My year list for 2011 was slightly better than last year, I managed to see 267 species in Britain and I had 4 lifers plus an armchair tick (Siberian Stonechat) so I’m creeping along ever closer to the big 500! My highlights of the year were trips to Speyside, Scotland in April; Shetland in September & Scilly in October; White-winged Scoter twitch to Aberdeen in June; the White-throated Robin at Hartlepool in June; Northern Water Thrush & Scarlet Tanager on Scilly in October and finding a Dusky Warbler on Scilly. A Western Bonelli’s Warbler in Derbyshire was a surprise county […]
For the past few days now the UK has been battered by the remnants of the USA Hurricane Katrina. Inevitably numerous seabirds have arrived on inland waters. One of the pick of the crop is a juvenile Sabine’s Gull that arrived at Belvide Reservoir in Staffordshire several days ago and still present this weekend. An adult summer plumaged Sabines Gull arrived at one of the large London Reservoirs. These are Pelagic Gulls and are rarely seen inland. Also at Belvide this morning was a Manx Shearwater totally out of place on a reservoir. This bird should be heading off south […]