A White Curlew

This very grainy, distant digi-scoped image shows a leucistic Curlew - which Clare and I found yesterday at the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust reserve on the Severn, Dolydd Hafren. Leucism is a genetic mutation that prevents melanin from being deposited normally on feathers, but this one was feeding and flying normally with the flock, quite happy with its own identity! If there had been a Peregrine about, I can guess which one it might have targeted.  

More on Bhutan

By popular request, I'm writing a little more about Bhutan. So many things about this unique kingdom impressed us. For example, the forest cover statistic. (Click on the picture on the right to see the endless forests behind the farmhouse). Over 60% of Bhutan's original forest cover still survives, and is almost all linked by a web of wildlife corridors. In a mountainous country like Bhutan, most species of birds and mammals migrate up and down the mountains according to season. In most countries, protected areas are small islands in a sea of cultivation; but in Bhutan it's still the other way round. The strong Buddhist ethic sits well with nature conservation too. 

But development is on the way here too. To accommodate the increasing road traffic, huge widening programmes are on the way, resulting in the blasting away of whole hillsides. The dark car at the top centre of the photo (left) shows the scale of this temporary devastation. Not ideal for plants or any other wildlife!

10 Days in Bhutan

I am just back from a visit to Bhutan, with an Ornitholidays group. We spent some time admiring the architecture of the dzongs (such As Punakha Dzong, right). A dzong is a fortified monastery that also serves as local government offices. 

Each dzong is full of sacred Buddhist artworks, such as these Black-necked Cranes (right).  

The cranes winter in small numbers in one Bhutan valley, where we watched about 160 as they fed on tubers and filled the air with loud trumpeting calls. Here are three of my group aiming for full-frame photos (right).  

Other easily photographable birds included the Oriental Turtle Dove (left) - as common as a Wood Pigeon at home - and a Spotted Laughingthrush (below left), which was so engrossed in feeding on the verge of a quiet mountain road that it did not notice the approaching photographers.

The roar of a Peregrine stooping....

No photo to accompany this tale, it all happened so fast! In the garden just now, I heard a loud roar like a corrugated iron sheet falling off a roof. Looking up, I saw a Peregrine flying away with prey. Putting a scope on the ash tree it landed in, I saw that we will now have one less Great Spotted Woodpecker at our feeders! 

I'll put up something about Bhutan soon!

Preparing for Bhutan

Next week I'm off to Bhutan for a two-week Ornitholidays tour with a group of seven, to learn about this remote Himalayan kingdom and its wildlife. I was there in 2002, just three years since television and internet were allowed there. It'll be fascinating to see what's changed. Bhutan has a 60% forest cover, more than 25 years ago, with flowering magnolias and rhododendrons and a spectacular bird life. There are yaks but probably not yetis; and the druk (dragon, seen here on the national flag) is a symbol that Bhutan shares with Wales! To the north lies Tibet and the lofty spine of the Himalayas, and to the south the Indian state of Assam. The previous king set Gross National Happiness as the nation's guiding philiosophy. I remember Bhutan with affection and am thrilled to be returning. I have recently learnt that Trashigang (in the east of the country) has 15 gewogs, and that its dzong is collapsing. When I return, I'll hope to expand a little on this and other features of this unique part of the world. Here's a short film about life in Bhutan:  

Otter in the garden!

Here's a short clip of an Otter on the camera-trap in the stream that flows through our garden. Is it a Wales sighting or an English one? Er...  Neither, I guess, as the stream itself is no-man's-land between the two! (Blink and you'll miss it).

EDIT: A few days later we caught this on film. (8/2/12)

The Ecotourist's Dilemma

If you open any wildlife magazine in UK these days, there's a recurring theme in indignant letters written to the editor, along these lines: "Dear Sir, how can you carry adverts for holidays to fragile wildernesses like Galapagos? It's so irresponsible and totally against the ethic of conservation. Cancel my subscription this minute, etc!" I understand the sentiment but don't agree. If everyone just stayed at home and never looked for tiger or gorilla or marine iguana or albatross in the wild, those species would become endangered far more quickly. (Tiger would very quickly become extinct). My work not only helps people to understand the complexity of ecosystems a little, but also puts vital funds into essential conservation projects. For example, the significant costs of visiting the Rwanda and Uganda gorillas are ploughed straight back into their conservation. Eco-tourists are very effective anti-poaching patrols. So it is, on a smaller scale, with bird reserves and national parks anywhere in the world. When there is so much pressure to turn rainforests into palm-oil or soya bean plantations, eco-tourism is vital for helping to protect fragile habitat.