Grey Phalarope - 2nd September 2025

 Normal service was resumed today, as Jayne and I set out "twitching" again! This time, we headed up to Edderthorpe Flash, near Barnsley, to see a Grey Phalarope (196). 

We found the bird straight away, thanks to the small group of birders there (!), and got decent, but distant, views, as it fed about 500m out on the water. Here's a heavily cropped image.

Grey Phalarope

Also present were: Canada and Greylag Geese, 3 Greenshanks, 2 Green Sandpipers, 2 Ringed Plovers, 1 Dunlin, and, a presumably summering, Whooper Swan.

Whooper Swan

Northumberland Dip!!

 Whilst in Northumberland, I had a coupe of early morning visits to Lindisfarne to see if I could spot an American Golden Plover, that had been present for a few days. Unfortunately, I wasn't successful (!), but I did have a great time looking at the few, breeding- plumaged waders, including a single Year Tick, Knot (176), that were feeding up on migration.

Knot

Knot in varying plumages!

Whilst there, I also saw Ringed Plovers (10s, if not 100s!), Curlew, Oystercatcher, Eider Duck (with ducklings), Sanderling, Little Egret and Dunlin.

Dunlin

A couple of Harbour Seals were also seen.

Harbour Seal

Stag Rocks - 2nd January 2022

Jayne and I were still up in Northumberland on the 2nd, so we had a few hours at Stag Rocks aka Harkess Rocks, near Bamburgh. When we got there, it was nearly high tide, so we sat on the rocks and watched the Purple Sandpipers (100+), Sanderling (50+), Turnstone, Redshank  and Dunlin, feeding on the seaweed. 

Purple Sandpiper and Dunlin

One of the Purple Sandpipers was colour ringed. It was ringed on 20th September 2020 at Filey Brigg, and mine was the first sighting since.

Colour-ringed Purple Sandpiper

Year List update:

56 - Great Tit 

57 - Rook

58 - Common Buzzard

59 - Barnacle Goose

60 - Sanderling

61 - Purple Sandpiper

62 - Goldeneye

Pacific Golden Plover and Black Stork!!

 Yesterday I had a drive over to RSPB Frampton Marsh to see a couple of nice birds: Pacific Golden Plover (lifer!) and Black Stork (British tick).

The Pacific Golden Plover was very easy to see, as it fed for the whole visit on a small piece of water on the marsh, about 20m from the sea wall. I got excellent views via the 'scope and even managed a half decent photo.

Pacific Golden Plover

The Black Stork (a juvenile) wasn't quite so easy, as it was at in a ditch about a 45 minute walk from the car park when I arrived! I walked across, however, and got great views of it on the ground, and then several more throughout the day as it flew around the reserve.

Black Stork

Other birds seen around the reserve included Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper, Spoonbill (17), Black-headed Gull, Grey Heron, Swallow, Canada and Greylag Geese, Little and Great-crested Grebe, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Mute Swan and Goldfinch.

Year List update:

162 - Pacific Golden Plover

163 - Black Stork

164 - Green Sandpiper

165 - Spoonbill

166 - Spotted Redshank

RSPB Dungeness

Jayne and I had a trip around RSPB Dungeness on 1st August. We spent a couple of hours on the reserve, and saw some nice birds, insects and a couple of Harbour Porpoises.

Birdwise we saw, amongst others Dunlin, Lapwing, Common Tern, Little Egret and heard Bearded Tits.

Insects were in good numbers, and included Common Blue Damselfly, Emperor, Brown Hawker, Black-tailed Skimmer, Common and Ruddy Darter, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral and Painted Lady.

One of the Emperor dragonflies landed in a bush, and allowed some photos, as did a male Black-tailed Skimmer.

Emperor

Black-tailed Skimmer

After visiting the reserve, we had a walk down to the beach by the lighthouse, where we spotted a couple of Harbour Porpoises in the sea ( and a dead one on the beach) and several Herring Gulls on the beach.

Harbour Porpoise

Colour-ringed Mediterranean Gulls - Cornwall 2019

Last week, whilst in Cornwall I managed to see 2 colour-ringed Mediterranean Gulls on the RSPB's Hayle Estuary reserve.The first bird, an adult with the darvic ring 3PKK, had been ringed on 11th June 2018 on De Kreupel Island, The Netherlands. My sighting was the 8th since ringing, having been recorded in Marazion in August 2018, before moving to Finistere in France over the winter. It was then recorded in Langstone Harbour, Hampshire in March 2019, before my sighting in Cornwall.

