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Jul 17 2011
Visit To Musselburgh Links : 17 Jul 2011
Visit To Musselburgh Links : 17 Jul 2011
On the last day of our visit to Musselburgh we decided to try a site that we had tried to get at before but which was then fenced off. I discovered a map of this site in “Where to Watch Birds in Britain” (entry no 364) so we decided to try again and this time we came to it from the far end. Previously we had tried to get there from the Goose Green end at the mouth of the River Esk. This time we tried from the far end near the roundabout at the end of the horse racing track. We started off rather late in the day and looked at two of the three hides that face onto the scrapes. At one there was a Black-tailed Godwit and a Grey Heron and a few Black-headed Gulls but at the next hide we had more luck.
Jul 16 2011
Boat Trip To Isle of May and Bass Rock : 16 Jul 2011
Boat Trip To Isle of May and Bass Rock : 16 Jul 2011
We went up to Scotland in the middle of July to visit relatives but I was also aware that there was only another week or so to go before the Puffins would leave the islands in the Firth of Forth off the east coast of Scotland and then they would be out in the open sea for another year. In order to get really good views of thousands of Puffins we would have to go to the Isle of May. The boat trips to both islands are run by the Scottish Seabird Centre. The day was inauspicious and we donned out waterproofs in the rain.
The Isle of May is a lot further from North Berwick harbour than the Bass Rock so we made the trip in a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) which is much faster than the boat we had been on the previous day. At the best of times this is a bit of a rough ride as the boat scuds along the top of the waves but the sea was choppier than the previous day so we had quite a ride of it with the rain slashing into our faces and the boat bumping along like a fairground ride and waves regularly crashing over the boat.
Jul 15 2011
Boat Trip To Craigleith and Bass Rock : 15 Jul 2011
Boat Trip To Craigleith and Bass Rock : 15 Jul 2011
We went up to Scotland in the middle of July to visit relatives but I was also aware that there was only another week or so to go before the Puffins would leave the islands in the Firth of Forth off the east coast of Scotland and then they would be out in the open sea for another year. In order to get really good views of thousands of Puffins we would have to go to the Isle of May but the Bass Rock was the first place on our itinerary. The boat trips to both islands are run by the Scottish Seabird Centre.
Bass Rock is an amazing place itself and not to be missed. It is one of the largest Gannetries in Britain being home to around 150,000 Gannets each year. The Gannets arrive around late February to early March and those that bred last year on the Rock will pair up again and start nesting and producing their one egg. This will go on every year until one of them dies when the other bird may take up another partner. By October the juveniles will leave the Rock and set off for the western coast of Africa. For these juveniles it will be a couple of years before they return to the Bass Rock to start nesting and mating on their own account but the adults will return again the following January to start all over again.
Jul 13 2011
Schedule for Birding Group Mornings ; September to December 2011
Schedule for Birding Group Mornings ; September to December 2011
- 27 Sept : Pennington
- 04 Oct : Marbury
- 11 Oct : Wigan Flashes
- 18 Oct : Leighton Moss rspb (day trip)
- 25 Oct : school half term (?) – local trip tbc
- 01 Nov : Inner Marsh Farm rspb
- 08 Nov : Moore
- 15 Nov : Conwy rspb & Llanddulas (hunt for snow buntings & turnstones)
- 22 Nov : Neumann’s Flash & Haydn’s Pond
- 29 Nov : Sandbach Flashes
- 06 Dec : Dunham ( including planning the next programme over lunch)
Jul 11 2011
Visit To Gauntlet Bird of Prey Centre 11th July 2011
Visit To Gauntlet Bird of Prey Centre
We went for an afternoon out to the Gauntlet Bird of Prey Centre which is next to Fryer’s Rose Nursery and Garden Centre on Manchester Road in Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 0SX. The admission is very cheap compared to other similar places we have been to. They are open 7 days a week between March and October – November to February is weekends only.
They have various events on a daily basis but the ones we went to were the “meet and greet” which happens at 2pm and the main flying display which starts at 3pm
Jul 06 2011
Day Out to Leighton Moss RSPB : 6th July 2011
Day Out to Leighton Moss RSPB : 6th July 2011
It had been a while since we were last at Leighton Moss and we hoped that although it was late on in the season that we stood a chance of seeing Bearded Tits or at least a good range of Warblers. We were to be disappointed in this department, however, as we did not see a single one of either ! That is not to say that our day was wasted however because, apart from a brief shower, the weather was warm and sunny and we ended up with fantastic views of Marsh Harriers.
Jul 04 2011
“Corvus : A Life with Birds ” by Esther Woolfson : 4th July 2011
“Corvus : A Life with Birds ” by Esther Woolfson : 4th July 2011
This book has been sitting on the bookshelf for a while. I actually bought it as a gift for Anne but I borrowed it to read on our holiday to Montacute and then the New Forest. The title gives the story away. It is the personal recollection of the author’s life with a series of Corvids which she obtained largely as birds dropped from the nest or abandoned and “rescued” by other people. There is a certain affinity with Gerald Durrell in that it is an often humorous account of the interaction between a human and a “wild” animal more or less domesticated. Woolfson mainly deals with the corvids that she raised including a Rook and a Magpie.
Jul 01 2011
Summary of June 2011
Weather
The weather this month has continued to be a bit up and down with the odd fall of hail stones and some heavy downpours but most days fairly dry if – almost always – a bit windy. Towards the middle of the month we got some more heavy rain and this continued intermittently until later in the month. Towards the end of the month we got a bit of a mini heat wave though we were on holiday at the time.
Garden
Some Swifts occasionally seen over the garden. The occasional sighting on the feeders of a single new Goldfinch; otherwise there are usually four Goldfinch adults each day and a male and a female Chaffinch continue to attend the feeders. Blackbirds, Collared Doves and Woodpigeons all on the ground. Dunnocks regularly scuttling around but still no Robin. I am sure our local Robin must have come to a bad end because I don’t think our garden has ever been so Robin free.
Jun 30 2011
Visit to Slimbridge WWT : 30th June 2011
Visit to Slimbridge WWT : 30th June 2011
From the New Forest we drove to Bristol on the 29th where we stayed overnight. This enabled us to break our return journey up into stages and in Bristol we caught up with an old friend of ours. Next morning we just had a short drive to decided to Slimbridge where again we were staying at the Tudor Arms pub in Slimbridge village. We had an afternoon to fill so we were looking forward to spending it at Slimbridge WWT. The weather started off a bit poor but picked up slowly. The previous time we were here we had somehow managed to miss going to the SOuth Hide so this time we made sure by going there first. As soon as we sat down we spotted what we took to be an Egret but it looked a bit big to be a Little Egret. Was it a Great White Egret then ? Well, no, it was better than that because on the odd occasion when it unfolded itself from its slumbers it revealed itself to be a Spoonbill !
Jun 29 2011
New Forest Holiday Day 4 : Ashley Walk : 29th June 2011
New Forest Holiday Day 4 : Ashley Walk : 29th June 2011
It was our last day in the New Forest so we decided to go for one last long walk over the heath. We settled on Ashley Walk / Pitts Wood. It was a hot day again and we did not really want to get too exhausted in the morning heat because we had to drive to Bristol in the afternoon. We could easily have stayed in the New Forest for another few days because we had far from exhausted our list of birding locations but our plans were otherwise so we settled on this for our last walk. We parked at the parking area on the B3078 named Ashley Walk and we made the long walk downhill into the heathland valley