Redmires Reservoir

 It was 21 degrees this afternoon, and pretty sunny, so Jayne and I had a walk around Redmires Reservoirs, near Sheffield.

The top two reservoirs were about half full, but, apart from quite a few Black-headed, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Mallards, a Pied Wagtail a family party of Stonechats and a winter plumaged Golden Plover, it was quite quiet.

The highlight, however, was a very obliging Kestrel (juvenile, I think), that Jayne spotted, perched beautifully, on a Rowan tree.

Kestrel

Little Barbrook Reservoir

 On Sunday, I had a couple of hours at Little Barbrook Reservoir. I went looking for Whinchat (no luck), Stonechat (1 family party seen) and dragon/damselflies.

Juvenile Stonechat ( 1 of 3 seen)

Odanata seen were: Emerald Damselfly (20+, including pairs in tandem), Black Darter (1 male) and Golden-ringed Dragonfly (2, 1 male).

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Up to the Peaks!

 Every year, Jayne and I have a drive out into the Peaks to catch up with a couple of very special summer migrants; Wheatear and Ring Ouzel. We don't always see them, but this year we did!

We arrived on site just after 7am, and our first bird was Red Grouse (134), that was heard ( and later seen). Not long after, Jayne spotted a male Wheatear (135) feeding on the far side of the valley, and we managed a distant, heavily-cropped photo.

Wheatear

Stonechats were seen, and several Curlew were also heard and seen flying over, as were 2 Swallows. Our final target, Ring Ouzel (136), was a little harder to find, but we got lucky, when a single male flew across the valley, and landed about 20m away!

Ring Ouzel

Year List Continues

 Travelling back from Northumberland on Friday, an then having the weekend, Jayne and I managed to add a few more species to the "Year List".

The first new additions, both seen on the journey home, were: Sparrowhawk (51) and Red Kite (52). Blue Tit (53) was added in the garden.

On the Saturday, I drove down to Shipley CP, near Ilkeston, in search of a male Ring-necked Duck (no luck), but I did see: Gadwall (54), Raven (55), Lesser Black-backed Gull (56), Little Grebe (57), Goosander (58), Long-tailed Tit (59), Chaffinch (60), Snipe (61), Mandarin Duck (62), Pochard (63) and Tufted Duck (64).

After Shipley, I drove across to Rufford and added: Great Tit (65), Coal Tit (66), Nuthatch (67) and Siskin (68).

The final call of the weekend was RSPB Old Moor were we saw: Mistle Thrush (69), Greylag Goose (70), Peregrine Falcon (71), Marsh Harrier (72) and Shelduck (73). We also saw 2 ringed Mute Swans and a very confiding male Stonechat.

Y774 and Y173

Stonechat

The last 3 species were Tawny Owl (74 - heard from our bedroom), Greenfinch (75 - in the garden) and Collared Dove (76 - in Dronfield).

Big Moor - 12th August 2023

 Jayne and I had a walk up to Big Moor on Saturday. The weather wasn't great - windy and rain showers (surprise, surprise!), but we did manage a couple of "year ticks": Whinchat (181) and Black Darter.

The Whinchat, a single juvenile, was seen on the top of the bracken, along with a family party of Stonechat. Here are photos of the two species (both juveniles) to show the key differences.

Whinchat

Stonechat

We walked on to Little Barbrook Reservoir, where we managed to find a couple of female Black Darters. 

Black Darter

Westleton Heath - 10th August 2023

 On Thursday, I popped down to Westleton Heath to catch up with the last species I wanted to see whilst down in Suffolk, the Dartford Warbler.

Westleton Heath

I parked up in the car park, and within a couple of minutes, had heard the distinctive "chattering". I managed 4 sightings of different birds, but, unfortunately, they didn't come very close, so this is a heavily cropped photo.

Dartford Warbler!

Other species seen were: Whitethroat, Pheasant, Carrion Crow and Herring Gull (over). 

2 Gatekeepers and 2 Grayling butterflies were also seen.

Grayling

Year List update: Dartford Warbler (180)

RSPB South Stack - 26th July 20221

 After yesterday's visit to Cemlyn Lagoon, I drove across to RSPB South Stack. The target species was Chough, and I was not disappointed!!

I parked in the first car park, and the first bid I saw and heard was.... Chough!! In total I saw a minimum of 16 birds, which flew over my head calling, before landing on the cliffs about 10m away. Wow!! Many of the birds were darvic-ringed, and I managed to get 6 numbers, so I'll update with details as soon as I get them back. Here are a few photos.

Choughs!!

Whilst walking along the cliffs in the sunshine and 20 degree heat, I also spotted a Hooded Crow, a pair of Ravens, Jackdaws, Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls, Linnet, Meadow Pipit and Stonechat, including this juvenile bird.

Stonechat

There were lots of insects buzzing about too(!), the highlights being a Wall Brown and several Grayling.

Grayling

Year List update:

159 - Chough

160 - Hooded Crow

Northumberland Birding - December 2019

I've just returned from a few days in Northumberland where I managed to get out and about seeing a few nice birds to end the year.

Whilst there, we visited Embelton Bay, Seahouses, Alnmouth, Stag Rock at Bamburgh, St Mary's Island and the Fish Quay at North Shields. Birds seen included; Purple Sandpiper (20+) at Stag Rocks, Turnstones (everywhere), Eider Ducks, Stonechat, Red-throated Diver and Sanderling (Alnmouth beach).

