A Siege of Biterns by Steve Burrows

An eye catching front cover of an elegant bird was enough for 'A Siege Of Bitterns' by Steve Burrows to leap into the hand. The author with this book won Arthur Ellis Award in 2015 for best first novel. The cover tells any prospective buyer that it is 'a birder murder mystery' and whether that will turn some people away from wanting to read it is perhaps only what the sales figures could reveal. I never read what is on the outside until I have finished reading any book, but being a birder and with the obvious front cover I had to read some of it at least.

It is set on the north Norfolk coast near Cley and where there are protected salt marsh sites of considerable,importance. What is it about? Well, it is a good mixture of people and events. Locals and birders are involved and they are well fleshed out. Add into that mix the new detective wearing a halo; a high ranking ambitious and class conscience officer, an aspiring politician and one or two others that have their own agendas.

There are many references to birds and birding, but don't let that put you off for it is a serious of events well told. Dominic Jejeune the D.I. with the reputation to maintain really does it his way and shows a reluctance to share his thoughts with the murder team. I began to love the people involved and the writing shows their characteristics vividly. That's it and I am not telling you who gets killed or how or how many, for that is for you find out, when you read it.

As an afterthought I will say that there maybe more to Burrow's writing than is obvious at first. I know that there is a need to protect the planet and the species; all the inhabitants large or small, despite what we humans do. This novel seems to indicate what a good writer can achieve to help any microsystem and I will end there. There is another book to follow and it looks being another 'must read' for me.

Photos from Yecla on 10th August

All photos taken by Bryan Thomas

Tawny Pipit

Pin Tailed Sandgrouse

Black-Eared Wheatear

Hoopoe

Thekla Lark

The Intrepid Birders John & Ian

Scenery

Scenery

Another Saturday Morning in El Hondo

Saturday 13th August the temperature at El Hondo was a comfortable 18 degrees with a very slight breeze. A Southern Grey Shrike was in the top of a tree next to the barrier It was beautiful and quiet with no more than five birders bothering to come in. It was a morning of sounds with a Golden Oriel calling and a male was seen by another birder who also saw a pale morph Booted Eagle.

The larger water contained birds in the far distance with Curlew Sandpipers and a count of 1310 Avocets. (permission given to quote and so thank you.). I went straight to the larger hide and we had in full view 13 White-headed Ducks that included only one Male. From this same hide a dark morph Booted Eagle flew and perched with his back to us so that we could see all the plumage including the white edge to the tail. It was beautiful.

Down at water level in the far hide I saw three Green Sandpipers and very little else except Swifts, Barn & Red-rumpled Swallows and a few House Martins. Some Whiskered Terns were around. In and around the tree at the beginning of the boardwalk were Reed Warblers and Melodious feeding in the Eucalyptus tree.

Kingfishers were easily seen. The usual Herons and Egrets flew except I did not see one Night Heron this time around. Bee-eaters were burbling and flying over head.

My last viewing was from the first hide on entry where there was a Short-toed Eagle perched, at a distance and seen in a scope. I have not included everything that was there.

I am looking forward to Sepember rain to bring the water closer.

Murder on the Grouse Moors

It is the day after 13th and there has been carnage on the grouse moors. All in the name of what some will call sport. We are trying to change that and not just because of this slaughter, but because of the destruction to the habitat and the killing of mammals, including mountain hares, and gorgeous birds of prey. It has to stop. I could go on and on, but I will continue to say that the petition to BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING has reached 100,000 and Marks & Spencer have declined to stock red grouse. I intend never to shop in their stores again.

My feelings are summed up in the few words for the morning after, below entitled:

A DEADFULL 13th

the guns are quiet now;
a few corpses remain
in every-mans-land

over the top we will
have to go again
into yesterday's
resumed hell

and so it begins again;
"they're coming"
the cries grow louder
from the beating army

powerless we are;
we have to flee,
fly higher, and higher
to beat the guns

it's an outrage
it's murderous
it's a carnage

Nualla Ellwood - My Sister's Bones

Harrogate Crime Writer's Festival provided another gem for me. It is good to hear and see the top crime writers, but it is even better when an event comes up with a new name. This was the case when I went into the 'Dead Good Writers' Awards'. They were giving away freebies and so it was packed with jostling people. Despite this I picked up My Sister's Bones by Nualla Ellwood. Okay it is a limited edition proof and it is a signed copy to add to our collection.

