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May 06 2022
Rutland Water and Windmill Tea Shop 6th May 2022
We started our holiday with a stopover afternoon at Rutland Water. An early start meant that we had a few hours at Rutland Water where we managed to get excellent views of the two Ospreys both on and off the nest, the fame feeding on a fish the male had caught earlier. But the best bird of the day was seen when we stopped at the Windmill Tea Shop at Wymondham.
Continue readingApr 30 2022
April 2022 Summary
Total UK Species in April 2022: 65
New “Year Ticks” in April 2022: 11
New “Life Ticks” in April 2022: 0
Total Species for 2022 so far: 110
Apr 26 2022
Pennington Flash 26th April 2022
The birding group visit to Pennington Flash on the 26th April turned out to be a really, warm and sunny day with very little wind. The foliage is all back on the trees now, making spotting birds trickier, but they are full of bird song. We got lots of warblers but also three Spring visitors.
Continue readingApr 19 2022
Burton Mere Wetlands 19th April 2022
The birding group had a morning out to Burton Mere Wetlands on 19th April. The rain held off to give us a nice Spring day and the birds were definately full of spring themselves with lots of Wrens, Cetti’s and other small birds dashign around everywhere collecting nesting material and some even seemed to be collecting food items indicating nesting was happening – perhaps even chick rearing already!
So, apart from the general joy of Spring in the air we also got some year firsts as the warblers arrive for the breeding season.
Continue readingApr 11 2022
Burton Mere Wetlands 11 April 2022
A morning out to Burton Mere Wetlands promised the possibility of Garganey as well as all the other usual species. As it happened, we got four new year ticks and some very good views of a bird that had proved very elusive on a previous visit.
Continue readingMar 31 2022
Summary March 2022
Total UK Species in March 2022: 99
New “Year Ticks” in March 2022: 9
New “Life Ticks” in March 2022: 0
March of last year saw us entirely confined to our garden as a result of the pandemic We only saw one new species for the year and total of seventeen species for the year to the end of March. This March we saw nine new species for the year and sixty-nine species for the month taking our year list at the end of March to 99 species (last year it was a paltry seventeen! How things have inmproved since then. With the hides all open again we managed to return to some of our old annual haunts and this month included two of these we had not been to since before the pandemic.
Continue readingMar 30 2022
Birding Group Schedule Spring-Summer 2022
The birding group schedule agreed was:
- 19 April Burton
- 26 April Pennington
- 3 May Moore
- 10 May Leighton Moss
- 17 May Martinmere
- 24 May Goyt Valley
- 31 May Macclesfield Forest
- 7 June Burton
- 14 /15 June Bempton
- 21 June Marbury
Mar 29 2022
Marbury Country Park 29 March 2022
The last birding group outing of themonth was to Marbury Country Park on a fabulously sunny morning. We only managed to add Stock Dove and Treecreeper to our year list but we did get a nice range of birds and clocked up thirty-five species for the day.
Continue readingMar 24 2022
Woolston Eyes 24 March 2022
Woolston Eyes had been closed for a long time because of the pandemic so we were glad to be able to get back there and get our annual Black-necked Grebe experience. As it happened there were very few on show for us and we nly managed to get one pair.
Continue readingMar 15 2022
Burton Mere Wetlands and Connah’s Quay, 15th March 2022
On 15th March the birding group went to Burton Mere Wetlands. It was a very nice day and we had our eyes on the Long-tailed Duck which had been seen out by the Bridge Screen. We were not disappointed but it was frustratingly determined to stay above the water for as little time as possible.
Continue reading