27/10/2013 The River Clwyd

Hoopoe: First stop the Clwyd where Mr Alex Jones found one of these great little birds on his local patch and as soon as I arrived and shook his hand I was greeted by my first UK Hoopoe.


The bird showed well, if a little distant for my lens before flying off for half an hour or so.




During this time I got talking to some of the old Burton Mere regulars who had just come back from Gronant where they said the Grey Phalarope was showing down to a few feet.

I decided to take a look for myself.

05/10/2013 Leighton Moss

Bearded Tit: Over the last few days the Bearded Tits at Leighton have been showing incredibly well and in some superb numbers with 15 individuals showing on the grit trays.

After arriving at 7am on a very cold Autumn morning and standing in one place for a few chilly hours I was thrilled when the birds turned up. One female came early on in the morning but only stayed briefly before melting in to the reeds.

I had to wait two hours before I saw another but just like bus's when one turns up nine do!

Mr John Wilson was in the reedbed behind us with his mist nets up and recordings to lure the birds over.

John was kind enough to emerge out of the reeds to show me a male and female Bearded Tit in the hand this was totally awesome.

It was great to see the detail you can often miss, like the birds black  under-tail coverts.

Another thing I enjoyed making a note of was the bird's coloured rings, for example the bird in John's hand is purple over white which I saw again on the grit trays when it was released.




I spotted four males in all and five females all of whom could be tracked and traced by monitoring their rings.






John told me that he had caught two young birds a few days earlier of which he had put new rings on showing that they had once again successfully bred at Leighton Moss, cracking stuff!

04/10/2013 Audenshaw Reservoir

Great Skua: I was told today that we make our own luck when it comes to birding, well I tend to agree and that's why I took a quick detour to Asda on the way and picked up a pack of fresh fish!

This was to lure the Skua closer to my camera lens as well as helping the bird out as I'm sure a bit of free fish would be greatly received - as you can see!

It was good to bump in to Jaz a local birder from the Manchester area who got some suburb shots and had the same idea as me and came prepared with some sprats.

The bird was very confiding and came right up to me before flying off to the middle of the pool to digest its free meal.

It was such a shame about the lighting though as if we had blue skies and sunshine these pics would be a lot better - not bad I guess considering the light.



Other birds of note included a single female Wheatear and half a dozen Goosander.

01/10/2013 Leasowe Lighthouse

Yellow-browed Warbler:  I placed my bets today on seeing a YBW on the Wirral over the Red Necked Grebe at Marton Mere.


I struck luck as one turned up at Leasowe, where I also bumped in to Scott, Liam and Allan to name a few.



In my opinion this is one of the most stunning LBJ's I have come across. But what a total bugger to pin down. This individual was almost totally silent and extremely elusive and when it does make an appearance everyone sees the bird but me!




I was gutted - better directions needed, but after another long wait the bird came back and gave me some stunning views and after not seeing it the first time I decided to put the camera down and enjoy the bird.

The bird showed for several minutes before becoming invisible again as it skulked behind the bush. After another short appearance when the bird came back this time foraging on the ground I decided its time to take a few pics, these are the best I could do! Gives me something to improve on for my next YBW.

29/09/2013 Horwich Moors

Glossy Ibis: There has been four glossies hanging around the moors of Horwich particularly around the Bob Smithy pub.

So after a 6am start today and an hour wait on a windy Horwich moor without any sign of the bloody birds, I went to work, but came back!

Once I arrived I spotted two birds feeding just a few metres away from me. They were oblivious of the long line of photographers and birders until they decided to stretch their wings and fly a bit further up the field.

In the end they disappeared around the corner and across the road to a farm field. Where I was shooting in to the sun so decided to put the camera down and enjoy these awesome birds!