This is one of the best reads that I have had in a long time. In my opinion it is that good. Obviously it has to be well written and I cannot fault any of the language or the way that the story is told. It is complex with many facets involved and coming together eventually. The reader has to decide as the pages get turned as to what is real or what is not real. There is so much in this book that travels from a domestic childhood scene, into a journalistic world of war and all that seeing would entail and then back again to domestic settings. It moves at a good rate and is never dull. Sometimes the reader's level of sanity is questioned by this book.

That is all you will get of this book from me as I never want to spoil a damn good read! It will linger in my memory for a long time. I enjoyed it. The research to finalize the details must have been thorough and intense. Apparently she has another book on the way and I will read that one too.

Eagle Owls around San Miguel de Salinas

Eagle Owls are numerous here, but they don't always pop up when you want them to. Ian, a birder, that I had met last Saturday wanted to see one. I have not been to the sites around San Miguel recently and so I wanted to check them out. Yesterday we travelled via Torremendo towards Estación to a well known site. We did hear noises, but nothing that I could definitely say was an Eagle Owl.
I expected to see some raptors flying into roost as I have noticed in the past, but tonight not one.
Wood Pigeons were obvious, a line of ducks flew over and too high to distinguish what species, but probably Mallards. A Common Swift was low enough to easily to distinguish from Pallid. Turtle Doves flew over and I was able to get a good sighting of one. There were some strange sounds and then a Scops Owl called - but we could only hear one. However that one call is the first one that I have heard around home.

On our return a Little Owl flew up from the side of the road and perched for us. I decided to try another location and took the Camino around La Pedrera. It was very quiet there and apart from Little Owls calling I heard nothing that I could identify as an Eagle Owl although my companion with
keener ears did hear some faint calls. No sighting then and no first for him. I will spend some more time checking out the sites and maybe concentrate on one nearer to home.

Esteppes de Yecla & Coral-Rubio

For Tuesday 10th August we had planned to go to both Esteppes de Yecla and then onward to Corral-Rubio and some of the farmland around in search of the Great Bustard. We left very early as we knew that the temperatures would be in the 30's by early afternoon and so we were birding by 8am.

Opposite the road leading into the 'Esteppes' there is a camino that took is into farmland with some uncultivated areas. We had been very lucky here before with a juvenile Black-eared Wheatear and again we scored well. This time it was a Tawny Pipit and captured on camera by Bryan which confirmed the identification. Ian, a birder on holiday, saw it and drew our attention to it. He claimed it as a first for him and so did I. Adult and juvenile Woodchat Shrikes flew and so did Crested, Thekla and Greater Short-toed Larks.

We moved on quickly as we wanted Ian to get two more firsts with both Black-bellied and Pintail Sandgrouse. We could hear them in flight and then three possible ones were seen flying in the distance. Eventually after much searching of both ground and skies we saw both species with nine Pintail flying around in good view. Two were later seen on the ground feeding so that we could see the neck and head markings. Later we saw the other variety which showed clearly their black bellies. We had to work for these, but our efforts paid off very well.

We noticed an almost total absence of Lesser Kestrels and not one was to be seen at the nesting site or even foraging nearby. We did see Calandra Larks, but not in high numbers as we had seen before. What is going on? Hoopoes were everywhere and this is the first time that we had seen so many.

When approaching the Caudette end of the valley we saw both adult and juvenile Black-eared Wheatears and we also had distant views of Black Wheatears. It is always a joy to see Little Owls and the tally stands for them at five individuals.

Moving onto Corral-Rubio which still had water where there was a good collection of waders which included Lapwing, Redshank, Wood Sandpiper and Kentish Plovers. There were thirty Red-crested Pochard, but all we had time for was a quick scan before heading off in our search for Great Bustards. We had no luck! This was Bryan's first ever abortive visit to find the GB's. His hundred percent record is no more and his reputation is in tatters!

On a more positive note three firsts for Ian, one for me and we will look forward to spending more time up there examining closely what is in the water. We did locate one Black-bellied Sandgrouse feeding on a scuffled field. It is such an excellent and vast area that we are considering staying for a night or two. That will be once we have had a substantial amount of rain.

North Gate at El Hondo

I spent three wonderful hours in going through the North Gate at El Hondo this Saturday morning. It was hot, but not too hot with a light breeze. You never know what is going to show and who you may meet. Today a regular attender entered and we spoke of Barn Owls and he informed me that they are to be seen, but of course, we are not there at the correct times to see them. We also discussed shooting and hunting. I could hear guns that were fairly close by and he stated that they should only be shooting rabbits, but also Turtle Doves could be what they are shooting at. That's a shame and why shoot such a beautiful bird?

