A Great Spotted Cuckoo was lingering at Weybourne in North Norfolk for nearly a week or so and as I hadn’t seen one for a number of years, I decided to make the journey over to see it. I didn’t realise how distant it would be and so somewhat disappointed with the 2 or three […]
A Savi’s Warbler, a rare summer migrant that breeds in Eastern Europe, has arrived at Attenborough Nature Reserve in Nottinghamshire. It has been present, showing well on occasions and singing regularly now, for over a week. The bird is favouring a small area of reed bed in front of the Tower Hide that overlooks Clifton
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
Saturday 13th April I made a visit to one of my favourite RSPB Reserves, Frampton Marsh, near Boston in Lincolnshire. A Long-billed Dowitcher has wintered at the reserve and had been showing regularly in recent days. The bird is now moulting into summer plumage, so was worth the visit. Despite our efforts, we failed to
Spent the past weekend in Dorset, searching the coastal fields for some of the first flowering orchids. In particular the Early Spider Orchid, which was a new species for me. We had 6 species of orchid altogether, 3 rosettes (Autumn Lady’s-tresses; Pyramidal and Bee) and 3 in flower Early Purple, Green-winged and Early Spider. A
A Great Grey Shrike has been wintering at the National Trust’s Clumber Park, in Nottinghamshire. It has been favouring an area called South Lawns, a reasonable walk from the visitor centre car park. I managed to see the bird on Friday 15th March in extremely windy conditions. It was quite challenging for taking photographs and
The start of this saga began on Tuesday 19th February 2019, when news broke across the British Twitching Scene, that a Tengmalm’s Owl had been discovered in a garden at Bixter on Mainland Shetland. The news was immense and by the end of the day the bird was still being watched. It was the first
A Firecrest has been present at Attenborough Reserve near Nottingham for nearly 2 weeks. I’ve made two trips to see it and have had some excellent views through binoculars, but so far have failed miserably to photograph it well. I made a trip to North Norfolk on 12th January, which turned out to be a
