During the 21st – 28th September 2019 I made my annual birding trip north to the Shetland Isles, staying on the remote island of Unst. Our party of three had a reasonable week searching for migrants and hoping for the odd rarity to turn up. We managed to see a total of 86 species on […]
Eastern Black-eared and Pied Wheatear identification is notoriously difficult, even more so when a female type arrives in early September. About the right time for Black-eared Wheatear but a little out of season for Pied. The majority of Pied Wheatears seem to be found in late autumn (Oct-Nov). A female, reported as an Eastern Black-eared
An unprecedented event took place in Cornwall during the past week. A Brown Booby was discovered, a new bird to Britain, and spent several days in the Carbis Bay, St.Ives area. It proved elusive and was difficult to connect with. It wasn’t seen on Friday 30th August and so was presumed to have gone by
We spent a few days away on the Island of Mull from 17th to 22nd August. The weather was a mixed bag of rain, wind and some sunshine. Fortunately the weather didn’t disrupt our trip to Iona and the boat trip for White-tailed Eagle that I had pre-booked before we left. This was the highlight
A few images from my wanderings over recent days. A recent visit to Wales for Bog Orchid was a bit of a disaster as we struggled to find any at two reliable sites. Managed a few other plants though, including Round-leaved Sundew, Bog Asphodel and Marsh St.John’s-wort. A family of Whinchat, a year tick, and
During the past few weeks I’ve been photographing a few species of available orchids. The best one being Marsh Helleborine, where I had to travel over to Lincolnshire in order to see it. The Chalk Fragrant Orchids have been re-identified by local experts as Marsh Fragrant Orchid. The rest of the orchids I’ve managed to
A Black-winged Pratincole was discovered at RSPB Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire on Tuesday 18th June 2019. However the bird disappeared late afternoon and there was no further sight by dusk. It turned up again during the morning of 19th so I decided to go for it. Arrive at around 1pm and the bird was on
During the past few days I have spent sometime with local Orchids and have seen 1 new species and 1 new variant of Bee Orchid, Wasp Orchid. All with a few miles or so of my house. I even found a Common Spotted Orchid growing in one of the lawns at the front of my
