July 2013 archive

Jul 31 2013

Summary July 2013

Summary July 2013

Garden

July has turned out to be an absolutely scorching month with record temperatures and virtually no rain – the opposite of the first months of the year. We were away on holiday until the 12th and when we came back the garden was like a jungle. As regards birds, we are still seeing some Swifts flying above but we do not see the Mistle thrushes anymore. Finches are almost completely absent and the only garden bird we see regularly are the Blackbirds that come daily to eat and bathe. It is had to tell exactly how many there are since they only even come in pairs. Apart from the bird table the other feeders are hardly touched and the odd Blue Tit or Goldfinch make very little impact on them – a most strange year in the garden. Some rain arrived on the last few days of the month with summer thunder storms and sudden heavy downpours but, even then, the temperature remained warm and was sunny between the downpours.

Some good news is that, whilst not foolproof, out cat scaring device seems to be working and we see far fewer cats in the garden now. Continue reading

Jul 26 2013

Sandpipers at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands 26th July 2013

Sandpipers at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands 26th July 2013

After being stuck at home with flu, it was nice to get out for the day and we chose Burton Mere because I had read that there had been sightings of a few Green Sandpipers and a single Wood Sandpiper. So with our hopes raised we drove up there to see what we could see on what was an absolutely glorious day reminiscent of those summer days from childhood; no noise, no wind, blazing sun and the woods and reeds full of butterflies and dragonflies. Continue reading

Jul 19 2013

Visit to RSPB Conwy : 19th July 2013

Visit to RSPB Conwy : 19th July 2013

On our way back from Anglesey to Manchester we stopped off at The Spinnies, Aberogwen, near Tal-y-Bont and then went on to RSPB Conwy. It was another boiling hot day so we were glad of a tea break and a sit down before going round the reserve. The notice board was showing that a Green Sandpiper had been seen so we were keen to see if we could get a year tick on that.

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Jul 19 2013

Visit to The Spinnies, Aberogwen : 19th July 2013

Visit to The Spinnies, Aberogwen : 19th July 2013

We visited South Stack, the Fish Harbour at Holyhead and Cemlyn Bay yesterday and we were wending our way back to Manchester slowly so we decided to take the Tal-y-Bont turning and drop in for a quick walk along the beach at the Spinnies Reserve. I had been there on a birding group visit about five weeks previously when there had been huge numbers of Oystercatchers and Curlew and a smattering of Terns. There weren’t so may this time and no Terns at all but it was still full of birds and well worth a visit – as usual. Continue reading

Jul 18 2013

Visit to Cemlyn Bay : 18th July 2013

Visit to Cemlyn Bay : 18th July 2013

Whenever we go to Anglesey we make sure to go to the North Wales Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Cemlyn Bay to see the nesting Terns. Again we were a bit late in the year so we were not sure what to expect but, sure enough, there was no shortage of Terns. As we arrived and parked up we scanned the little lake between the car park and the main lagoon and we saw a pair of Oystercatchers but also the rather grizzly sight of a Herring Gull trying hard to pull apart what appeared to be a chick of some indeterminate origin. It was pretty big and in the end it opted for swallowing it whole; a task that took it quite some time and many failed attempts before finally getting it down ! Continue reading

Jul 18 2013

Visit to the Fish Dock at Holyhead : 18th July 2013

Visit to the Fish Dock at Holyhead : 18th July 2013

After we left South Stack we dropped in at the Fish Dock at Holyhead on the off chance that we might see the Black Guillemots there again and, very obligingly, not only were they there but they gave us a fine flying display showing off their red bills and legs beautifully. There were about half a dozen of them but most of them were just past the harbour mouth and only a single pair were happy to give us near views. This was the second time we had been there and both times we had seen them within a minute or two – very helpful. Continue reading

Jul 18 2013

Visit to RSPB South Stack : 18th July 2013

Visit to RSPB South Stack : 18th July 2013

We have had an absolute wash-out of a Spring and it has prevented us this year from going to some of our usual haunts at that time. These would normally include a seabird colony or two but this year we had not got to one during Spring and we had left it a little late in the year. Even so we thought, “better late than never” so what better place to go to than South Stack ? We suspected that we would be a bit late for some of the birds we would have liked to have seen and we were disappointed not to see Kittiwake or Fulmar. However there were the usual plentiful numbers of Guillemots and Razorbills – too many to estimate properly – and we even managed to see half a dozen Puffins still around. Continue reading

Jul 16 2013

Visit to Woolston Eyes 16th July 2013

Visit to Woolston Eyes 16th July 2013

We had previously been to the “open day” at Wooston Eyes on the 30th of June but we were keen to return there when the reserve was a bit quieter. We were told that they had four hundred visitors that day and it certainly felt like it. We had been so impressed with the site that we joined the conservation group and got our membership card and keys to the barriers on the same day. Having got back from the Azores to find the UK in a heatwave we thought we would go back there to see the site at greater leisure.  We opened the main barrier ok and drove down to the parking by the bridge that takes you over to Bed 3. As we got there we ran into a chap who was trying to fix a problem with a padlock on the gate that controls access to bed three. He had called out some engineers to fix the problem so we had no difficulty gaining access and we discovered that this gentleman was Brian Martin, the recorder for the conservation group. We got talking to him and he was very interesting and informative and we kept running in to him throughout the day which was very useful for us as he described some of the history of the site and the birds that they had there.

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Jul 12 2013

Some Bird Sightings : Azores 1st – 12th July 2013

Some Bird Sightings : Azores 1st – 12th July 2013

Whilst we knew that the Azores is not a great place to for birding unless it is the migration season, we did manage to see a couple of birds apart from the ubiquitous Chaffinch, Blackbird and Spanish Sparrow. On our return from a boat trip we had taken from Horta Faial to the island of Pico we came across first a few, then many, then hundreds of Cory’s Shearwaters. As we sailed by them we got fantastic views of them gliding just off the surface of the sea with the waves lifting them up and their wing tips very nearly touching the surface of the sea as they raced by.

The second highlight was on land on Sao Miguel where from one sightseeing point we looked up to see sixteen or more Azorean Buzzards (Buteo buteo rothschildi) all wheeling directly above us, high up in the sky.

Apart from these two occasions it was all the aforementioned woodland birds plus some Greenfinches and Goldfinches. We were a bit disappointed to not see Goldcrests and we were in entirely the wrong part of the island to see the rare Azores Bullfinch (Pyrrhula murina) which is restricted to the eastern end of the island which is much less occupied.

Be that as it may we were still happy to get two “life ticks” and to get really close views of the masses of Shearwaters.