“At length did cross an albatross, Through the fog it came; As if had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God’s name” (16) A few words from the Ancient Mariner kind of summed up the experience of seeing a Black-browed Albatross sweeping across the cliffs at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire on […]
A Great Reed Warbler was discovered singing at a Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust Reserve, near Besthorpe. The bird was faithful to a small reed bed that could be viewed from a public footpath running alongside it. It was discovered on the 30th May, so I decided I had better go and see it. I’ve seen 9
We decided to spend a few days away in North Norfolk, basing ourselves at Blakeney. The first three days were pretty dreadful, with heavy rain on and off and a very cold North Westerly wind. These conditions made photography and birding extremely difficult. Fortunately there were a few birds hanging on from the previous week
A rare North American gull was discovered a few days ago at Rutland Water on the Egleton Nature Reserve. The first winter Bonaparte’s Gull was a first record for the site and a rare bird to see inland. I made the trip to see this bird on 24th April 2021 and it showed very well,
The Little Bunting is an annual migrant from the taiga forests of NE Europe and into Siberia. It is regularly discovered during the autumn months, most often on the outer islands of Shetland and Orkney, the Isles of Scilly and sites along the east coast of mainland Britain. It is not often one overwinters, but
The “Eared Grebe”, better known as the Black-necked Grebe, is a rare breeding bird in Britain. It is more often seen in winter, visiting our reservoirs or observed at southern coastal sites, sometimes in good numbers. The birds begin to arrive back at their preferred breeding sites in late March and into April, when they
A Bonxie (Great Skua) was seen to drop into Willington GP during the late afternoon of 1st April. Fortunately it was still present early morning on the 2nd April and I managed to get a few record shots of this rather rare bird in Derbyshire, being last recorded in the county in 2014. My 284th
My first Sand Martin for the year was on 26th March at Staunton Harold Reservoir, along with 2 Chiffchaff and 9 Lesser Redpoll. Two Swallow and a singing Blackcap at SHRes on 27th March were also new for the year. The drake Ring-necked Duck put in an appearance at Melbourne Pool briefly on 28th March,
