June 2013 archive

Jun 30 2013

Summary June 2013

Summary June 2013

Garden

June started surprisingly warm and sunny although it was still cold in the evenings. On the first of the month I saw a Buzzard circling overhead. A remarkable feature in the garden of late has been the regular visits from a pair of Mistle Thrushes who seem largely unconcerned about our presence in the garden when it is warm enough to sit out. One day I saw them both sitting in the bird bath together and on the 4th of June we were sitting in the garden when a third bird also appeared and it was occasionally fed by one of the other two. Obviously this was a young fledgling of the other two. They eventually flew of the the house roofs at the back of us and our conviction, established earlier, that we could hear other Mistle Thrushes calling nearby was confirmed when we saw another three birds briefly also perched on the house roofs. Six Mistle Thrushes at the same time. Continue reading

Jun 30 2013

Woolston Eyes Open Day : 30th June 2013

Woolston Eyes Open Day : 30th June 2013

For quite some time I have been curious about the Woolston Eyes Reserve near Warrington so when I saw a reference to their “Open Day” (they only have one every four years !) I was keen to go over there and see what it was like. Being a “members only” site it was a rare chance to see if it was as good as I fancied it might be. Of course, it is well known for the uncommon breeding Black-necked Grebes they have there. In fact, I read that they have 25% of all the UK breeding birds on their reserve so the question was would we get this “life tick” or would they prove too elusive ?

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Jun 25 2013

Birding Group Visit to Brockholes Nature Reserve 25th June 2013

Birding Group Visit to Brockholes Nature Reserve 25th June 2013

Anne and I went to Brockholes on the 17th of May but just a month later the place was transformed with vegetation now abundant. and the meadows in full bloom and full of insect life. The islands in No 1 Pit were full of quite high vegetation and gravel was hardly to be seen ! Quite a change. By the way we ended up wondering why we always go on the M6 when really we should go all the way on the M61 !

We were a little early so before meeting up at the cafe, we walked around the back of the clump of bushes at the back of the bird feeder near the entrance and had a look at the reeds there. As we approached you could hear the Sedge Warblers singing loudly and our patience was rewarded when a single bird popped out of the reeds and, perched at the very top of a reed, started to sing loudly. The three of us got really good views. A small number of Reed Buntings also appeared and all this before we had started !

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Jun 11 2013

Birding Group Visit to The Spinnies, Aberogwen 11th June 2013

Birding Group Visit to The Spinnies, Aberogwen 11th June 2013

After we left Conwy, we drove along the expressway to the Tal-y-bont turnoff and then drove to Aberogwen where the North Wales Nature Reserve of “The Spinnies”  is located. We parked up at the small car park and immediately we could see birds in the distance plunging on o the water and rising quickly up showing the definite characteristics of Terns. As we got nearer we could get a scope on them and this showed them to be Common or Arctic Terns. As we looked at them we noticed at the foot of the cliffs a sumber of large white birds and on closer examination they turned out to be group a group of eight Little Egrets. The tide was pretty much all the way in and there was just a narrow strip of land between the cliffs and the sea. Looking closer at this strip revealed more, however. Continue reading

Jun 11 2013

Birding Group Visit to RSPB Conwy 11th June 2013

Birding Group Visit to RSPB Conwy 11th June 2013

This week’s birding day was to Wales and we all met up at the cafe at the RSPB site at Conwy. There have been quite a few changes to the cafe and surrounding area since we were last there. There is now the ubiquitous playground for infants and a new educational centre seems to be being built. In the cafe, the panoramic view has changed somewhat and wet parts are now dry and what used to be reedy parts have been cut back a bit. The bird feeders have also been removed. I don’t know if this is a good thing but I suppose we need to see the finished arrangement before passing judgement. Continue reading

Jun 04 2013

Birding Group Visit to Goyt Valley 4th June 2013

Birding Group Visit to Goyt Valley 4th June 2013

The birding group visit to Goyt Valley was always going to be interesting because last year we decided that we had probably left it too late to go there. This year it was decided to go a couple of weeks earlier but, of course, this year spring is so late in coming that we might even have been too early. This throws up the difficulty of planning so far ahead but it is hard to know what can be done to try to schedule our trips more flexibly. Anyway, as it turned out it was quite similar in the lack of birds to last year. The notable exception to this was very good views of Redstarts ! Continue reading