Author's posts
Sep 05 2013
Curlew Sandpipers at RSPB Leighton Moss : 5th September 2013
Curlew Sandpipers at RSPB Leighton Moss : 5th September 2013
Curlew Sandpiper Leighton Moss
Sep 04 2013
Stilt Sandpiper : Sandbach Flashes : 4th September 2013
Stilt Sandpiper : Sandbach Flashes : 4th September 2013
I had been looking at the Bird News Anywhere web site for any interesting birds near to us and had spotted the appearance of a Stint Sandpiper on Ashton Flash at Sandbach Flashes and since it had been spotted for a couple of days in a row we decided to use a spare morning to check this bird out. It was useful that there had already been a reported sighting just five minutes before we set off. Continue reading
Sep 01 2013
Birding Group Autumn Schedule 2013 – 2014
Birding Group Autumn Schedule 2013 – 2014
24 Sep Pennington Flash
1 Oct Moore Nature Reserve
8 Oct Brockholes
15 Oct Neumann’s & Haydn’s Flashes
22 Oct Leighton Moss : Day trip
29 Oct Wigan Flashes (visit far side of canal ?)
5 Nov Burton Mere Wetlands (high tide approx 11.45am)
12 Nov Sandbach Flashes
19 Nov Martin Mere : Day trip
26 Nov Frodsham Marsh & Weaver Bend ( low tide approx 10.30am)
3/4 Dec Inner Marsh Farm or Hoylake/West Kirby. (high tide approx 10.45am)
10 Dec Dunham (plus lunch & programme planning for 2014)
Aug 31 2013
Summary August 2013
Summary August 2013
Garden
The weather was a bit mixed for the first couple of weeks of August with some good dry days, some uncertain days and some plain wet ones. The combination of sun and rain has done wonders for the garden and it is easy to see why some birders turn to insects at this time of year as the bees and butterflies have been abundant. There does some to be a, somewhat erratic, return of birds to the garden and some days we see quite a bit. On other days the cast of characters is reduced. But we have started to see juvenile Blackbirds and both adult and juvenile Goldfinches in modest numbers. We have had a Greenfinch coming to eat the black sunflower seeds that I have started putting out again. Indeed even the Blue Tits seem to prefer them. I have head a few Starlings and briefly seen a Dunnock. A Coal Tit has returned to the feeders as well so things are starting to look up in the garden bird department – at least by the middle of the month.
By the end of the month things were mixed again and the garden birds seem to come and go. We did see a Sparrowhawk flying over the garden in settling on a neighbour’s shed.
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Aug 23 2013
Visit to Hoylake for High Tide : 23rd August 2013
Visit to Hoylake for High Tide : 23rd August 2013
We left Burton Mere Wetlands with enough time to get up to Hoylake. As we arrived there were already a few birders on the prom and the birds were already quite a way in – indeed, much closer than they had been earlier in the year when we were last here. We parked up and got the scopes out. The first thing you noticed was that the birds were quite different from those that had been there in Spring. This time there were mind-boggling numbers of Ringed Plovers ; the official count was 1,100. There were also great numbers of Dunlin; again the official count was around 2,500/ But these were not the only birds present in significant numbers. Continue reading
Aug 23 2013
Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands : 23rd August 2013
Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands : 23rd August 2013
I discovered that there was to be a fairly high tide on the Wirral and fancied a trip to the prom at Hoylake to see what birds were to be found there as the tide came in. The tide was due to come in around noon so we stopped off at Burton Mere Wetlands for and hour or two to see what was there. Among the Canada Geese there was a single Barnacle Goose – a not uncommon occurrence there – and there wer numbers of Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwit. there were also a few Teal starting to collect and also Gadwall and Mallard. As we sat in the reception hide there we saw a Kingfisher fly in and sit on a stick right in front of the hide. One of the RSPB chaps there said that it had been doing this for a few days but we really didn’t expect to see it. It stayed for a minute or so and then flew off but only as far as the Sand Martin bank where it sat for quite a long time giving good – if slightly distant – views.
Aug 08 2013
Visit to Filey Dams : 8th August 2013
Visit to Filey Dams : 8th August 2013
On the morning of the 8th we had got up early and had a walk along Flamborough Cliffs before retuning to the Bempton Cliffs but since we were in the area there was one last place we wanted to visit and that was the one recommended to us at Spurn, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust site at Filey Dams Wetlands , a freshwater marsh curiously situated in the middle of a bunch of newish housing estates. We had been told that it was fantastic for waders but it seemed a little unlikely at first as we drove around suburban housing estate streets looking for the entrance. We did eventually find it and parked up. There are a couple of hides and we started off at the left side hide, the so-called “Main Hide. Here there were a few Gadwall and a Mallard and a pair of Greylag Geese but not a lot else. We stayed for a while but eventually we decided to take the path to the right hand side to get to the “East Pool Hide” where things improved.
Aug 08 2013
Visit to RSPB Bempton Cliffs : 8th August 2013
Visit to RSPB Bempton Cliffs : 8th August 2013
On the morning of the 8th we got up early and had a walk along Flamborough Cliffs before retuning to the RSPB site at Bempton Cliffs where I meant to take my 500mm lens and leave my scope behind. It was far too hot to carry both so I decided that it would be interesting to take some pictures with my long lens so I could compare it to the digiscoped photos I had taken the day before at the same spot. I also wanted to try again to see Fulmars and Skuas. In the former case we were lucky getting really good views of two Fulmars, one coming straight at us and veering away only when it was nearly above us.
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Aug 08 2013
Visit to Flamborough Cliffs: 8th August 2013
Visit to Flamborough Cliffs: 8th August 2013
We stayed at the North Star Hotel in Flamborough on the night of the 7th and rose early on the morning of the 8th for an early breakfast and an early (for us) walk along Flamborough Cliffs on an incredibly hot and sunny morning. In fact the temperatures were more like mid-day that 9am but it was beautifully still morning with only the noise of a farmer hay-making to break the sound of silence and birds. As we walked out of the hotel we immediately saw a flock of House Sparrows that were nesting in the roof space of the hotel and feeding in the corn field opposite. As we got to the cliffs a mixed bunch of Swallows and House Martins swooped around and the sound of Kittiwakes could be heard even before the cliffs were in sight. As we walked along the cliff path we saw a pair of birds fly above us and engage in a furious aerial battle – it turned out to be two Peregrines having a fight about something and going at it talon to talon until they disappeared into the distance still fighting.
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