29/06/2023 Tyne Bridge, Newcastle

Kittiwake: Surveying birds takes me all over the country and when I find myself in Newcastle in summer well, I just can't resits an outing to see the kittiwakes. 

The Tyne Bridge spans the River Tyne between the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the town of Gateshead continues to be a favourite location for Kittiwakes

Unfortunately the BALTIC viewing platform was closed as they were installing a new art installation, its here where you can get down to eye level with nesting pairs and watch them feeing their young on the ledge of the museum. 

Tom and I weren't detered and instead we made our way across the river and towards the bridge where they also nest. 

In fact they were everywhere, almost every building had a nesting pair. 

The Tyne bridge not only offers a great vista to see Newcastles city scape, the river Tyne and the architecture but a great view of kittiwakes and their chicks. 

It was disheartening to see so much anti-bird nesting nesting around some of the tallest buildings, I can see that they do make a mess but when huge companies such as Whitbread the owner of Premier Inn and the UK's biggest hotel brand. Who I'm sure pay their shareholders unimaginable amounts of money but can't be bothered or afford to clean up after a kittiwakes and instead put up dangerous netting that deter the birds from nesting on their hotel.

03/07/2023 Spurn, East Yorkshire

Red-baked Shrike: After having a week with just the baby and I while Dawn was away, I was unable to twitch the great snipe that has been showing well over the past few days.

I lived in hope it would reappear over the weekend and woke up to positive news of the bird.

So, I picked up Kris and set to with good time, although upon arriving we soon learned that the bird was only seen due to an un-organised flush, and the bird was kicked up before disappearing again. This behaviour happened once more in the evening but this time the bird was flushed out on to the salt marsh and never seen again

 

Disappointed we made the most of our trip and even walked to the point where we got some brief views of an Ictarine warbler found by Neil Hunt. 

But the stand out bird was this stellar male red-backed shrike which was picked up along Clubley's Field and remained throughout the day, happily un-harassed. 

30/05/2023 Crook Road, Kendal, Cumbria

Common Rosefinch: Wow, take a look at this stunning male rosefinch! After a lifetime of only seeing female type, juvenile rosefinch where are nicknamed grotfinch to see a stinking rose red male is something special.

They have a stout and conical bill and the males have brilliant rosy-carmine head, breast and rump; heavy bill; dark brown wings with two indistinct bars, and a white belly. Females and young males are dull-colored with yellowish-brown above, brighter on the rump and greyer on head; buff below, hence their name the grotfinch.

 

A relatively scares bird these can be seen in the UK between May and October more often or not they are seem around the coasts of southern and eastern England, eastern Scotland, and the Northern Isles.

They typically breed from the Danubevalley, Sweden, and Siberia to the Bering Sea; the Caucasus, northern Iran and Afghanistan, the western Himalayas, Tibet and China and Japan. In winter they are found from southern Iran to south-east China, India, Burma, and Indochina. 

So to get a full summer plumage male singing and even chasing ff the resident house sparrows is a real treat.  

After arriving just after first light I could hear their obvious song enervating from a hedgerow close to the end house. The bird eventually popped on to the face overlooking the driveway. 

From there it flew to the opposite end house and and was singing from the brambles and hawthorn hedge close to the garden and Crook Road. 

Before I left it alighted upon the thick bottom telegraph wire and was singing away.

Really please to have finally caught up with it especially after dipping it a few days ago. 

19/05/2023 Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve, Silverdale

Duke of Burgundy: This little beauty is found mainly in central southern England, although small freagmented colonies are found in the north of England particually in Yorkshire and Cumbria, witch Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve being one of the premier places in the north west to see them. 

Despite its larger-than-life name the Duke of Burgundy is relatively small, with its upper surface brown with vivid orange spots it is unlikely to be confused with any other species found in the UK.

The larvae feed on the leaves of primroses and cowslips, transposing to winged adults in May and early June or occasionally a little later. The adult males of this now very rare butterfly species can be seen flying low over their territories, which are usually quite small areas of a few tens of square metres at the most; they defend their patches aggressively, seeing off invaders many times their size.

The Duke of Burgundy used to be classed as a Fritillary, due to its similar markings of pearly white spotted underwings , but it has now been identified as closer to the ‘Metalmark’ family, the only one of its species found in the UK.

Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve is an extraordinary place with a rich mosaic of limestone habitats including unique limestone pavement, yew woodland, fen and is one of Britain's most important limestone landscapes. 

Dingy Skipper: I couldn't resist a brief stop off at Warton Crag on the way home, it's by far one of my favourite places. Its absolutely stunning here looking out over Morecambe Bay and its limestone cliffs, decorated by wildflowers and colonised by rare butterflies.

One of which was there dingy skipper, a nationally scares butterfly who's larval food plant is the birdsfoot trefoil. There were dozen on the wing along the western side of the crag. 

Brimstone: I also saw my first for the year pearl-bordered fritillary although it refused to settle for me I entertained myself with this brimstone which was feeding on the red campion. The Brimstone has a most exquisite wing shape, perfectly matching a leaf when roosting overnight or hibernating within foliage.

16/05/2023 Carr Lane Pools, Cheshire

Pectoral Sandpiper: Back for a second go at the pec sand and this time my patience paid off. As just after I arrived the bird chased off a wood sandpiper and landed much closer, but only briefly before returning to its favourate island out in the middle of the pool.

Despite missing out on the Temminck's stint, finding a wood sand was certainly a highlight. 

16/05/2023 Brushes Reservoir, Greater Manchster

Wood Warbler: Toady I turned 38, yeah I'm getting old, I'm defiantly getting greyer and heavier. But regardless of all this I am blessed with a beautiful family and great job. Dawn and Autumn spoilt me with a pile of presents and a lovely walk to find a wonderful wood warbler.   

