2025 Year List Begins

 This year's Year List started off quite slowly, as the weather here in Norfolk was very windy! By the end of the day, however, Jayne and I had managed a respectable 45 species.

The first birds, seen from our holiday house in Wiveton, were: Black-headed Gull (1), Woodpigeon (2), Pink-footed Goose (3), Pheasant (4), Carrion Crow (5), Lapwing (6) and Goldfinch (7).

Later in the morning, we popped down to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Cley Marshes Reserve., where we managed to dodge the rain (ish!), and logged another 34 species: Robin (8), Blackbird (9), Skylark (10), Marsh Harrier (11), Shoveler (12), Wigeon (13), Mute Swan (14), Shelduck (15), Mallard (16), Gadwall (17), Teal (18), Pintail (19), Herring Gull (20), Kingfisher (21), Greylag Goose (22), Turnstone (23), Dunlin (24), Pied Wagtail (25), Redshank (26), Little Egret (27), Jackdaw (28), Rook (29), Golden Plover (30), Great Black-backed Gull (31), Sanderling (32), Brent Goose (Dark-bellied - 33), Common Gull (34), Collared Dove (35), Jay (36), Grey Heron (37), Bearded Tit (38), Starling (39), Wren (40) and Black-tailed Godwit (41). 

Grey Heron and Little Egret

The last five species were seen in the afternoon: Buzzard (42), Long-tailed Tit (43), Magpie (44) and Oystercatcher (45).

Norfolk Birding - August 2018

Last weekend Jayne and I spent 3 days in Norfolk. We travelled down on Sunday and popped into RSPB Frampton Marsh to catch up with a Stilt Sandpiper - a lifer. We got good 'scope views as it fed in amongst hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits out on the Reedbed Marsh. Here's a distant, heavily cropped photo.

Stilt Sandpiper

Whilst in Norfolk we had a walk around Blakeney Marshes where we got great views of a Whinchat. 

Whinchat

We also visited RSPB Titchwell, where we managed to find, amongst others,  10 "year ticks" (numbers 189 - 198) and a Garganey.

Year List update:
188 – Stilt Sandpiper
189 – Bearded Tit
190 – Spoonbill
191 – Spotted Redshank
192 – Bar-tailed Godwit
193 – Grey Plover
194 – Common Scoter
195 – Red-crested Pochard
196 – Pintail
197 – Tree Sparrow
198 – Golden Plover

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)

WWT Slimbridge- 15th February 2016

It's half term this week, so I traveled down to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust's Slimbridge reserve with my nephew and his friend on Monday. We saw lots of great birds (as always), including ten "year ticks", one of which was also a "lifer".

The first stop on the journey was a small pond on the outskirts of Gloucester (Horsebere Pool). Two male Penduline Tits had been present here for a couple of weeks. We arrived on site and were lucky enough to see 1 of the birds within about 10 minutes. The bird was feeding on the Reedmace in the corner of the pond. I managed to get it in the binoculars for about 30 seconds (!), before it disappeared, never to be seen again. A very smart little bird and my second "lifer" of the year. No photos of my own unfortunately, but here's a link to the BirdGuides website, where there are some super shots. Also present here were 2 Chiffchaffs, a male and a female Stonechat, Robin, Long-tailed Tit and Reed Bunting.

Moving on to Slimbridge, we spent about four hours looking around the reserve, adding another 9 "year ticks" to the Year List, along with hundreds of commoner birds, including Teal, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mallard, Canada and Greylag Goose, Lapwing, Dunlin and Golden Plover.

Pintail

Crane, Pintail, Lapwing and Wigeon

Year List update:

102 - PENDULINE TIT (lifer)

103 - Stonechat

104 - Black-tailed - Godwit

105 - Shelduck

106 - Pintail

107 - Common Crane (4 colour ringed birds)

108 - Scaup (2 females)

109 - Avocet

110- European White-fronted Goose (7)

111- Barnacle Goose (100+)

112 - Bewick Swan

RSPB Leighton Moss

I've just been away with Jayne to the Lake District for a few days (more about that in a later post), and, on the way, we decided to pop into the RSPB's Leighton Moss reserve in Lancashire.

