26/10/2018 Robin's Lane, St Helens

Rose Colored Starling: After a day of highways England network training course (as it was as dull as it sounds) I had an early dart from work and headed over to see the juvenile rose coloured starling that's taken a liking to a chipshop off Robin's Lane as the bird is best viewed from the alleyway behind the chippy.

We've been lucky in the area as we have had two juvenile rose-coloured starling recently, one in Timperley and now this St Helens bird.

There has been some discussion about whether or not the St Helens rose coloured starling might be the same bird as the Timperley one last week.

Colin Davies has put a few comparison images up on the 'St Helens Now' blog that are well worth a look. See the link below.

 http://www.sthelensnow.com/modules/xhld3/index.php?id=5

Someone continues to put out meal worms, so maybe that's one of the reasons its sticking to this unusually small area and affording excellent



The bird really nice, I would even recommend taking a look at Pete Hines's cracking video. Please see the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXXYHAFidro

21/10/2018 Treeve Moor, Penzance, Cornwall Gray Catbird

Grey Catbird: Boo-ya, after an eagerly anticipated wait and a whole-lotta luck I have now added grey catbird to my list.

This is the second record for the UK after the Anglesey bird back in October 2001. The bird has been here since last Monday and with the weather changing to northerly winds and colder, clear night I did think the bird might move on without me seeing it first.


But not this time, the bird remained faithful to its feeding foraging site, behind Treeve Moor guest house and showed well without waiting too long.

One thing I wanted to mention was the three blokes who were locals and their complete and utter disregard for other twitches on site, I travelled 724 miles to see this bird and there were at least a dozen other twitches who hadn't seen it before I arrived.


These three local birders not only saw the bird first and kept schtum, but moved to a completely different area to view he bird and purposely didn't tell anyone else. I was disgusted by their selfish behaviour.

Still, lets not have them spoil this twitch, I did see this brilliant bird after all.

17/10/2018 Thurstaston, Wirral ‏

Chough: After working night time road closures on the M56 I had some time banked and decided to spend some of it out birding, specifically to see my first Cheshire chough.

I walked down slipway from top car park of the Dee Sailing Club and bumped in to a few familiar names including Pete Hines, Kenny McNiffe, Chris Challoner to name a few, the bird was showing well on the boulders and cliff faces at on the beach.








According to the Al Conlin this is the 12th chough for Wirral.

07/10/2018 Haltwhistle Cemetery, Northumberland

European Bee Eater: After a very disappointing morning where once again Dawn and I failed to secure tickets to Glastonbury I decided to take the long trip up the M6 and see this little beaut.

A stunning bird and one I've only seen once before in the UK and almost in the same area.

Once I parked up I headed in to the cemetery hoping to find a large crowd of birders and toggers snapping away, but after a 10 minute search I still could find the bee eater or the birders.

I eventually bumped din to another birder who was also on the lookout and also in the wrong place like myself, we realise the bird had moved away from the cemetery and down towards the river.

Here there was about 20 people enjoying the colourful bird on this dull grey day.

While there I was told that the bird has been in the area for 10 days and I could see it was feeling well on a wasps nest in the nearby house.

It was good to catch up with young Elliot and good to hear he is doing well at Carlisle Uni.