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Apr 15 2013
Birding Group to Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands 15th April 2013
Birding Group to Visit to Burton Mere Wetlands 15th April 2013
After we finished up at Inner Marsh Farm we decided to drop in on Burton Mere Wetland. As it happens a tree had fallen across the main road to the reception so we parked up in the filed at the top of the lane and walked down through the woodes where we saw a Nuthatch and could hear Chiffchaffs but, again, we could not see them.
The reception hide was busy as usual – a mecca for bird watchers who like their comforts. Again the glass was extremely frustrating. You are usually better standing outside the hide to the left side and getting a clear view. Anything other than a straight ahead view starts to cause distortion. – a big design flaw ! Continue reading
Apr 15 2013
Birding Group to Visit to Inner Marsh Farm 15th April 2013
Birding Group to Visit to Inner Marsh Farm 15th April 2013
We had a lovely spring-like day for our group visit to Inner Marsh Farm and with the weather being quite sunny and warm we had everything we needed for a food days birding. Our treat of the day cam early on with very good views of our first Wheatear for the the year – about half a dozen of them too-ing and fro-ing from the dry-stone wall on the left just as you get past the gate that cuts across the path down to the railway line and thence to the hide.
Apr 09 2013
Birding Group to Visit to Moore Nature Reserve 9th April 2013
Birding Group to Visit to Moore Nature Reserve 9th April 2013
The first birding group morning out of the term was to Moore Nature Reserve was a little under-attended due to holidays and other commitments so there were only six of us. Still we hoped we might hear or see some summer migrants and perhaps also get sight of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker again. In fact there had been reports on the Manchester Birding Site of someone getting a “Woodpecker hat trick” there recently so we wondered if we would get lucky. It helped that is was a dry day, if a bit cold and grey.
Apr 06 2013
Visit to WWT Martin Mere 6th April 2013
Visit to WWT Martin Mere 6th April 2013
As we still had a bit of time available to us when we had finished at Mere Sands Wood we made the short drive to WWT Martin Mere. When we go to Martin Mere I reflect that we never see Curlew when we drive past Curlew Lane and I always though the name harked back to a previous era. However, this time, as we drove from Mere Sands Wood to WWT Martin Mere we drove along Curlew Lane and – lo and behold – there were about thirty of them feeding on the fields ! Continue reading
Apr 06 2013
Visit to Mere Sands Woods 6th April 2013
Visit to Mere Sands Woods 6th April 2013
We looked out the window and for once it was a beautiful dry and sunny day so we wasted very little time getting our gear ready and headed off to Mere Sands Wood which we have been meaning to go to – without the addition of snow or rain – for a while now and it turned out to be a lovely day for a walk round the woods taking in most of the hides and although there wasn’t anything special on show it was as if spring was actually threatening to arrive for the first time this year. Continue reading
Apr 02 2013
Birding Group Schedule Spring 2013
Birding Group Schedule Spring 2013
The provisional schedule for Spring is as follows :
| Tue | 09-Apr-13 | Moore Nature Reserve |
| Mon | 15-Apr-13 | Inner Marsh Farm ? Burton Mere Wetlands |
| Tue | 23-Apr-13 | Pennington Flash |
| Tue | 30-Apr-13 | Marshside / Mere Sands Woods |
| Tue | 07-May-13 | Stayley Brushes |
| Tue | 14-May-13 | Macclesfield Forest |
| Tue | 21-May-13 | Neumann’s / Haydn’s Flash |
| Tue | 28-May-13 | North Cave / Blacktoft Sands |
| Tue | 04-Jun-13 | Goyt Valley |
| Tue | 11-Jun-13 | Conwy / Anglesey |
| Tue | 18-Jun-13 | tcs poss Etherow |
| Tue | 25-Jun-13 | Brockholes |
| Tue | 02-Jul-13 | Dove Stone tbc |
| Tue | 09-Jul-13 | Marbury – autumn planning |
Mar 31 2013
Summary March 2013
Summary March 2013
Garden
The first week of March was an unusually dry spell and sometimes quite warm. After that the weather got wetter and a bit colder. By the start of the second week it was snowing a bit and very cold but by the 17th it was drier and a bit warmer. Towards the end of the month the snows started to fall again, this time much more heavily, and the temperatures were freezing. Actually Manchester seemed to get off lightly compared to the rest of the country and by the end of the month there was some sunshine even though it was still cold. In fact the coldest March for fifty years.
Continue reading
Mar 29 2013
Summary of Birding in Norfork, Cambridge, Rutland etc 22 – 28th March 2013
Summary of Birding in Norfolk, Cambridge, Rutland etc 22 – 28th March 2013
Our eight-day holiday, mixing visiting friends with as much birding as we could fit in en route, took us first to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust site at Welney summarised here which was, disappointingly, as flooded as it had been last year. With few birds on view the highlights were probably the Avocets.
Next we had our two-day guided birding tour of the Brecks led by Stuart White. On day one despite the snow blizzard we still managed to get some good birding done and the highlights were the Black Bellied Dipper on the River Thet and magnificent views of Otters. Nice additions to our year list were Woodlark and Marsh Tit and we also had a great view of a large flock of Redwing who were actually singing !
The second day the snow abated but it was still extremely cold. We were taken to some the same places we had been the previous day but this time we had views of two Black-Bellied Dippers not one – perhaps the first time two have been seen together in the UK! A great life tick was several views of Goshawk and we also added Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Fieldfare as year ticks. The close views of a dead Woodcock were very interesting if a bit morbid.
Mar 28 2013
Visit to Rutland Water Nature Reserve 28th March 2013
Visit to Rutland Water Nature Reserve 28th March 2013
After we left Lakenheath Fen we drove up to the Midlands where we stayed at the Barnsdale Lodge Hotel, a very comfortable hotel that we had stayed at previously. It is a bit pricey normally but they do good offers for some dates and we took advantage of this to break up our journey back to Manchester a little bit. We chose it for its close proximity to Rutland Water Nature Reserve where we hoped to see the female Osprey that has arrived back first from Africa and is already checking its nest out. We wondered if, with only a few hours available to us, we would get lucky and see the bird? Continue reading
Mar 27 2013
Visit to RSPB Lakenheath Fen 27th March 2013
Visit to RSPB Lakenheath Fen 27th March 2013
After we left Halesworth we drove straight to Bury St Edmunds where we were staying with some other friends. After a nice dinner and watching a bit of the football on computer we went to bed and next day we set of early for Rutland Water but on our way we dropped in on RSPB Lakenheath Fen for a good walk and to see what was around. We knew it was a little early in the year for a lot of the special birds they are famous for, Hobby and Golden Oriole, but we thought we should give it a go anyway. We stopped for a chat in the reception but we were told there wasn’t too much around. Undeterred, we still headed off for a walk around the site.