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
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
I spent the 24th – 26th February in the Scottish Highlands with professional photographer, Pete Walkden. The plan was to photograph Crested Tit, but due to exceptionally mild weather, our plans had to change. Crested Tits will only come to feeding stations in cold weather. Once the weather becomes warm, they take to the tree
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
My birding year kicked off with a day at Rutland Water in Leicestershire. Some good birds were seen during the day including 2 juvenile Shag; a Red-necked, 2 Slavonian and 2 Black-necked Grebes; a Great Northern Diver; a drake American Wigeon; 5 Smew; a female Scaup; a Jack Snipe and a Snow Bunting. The year