The second bird, another adult with the darvic ring 2X3N, appears to have been ringed in Dublin. Details have been sent off, so I'll update as soon as I hear back from the project.

Two other metal-ringed Mediterranean Gulls were also seen. Unfortunately, they were too distant to read. 1 unringed, adult bird was also seen on Porthmeor Beach, St Ives.

Mediterranean Gull

Other birds seen on the reserve were: Dunlin (13), Greenshank (3), Common Sandpiper (3), Little Egret (10), Mallard, Curlew (60), Whimbrel (1), Shelduck (adults and young), Kingfisher and Herring, Lesser Black-backed, Black-headed and Great Black-backed Gulls.

Dunlin

UPDATE: Mediterranean Gull 2X3N was originally ringed, as a pullus, on Inish Island, Lady's Island Lake, Wexford, Ireland, on 08/06/2016. Since then, it has been sighted in Brittany;France in June 2017, on the Hayle Estuary in August - September 2018, Vendee; France in April - May 2019, and then my sighting in Cornwall in July 2019.

Year List Update - 7th October 2017

I haven't update  my 2017 "Year List" since August.  There haven't been too many additions since then, but I have added Short-eared Owl (1 spotted in the Peak District in August, at a potential breeding site), Ring-necked Parakeet (dozens seen in Vondel Park, Amsterdam in August) and Grey Phalarope ( at Worsborough Reservoir near Barnsley on 7th October, my first since 2008).

Ring-necked Parakeet

Grey Phalarope

Today, Jayne and I had a few hours at RSPB Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire and managed to spot a few new species, namely Little Stint (4+), Curlew Sandpiper (2), Pintail (5) and Dark-bellied Brent Goose (200+).  Other birds present were: Black-tailed Godwit (100+), Ruff (1 seen), Dunlin (20+), Redshank (10+), Golden Plover (20+), Little Egret (10+), Grey Heron (1), Teal (100s), Wigeon (100), Shelduck (5), Shoveler (4), Black-headed and Herring Gull, Mute Swan (5), Whooper Swan (1), Canada Goose (100+), House Martin (1), Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon (1 large female eating something on the ground from East Hide), Tree and House Sparrow, Starling (30+), Magpie, Linnet and Goldfinch.

Year List update:
185 – Short-eared Owl
186 – Ring-necked Parakeet
187 – Grey Phalarope
188 – Little Stint
189 – Curlew Sandpiper
190 – Pintail
191 – Brent Goose (Dark-bellied)

RSPB Marazion Marsh

Jayne and I spent a couple of hours at Marazion Beach and RSPB Marazion Marsh near Penzance on Sunday morning.

We started off by walking along the beach, where we spotted 5 Ringed Plover and a group of approximately 40 Sanderling. The Sanderling, all of which were still in remnants of breeding plumage, were feeding furiously along the tide line. A solitary breeding plumaged Dunlin was also in amongst them.

Sanderling

Also along the strand line was a dead Harbour Porpoise.

Afterwards we headed across the road to the RSPB Marazion Marsh reserve where we found a female Mallard with 3 ducklings, a single Grey Heron and got brief views of Reed Warbler and Whitethroat. We also saw a stunning male Beautiful Demoiselle, several Gatekeeper, 1 Red Admiral and a Southern Hawker that caught and ate a Speckled Wood butterfly.

Beautiful Demoiselle

Southern Hawker with Speckled Wood meal

Three New Birds

I was up at Carsington Water for a couple of hours on Tuesday evening (18th) walking around Stones Island. I was on my annual "wagtail hunt", as this site is usually a good place to catch up with passage Yellow and White Wagtails. As it was, I dropped lucky with White Wagtail, but "dipped" on the Yellow.

The White Wagtails (a minimum of 3, possibly more), were feeding around the back of Stones Island, along with several Pied Wagtails. Here's a picture of a male and  a female.

White Wagtail (male)

White Wagtail (female)

Unfortunately, White Wagtail can't be added to the "year list" as it isn't a species, it's just the European race of the British Pied Wagtail, but I did manage to add another 2 species with a Common Sandpiper and a beautiful breeding plumaged Dunlin being seen.

Common Sandpiper

Other species seen included: Little Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Great Northern Diver (breeding plumage, but distant), Black-headed Gull, Coot, Mallard, Canada Goose, Great-crested Grebe, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Dunnock, Oystercatcher (2) and Redshank (2).

