Page 1 of 1

Handover Complete

Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 3:17 am
by giles
The official hand-over of the ‘patch’ and bird guide has taken place with Richard flying off to Cyprus yesterday for a few more days birding before he gets back into the UK to start his tender as the AOS secretary.

Richard managed one last trip down to the Waste water site with me yesterday morning and managed to get a life tick with good views of a red headed bunting before he left.

So it looks like it is up to me to keep you all informed of the birds of Bastion over the next few months. I can’t promise I will be as knowledgeable as Richard and a lot of my sightings will probably be confirmed as little brown jobs (LBJ’s) as all the different warblers down at the site can be quite confusing.

I took a break from work this afternoon for a bit of exercise and ran down to the WWS. Good views of a single black winged stilt, which is a first for me out here (only previously seen at Titchwell where they had a resident for a few years) . Large flock of about 30 Spanish Sparrows, citrine and white wagtails, green sandpiper and plenty of warblers (booted and lesser whitethroats, reed warbler heard but not seen). Pied bushchat, wheatear and crested lark also seen. Not bad for about ten minutes late afternoon.

There is a lot of work happening around the site with the extension of the runway and things have changed since my visit yesterday as the diggers and steam rollers are getting closer and closer to the site. It also looks they are building a culvert over the reed area, hopefully it won’t all get covered over as it pretty much seems to be the only site around. I suppose time will tell.

Well that’s about it for today

I will post again soon

Tony

Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:24 am
by Lesser Spot Finder
Tony,

best of luck with the WWS. Great that you have seen Black-winged Stilt there and thanks for the last minute trip on the 5th. Hope all is well in Bastion.

Rich

Helmand Brding

Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:04 pm
by roger dickey
Tony,

Its great to see that Continuity AOS is alive and working in Helmand.

I'm sure that you will be convinced that you are talking to yourself at times but there are lots of us hanging on every word!

Having bought the appropriate guides for the region I like to keep them utilised.

Keep 'em coming!

Cheers

Roger