A few good birds were available in Yorkshire this weekend, so a day twitching on Sunday was a wise move. A male Black-headed Bunting and a female Subalpine Warbler sp, had been discovered at Flamborough Head, whilst a Great Reed Warbler was continuing to sing and show at Wintersett Reservoir, near Barnsley. The Subalpine Warbler, with it being a female, was virtually impossible to ID to species in the field, but was most probably a Western Subalpine Warbler. This species has now been split into three – Moltoni’s, Eastern & Western Subalpine Warbler. The females look like a diminutive Common […]

Willington Gravel Pits, lies alongside the River Trent near Repton in South Derbyshire. The site is now a Derbyshire Wildlife Reserve but for many, many years has been well known for being a great local birding spot. Over the years it has had some superb birds and I can recall one of my best finds in Derbyshire at this site, a Red Kite in 1966, when Red Kite was a mega rare bird across the country, let alone in Derbyshire. News of a summer plumaged Little Gull this morning, pulled me away from my local patch at Staunton Harold Reservoir, […]