After a long spell out of action with flu, I was keen to get out and about again. We opted for the Dee estuary which never disappoints. Our main target for the day was Twite at Connah’s Quay. We are going to Hawaii for three weeks shortly and this could have been our last chace to see them this winter.
Feb 07 2017
Snow Buntings and Hawfiches North Wales : 7 February 2017
Snow Bunting, Westshore, Llandudno
Feb 03 2017
Chorlton Water Park and Kenworthy Woods : 3 February 2017
A break in the wet weather gave us a chance to get out to Chorlton Water Park and Kenworthy Woods. It has been a long time since we hace gone over there, preferring to go further afield for less common birds. It was well overdue for us to visit the water park so we drove out there and walked around for a couple of house. In the car park we got our first Ring-necked Parakeet of the year and on the water there was a good array of ducks and other birds.
Jan 31 2017
Summary January 2017
Total UK Species in January : 85
New “Year Ticks” in January : 85
New “Life Ticks” in January : 0
Jan 31 2017
Pennington Flash : 31 January 2017
The fist birding group date we could make in January was to Pennington Flash on the last day of the month. It started off a little wet but soon dried up. It wasn’t even all that windy ! The main attractions were the possibility of seeing the Long-tailed Duck we had seen last year and also some Scaup. Not only did we get both these birds but we also got a fair range of other birds including “nine year ticks”
Jan 17 2017
White Storks at Lagos : 17th January 2017
White Stork Lagos
The sad loss of a very good friend took us to Portugal for her funeral. We were in Lagos between 15th – 19th January. The unhappiness of the occasion was soothed a little by the odd couple of hours birding that I managed to fit it. It was a bit of relief from the intense emotions raised by the reason for our presence.
Jan 11 2017
Red-crested Pochard and Smew at Newchurch Common 11th January 2017
An expected dry day before some very stormy weather was an opportunity to add to my 2017 year list with the reports of a drake Red-crested Pochard and a redhead Smew at Newchurch Common. As before, we parked at the end of Novscotia Lane and walked down the track rather grandiosely named Overdale Lane.
Jan 04 2017
North Wales Trip Waxwing, Snow Bunting and Hawfinch: 3 – 4 January 2017
With Christmas and New Year over we decided to take advantage of some dry weather to get out to North Wales to see if we could get our year list off to a good start. Last year we both had colds so we got off to a slow start. Not this year!
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Dec 31 2016
2016 Annual Summary
Summary 2016
I had decided that 2016 was going to be a good birding year for me and I set myself the target of seeing 200 birds in the UK by the end of the year. To this end I had arranged some holidays that would help us get the less common birds.
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Dec 31 2016
Summary December 2016
Summary December 2016
Species this month =94
New Species added to 2016 Year List in December= 4
Waxwings at St Asaph 14 & 15, Hawfinch at Llanbedr-y-Cennin 30th, Black-throated Thrush at St Asaph 30th, Chough at South Stack 30th
New UK Life List Birds In December= 1
Black-throated Thrush at St Asaph 30th