There were only two cars that entered with me and one of those was driven by an ornithologist whose home patch was East Yorkshire. He was great company and I benefited from his knowledge and keen eyes.

Birding wise it was great morning. All around Little Bitterns, Squacco Herons and Water Rails called. One of the latter flew across right in front of us. My companion was able to get the scope on a female Little Bittern as it perched low down in the reeds while it looked for prey. It was really beautifully marked and the stripes were so clear. Night Herons, like last week, flew and perched. Grey Herons also flew and we saw one Purple Heron. Also, in addition to Little and Cattle Egrets, a Large Egret flew. Glossy Ibis also flew.

On the water we counted eleven White-headed Ducks and they were a mixture of females and juveniles. Together with the three smaller ones we saw last week it does seem that there has been some successful hatching and fledging. One Kingfisher called and flew past us.

On the larger lagoon an Osprey was perched for the entire morning and in a margin we saw one Common Sandpiper and one Green Sandpiper. As we walked to this hide both Melodious and Reed Warblers were seen in the trees. The Moustached remained invisible!

On our return we spent a short time in the small elevated hide. The water is some distance away, but Curlew Sandpiper were identified. It was quiet by now and a search of the skies revealed
an Alpine Swift (I need to see one for myself) amongst the Pallids and possible Common Swifts.
Barn and Red-rumped were easily seen and the occasional House Martin.

I have not listed everything that we did see. I had a great time and now I will be paying more attention to the skies to try and see an Alpine Swift for myself and next Saturday I will be doing the same again.

One Week to the In-Glorious Twelfth

NATURAL ENEMIES?

natural enemies! Pa-ah!
they don't exist no more,
but we watch the skies, just
in case, you never know.

humans come and leave
things. We peck at stuff
and then there's that bunch
of feathers tied to the post.

It's really scarey that,
and the unseeing eye
socket scares us all,
but hey-ho

we eat our way
to plumpness;
good enough to eat -
and THEN......

JE(C)04/

An Ample Roller Day

Tuesday 2nd August with a forecast of sun and at least 30 degrees we nevertheless picked Bryan up in Gran Alacant. As Clot de Gaveney was close by we spent a few unsuccessful minutes there before we made an attempt to see a Rufous Bush Chat. However this area did yield a Spotted Flycatcher. We moved on quickly via N332 to the area opposite Las Brisas where this lagoon has quickly become a favourite spot of ours. A Zitting Cisticola immediately flew, calling as it went. A Purple Heron and a Squacco showed well. A Mediterranean Gull flew together with Whiskered Terns. It should start to hold more birds here when the waders continue to arrive.

Our next stop was the Salt Tower that fortunately yielded a flying Spoonbill and nothing much else of interest. We moved on to El Pinet which was much more productive. Common Terns were very evident on the nearest island with both Little and Sandwich Terns seen. We were surprised when a number of Collared Pratincoles took to the air. Two juvenile birds were in close proximity and were photographed. There must have been at least two hundred Pratincoles and in the distance we saw about 80 Glossy Ibis in flight. A Redshank was seen feeding with one Black-tailed Godwit.

We then headed inland towards El Hondo in search of our target bird for the day and for Ian, our guest. Eventually we had numerous sightings of both perched and flying Rollers and they were so good to see in the summer heat. A juvenile Common Kestrel perched to be photographed.

We passed some fields that were in the process of being flooded and these yielded many Cattle Egrets and some Glossy Ibis. At San Felipe Neri water was being introduced into the nearest lagoon. It had a milky appearance and there was not a bird to be seen. The furthest lagoon was bone dry! What is going on? A Common Sandpiper was the only wader to be seen here.

At the rear of the reception centre were some young Red-knobbed Coots, one Marbled Duck amongst the Mallards and Purple Gallinules. Bryan pished a Great Reed warbler, a Yellow Wagtail flew and later a Little Bittern did the same.

Marbled Duck. Photo by Bryan Thomas

The Twelfth? Never!

The Twelfth? Never!"

quick upward escaping flight

crack crash-crack

suddenly altered into
a fast whirling out-of-control
plunge,

crack crash-crack

dead or, worse still,
only dying, bombs into
the eco-system that
nurtured it, allowing
a feather to break free
from the body that
was its life

crack crash-crack

they hear the call
of death once more,

filling the skies
with harmed and harmless birds,
with toxic lead shot,
with death

echo after echo re-echoes
the vision stays

the guns go silent
the dogs begin their work