Posted in Bird Photography Weekly | 4 Comments

Killer predatory mice threaten endangered Albatross

by Amy Posted on 11 December 2008

BirdLife is reporting that the U.K.’s Tristan Albatross population is being hit by predatory mice that were introduced to the island where they live. Gough Island is the only home of the Tristan Albatross as well as the Gough Bunting. Both species are hurting from the killer mice which prey on both species’ chicks. Read the whole article here.

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Posted in Aside, Endangered, Europe | Leave a comment

Mysterious Migratory Bird Deaths in Egypt

by Amy Posted on 8 December 2008

Today BirdLife International reported a large number of dead migratory birds found near the water treatment plant in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Locals found 27 Lesser Spotted Eagles and over 30 White Storks dead around the ponds.

We visited these ponds in October 2007. This area of the Sinai Peninsula is a major stopover spot for migratory birds, and during the fall thousands of White Storks pass through this part of Egypt during their journey south.

White Storks landing at Sharm el Sheikh sewage ponds.

We saw hundreds of storks flying towards the ponds from the mountains. As we walked around the ponds looking for other birds we noticed a lot of dead storks. Our Egyptian taxi driver, who accompanied us on our walk around the ponds (as ordered by the local police), was very interested in the dead storks and thought we should be, too. He made sure to point out each stork corpse to us so we wouldn’t miss seeing any. Nice. Anyway, it did seem like there were a lot of dead storks but we assumed they died of exhaustion from their long journey and did not consider anything was amiss. I don’t think we saw anywhere near 30 and we didn’t see any other dead species, either.

Read the whole BirdLife story here and check out Arthur’s Sharm sewage ponds mini-trip report here.

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Posted in Africa, Egypt, Migration | Leave a comment

Video: Little Grebe crashes into Muskrat underwater

by Amy Posted on 8 December 2008

This video was taken at L’etang de Beaumont in France in August 2008. The lake is in the Loire Valley and one of the best birding spots in the region. We took this video from a hide by the lake. The muskrat is swimming along when it appears to hit something. A moment later a Little Grebe surfaces.

If you click on the video you can watch a hi-res version on YouTube.

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Posted in France, Video | 1 Comment

Rare Snowy Owl visiting NL

by Amy Posted on 17 November 2008

A Snowy Owl was spotted on Texel last Saturday and is still being seen on the Wadden island. The young female owl has been spotted on the polder ‘Eijerland’.

Since the first sighting on Saturday, hundreds of birders have visited Texel hoping to see the rare bird. Snowy Owls normally live on Greenland, in northern Scandinavia and Siberia.

It is unknown how or why the young female bird is so far out of her range. Experts say there is plenty of prey for the bird to survive on the island, should she stay.

Source: Zeldzame sneeuwuil gespot op Texel

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Posted in Netherlands, Rare / Vagrant | Leave a comment

Video: Little Grebe plays sailboat

by Amy Posted on 6 November 2008

This video was taken at L’etang de Beaumont in France in August 2008. The lake is in the Loire Valley and one of the best birding spots in the region. We took this video from a hide by the lake. The Little Grebe looks to be stretching its wings but it did this for several minutes, so maybe it was trying to dry them off? It looked it was pretending to be a sailboat.

If you click on the video you can watch a hi-res version on YouTube.

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Posted in France, Video | 1 Comment

New additions to life list

by Amy Posted on 21 October 2008

Today I caught up on our [now defunct – ed. Mar 2012] photo life list and added the six latest new birds we saw during our Loire Valley trip in August [redacted] and during the last couple of weeks we’ve been here in Deerfield [redacted]. Unfortunately most of these photos are pretty bad. However, I also added new photos of some old birds, which were firsts for France – including this respectable photo of a Little Grebe.

For more bird photos, check out

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Posted in Bird Photography Weekly, Life List | 1 Comment