Leighton Moss

The main reason for our visit was to hopefully see some Bearded Tits that feed on the "grit trays" at this time of the year. The grit trays are provided to help the birds digest the fibrous reed seeds that they eat during the winter months. See details of a color ringing scheme carried out by North Lancashire Ringing Group here. Here's a picture of the grit trays, minus the birds!

Grit Trays

After failing to see the Beardies, we walked on down to the Lower Hide, where we had a little more luck, seeing our first ever English Otter (no photos though, as it was too far out), and one of at least 2 Great White Egrets, that were present on the reserve. As you can see from the photo, the bird was also quite a way out, but least it flew up onto a dead tree for us.

Great White Egret

Other birds seen during our visit were: Gadwall, Shoveler, Mallard, Grey Heron and Pintail.

RSPB Frampton Marsh

I had a drive over to Lincolnshire today to see if I could see a Red-footed Falcon at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust's Willow Tree Fen Reserve. Unfortunately, I "dipped", but I did spot at least half a dozen Yellow Wagtails feeding around the cows, a Green Sandpiper, a Kingfisher and 2 Marsh Harriers.

Afterwards, I drove over to RSPB Frampton Marsh, near Boston, to look for some of the many waders that had been reported recently on the Birdguides website. The first species I saw was Black-tailed Godwit, followed closely by Ruff , Snipe, Ringed Plover and Lapwing. Wood Sandpiper was the next species seen with 2 individuals seen. Little Stints (2 juveniles), and a single juvenile Curlew Sandpiper were also seen. I got  a few "record shots".

Little Stint showing white "braces"

Little Stint (face on)

Curlew Sandpiper (juvenile)

Wood Sandpiper 

Ruff (juvenile)

Along with the waders there were also hundreds of Mallards, Teals, Canada and Greylag Geese, as well as 6 Pintail, Black-headed and Herring Gulls and a single, unseasonable Pink-footed Goose!

Year List update:

160 – Yellow Wagtail

161 – Green Sandpiper

162 – Wood Sandpiper

163 – Little Stint

164 – Curlew Sandpiper

165 – Pink-footed Goose

166 - Pintail

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.

WWT Slimbridge - 28 Year Ticks and a Lifer

The weather forecast for Thursday was the best of the week, so I decided to head out, with my nephew, birding and "year-ticking" at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's reserve of Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. In the end, I managed a very respectable 43 species, which, as the title suggests, included 28 "year ticks" and a "lifer"!

First up the lifer- a Green-winged Teal. This north American species has become an annual visitor to Britain, but, despite a few attempts to see, them I've never managed to catch up with one - until now! After a few hours of searching through the 2000+ Eurasian Teals, the bird, a male, was eventually found fast asleep in front of Martin Smith hide, where I managed to get a photo. Note the vertical white line. This is horizontal in the Eurasian Teal seen behind.

Green-winged and Eurasian Teal

 

Now to the Year List update. At this time of year it's quite easy to add birds to this list, with certain birds such as Collared Dove and Mistle Thrush being relatively easy to find. Others are more difficult to see, so I was very pleased to find, amongst others, wild Bewick Swans and European White-fronted Geese feeding on and around the reserve. Other highlights for me were Common Cranes (3), thousands of Golden Plover and Lapwings and a very obliging Water Rail and Snipe.

