Red-necked Grebe - Carsington 2nd April 2021

Jayne and I went to Carsington on Friday and had a few hours walking around the dam wall, Stones Island and Hide area.

The highlight of the trip was a breeding plumaged Red-necked Grebe that we saw by the dam wall. No photo unfortunately, as the blog won't let me upload any!

Other  species new for the year were: Gadwall, Redshank, Willow Tit and Barnacle Goose ( 2 feral birds.

Year List update:

72 - Red-necked Grebe

73 - Gadwall

74 - Redshank

75 - Willow Tit

76 - Barnacle Goose

Year List 2020 - 175 species

 Well, 2020 is over and we're back in Lockdown!!

This year, despite everything, I've managed to see a reasonable number of 175 species of birds. The last bird of the year being a Red-necked Grebe, at Colwick Country Park that I saw on 21st December.

Red-necked Grebe

The highlight of the year has to be the Bearded Vulture,(my one and only lifer of 2020) that turned out to a be a 2nd year bird (born in 2019) that had flown over 1000km from the Alps in south eastern France.

Other interesting birds included two British ticks, Caspian Tern and Hoopoe, whilst the Grey Phalarope in Derbyshire was also a great record. 

Let's hope COVID is brought under control quickly and we can all get out and about birding soon.

Year List update:

175 - Red-necked Grebe.

BTO Bird Identification Videos

For me one of the most interesting and enjoyable things about watching birds is the chance to learn something new. Getting to grips with similar species can sometimes be really difficult, so finding out that the BTO have created a range of online videos to help with certain birds has been great.

The most recent video helps sort out winter plumaged grebes, but other species covered in previous videos include "grey geese", "white-winged" gulls and warblers. Well worth having a look at. Click here to go straight to the website.

Here are a few pictures of winter plumaged grebes I've been lucky enough to see and photograph. I won't put names on today, so if you can't identify them, you'll have to go to the BTO website to see if you can work them out.

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Sorry, not a good photo!!

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