30/07/2022 Alkborough Flats, Lincolnshire

Stilt Sandpiper: I finally managed to drag my behind over to see the silt sand which as been frequenting Alkborough for a few weeks now.

The bird has been seen regularly from Prospect Hide, early mornings and through the afternoon seem to be best, following high tides. But when we arrive there was no sign of the bird, a long wait ensured.

I wasn't that bothered about the wait, there's no better place to spend a couple of hours, the supporting cast of waders was excellent. We had green sandpiper, redshank, ruff, curlew, little ringed plover, black-tailed godwit, black-redshank, water rail, dunlin, lapwing. Also a dozen or so spoonbill, marsh harrier and bearded tits. Not too bad a haul.

The stilt eventually flew in with a dozen or so black wits and landed right infant of the hide. 

Well worth the wait. 
 

14/07/2022 My Garden, Abram, Wigan

Southern Hawker: Despite its name, the Southern hawker is not as common a sighting around Wigan and Leigh. So when one turns up flying around my garden I was keen to grab the camera and head out. 

Its the third time I've seen it flying over my modest pond and flying around the garden but the first time I had my camera ready. 

Southern hawkers can easily be confused with is Northern counterpart, and often require a closer inspection of a photograph for identification. As with most other Hawkers, the Common takes to the sky from mid summer onwards, and can be observed as late as October. 

There's a small flash locally called Polly's Pond at the end of the street which is the likely place that this stunning flying jewel came from. I doubt it came out of my small pond, but hopefully it might have used it at some point. Maybe they will deposit their eggs in it one day?

29/07/2022 Pennington Flash, Leigh

Black Tern: Work has been mental recently with tons of breeding bird and barn owl surveys keeping me busy. Thankfully I no longer do any more bat surveys so Im more awake in the afternoons.

With my new found energy I've been able to nip out and catch up with some good local birds, often found by Colin Davies. 

Last week two black terns turned up with a dozen or so common tern, they were feeding off the boating club. Luckily a really nice fella who was working on the boats let me win to photograph them.

Black-necked Grebe: Today Colin found a nice juvenile black-naked grebe, by the time I arrived the birds was far out in the middle of the lake, viewed from the car park. 

The to resident Egyptian geese were also still present, feeding amongst the growing numbers of Canada geese feeding on the small patch of grass opposite the car park. 

Eventually the grebe came a little closer, this juvenile likely came from the nearby Woolston Eyes nature reserve, the premier place for black-ncekd grebes in the North West. 

13/07/2022 RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Bridlington

Turkistan Shrike (Red-tailed Shrike): So, I could resist a second visit to Wandale Farm to see this Turkish delight once more. Fantastically the bird has remained in the area since it was first found. 

It has become particularly reliable around Wandale Farm, regularly seen in in the bushes of the farm yard and in recent weeks its been showing very well indeed. 

Wanting to improve on my previous pictures I paid the £10 entrance fee to the Will who live in the farm house and has allowed folk into his yard to see the bird for a small fee. He's a really nice guy, very helpful and approachable. 

When I arrived the bird wasn't in the far, yard but on a hedge on the opposite field where the hey has been recently cut, I assume there's more food for it here. 

The bird was still very showy from the permissible way that runs alongside the filed. 

Another highlight was this juvenile cuckoo that was on the track off Cliff Lane, this track leads to the Fram.

The cuckoo was periodically Landin on the ground and flying on to the hedge and down again, a nice surprise. 

I'm really glad I took the opportunity to go back, its such a smart looking bird and isn't camera shy. My type of bird. 
 

13/07/2022 Potteric Carr WWT, Doncaster

Black-wined Stilt: Working close to Doncaster I shout it would be rude not to stop off at Potteric Carr to see their breeding black-winged stilts. 

Thought to be the most northerly breeding success for this species ever in the UK.  Four eggs were laid about a month ago and news surpassed until they had hatched. The parent birds arrived on the reserve on the 16th of May and started to prospect for suitable nesting sites on the mudflats.

They settled on Piper Marsh and have successfully reared our chicks. although I only saw two when I arrived. 

The parents were very aggressive and protective of their young chasing away and attacking the resident mallards, herons and egrets which dared to stray too close. This is probably the main reason why they have been so successful, as ground nesting birds they are vulnerable to predators.

There seems to be a bit of an influx of of black-winged stilt this year, with them breeding in Norfolk and several individuals seen throughout the season across the country.

This was my first visit to Potteric Carr and I was toughly impressed, its a real wildlife paradise, a green jewel in an others built up urban area surrounded by industry. The place was huge and offered a wide variety of habitats to explore. 

 

29/06/2022 RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Bridlington

Turkistan Shrike (Red-tailed Shrike): This Turkish delight otherwise known as a red-tailed shrike was relocated just down the main track to the reserve and was reported late into the evening, so thinking there was a good chance it had roosted in the same area I started to hatch a plan. 

Leaving at 2.30am arriving at around 5am, and picking Gary up on the way up we made good time and arrived just intimate for the rain! 

Only light showers that soon cleared up, but it seemed to have kept the bird out of sight and perhaps under cover. As the clouds thinned out, the rain stopped and it warmed up a bit the bird came out and started to hunt, for bees. 

Split from Isabelline shrike to a full species in its own right its a pretty rare bird and there were plenty of top twitchers who had made the same early Strat with the hope of connecting with it.
 