It was also great to bump in to David Shallcross from Leigh Ornithological Society (or L.O.S.) and some other great guys from the group.


http://www.leighos.org.uk/p/about-los.html

http://shallcross-images.blogspot.co.uk/

17/09/2013 Brockholes

Black Tern: OK so I turned down a trip to Suffolk for the Lesser Grey Shrike and this goes against rule number one! Never say no to a twitch. But I made up for it a little by getting my first Black Tern at Brockholes.

This has been another one of this years bogey birds, dipping at Pennington Flash, Eccleston Mere and New Brighton, but one which I have been looking forward to seeing for ages.

When I arrived a local birder pointed it out to me as it roosted on the island in number one pit - as I think they call it. I then got the briefest of views before I got a call from Paul Brady regarding some work stuff then subsequently I lost the bird.

I searched for well over an hour and a half dodging the autumn showers before finally stumbling upon the bird on the Ribbleton Pool.

 

16/09/2013 North Wirral Shore

1st Winter Mediterranean Gull: Despite the wind the sand and the rain showers I had an excellent day out on the wonderful North Wirral shore.

First I headed across to New Brighton where I huddled against the life guard station with a gang of birders, trying to shelter from the gale force winds.

Here I spotted my first of five LEACH'S STORM PETREL and ended up spotting five birds.

As the cold started to penetrate my thermals I decided to go for a wander to warm up and was told I just missed some Storm Petrels.....gutted!

Adult Winter Mediterranean Gull: I did however spot a 1st inter Med Gull on the grassy field behind where we were standing.

And I spotted this adult Med Gull on West Kirby Marina Lake, this bird has been hanging around here for a while now. Well worth keeping an eye out if you're passing.

Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of the Leach's but Zac did check this out http://zacswildlifeblog.blogspot.co.uk/

10/09/2013 Billinge Hill

Yellow Wagtail:  This was my first visit up the highest point in St Helens and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was Paul Brady who invited me for a spot of patching and we met Damain another local Billing Hill patcher.

Pied Wagtail: On the way up we spotted a few Yellowhammer a single willow tit and a female Sparrowhawk. One the way down we spotted a load of Tree Sparrow, Yellow Wagtail, Whitethroat and a few Common Gull passing over head.

Wheatear: As we approached the fields near the horse paddocks, on the hill. Paul and I spotted at least 10 Wheatear bouncing around. This was the highlight as it was a little unexpected.

We then had a call saying that a Black Tern had made an appearance down the road at Eccleston Mere so me and Paul raced over but had no luck although we did have some great fly-buy views of the Kingfisher there.


I was very impressed with Billinge Hill and St Helens in general and will be making an effort to bird that area now that I am a local Wigan lad.

09/09/2013 Pennington Flash

Lesser Scaup: With autumn the changing winds bring with it American migrants, like this diving duck that migrates across the pond.

In America it is colloquially known as the Little Bluebill or Broadbill because of its distinctive blue bill.

Here its called a Lesser Scaup! Well I think I prefer Little Bluebill.

This bird has taken up residence at Pennington Flash and has been showing incredibly well due to its appetite for bread.

So on my way to penny I stopped off at Morrison's and picked up a brown loaf, when I arrived on the far side of the flash the bird was enticed in by a few slices.

I thought this behavior was very unusual as the rest of the Tufted Ducks it was flocking with never came close to the bread. And the only other Lesser Scaup I had seen last year at Burton Mere was very flighty and you could tell it would never come for the bread.



I am assured its not an escapee, no ring! And people were telling me this behavior is not all that unusual, someone even told me they were feeding Goosander bread the other week.

31/08/2013 The Great Orme

Dotterel: A cracking visit to North Wales relived some awesome  birds. First stop was  up the very Great Orme in search of a juvenile Dotterel.

Myself, Scott and Alex walked right past the bird while it slept upon the limestone pavements, but once spotted it was showing incredibly well.

From here we headed across to the Little Orme for a spot of sea watching, although the winds were not really on our side Alex spotted a single adult Med Gull and we saw a few Manxies flying past along with a good number of Gannet.

