Thanks (and apologies) to Chris Tynan for sending me his shots from a recent family holiday to Egypt - sorry it took me so long to post 'em buddy!
Sinai may be a tad iffy these days, but Egypt is a big place and the Red Sea resorts can produce a few fine birds - especially if your bins and camera accidentally fall into the holiday packing.
Over to Chris,
"Hi John,
I'm afraid to show these after looking at Mr Steel's photos!!
Took a family holiday to El Gouna, in Egypt, which is a 20 yr old resort north of Hurghada.
We stayed in the north of the resort at the Abu Tig marina.
Osprey's nest at the harbour entrance on one of the marker buoys, and Brown Booby roosts nearby.
White Eyed Gulls fly up and down the coast all day but we didn't see any Sooty Gulls, although Lesser Crested, Caspian and White Cheeked Tern were all seen at the harbour entrance.
A Blue Cheeked Bee-eater was seen over the golf course early on one of my walks. Temperature was 45 to 50 most days so very few small birds.
A walk to the south of the resort where the saltpans are produced, 4 Curlew, 3 Ringed Plover, 3 Slender Billed Gull and 1 Golden Plover."
Cheers
Chris
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Hobby this morning ripping after Swallows over Immingham, but otherwise quiet in Lincs (couldn't get to Spurn today). Brown Hawkers in numbers at Far Ings though...back to the west shortly.
Just a month after being injured and unable to fly, a female cuckoo will be heading off tomorrow (Tuesday 14th August) to the sunshine of Italy - but having fallen so far behind her friends she is getting a helping hand, or rather wing, from British Airways!
The bird, found dying in a garden in Tolworth, Surrey, was taken to the Wildlife Aid Foundation's (WAF) veterinary hospital in Leatherhead for emergency treatment - and there she has remained till now.
WAF director Simon Cowell MBE knew that the cuckoo would be a long way behind the other cuckoos flying south for the winter, so with help from fellow conservationist Virginia McKenna of Born Free the search was on for an airline to fly the cuckoo as far as Italy so that she can catch up with the others. And thanks to British Airways arrangements have been made for the cuckoo to be transported in the cabin of a 747 to Turin on Tuesday morning, in the company of WAF's vet nurse Lucy Kells. Once in Italy, the bird - named Idemili - will be released to join her friends on their southward migration to Africa.
Natterjack toadlet on Weld Road end of the Queen's Jubilee Nature Trail on 14 Aug.
That's the first I've seen one there, but will it be the last?
If the Caravan Club are allowed to drain the adjoining field in Victoria Park in order to extend their site the slacks in the dunes, about 20 metres away, will almost certainly disappear forever.