Last week I was in the USA on a birding holiday, watching plenty of Yellow-rumped Warblers (Myrtle), many down to several feet. Little did I know at the time that I would be watching one in the UK within a few days of arriving back home. To-day Sunday 16th February 2014 I connected with my […]

After a week with the flu, a trip to India and various other issues, at last a day out birding. A Glossy Ibis has been showing really well at a riding stables at Brownhills in the West Midlands and a drake Lesser Scaup settled down at Tittesworth Reservoir in North Staffordshire. So a few birds

My year list kick started today with first days birding for 2014 at Eyebrook Reservoir & Rutland Water in Leicestershire. These two sites are superb for a good variety of birds and being very convenient as they are close to home. A good selection of birds were on view this morning – at Eyebrook – best

After a seven & a half hour drive back from our family Christmas holiday in Scotland on Friday 27th December, I simply couldn't face another 8 hour drive to see a Brünnich's Guillemot in Dorset. For me a British tick no less but fortunately I had seen many summer plumaged birds in Norway earlier in the

Last Sunday 15th December, during the late afternoon, news broke that a juvenile Ivory Gull had been found at Patrington Haven on the Humber Estuary, East Yorkshire. What a blow, as yet another Ivory Gull was seemingly tantalising me, especially having dipped the two in Northumberland a couple of weeks ago, I was begining to think I would

Eyebrook Reservoir in Leicestershire was one of the first major bird watching jaunts I undertook as a small child. On the 22nd of January 1967 I can remember joining a Derbyshire Ornithological Society Field Trip to this site, seeing my first Goldeneye, Bewick's Swan, Goosander and a range of common wildfowl. Fortyfive years on and Eyebrook is

Saturday 7th December not 1 but 2 Ivory Gulls were seen together at Seahouses in Northumberland. An extremely rare event in Britain and one that was too good to miss, so Sunday Glyn, Richard and myself set off in the hope that we might see just one of these superb arctic gulls. On arrival at Seahouses

A fairly quiet weekend birdwise, so Saturday 30th November, we decided to head off to the North East Coast and Hartlepool Fish Quay, Hartlepool Headland and South Shields. A few good birds including numerous Purple Sandpiper, a huge flock of roosting Redshank at Sea Burn, Red-throated Diver, Common Scoter off Hartlepool Headland, a Long-tailed Duck, several