Eleven species of wader were on view at the RSPB Reserve at Blacktoft Sands this morning, including the very rare Marsh Sandpiper. The bird had been present in the area for nearly three weeks and so it was about time we came to see it. Plenty of superb Black-tailed Godwit and 18 Spotted Redshank along […]
A morning watching one of my favourite raptors, Honey Buzzard. In perfect skies & weather, up to 4 birds were performing and gave some very nice scope views. Unfortunately a little too far for the camera. Year List moves on to 226 Later in the afternoon I went back to Foremark and
I only need to see two more species of regular breeding British Butterfly – Lulworth Skipper & Swallowtail. I also only need to photograph 7 species and now 6 having managed to get Essex Skipper this morning at Foremark Reservoir in Derbyshire, a few miles from my home. Essex Skipper is a very tricky
A weekend of Butterflies & Moths, as the UK birding scene was rather tame in comparison to previous weekends. My overnight garden moth trap produced a superb Elephant hawkmoth when I emptied it on Saturday morning (9th July 2011), the first one this year. A total of 15 species was a disappointment for the
You need very fine & warm weather to stand any chance of seeing Mountain Ringlet. Such a day was forecast for Sunday 3rd July 2011. We set off for Honister Pass in the Lake District, Cumbria at 5:30am. We arrived at the car park around 9am, setting off for the long climb to Mountain Ringlet
A trip out to the North Norfolk Coast is always a good bet when there is little to do on the local patch scene. Two scarce waders in summer plumage were on show, a fine Temminck’s Stint at Titchwell and a Pectoral Sandpiper at Burnham Norton. It is not often that we get
A stunning first summer female RED-FOOTED FALCON had been hiding itself away from local birders since Friday 17th June. It had been favouring horse paddocks at Breaston right on the Derbys/Notts border. News came out onto the pager systems to-day about the bird, which I believe had been discovered by “Non-Birders” not specifically knowing what
An immature drake American White-winged Scoter was amazingly discovered by local birders amongst a huge flock of moulting scoter at Blackdog, Aberdeen on 11th June 2011. This was a first record for Britain of this scoter species and not surprisingly, it took the local birders some time to clinch the ID. Reading various reports
