Bill Neil

WWT Slimbridge 21st August 2016

Before we headed off to Montacute, we took advantage of an early doors visit to WWT Slimbridge again. The bird list was pretty much the same but we did get another “year tick” in the shape of Curlew Sandpiper. I have to admit that I was not 100% convinced but otherw were and I believed them. List-wise we were to get more certain birds later in our trip anyway.

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Scottish Birding Holiday May / June 2016

Our holiday to Scotland was really to go to my brother’s for his 70th birthday. In 2014 when we went to Scotland birding at about the same time (perhaps 4 days earlier) we felt that we had done rather better but then we were guided by John Poyner; this time we decided not to be as intense and to try it ourselves. In point of fact, we knew all the right places to go and any shortfall in the number of birds we saw was entirely our own lack of desire to drive for long periods. The weather was fantastic for almost all the trip with only a few weather problems – fog at Cairngorm when looking for Ptarmigan and fog again when we were out on an evening Black Grouse hunt. These two events apart, we could not have wished for better weather and this continued for all of our holiday – more or less !

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Scotland Holiday Day 13: Moffat Community Nature Reserve 10th June 2016

This was technically the last day of our holiday and it was all returning home now. We had decided to break the trip from Musselburgh to Manchester by staying at a pub in Penrith so as not to arrive on a Friday night in Manchester rush hour traffic after a long drive. So, with a bit of time to spare we stopped at one of our favourite places for a caup of tea – Moffat. We had a walk aroudn the town and dropped into the tourist information shop on the high street. There we picked up a couple of eaflets. One interested Anne in particular and this was a Sherpa garden run by a Tibetan family. The other was more interesting to me and that was Moffat Community Nature Reserve, a place I had never heard of.

We drove to the location between the motorway and Moffat and wound our way down the track to this small site that consists of a meadow that floods in winter with a path around it and some hides and a lake which is also surrounded by hides and located within a small woodland area. I noted that this was supposed to be very good for Garden Warbler so I sat in the hide and quietly reminded myself of its song. It was mere seconds after I left the hide that we heard, and eventually saw, the fiorst of several of these birds. Whilst it is not a first for me it was definitely the best views I have had of them.

There were other birds, Chiffchaff, Wren, Tits etc but this bird was the star of the show and we ended up getting good views of three different birds. Definitely a place to add on to our list of curious places to drop in on.

Bird Sightings : Moffat Community Nature Reserve

Scotland Holiday Day 12: Aberlady Bay 9th June 2016

With a bit of time to spare on our second day in the Musselburgh area, we decided to drive down the coast to Aberlady. We parked in the small car park near the boardwalk and walked the mile and a half each way out to the sea. As you walk through marshy land first, then through an alley of bushes and then emerge into a tidal flood plain and then sand dunes, you encounter a surprising range of birds. Not only were there Tufted Ducks and Lapwings and Iystecatchers in the part closest to the road but, as you got furhter into the tidal part, birds sang from the ground, the air and the trees.

These ranged through Linnet, Willow Warbler, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Reed Bunting, Stonechat and even a single Sedge Warbler, which surprised me. It was a fantastic walk and very interesting. I would very much like to see it at different stages of the tide because it much change a lot.

Bird Sightings : Aberlady Bay

Scotland Holiday Day 11: Bass Rock 8th June 2016

After we left St Andrews, we drove to Musselburgh, our next family destination, but we were early enough that we decided to drive down to the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick. Totally out of the blue Inoticed that there was a boat trip out to the Bass Rock in about an hour. Anne was not much bothered and wanted a shopping opportunity, so I sorted all my gear out and got a regular boat (not a RIB) out to the Bass Rock. This was the one thing I had missed getting the boat to the Isle of May from Anstruther as this omits Bass Rock, wheras the boat trips to May out of North Berwick take the rock in. Accordingly I was very pleased, on another lovely sunny day, to have a chance to get my full quota of Gannets for the holiday.

I also wanted to try my new Nikon D500 and 200-500mm lens combination. I had had a try out on the Isle of May but the boat trip there was so foggy that I could not get any decent pictures from the boat. Of course, the Bass Rock is usually not a landing trip so all my photos were taken from the boat. Thi time, however, it was not a RIB so it was a bit more stable if a bit more difficult due to the overhead rigging. In a RIB there is nothing above or around you except open air – and other passengers.

As usual it was a wonderful experience with plenty of Puffins and Guillemots and Razorbills on the water to add to the Gannet city, now estimated to be the biggest Gannetry in the world at 170,000 birds !

Bird Sightings : Bass Rock