Redshank

Year List update:
134 – Common Sandpiper
135 – Dunlin

Wader Ringing

Since I started ringing back in September 2011 I've always concentrated on passerines, simply because these are the types of birds that are most plentiful in this area, and therefore, form the majority of the ringing carried out by Sorby Breck Ringing Group.

Well, this weekend I decided to spread my wings (pardon the unintended pun), and join up with the SCAN Wader Ringing Group in North Wales, to try my hand at wader ringing. Our first session took place on the Friday night. We met up at 8pm at Llanfairfechan, where we set out mist nets on a nearby nature reserve to catch Dunlin and Redshank. We were successful with both species, and I was able to learn the techniques of ageing as well as to ring both species. Several of the birds were retraps, but 1 of the Dunlin was especially interesting as it also carried a coloured flag. Steve, the leader of the group, thought it was most likely from a scheme in mid Wales. In addition, we also caught 1 Snipe. Ringing finished at about 1am, and we got to bed at 2am.

Saturday morning started with a 7am wake up call, and we were out by 8am. This time we set up a short distance down the coast, and set up 2 canon nets. This type of bird capture was completely new to me, and very interesting to see and take part in. After  a few hours the tide had come in, and there were enough Redshanks in the catching area. This time we caught 53 Redshank and a single Turnstone. The Turnstone was ringed by another member of the group, but I was able to ring more Redshank, and also began to take a few more measurements, such as wing length, length of tarsus and toe,bill length and head and bill length. The latter measurements involved using set of callipers, which, again, was something new for me. One of the more experienced members of the group did the measurements first, and then I measured the same bird. Unsurprisingly, our measurements differed somewhat, so more practise is needed!

After an early night, I was up again at 7am on Sunday, and out to Beaumaris on Anglesey to set up the cannon nets.

Beach at Beaumaris

Unfortunately, the Oystercatchers that we were hoping to catch didn't settle in the area where we'd set the nets, so we didn't catch any. We then tried a different area in Beaumaris for some Dunlin and Turnstone, again without luck. By this time we'd lost the light and the tides had turned, so we called it a day.

As a first introduction to wader ringing, the weekend was a great success and I'll hopefully be back out with the group again in 2017.

RSPB Old Moor

I had a day at RSPB Old Moor today in search of a Great White Egret, that has been present for a few weeks. After a few hours, and quite a few "near misses" I managed to connect with the bird when it flew out of the reeds on Wath Ings and disappeared onto nearby Bolton Ings. in total, I saw it for about 30 seconds, so no photo I'm afraid!!

While waiting for the egret, I got another "year tick" in the shape of 2 Common Sandpipers that were feeding close to the hides. Other waders present were: Green Sandpiper (2), Dunlin (4), Ruff (4), Snipe (1), Lapwing (c.300), Golden Plover (3 breeding plumaged birds) and Black-tailed Godwit (3).

Common and Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

As well as the waders there were a good number of ducks, geese and swans present including: Mallard, Gadwall, Pochard, Wigeon, Teal, Mute Swan, Canada and Greylag Geese.  

Shoveler

Last but not least were the small birds. I didn't see or hear many, but the highlights for me were dozens of Goldfinch, a single Marsh Harrier, 8 Swallows and 2 Swifts, which are my latest ever record.

Year List update:
167 - Great White Egret
168 - Common Sandpiper

North East trip adds to the Year List

Although the weather wasn't great yesterday, we decided to have a trip to the coast. We decided on Tynemouth near Newcastle, as this meant we could also combine the beach and some shopping with a little birding too.

 

The day started in Tynemouth itself, where we had a walk along the beach. During the walk we spotted the first "year tick" of the day with a Rock Pipit, feeding along the sea wall. Walking up to castle and Priory we spotted a large, female Peregrine Falcon carrying a Feral Pigeon. She perched up on the cliff side after being harassed by the local Herring Gulls, and then flew off south with her lunch. Also flying around the headland here were a couple of Fulmars. Here's a heavily cropped photo of the Peregrine.

Peregrine Falcon

After a spot of lunch at the café on the beach, we drove up to St Mary's Island, where we spent a hour looking at the waders and managed to add a few more birds (numbers 74 - 82) to the list. As well as these birds there were also about 50 Lapwings, 100+ Starlings and a superb flock of at least 500 Golden Plover flying around the area. Unfortunately, the tide was low, so I wasn't able to find any Purple Sandpipers today.