 

 

Year List update:

36 – Collared Dove

37 – Curlew

38 – Dunlin

39 – Black-tailed Godwit
40 – Golden Plover
41 – Redshank
42 – Lapwing
43 – Ruff
44 – Avocet
45 – Bewick Swan
46 – European White-fronted Goose
47 – Barnacle Goose (F)
48 – Greylag Goose
49 – Pintail
50 – Pochard
51 – Wigeon
52 – Teal
53 – Shelduck
54 –Shoveler
55 - Gadwall
56 – Green-winged Teal
57 – Mistle Thrush
58 – Fieldfare
59 – Pied Wagtail
60 – Skylark
61 – Linnet
62 – Common Buzzard
63 – Common Crane
64 – Herring Gull

RSPB Frampton Marsh and 3 Year Ticks

A couple of times a year I help lead a walk for the Chesterfield RSPB Group. Today's walk took us to the RSPB's reserve of Frampton Marsh in search of waders and winter visitors. In total we recorded 48 species of birds, including a year tick for me; Pectoral Sandpiper. Here's a heavily cropped photo showing all the relevant identification features (the sharp cut off between the dark breast feathers and the white belly, yellowish legs and the white supercilium.)

Pectoral Sandpiper

First up the waders. In total we spotted 13 species of wader on the reserve today. The highlights for me were 2 Little Stints and the Pectoral Sandpiper, but the sight of a few hundred Black-tailed Godwit, 30+ Snipe, Golden Plover, Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Lapwing, Avocet (c.15), Redshank,
Ringed Plover, Ruff and Curlew were all very as well.

Waterbirds were much in evidence today with 100s of Brent Geese flying between the saltmarsh and the lagoons, 100s of Teal and Wigeon on the scrapes, along with Mallards, Pintail, Gadwall, Shoveler, Moorhen, Coot, Mute Swan, Shelduck, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Canada and Greylag Geese across the site.

Finally, several gull species were seen (Great and Lesser Black-backed, Common, Black-headed and Herring), along with a couple of Marsh Harriers, a Kestrel and several smaller bird species (Starling, Reed Bunting, Yellowhammer, Linnet, Skylark, Redwing, Crow, Meadow Pipit, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Magpie and Pheasant).

Year List update:
177 - Bar-tailed Godwit
178 -Pectoral Sandpiper
179 - Brent Goose

RSPB Blacktoft Sands and Old Moor

I decided to have a drive over to RSPB Blacktoft Sands today in search of waders. As always I was very pleased with the variety of birds on offer, including a juvenile Marsh Harrier hunting low over the reeds and then coming to a rest on the floor, Greenshank, Redshank, Green Sandpiper, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Lapwing, Snipe, a Common Buzzard (my first record at this site) and a "year tick"; Spotted Redshank (20+). There were also a few duck species around, namely Teal (100+),  Wigeon (3), Mallard (loads!) and Pintail (4).

175 - Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank

Marsh Harrier (juvenile)

Toad - found walking across the path

 

After Blacktoft I drove over to RSPB Old Moor for a few hours. Again, waders were the highlight, with Wath Ings Hide very busy. Black-tailed Godwits, Green Sandpipers, Ruff, Dunlin, Lapwing and Redshank were all on show, along with this very showy Kingfisher that spent most of the afternoon perching and hunting from a perch by the hide.

Kingfisher (adult male, I believe)

 

There were a few insects about at Old Moor, including a beautiful male Common Blue Butterfly. Here are a couple of shots, the first showing the blue upper wings and the second showing it feeding on a flower of the Bird's Foot Trefoil. Gorgeous!

 

Common Blue Butterfly

Common Cranes

Last night, whilst surfing the web I came across some very interesting news that saw me driving down to The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Slimbridge reserve today to see a pair of Common Cranes that are attempting to breed!

The birds in front of Martin Smith Hide

 

The WWT have been working with several other wildlife organisations as part of the Great Crane Project to breed and release Common Cranes back into south west England for several years now. 

The pair, that are nest building right in front of one of the centre's hides, were raised at Slimbridge and released in the Somerset Levels 3 years ago. They returned to Slimbridge during the winter with another 5 birds, which are also still present on site, and started to build a nest. Here are a few photos of the birds.

Male bird displaying

 

Close up!

 

As well as these amazing birds I also added a few other species to the year list, including a couple of summer migrants:

104 – Common Crane

105- Water Rail

106 –Sand Martin

107 – Swallow

108 - Pintail

 

One last picture today of a Little Egret that too was feeding right in front of one of the hides. Gorgeous bird!

