30/04/2021 Surrender Bridge, Swaledale

Red Grouse: I've spent the week working in North Yorkshire and before I left I stopped off for a few hours on the moors in the stunning Swaledale valley, not far from Surrender bridge. Where Ted cooper found a female type black redstart the evening before. 

I love it up here, there is something special about the wild and windswept North York Moors that I really enjoy. The open spaces and scenery surrounded by bird calls, what's not to like?

Three-quarters of all the world's heather moorland is found in Britain, and the North York moors is home to the largest expanse in England. I wanted to get one of those classic shots of a red grouse in the heather but I was a little early for the heather is its bloom which gives way to purple drifts.  

Red Grouse (female): The ridge-top roads climb up lush green valleys, lined with lichen laidend stone walls. Eventually opening up to the bleak open moors. And despite the unusually cold conditions, frost and even snow.

Ring Ouzel: Although I didnt see the black redstart, presumably a passing bird I was still surrounded by some nice birds It was nice to find a few ring ouzel amongst the heather, albeit at a distance. 

There were a couple of ring ouzel in this area with along with calling golden plover and honking greylag geese.

I managed some shot of the red grouse, in the reddish brown heather and even got myself a hen bird who in my opinion are much better looking than their male counterparts, with their mottled golden markings.  

This was an enjoyable hour or so before driving back home. 

24/04/2021 Red Rocks, Wirral

Wheatear: My goal today was to see my fisrt spring whinchat. Well in the end it was a bit of a bust but, I did manage to get some good birding in along Red Rock and Frodsham Marsh before calling it a day. 

The stretch of beach at West Kirby is just 300 metres long and is always busy when the sun and the tide are out, and today was no different. The place was packed! I didn't mind the crows of beach goers and revillers out with their children. It's been such a hard year for so many people. 

However, it's the dog walkers I can't abide, willfully ignorant walking over the salt marsh wit their dogs running wild. No wonder I didn't see any whinchat it was like a scene from Crufts. 

Still, it was nice to be out in such good weather and I finished the day of Frodsham Marsh which is now full of the sounds of spring migrants such as grasshopper warbler, whitethroats and reed warblers. I was also treated to a male marsh harrier hanging over the reeds. 

20/04/2021 Leasowe Lighthouse, Wirral

Ring Ouzel: Finally caught up with the ring ouzel at Leasowe Lighthouse, there were three male birds showing well near the yellow buckets past the fisheries.  

It took me a while to actually find the 'yellow bucket' field and spent much of time time around the usual areas of the lighthouse, the horse paddocks, kersfield and around the seafront. 

Also special thanks to Allan Conlin for the gen on the redstart, which was feeding in the paddock south of Lingham Lane. 

18/04/2021 Abram, Wigan

Gyrfalcon: Well after a bit of a non-start day dipping both the ring ouzel and redstart at Leasowe this afternoon with the baby in tow and having limited time it was nice to see a decent bird, albeit an escaped one!

It was my Neighbor Neil, who knocked on the door to say that there is a large bird of prey making some comoation at the end of the road.  And there stood a huge gyrfalcon. 

Subsequently I've learned that a local couple from Golborne had lost this bird a few days earlier. They were arrived on the street to try and lure the bird back, before it flew off over Polly's ponds and toward the woods

Folk were particularly worried as the birds swivel was still attached to its jesses. I've been informed  morning and bird has now been successfully re-captured and is safe and sound.

I'm sure the local magpies will be happy!

16/04/2021 Cutacre Country Park, Bolton

Stonechat: Lovely walk in the spring sunshine, a little cold perhaps but a pleasant walk with not many folk about.  I was hoping for a few owls, but didn't strike lucky this time.

But had plenty of the more common stuff including plenty of stonechat, meadow pips and skylarks. 

Meadow Pipit: I will return and hopefully see some owls next time or an early spring migrants like a whinchat. 

Fingers crossed.

10/04/2021 Barcombe Cross, East Sussex

White-throated Sparrow: Question: when does a sparrow excite more birdwatchers than an eagle would? Answer: when it's a white-crowned sparrow from the United States, hopping around and old allotment in East Sussex. 

 

I think this bird has been in the area for some time now,  perhaps the precise location was suppressed during the height of lockdown? Who knows, either way I was thrilled to have seen it. And thankful to the folks who relocated it and put the news out. 

The white-throated sparrow which normally lives in parts of North America and Canada was found in close to an allotment in Barcombe. There have only been a handful of sightings in the UK over the years.

They are great birds, I've seen them in Central Park and Bryant Park in New York, but this was my first UK bird. They are attractive little birds with their white eyestripe bordered by a yellow patch between the eye and the bill. 

We arrived really early, just after fisrt light and the bird was nowhere to be seen but with a little patience that bird came flying across the woodland edge and landed on the picnic table to feed. 