Brushes Reservoir is the second lowest reservoir of a series of four in the Brushes valley. Above Stalybridge in Greater Manchester and offers an easy 2 mile walk past Walkerwood and Brushes reservoirs surrounded by a mixture of open grassland, woodland and good views of the Brushes Valley and surrounding hills.

The bird is pretty faithful to an area along a path up a slight hill, above the Brushes Reservoir. We could hear it on approach and when we saw it the bird was continually singing and foraging out in the open. 

Wood warblers are green above and bright white below, with a yellow throat and yellow eyebrow stripe. They are a little larger than the similar willow warbler and chiffchaff but have a very distinct song. 

Thanks Dawn and Autumn for a lovely birthday.

15/05/2023 Carr Lane Pools, Cheshire

Stonechat: I was sitting at home yesterday evening with the baby while she watcthed YouTube on the couch when our WhatsApp pinged. Iggo found a pec sand at Carr Lane pools and sent a brilliant short video of not feeding off Town Lane.

Pec sands are scarce passage migrants from America and Siberia, a few are seen in spring, but the vast majority appear in late summer and autumn so this was a cracking find for Iggo one of the first local birds for spring. 

I arrived and the bird wasn't playing, it remained pretty distant, too distant for may camera but showing well in the open. I waited a few hours hoping it would come closer, but no such luck toady.

Pectoral Sandpiper: These are one of my favourite waders that come to our shores, pec sands are relatives of he sharp-tailed sandpiper, with a grey-brown back, brownest in the summer male, and greyest in winter and yellowish legs. They have a grey breast, sharply demarcated at its lower edge, which gives this species its English name 'pectoral sandpiper'.

Its been a while since I've visited Carr Lane and today was lovely with several flocks of wisest whiszzing swiftly overhead and a lovely looking male stonechat which gave some good views.

Great local bird and a another quality find by Iggo, nice one mate.

11/05/2023 Potters Crouch, Hertfordshire

Channel Wagtail: This week I've been working down near Hemel Hampstead carrying out a series of bird surveys when I stumbled across this little stunner. no on one of my sites but while out birding locally.

As I was working my way through a public right of way checking the field boundaries I noticed a familiar call of a yellow wagtail enervating from a field with some space rapeseed to find it was a blue handed variety of yellow wag.

Blue-headed and yellow wagtails are known to ‘hybridise’ in northern France, and the resulting intergrades are known as ‘Channel’ wagtails. These show much paler heads than blue-headed – silvery-grey, powder-blue or even approaching white. They turn up quite regularly with our yellow wagtails in the spring.

Yellow Wagtail: In the opposite filed there were several of the more standard yellow wags, they appeared to be paired up with a male sticking close to a female and change each other around while calling. 

08/05/2023 Haslam Park, Preston, Lancashire

Tawny Owl: After reaching out to Andrew Bradley who was kind enough to give me some gen on some showy tawny owl near Preston, Dawn and I set off to spend the last of the Bank Holiday and get some fresh air.

We arrived to see and owlett sat up in a tree, out in full view just ff the main pathway, it took us a bit more time to pick out the adult posting high up in a pine.

Haslam Park sits alongside the Lancaster Canal and still boasts many of its original and unique features from when it was first built. The park's ornate Grade II listed gates at two of its main entrances are just some of the features that make this Edwardian park stand out from the rest.

Tawny owl typically remain close all year round to their territory in which they have nested and they have pair-bonds that last for life. Their first territorial fights occur as early as October and November, the male determining the territory, the female the nesting hole. The transition from autumn to winter is marked by a final establishment of territories and pre-breeding behaviour. The female and male tend more and more to roost together. 

Courtship feeding begins in the winter period (December to February), becoming progressively centred on the future nest site. In the UK the Tawny Owl usually begins breeding in mid-March where they can end up with two to six eggs, but sometimes only one. 

The fluffy white owletts branch out and live the nest at around 28 to 37 days. Tawny owls are dependent on their parents for food up to three months after leaving the nest. As the young owls gradually learn to fend for themselves they also establish territories.

Not particularly rare bird, in fact tawny owls are the most common owl found in the UK, and one of the coolest. 

Big thanks Andrew mate.

07/05/2023 Little Wooden Moss, Greater Manchester

Black-winged Stilt: This graceful long-legged wader and mega rare Greater Manchester county tick was found today by Steven Nelson. I was just finishing re-seeding the grass in the garden when BirdGuides buzzed, and I grabbed my bins and camera. 

Only 20 minutes up the road I made good time and was one of the first bikers to arrive, but as soon as I took my first shot the bird took off and flew high west, very high and very far before doing a u-turn and coming straight back. 

These smart bird are unmistakeable with their fine straight bill, ridiculously long reddish pink legs and black and white plumage. Both in flight and at rest the long red legs are characteristic, but even if these are hidden in deep water, the pure white underparts and jet-black upperparts are distinctive enough.

No longer a very rare vagrant and more of an annual visitor with recent records of breeding in the UK. I was thrilled it came back as my first fee shots were pretty distant and when it returned it landed almost infant of me. 

These unexpected local twitches are the best, you make good time, see the bird then back in time to put the abby to bed a win, win situation. 

Also they become a social affair giving me a chance to catch up with some top local birders. 

You wouldn’t know it to look at the area between Salford and Warrington, but this whole area was once part of one of the largest lowland raised peat bogs in the UK. Known as Chat Moss, this rare and special habitat formed after the last Ice Age and was a haven for wildlife, along with storing huge amounts of carbon.

The bird was foraging along the peat bogs of West Pools and unfortuantley for those who missed it today it was gone by the morning.