 

Little Egret

Rutland Water - 24th September 2011

Rutland Water, an amazing nature reserve run by Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, was the site for this month's field trip of the Chesterfield RSPB group. 18 people took part and between us we saw a total of 67 species, including 6 species of wader, 5 species of gull, 3 different types of bird of prey, thousands of waterfowl and 5 species of butterfly (Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Brimstone and Speckled Wood)!

First stop on today's trip was the main Egleton Visitors' Centre in Oakham. Looking out from the upstairs hide, we logged our first birds including 2 Little Egrets, dozens of Gadwall, Shoveler,  Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mallard and a juvenile Shelduck.

Little Egret

Next stop was the Sandpiper Hide overlooking the Lagoon 4 where 3 Swallows were spotted, along with 2 Egyptian Geese, 1 Ruff, a male Pintail and a flock of 30+ Golden Plover. Lapwing Hide provided the group with a few more summer migrants with a Blackcap, a Willow Warbler/Chiffchaff and 10+ House Martins amongst the birds spotted. Also from this hide were an amazing total of 16 Little Egrets!

Egyptian Goose

Walking back to the main centre we stopped off at Redshank Hide, where we saw a hunting Kestrel and had sustained views of a fishing Kingfisher.

The afternoon saw us travel across to the Lyndon Reserve. We managed to visit three of the hides on this part of the reserve and saw 2 Red Kites, several more waders (2 Redshank, 1 Ringed Plover, 2 summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Curlew), 2 juvenile "commic" terns, which were most likely Common Terns and 2 Common Gulls.

Common Gull

New Binoculars and 6 Year Ticks - what a day!!!!

I haven't had any new binoculars for the last 14 years, so, with a big birthday coming up in April this year, Jayne offered to get me some as a special treat. Thank you darling!!

We decided to go to RSPB Old Moor to have a look and take advantage of my volunteer card that gets me a 20% discount off their own brand optics. I'd already read a few reviews of their HD bins and so decided to give them a go. It was only when I looked through the new bins that I realised just how old and filthy mine were!!! Anyway, to cut a long story short we decided to go with the 8x42 bins and set off around the reserve to put them to good use.

Me and my new bins!!!

First stop was Wath Ings Hide where a stunning male Pintail (1st year tick) was busy feeding just in front of the hide. This type of duck is known as a dabbling duck and feeds by "upending" and sieving small insects and plant material from the water. Just like this!

Pintail "upending"

Other waterbirds present on the reserve were Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Shoveler, Goosander (3 females), Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Moorhen, Coot, Canada Goose, Greylag Goose, Black-headed and Mediterranean Gull, Gadwall and Pochard. 

Small birds (passerines) feeding in the garden and on the "Tree Sparrow Farm" included a male Bullfinch, Reed Bunting, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Blue and Great Tit, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Collared Dove. A Green Woodpecker (2nd year tick) was seen from Wader Scrape Hide.

After a spot of lunch in the cafe (stuffed pepper and all the Sunday lunch vegetables, lovely!) we headed over to nearby Wombwell Ings (also an RSPB site and part of the whole Dearne Valley project) where a pair of Garganey (3rd year tick) and several Little Ringed Plover (4th year tick) had been reported. Both species were seen, although the Garganey were quite distant and fast asleep! Here's my best effort, photowise.

Garganey (male)

Also present here were a pair of Shelduck (5th year tick), 2 Dunlin and the usual waterbirds.

Back at home I decided to drive up to Leash Fen again in search of a Great Grey Shrike (6th year tick) that has been present for several weeks. The luck of the new binoculars was still with me, and thanks to a couple from Dronfield (thank you very much if you're reading this) we managed to locate the bird on Ramsley Moor. Although pretty distant, it was sat on the top of a tree in unmistakable Shrike-like fashion and I just about managed to get this shot. Pretty awful I know, but better than nothing!

A very distant Great Grey Shrike

A super day and to misquote a famous TV cookery judge "Birding doesn't get any better than this!!!" see you again soon.