February 2015 archive

Feb 28 2015

Summary : February 2015

Summary : February 2015

New Species added to 2015 Year List in February= 12

Running Total for the 2015 UK So Far = 94

New UK Life List Birds In February = 2

Our Garden

February started the same way as January ended – with some hard overnight frosts and some cold clear and bright days. On the 4th we had a Mistle Thrush, three Coal Tits, Great and Blue Tits, Robin, Blackbirds, Goldfinches. On the 20th I counted Coal, Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tits, Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, House Sparrow, Wren, Starling, Goldfinch, Collared Dove and Woodpigeon so things were getting a bit busier near the end of the month. A pair of Robins seem to be trying to pair up and the Blue Tits have been bonding for a bit already. On the 27th we had a Sparrowhawk in the garden – a first for the year.
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Feb 24 2015

Birding Group Visit to Moore Nature Reserve : 24th February 2015

 Birding Group Visit to Moore Nature Reserve : 24th February 2015

A fairly uneventful morning of birding at Moore. We looked, unsuccessfully, for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Tawny Owl but at least the rain held off and, although it was a bit windy, we did get a reasonable variety of birds. Our count for the morning came to thirty-four species.

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Feb 22 2015

Laughing Gull at New Brighton : 22nd February 2015

Laughing Gull at New Brighton : 22nd February 2015

After getting lucky with the Long-eared Owl at Burton Mere Wetlands, we decided to head off to New Brighton for the last high tide day of February (10.1 metres at 1.27pm). We got there around 1pm so we had half an hour before high tide. As it happens the tide was already well in and people were fishing off the prom so I suppose the tide comes in about 90 minutes before the Liverpool Gladstone Docks time. We had experience of how hard it is to find a parking space in New Brighton at the weekend so I suppose it was good for us that it had turned to a windy and drizzly day and the place was not quite as busy. We eventually found a parking spot (the majority of parking places are reserved for the disabled but nobody seems to pay the slightest attention to these notices) and hoped we would get lucky.

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Feb 22 2015

Long-eared Owl at Burton Mere Wetlands : 22nd February 2014

Long-eared Owl at Burton Mere Wetlands : 22nd February 2014

While we were on holiday in Lanzarote I had been monitoring some of the sightings in and around Manchester and two in particular jumped out at me. The first was a roosting Long-eared Owl that had been at Burton Mere Wetlands and the second was a Laughing Gull that had been seen on the Marine Lake pontoon at New Brighton. With it being the last high tide day of February (10.1 metres at 1.27pm) and the weather threatening to take a turn for the worse it felt like a good time to try for these birds before they disappeared.

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Feb 17 2015

Lanzarote and Fuerteventura Holiday Summary

Lanzarote and Fuerteventura Holiday Summary

I can’t really say that we were particularly organised for birding and we were certainly not organised enough but with the help of Carmen from “LanzaroteActiveClub” and a brief read of “Gosney” we were not completely without resources. We did manage to see most of our target birds and mixed a relaxing holiday with a little bit of birding that gave us thirty-eight birds, twelve of which were “lifers” and several of which were insular races, such as the Ravens and the Buzzards.

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Feb 16 2015

Lanzarote : 16th February 2015

Lanzarote : 16th February 2015

The 16th February was the last day of our holiday so we had to sort the hire car out and pack our bags etc. We did manage a last visit to the Salinas de Janubio though.  At first this seemed to be astonishingly empty, perhaps because of some recent heavy rain and a lot of tourists walking the surrounding paths. A bit more investigation did uncover some of the usual suspects, though, and another first for us in Lanzarote.

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Feb 15 2015

Lanzarote : 15th February 2015

Lanzarote : 15th February 2015
We didn’t really do any birding this day but we did see a Southern Grey Shrike or two at Papagayo beach as well ad the usual Yellow-legged Gulls and Rock Doves.

Feb 14 2015

Fuerteventura : 14th February 2015

Fuerteventura : 14th February 2015

We got 9am Armas ferry from Playa Blanca to Correlejo ( €95 Inc 10% discount for using the car hire firm). From  Correlejo we drove down to the Antigua plain, specifically with the hope of seeing Black-bellied Sandgrouse at a location we got from Dave Gosney’s book “Finding Birds in the Canaries”. Specifically some “sand pits” which are actually artificial water reservoirs. They are located at 28.4419N, 14.0065W. We found the location easily and pulled into the lay-by going on foot from there.

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Feb 13 2015

Lanzarote : 13th February 2015

Lanzarote : 13th February 2015
The 13th was a bit of a lazy day for us and, although we went to the lighthouse and a couple of other places around Playa Blanca mentioned by Gosney we didn’t see much.  Our best views were of around a dozen Dolphins coming quite close in at the lighthouse. In the afternoon we made plans for a visit the next day to Fuerteventura getting the 9th ferry over there. Our target birds were Black-bellied Sandgrouse,  Fuerteventura Chat, Fuerteventura Blue Tit and possibly Trumpeter Finch and Canary.  We also hoped for Houbara Bustard and Cream-coloured Coursers.

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Feb 12 2015

Lanzarote : 12th February 2015

Lanzarote : 12th February 2015

On Thursday 12th February we headed up north with the idea of seeing some of the wild flowers growing there in profusion, particularly after the heavy rains of December.  We weren’t sure exactly where to go but we thought that if we headed for the Mirador del Rio in the far north of the island we would come across them somehow. I had also read in Gosney’s book that there was an interesting reservoir near Mala –  Presa de Mala.

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