 

Here's a photo of one of the Ringed Plovers that was feeding around the causeway.

 

Ringed Plover

 

Year List update:

71 – Rock Pipit

72 – Peregrine Falcon
73 - Fulmar
74 – Redshank
75 – Turnstone
76 – Oystercatcher
77 – Curlew
78 – Sanderling
79 – Dunlin
80– Ringed Plover
81 – Eider Duck
82 - Shag

WWT Welney

I was out and about with the Chesterfield RSPB Group at the weekend, visiting the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust's Welney reserve.

At this time of the year the highlight of a visit is the wintering Whooper and Bewick Swans. During our visit we saw lots of Whoopers, both in the fields and on the reserve itself. Many of the birds are colour ringed including the female bird of this family party(far right). The female bird, U5D, was originally ringed at Martin Mere, another WWT reserve in Lancashire, 9 years ago, and is paired up with an unringed male bird. As you can see, the pair have managed to raise 3 young this year.

Family of Whooper Swans

Unfortunately, the Bewick Swans weren't playing during our visit, and we didn't see any on the reserve. We did, however, see several hundred swans flying onto the reserve to roost as we were driving home. Some of these were most likely Bewicks!!

As well as the swans, we also saw very good numbers of other waterbirds, including Pochard, Shoveler, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Tufted Ducks, Canada and Greylag Goose, and several species of wader; Black-tailed Godwit (c.600), Dunlin, Redshank, Lapwing, Golden Plover and Snipe.

Birds of Prey were represented by a couple of Marsh Harriers that kept flushing all the birds, and a stunning Barn Owl that was hunting along the ditches of the reserve.

VELVET SCOTERS!!!!!

I spent two hours at Musselburgh Lagoons on the outskirts of Edinburgh this afternoon, where I had the most amazing views of both male and female Velvet Scoters.

Although I've seen them before flying along the coast, this was the first time I've managed to get them in the 'scope and watch them swimming and fishing. At one point the birds were about 20m away from the seawall - amazing!! Here's a photo and my first You Tibe video.

Velvet Scoter (male)

 

Male and female Velvet Scoter

As well as the scoters I also managed to see another 2 adult male Long-tailed Ducks (that's 4 in one day!!), a pair of Red-breasted Merganser, 3 Slavonian Grebes, Eider Duck  and another Red-throated Diver.

On the lagoons themselves there were 200+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 40+ Grey Plover, 30+ Golden Plover, Dunlin, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Teal, Tufted Duck, Mallards and my first Goldeneye of the winter.

Bar-tailed Godwits and Golden Plover

Year List addition:

159 - Velvet Scoter

Polish Dunlin in Northumberland

A couple of weeks ago I had a trip up to St Mary's Island, Northumberland. Whilst here I spotted a colour ringed Dunlin. I sent the details off to the BTO and recently received an email from Poland saying that the bird had been ringed there on 8th August 2010, presumably passing through on migration from its breeding grounds in the Arctic. Here's a picture of the bird in question.

Colour ringed Dunlin with Purple Sandpipers

When ringed it was aged as a 2 year old bird. There have been two sightings since it was ringed, both at St Mary's during the winter time. The first was on 1st January 2011 and then my sighting on 19th February 2012, which seems to show that this bird remains faithful to this wintering site. Now we just need to get a sighting during the summer months to see exactly where it breeds.

The fact that it has been colour ringed means that a lot of information can be gathered about this bird even without it being recaptured. For more information about a range of colour ringing projects in Europe see here.

Scaup at Thrybergh.

I'm sorry but I just can't help myself. This morning instead of going for a walk around Linacre I drove back to Thrybergh CP to see the male Scaup, that I missed yesterday. Luckily it was very easy to see and I managed to get a few decent picture as it fed about 10m away. Note the gorgeous grey vermiculations on his back, the greenish tinge to the head and the small black nail on the end of the beak.

Scaup

As well as this bird there were dozens of Tufted Duck, Black-headed Gulls, Coot, Moorhen, a few Pochards, Mute Swans  and Canada and Greylag Geese. One of the Mute Swans was colour ringed (Y326- orange writing on a yellow ring) and is apparantly "one of ours" i.e. ringed by Sorby Breck Ringing Group, according to a local bird watcher. He also said that the bird was an adult male who is resident on the reservoir. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo - d'oh!!

Last sighting of the morning was a winter plumaged Dunlin seen feeding just in front of the Visitors' Centre - nice.

