Old friends

Recent birding hasn't just been a relentless quest to add to my new list as my last birding post may have suggested. On the contrary, after years in the tropics its been great to catch up with some old friends.....

There were those snipe I mentioned previously.....Snipe may be my favourite birds of all. I don't know why, there is just something magical about their warm coloration and beautiful patterning and the way they reveal themselves from hiding (a post on that may turn up soon once all the other outstanding ones get done). I've always had an interest in birds but to the extent any one bird was my "trigger bird" into more serious birding this was it. Perhaps that's why they feature on the blog so many times. Of course having said that many of those snipe were Wilson's snipe from the tropics.

Eurasian teal is another old friend from European winters past. Of course again I spent my last 3 winters watching blue-winged and the odd green-winged teal bask in the caribbean sun.

The curlew is a bird my father used to see a lot but these days not so much, we occasionally see small flocks near home now - they seem common here which makes me happy. I didn't catch up with a curlew in the caribbean though I did get a closely related whimbrel. So in a way all of my old friends' relatives helped me out whilst I was away when I was away and then they were waiting to welcome me back. I guess its a small world when you look at birds.