After Saturday's Red Letter day at Willington Gravel Pits, Derbyshire, (Drake Garganey; Avocet; Marsh Harrier, Whimbrel, Dunlin and 2 Mediterranean Gull), it was not so much a "Hot Spot" this morning, Sunday 27th April. A Greenshank, a near adult and an adult Yellow-legged Gull, 2 Little Ringed Plover,13 Common Tern, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler and […]
My wife and I spent the Easter weekend, 18th – 21st April 2014, in Speyside, Scotland. A few days in the highlands were better than none at all, and we were lucky enough to see a few good birds. RSPB Loch Garten held the regular Capercaillie watch but this year the birds were not reliable
Sunday 13th April, Glyn and I decided to try a day at Seaforth Docks in the hope of some summer plumaged Little Gulls. The weather was dull and grey and freezing cold, blowing a gale, so little hope. After three hours or so we had seen three Little Gull, a flock of 19 Sandwich Tern,
Sunday 30th March and a dull overcast morning. After an hour searching for Hawfinch at a well known site in North Derbyshire, Glyn eventually picked up a bird singing in a garden and we quickly had reasonable views before the pair disappeared into thick tree cover. Later another bird gave good views perched out on
A recent article, March 2014, on Martin Garner's website, Birding Frontiers, concerning the identification possibilities of Arctic Guillemot, ssp hyperborea, on Hornoya Island, Varanger, Arctic Norway, provoked me to check out my photos from last years trip (April 2013). Arctic Guillemot are seemingly rare vagrants to British waters and seldom do they move south of their arctic range. They
For the past week, I've been watching five Yellowhammer, regularly coming to one of the feeding stations at my local patch at Staunton Harold Reservoir. So this morning I spent my Sunday breakfast photographing them. Unfortunately I could only spare an hour due to family issues. Nevertheless, several males were reasonably obliging. The Yellowhammer is one of the brightest and most
Saturday 8th March 2014 and my first trip of the year to the North Norfolk Coast. For the first time, I have seen the devastation to the coastal system caused by the severity of the winter storms. The sand dunes at Titchwell have been completely flattended, but the sea defences have saved the fresh water
Following on from the earlier post, which covered the sea duck, this final trip post covers the remaining birds, mainly passerines, but also includes gulls and a few more sea duck just for good measure! During our week in New Jersey and in addition to Barnegat and Avalon, we spent some time visiting various reserves around the Cape May
