Preparing for Belarus

On 28 April I start co-leading an Ornitholidays group to Belarus - a first for me. (Luckily my co-leader knows the place). I'll bring the group out from London to Minsk, and we'll spend 9 days exploring the forests and marshes of this little-known country. In May 2010, our group to Poland visited the huge, primeval forest of Bialowieza where herds of European Bison roam. This great forest is 45% in Eastern Poland and 55% in Western Belarus: now we'll get to see the other half. The photo is one I took of the Polish half of the forest: a watery wilderness that is home to Beavers, Black Storks, Hazel Grouse, many raptor, woodpecker and flycatcher species, and much else. 

During the First World War, all the forest's Bison were shot by German troops, and vast quantities of wood were exported for the German war effort. Bison were re-introduced from captivity, but their gene pool is small: they are all descended from 12 animals. They are easiest to see in winter when they emerge into meadows to feed on hay provided to supplement their diet. Dividing the forest is a two-metre border fence which is impassable to Bison, though other animals can swim underneath in places. In all, it covers an area that equates to a square 25 miles by 25 miles: about the size of Greater London inside the M25.

We also expect to see reminders of an age now gone from Western Europe: horse-drawn hay-carts and more scythes than strimmers. White Storks, back from winter in Africa, nest in the villages; and the mammal list also has Elk, Red Deer, Wild Boar and Muskrat. I'll report on our trip soon after my return on 9 May!

Our local OSPREYS are back from Senegal!

The Osprey makes one of the most positive British conservation stories. Hunted to extinction in Britain in Victorian times, it remained absent as a breeding species in Britain until 1954. In that year, a pair of these charismatic fishing hawks - probably from Scandinavia - nested in the Spey Valley. The RSPB encouraged them by buying up a large estate at Loch Garten in prime Osprey-habitat, and from 1959 they have nested annually on the reserve. Numbers built up slowly, and new sites in the Scottish Highlands were gradually colonized. The RSPB kept very quiet about these other Osprey sites, and used the 'honeypot' approach: directing all enquiries and visitors to their well-guarded Garten site. Even there problems occurred: one year an attempt was made to saw down the nesting tree, and the staff have to keep a 24-hour watch on the nest to prevent egg-theft. By 1991, Scotland had 71 nesting pairs, and now Britain has over 250 pairs. Recently England and Wales have had their first nests forwell over a century.

Ospreys returned to the Dyfi Valley - next to the RSPB reserve of Ynys Hir - for the first time last year, raising three young. Archives reveal that the same area was used by nesting Ospreys in the 17th century. In September, British Ospreys migrate to West Africa. Nora, the female, has been back for a few days, rearranging the sticks in the nest and anxiously looking south...., but the great news came in this afternoon that her partner Monty is back too! They've already been spotted mating by the MWT (Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust)'s superb new webcam. The above image is a still from the webcam. Now we look forward to another successful breeding season, fingers crossed!

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: