Summary : June 2014
Garden
The garden continued to be full of young birds with juvenile Robins and a juvenile Blackbird visiting the bird table. Lots of Blue Tit young and lesser numbers of Great Tit young are on the feeders and the window box. The Dunnocks are less obvious but are around. The Sparrows from across the way spend quite a bit of time in our garden now. Nothing really special apart from the usual fun of new birds finding their way around. Cat problem not as bad as it used to be but occasionally still an issue. Woodpigeons a constant nuisance. We have a small flock of young Starlings as well, now.
Birding Days Out
Having just come back from our birding holiday in Scotland, we did not have many days out on our own in June but we had plenty of activity with the birding group.
Birding Group Days Out
We missed the first birding group outing of the month, which was to Stayley Brushes, because we were still on holiday in Scotland. But the week after we were able to add some Welsh ticks to our Scottish ones as on the 10th of June the birding group started its annual two-day visit to Wales. We all met up at RSPB Conwy but that was fairly quiet. We went on from there to The Spinnies and Cemlyn Bay The Spinnies at Tal-y-Bont was also quiet but Cemlyn Bay was brilliant as usual with the usual three species of Tern plus some Mediterranean Gulls as a bonus.
The next day we went straight to RSPB South Stack where it was a very misty morning. Despite that we got good views of all the usual cliff-dwelling birds you expect there, including Puffins but also marvelous views of a Peregrine and chick on the cliffs near the viewpoint next to the tower. Other highlights were excellent views of Choughs. We also managed to fit in the usual visit to the Fish Dock at Holyhead to see the Black Guillemots
The following week, on the 17th, the birding group visit was to Moore Nature Reserve where we got fantastic views of Yellowhammers and had a good range of warblers including Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. When we all returned to the car park, Anne and I decided to pop over to nearby Frodsham Marsh where we managed to see our very first Red-necked Grebe.
On the 24th we all went to Brockholes Nature Reserve where we had good views of Kingfisher and had a chance to see the newly established Avocets there. We also saw (or heard) a good range of warblers. This was also the last birding group day of the term so, over lunch, we devised a programme for the next term which included a couple of new places to try out !