21/06/2022 Smithy Fen, Tottenham, Cambs

White Stork: These iconic birds have been extinct in Britain as breeding birds since 1416. But very recently they have  finally been reintroduced as breeding in the in Knepp Estate in Sussex. 

These successful breeding birds are now spread further a field and are often found away from Knepp across the country. So when an unsigned bird turns up folk tend to get twitchy. 

The origins of this bird may be unknown but one can assume or at least hope it's a wild bird. There has been one which was accepted last year in the same area of Cambridge so this bird has  every chance. 

Also not too far from the Cambridge border was this very smart hoopoe at Hixworth, foraging in the horse paddocks south of the impressive Church of St Nicholas.

10/07/2022 Pennington Flash

Egyptian Goose: Egyptian goose were introduced to England nearly 3 hundred years ago and became a favourite waterfowl during the Victorian times when full-winged freely breeding colonies were established on the lakes of such estates as Blickling, Gunton, Holkham and Kimberley. 

They have over many years dispersed over comparatively large areas it is not only confined to Norfolk feral populations and can now be found across the south of England. So when a pair turn up on a local waterbody it's always a highlight to see.

Two birds have made Pennington Flash their temporary home, enjoying the spoils that the car park area has to offer, with dozens of families coming down to feed the ducks and geese.

Both were very tame to a point where you could almost pick them up and both looked at home next to the local Canada geese and mallards. 

Egyptian geese are doing really well across England, in fact the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust reports that the county holds over 90 per cent of the national population of some 900 birds. 

Attractively marked, particularly in flight when distinctive white wing-coverts are revealed, Egyptian geese draw attention to themselves in the coming months with noisy displays and fierce territorial fighting both afloat and ashore.

 

02/06/2022 Loch Grudie, Strath Brora, Highlands

Short-toed Snake Eagle: Wow, just wow! 

OK the picture is rubbish, a burry mess of pixels and heat haze, but this represents another of my UK firsts for me, and one hell of a brilliant bird. 

Osprey: With news being slow to come out due to the bird being first sighted during a vantage point bird survey, presumably due to the sensitivity to the project and clients involved I was just happy that news was put out in full with location details. 

We moved pretty quickly once the bird was pinned down and began to be regularly seen coming out of a roost in a plantation woodland on the far side of Loch Grudie. 

Black-throated Diver: Leaving at 1am and arriving at 9.30 Steve T and I bumped in to yong Oscar Puls and then traversed the steep hill toward the watch point together. Out of breath and sweating we arrived with seconds to go before the bird lifted off out of the tree line and took to the sky, before flying around and out of site. 

We waited for it to return before time got the best of us and were forced to leave, but despite the short views of the bird and the long journey home I had a smashing day. 

A good laugh in car with a top bloke and a day spent with several fishing osprey and a black-throated diver. Very nice indeed. 

29/05/2022 Bickershaw Country Park, Leigh

White-tailed Plover: WOW....I never thought I'd see a white-tailed plover in Greater Manchester, or in Wigan no less, and definitely not 4 miles away from my front door!

Gordon Newman, local birder who regularly patches Bickershaw expertly found the bird  on the eastern side of the site on New Water Flash. By the time I arrived there were already a gaggle of local birders enjoying the local mega. 

There has been some records in the north west including Seaforth in 2010 and Leighton Moss in 2007, a very rare bird indeed. 

28/05/2022 Worth Marsh, Kent

Eleonora's Falcon: It seems like every year when the hoby returns there are unconfirmed sightings of Eleonora's, almost to a point where I've just stopped taking notice.   

Missed identified and over enthusiastically called out only for it to be confirmed as an Eurasian hobby or just reported as a fly over. We've all be waiting, hoping and in some cases praying that a bonyfied, nailed on Eleonora's gets pinned down and crucially photographed!

Reports came out on Thursday while I was surveying in Shrewsbury and reluctant to take the trip post survey on Friday morning on my own, without other folk in the car to share the fuel, I had to wait until Saturday. 

The decision was made to leave at 5.30am and to arrive between 10 and 11am, although I was skeptical and keen to get here for fisrt light our plan worked well as the bird remained stationary all morning at a distance until it was warm enough to hunt for flying insects.    

As soon as we arrived the bird was hawking over our heads coming within 20 meters or so, we were blown away! 

This nature reserve is outstanding, firstly let me give a big thank you to the RSPB staff and volunteers who organised the traffic, opened up new car parking areas and were calm and friendly even when booking two selfish toggers who took it upon themselves to jump over a fence into a restricted area.

Red-footed Falcon: Worth Marshes is a huge area of reclaimed farmland dominated by open landscapes and wetland habitats, containing small wooded pockets and wet marshy areas, ideal for dragonflies the main food source of these small falcons. 

A female red-footed falcon was also here feeding on the dragonflies, this was a spectacular individual, with a pale head.  The RFF was perched on nearby telegraph wires flying off and catching its prey before coming back to feed. 

Really nice to see. 

Hobby: Several hobby were about too, and it was great to see some side by side  views of the Eleonora's and the hobby. The Eleonora's being a larger bird with longer wing compared to its small cousins.  Thanks to Malc Curtin for the driving and the other lads for the company. this day will love long in the memory.