Year list moves on again:

101 - Scaup

Waders, waders and yet more waders!

After yesterday's excitement at North Shields I had a drive up to one of my favourite birding spots, St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay.I love this place because it is one of the best places I know to get super views of a wide range of different waders at very close quarters. As we arrived, the tide was coming in which meant that the birds were even closer than usual and we managed to see a total of 10 species (Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew, Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Turnstone, Knot, Purple Sandpiper, Oystercatcher and Bar-tailed Godwit) along with a Rock Pipt and a Peregrine Falcon that flew through the area on the search for a spot of lunch.

Redshank, Dunlin and Purple Sandpiper

One of the best birds I saw today was a colour ringed Dunlin. It was wearing a white ring with the letters E16 on it. I'll send off the details to the BTO and let you know where it was ringed when I find out.

Today's trip also added 11 new species to the Year List:

89 – Redshank

90 - Bar-tailed Godwit

91 – Sanderling

92 – Knot      

93 – Purple Sandpiper

94 – Ringed Plover

95 – Oystercatcher

96 - Turnstone

97 – Rock pipit

98 – Peregrine Falcon

99 - Song Thrush

One last photo of a feeding frenzy of Black-headed Gulls by the lighthouse.

Black-headed Gulls

Blacktoft Sands - 22nd January 2012

I spent today at the RSPB's Blacktoft Sands reserve  near Goole with my wife and 10 members of the Chesterfield RSPB Group. We went especially to see the Harrier Roost and were very lucky to see both Marsh and Hen Harrier, as well as 29 other species of birds.

We arrived at 12.00pm  and spent the first three hours looking around the hides, where, despite the very strong winds, we saw several duck species (Teal, Wigeon, Goldeneye, Mallard, Shelduck and Gadwall), along with 5 wader species (Lapwing, Golden Plover, Dunlin, Snipe and Curlew) and our first bird of prey, a Kestrel.

Snipe

From 3 o'clock onwards we sat in the Singleton Hide, the best place to see the harriers. Shortly after our arrival we saw a Marsh Harrier, the first of at least half a dozen, followed a little while later by a "ringtail" Hen Harrier. A male Hen Harrier also put on a show, before, we left at 4pm.

The Year List moved on well today with these new additions:

63 – Pheasant

64 – Tree Sparrow
65 – Teal
66 – Wigeon
67 – Shelduck
68 – Golden Plover
69– Lapwing
70 – Great Black-backed Gull
71 – Marsh Harrier
72 – Hen Harrier
73 – Cormorant
74 – Gadwall
75 – Curlew
76 – Snipe
77 - Dunlin

St Mary's Island - 22nd October 2011

Following a morning visit to Warkworth Beach we had a drive down the coast and popped into St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay for a couple of hours. As always, good numbers of waders were around, as well as another Red-throated Diver and a male Common Scoter heading south.

First up were the 50+ Curlew that were feeding in fields by the entrance. After parking up I walked down to the coast where at least 500 Golden Plover were roosting, along with hundreds of Starlings, dozens of Lapwings, Oystercatchers and several Herring, Common Great Black-backed and Black-headed Gulls.

Golden Plover and Oystercatcher

Walking down onto the causeway we soon spotted several Dunlin, Redshank, 2 Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Turnstone and 2 winter plumaged Bar-tailed Godwit.

Bar-tailed Godwit

RSPB Old Moor - 17th August 2011

For the last few years I have subscribed to the Birdguides website as a way of keeping up with bird news from around the country. Looking through the sightings recently I noticed that RSPB Old Moor at Barnsley was beginning to record its first passage waders of the autumn and so decided to go along and have a look myself.

Wath Ings hide at the far end of the reserve is usually the best place for waders, so I  started here. First up were the Green Sandpiper, with an amazing count of 15!

Green Sandpiper

Also from this hide were 3 Knot, a very good inland record, 2 Greenshank, at least 5 summer plumaged Dunlin, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 1 Redshank, 1 juvenile Spotted Redshank, 4 Ringed Plover and around 100 Lapwing.

Knot

Away from the waders there were also 20+ Sand Martin, 6 Swift, my latest ever record, Common Terns feeding 3 juveniles, dozens of Canada Goose and Greylag Goose, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Great Crested and Little Grebe, Grey Heron and Tufted Duck, as well as many small passerines such as Tree Sparrows, Linnets and Greenfinch.