Category: Featured in Slider
May 01 2015
Mallorca Holiday 1st May 2015 : C’an Cuarassa, S’Albufereta
Mallorca Holiday 1st May 2015 : C’an Cuarassa, S’Albufereta
Apr 30 2015
Mallorca Holiday 30th April 2015 : S’Albefura
Mallorca Holiday 30th April 2015 : S’Albefura
Apr 24 2015
Mallorca Holiday 24th April 2015 : “Pollenca Back Lanes”
Mallorca Holiday 24th April 2015 : “Pollenca Back Lanes”
We decided to do a bit of local birding as a warm up for the more distant sites that we meant to do later in our holiday. We plumped for the “Pollenca Back Lanes” tour mentioned in Dave Gosney’s book ““Finding Birds in Mallorca”. The walk didn’t let us down and we got a good list of species during the day including three “life ticks”
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Mar 09 2014
WWT Martin Mere : 9th March 2014
Ruff in Breeding Plumage, Martin Mere
WWT Martin Mere : 9th March 2014
On a lovely Sunday morning we decided to drive up to WWT Martin Mere. I had been reading lately that there was a male Ruff there in nearly full breeding plumage and I really wanted to this quite rare event – rare especially in the north of England. We had an early and pleasant truck-less drive up there and were ready for our cup of tea before setting out for the hides. As it happened they had lost all their electricity and the place was plunged into darkness. Well at least the hides didn’t depend on electricity so we immediately went out in search of our Ruff.
We popped in to the In Focus shop and asked Andy Bunting where the best spot was to look for it and he said that it was quite often on the Mere and could be seen from either the Swanlink hide or the Raines Observatory. On the grounds that we usually see the Ruffs quite closely from Raines we headed off there first.
Jan 03 2014
Winter Redwings in Chorlton
Dec 28 2013
Buff-bellied Pipit and Siberian Chiffchaff, Burton Marsh 28th December 2013
Buff-bellied Pipit and Siberian Chiffchaff, Burton Marsh 28th December 2013
Siberian Chiffchaff, Burton Marsh, Dec 2013
The reported presence of a Buff-bellied Pipit and a Siberian Chiffchaff at Burton Marsh was too much to resist and with just a few days of 2013 left I was determined to add another tick to my 2013 year list – indeed a it would be a life tick ! Being a Saturday we were pretty sure that we would be in the company of a few other birders but I wasn’t really expecting the eighty to one hundred birders that must have been there whilst we were.
We took the same route as we would have done if we were going to Inner Marsh Farm but we kept on the road as it bears right along the edge of the marsh (Station Road). We found a parking spot there and set up the scope. Continue reading
Dec 22 2013
The Pensarn Hoopoe : 22nd December 2013
The Pensarn Hoopoe : 22nd December 2013
Hoopoe Pensarn December 2013
I had been looking at the presence of this bird at Pensarn for quite some time on the bird alert services, Rare Bird Alert and Rare Bird Network, the latter of which I now access via Twitter. Both had been showing the bird for weeks after it had presumably been blown off its migratory journey to Africa due to very bad weather – it had landed at Castle Cove Caravan Park in Pensarn near Abergele where it seems to have been roosting under a caravan. The caravan is almost entirely unoccupied in winter so there isn’t much disturbance and the bird has been feeding quite well during its unscheduled stay.The worry is, of course, that it will not be able to get back on course and when the winter sets in and the ground freezes it is going to find it hard to feed. It may need to be rescued before it dies. With very high winds the day we went, and more to come, it is remotely possible that it could get back on track – but hard to imagine. In any case, for the moment it is doing well.
Dec 14 2013
Search for Crossbills, Broomhead Reservoir 14th December 2013
Search for Crossbills, Broomhead Reservoir 14th December 2013
Two barred Crossbill Broomhead Reservoir Dec 2013
I had been looking for weeks at the sightings of Two-barred and Common Crossbills listed on the Birdguides “Bird News Anywhere” site but had not yet found the time to get over to Broomhead Reservoir which is nearly at Sheffield. On a Sunday and the weather looking reasonable, we decided to give it a bash. I still was not sure whether I could rely on the Ross’s Goose at Marshside two days ago to give me the tick that took me over last years species count so this opportunity to add to my 2013 year list and, indeed, to possibly add two life ticks was too good to miss. Continue reading
Dec 07 2013
Visit to Hoylake and Parkgate for High Tide 7th December 2013
Visit to Hoylake and Parkgate for High Tide 7th December 2013
Dunlin, Hoylake, 7th December 2013
We dropped in at Burton Mere Wetland in the morning hoping to see the Little Stint. We were disappointed with that but undaunted we headed off for Hoylake for a high tide of approximately 9.8 m (32.1 ft) at around 2pm. We had intended to go there on the 5th but the weather was so bad that it was dangerous to drive with very high winds on the motorway and extensive flooding on the Wirral. The usual magic combination of low pressure, high tide and strong westerly winds all came together on the fifth to produce storms and flooding in many parts of the country. At Parkgate, for the first time in seven or eight years, the water came all the way in and the old baths car park was reported to be flooded half an hour before high tide. At New Brighton the promenade was inundated and the local Morrissons car park was completely flooded with some cars actually floating! A little more than ideal, then. This tide was a little lower and the high winds had gone. Still it was a nice spectacle anyway. Continue reading