It then moved to the nearby coppiced area and we were treated to brilliant views of the bird singing.  

The bird was pretty loyal to one particular area although it does wonder further at atimes. Towards the west end of the allotments there is a decked area that is home to a picnic table and this is where the bird frequently comes to.

A proper good bird in the bag!

09/04/2012 Frodsham Marsh, Cheshire

Chiffchaff: Once again after spending the day working from home in front of the laptop I was keen to enjoy some of this sproing sunshine and I headed down out in the search of water pipit,  this time at Frodsham Marsh. 

Again, no water pipit, but plenty of other nice birds including three black necked grebes on tank no.6, a single wheatear near the pipes near tank no.4 and a very nice male yellow wagtail briefly in the flooded area off Lordship lane. 

I wouldn't describe the flooded field as a flood anymore, it's drying out fast and is more like a muddy muddle. A few more days of dry weather and I fear it will no longer be wet at all.

In a patch of reed near tank no.3 there was  male chiffy belting out its song, the sound of springtime. I watched it as it foraged amongst the reeds and a hawthorn which was now in leaf. 

A lovely little bird to while away the late afternoon with.  

Meadow Pipit: I spent much of my time watching the flooded field as this is the area the water pipit has been favouring.

Birds were still visiting the flood, including pied wags, reed bunts and mipits, some of which came pretty close as the foraged wider across the muddy field.

I really like frodders, a place I learned by birding skills when I was a child. Although now its seems like a place I rarely visit, perhaps something that needs to change. 

08/04/2021 Carr Lane Pools, Hale, Cheshire

Channel wagtail (M f flava × flavissima): After work I drove down to Carr Lane Pools to unwind and attempt to pick out a water pipit.  From Town Lane looking onto the pools from the bridge I counted at least nine white wags, dozens of meadow pipits, two little ring plover and a single stunning Channel wag, but no water pipit.

Carr Lane is becoming well known for having breeding Channel wags, these little beauties are the commonest variety of blue-headed wags that we in the north of Britain typically get. 

Channel wags are a type of blue-headed wagtail and that form due to a pairing of yellow and blue-headed interbreeding.  This results in a wagtail that exhibits a washed-out blue/grey-head, often more extensive white in the supercilium, ear-coverts and throat. 

The wind was picking up and came with a bitter cole bite, so after staying a while I was forced to seek the warmth of my car heater. 

05/04/2021 Exmouth, Devon

Northern Mockingbird: It's been over 30 years since thge last northern mockingbird was spotted in Britain and while it was found during the height of the Covis lockdown, with tight restrictions on on people's ability to travel anyone who caught a glimpse of the north American bird was very lucky indeed.

The last time a mockingbird was spotted in the UK was in the 1980s - the first in 1982 at Saltash, Cornwall, and the second in 1988 at Horsey Island, in Essex. 

Northern mockingbirds are the only mockingbird commonly found in North America. While they typically have a short home range, some birds do move south in the harsh winters - so been spotted as far away as Britain is a pretty huge feat. 

This bird turned up during the height of the national lockdown and although I'm sure some birders and twitchers went to see it I think the overwhelming majority have waited, like myself until travel restrictions were eased in order to travel such a long way to see it.

05/04/2021 Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall

American Herring Gull: This especially tame first winter AHG was found towards the end of lockdown back mid March, so again I had to hope and pray to the birding Gods that it would stay until I got a chance to go once the travel restrictions had been lifted. 

By the time I arrived the bird was pretty close on the rocky area within Newlyn Harbour it was quite approachable until a local came past with her pack of small Yorkshire terriers which put all the gulls up, including the AHG.  It flew off over the harbour wall and was relocated on the nearby fish market roof. 

The bird remained upon the roof for sometime before coming back down and rejoining the other gulls loafing on the shoreline of the harbour. 

Amongst its European counterparts this bird really stood out like beast. 

The bird is distinctly bigger then a European herring gull with a gray-brown, dark tail, a brown rump with dark bars, dark outer primaries and pale inner primaries.

 

AHG breed across Alaska and northern Canada, south to the Great Lakes and along the Atlantic Coast south to North Carolina. they over winter from southern Alaska south to Mexico and from the Great Lakes and Massachusetts south to the Caribbean and Central America.

I love Cornwall, it's a place I plan to spend more time at as the baby grows up and seek some family staycations.

  

 

03/02/2021 Local Site, Wigan

Barn Owl: With the longer evenings and recent good weather I've been spending more time out at dusk on a few of the local sites close to home, hoping to count a few of the local barn owls. 

It's always a special day when you have an encounter with a barn owl, they are magnificent birds. This individual was not shy and quartered right past me on two occasions before gliding off over the rough grassland. 

As a schedule 1 breeding bird I'm always conscious  about posting precise locations of barn owl in the breeding season, so forgive me for being vague in the title description.