We then decided to give Llanddulas a go and instantly spotted a large raft of Common Scoter, but the highlight was two Arctic Skua cashing Terns, giving us a great display.







It was on our way home we got a call from Phil Woollen and Mark Payne who told us a Stilt Sandpiper has turned up at Newmans Flashes, Cheshire.




With a big smile on our face Scott picked up the speed in his car and we shot off to see a new bird, a good bird, we were told this was the first record of a Stilt Sand in Cheshire for 29 years.

27/08/2013 Spurn, East Riding of Yorkshire ‎

Icterine Warbler: My first trip to Spurn and in the words of Scott Reid 'its the bollocks'.

First stop was Beacon Lane where we had reports of an icky Warbler and Barred Warbler, both of which I needed. I decided to go for the barred with Liam as they are really tricky to see so we left Alex to find the icky.

This turned out to be a bad decision as Liam and I walked right passed the barred leaving a group of birders behind us to see it. We were gutted but turned back to see Alex who had successfully relocated the icky.

We also had a Wryneck down the lane, I had two ticks within a few minutes of getting out the car, AWESOME.

Red Backed Shrike: Our next stop and my third tick of the day, we headed across to the warren where some guy just had a RB Shrike. We hopped out the car and after a short wait the bird made an appearance.

We also had a flyover from a Yellow Wagtail  here, but there were discussions that it may have been a Citrine Wagtail - wishful thinking.

Spotted Flyatcher:  Spurn was full of some great birds, beside the rarities the supporting cast included spot fly, pied fly and Redstart.

We spotted all of these in the same area which the RB Flycatcher had been seen, but failed to see it after a long search.

Winchat: Feeling a little deflated after dipping the RB Fly we headed down to Spurn Point to improve on our bad luck earlier that morning, as news came though that another barred was down on the point.

Again we had no sign of the bloody barred but got this nice shot.



Red-breasted Flycatcher: While looking for the barred Liam went back to the RB Shrike site to try again and then sent us a text once he found it.

My fourth tick of the trip, although it showed really well it was difficult to photograph as it stayed in the shade of a tree.

Wryneck: The highlight of the trip for me had to be the Wrynecks, after a huge fall over the weekend we had no trouble finding them.

The Beacon Lane bird was showy and we had good views until we came across this bird on the mound next to the Crown and Anchor at Kilnsea.

We were blown away by the bird as it fed on ants in the grass not bothered by anyone, it was even happily feeding as cars passed right by it.

We came across another bird a bit further down Easington Road which amazed us further as this time it was only a few feet away.

After another failed attempt to locate a barred down Beacon Lane and deciding to call it a day and head back home the Wryneck's were all over Easington Road and there where birders laying an arms length away getting some amazing shots.

Spurn migration festival here I come!

21/08/2013 The River Dee, Connah's Quay, Dock Road

Common Dolphin: What a totally awesome evening chasing after Dave the dolphin in the Dee.

I first went to Saltney Ferry Road foot bridge which stretches over the Dee and bumped in to two fellow dolphin watchers who told me its was seen back in Chester half an hour ago! So back to Chester I went!

After a quick search I released the dolphin was not in this area so headed back to Saltney Ferry Road foot bridge and was told again its now up at Connah's Quay, I had nothing to loose so bombed it up to Dock Road were large group of people had formed to watch.

When I finally caught up with the dolphin  it was happily feeding between the jetties and the rocks, but moving down river.

Myself and Richard Miller a fellow photographer followed it down river until it reached an outcrop of rocks where the dolphin began to hunt, we even saw small silver fish jumping out of the water while it chased them.

The dolphin came unbelievably close, less then 20-30 yards and showed really well in this area for about 30 minutes before it headed back up river and settled right opposite Dock Road car park, where the crowds grew larger.





I'm not too sure who named the Dolphin Dave, but I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing it well and hoping it finds it's way back to sea.