As always, I kept my eyes peeled for Black-headed Gulls, and managed to see a Polish ringed bird at Stag Rocks and a Lithuanian-ringed bird at North Shields Fish Quay.

Polish bird T86W

Lithuanian gull HA02829

I'll update the blog when I get the ringing details back.

Whilst at St Mary's Island, we saw some Grey Seals (adults and juveniles), which the first time for us at this site.

UPDATE: The Lithuanian gull was ringed 1423km away, as a pullus, on 23/06/06, making it over 13 years old.

The Polish gull as ringed, as an adult (2+ years old), 1320km away on 20/05/17, and has been recorded at Stag Rocks every winter since.

22nd April 2019 - 5 Year Ticks

On Monday Jayne and I had a drive around and manged to get 5 new species for the year. The first two, Stonechat and Black-throated Diver, were seen at a loch near Carrbridge, along with 1 male Wheatear, Meadow Pipits, Oystercatchers, Mallard, Greylag Goose (2) and Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The divers put on a fantastic show, swimming to within 20ft of the car, where we were sitting, allowing some fantastic views of this full breeding plumage!

Black-throated Diver

The next stop of the day was the seaside town of Nairn on the Moray Firth, where we enjoyed the 22 degree heat and fantastic sunshine. We went looking for a King Eider, which we unfortunately, didn't get, but instead we enjoyed watching our first Sandwich Terns, Razorbills and Gannets feeding in the sea from the end of the pier.

Year list update:
149 – Stonechat
150 – Black-throated Diver
151 – Sandwich Tern
152 – Razorbill

153 – Gannet

Son Real

Whilst in Mallorca, Jayne and I spent a few hours at the Son Real Nature Reserve.

Son Real

We went hoping to find the Balearic Warbler (details here). Obviously July isn't the best time of year to see this species, and, although we had a brief glimpse of a small warbler disappearing into the bushes, we couldn't be 100% sure it was this bird, so this tick will have to wait for another visit! We did, however, get great views of Red-legged Partridge, Kestrel, Thekla Lark, Nightjar (1 flew up from the ground about 1m away!), Turtle Dove (1 flew over), Serin and Woodchat Shrike (ssp badius).

Woodchat Shrike (juvenile)

Year List update:

180 – Woodchat Shrike

181 – Serin

Year List Update

As always the "year list" has continued to grow over the last week. Number 141, the Garden Warbler was added on Sunday 6th when I was lucky enough to find a singing male in the ringing site at Linacre. A very productive trip to the National Trust's Padley Gorge and nearby Barbrook Valley last Monday added numbers 142 - 146, whilst my first confirmed sighting of Swift came later in the week. The final bird, a stunning Short-eared Owl, was seen today.

Year List update:
141 – Garden Warbler
142 – Pied Flycatcher
143 – Redstart
144 – Cuckoo
145 – Whinchat
146 - Stonechat
147 - Swift
148 - Short-eared Owl

Red-footed Falcon!!

News of a 1st summer male Red-footed Falcon on Dunwich Heath on Tuesday evening had me up early (again!) this morning, to see if I could catch up with this species. I've seen a female Red-footed Falcon in Britain before, but this was my first male, so I was really keen to see it. Luckily, as the blog title suggests, I got lucky, and had super, 'scope views of the bird as it perched up in a dead tree in the reedbeds at the bottom of the National Trust's Dunwich Heath. It was also seen flying around briefly, catching dragonflies! An excellent addition to the "year list". No photos unfortunately, but here's a link to see photos of this species.

In addition to the falcon, I also added Little Gull to the "year list", with a first summer bird that flew overhead, along with several Mediterranean and Black-headed Gulls. Other birds seen on the heath were: Linnet, Goldfinch, Dartford Warbler, Green Woodpecker, Stonechat and several Whitethroats, including 1 carrying food to a nest.

Whitethroat

Whilst looking for the falcon, I also heard a booming Bittern, pinging Bearded Tits and a calling Cuckoo. A Little Owl was seen on the drive.

Year List update:
165 - Red-footed Falcon
166 - Little Gull

Big Moor Year Tick

Last Thursday I spent a few hours up on Big Moor. Whilst there I added Whinchat to the "year list", with one adult and at least 3 juveniles present.

Whinchat (juvenile)

Whilst up there, I also saw juvenile Stonechat, Meadow Pipits, Skylark and 5 Red Deer.

Red Deer

Insect wise, I saw Black Darter, Small Heath, Common Darter, Common Hawker (2) and Emerald Damselfly.

Black Darter

Common Darter (female/immature)

Small Heath on Harebell

Emerald Damselfly (male)

Year List update:
166 - Whinchat

Isle of Wight Birds - Part 2

Since my last post about the bird life of the Isle of Wight (see here), Jayne and I have managed to see a few more species, and get a few more nice views of species previously reported.

New species seen were; Dartford Warbler (1 on Tennyson Down), Gannet ( 1 adult that flew past Ventnor Beach), Kingfisher (1 from the hide at Newtown NNR), Curlew (2 flying over the saltmarsh at Newtown NNR), Wheatear (3 juveniles on Tennyson Down) and House and Sand Martin (both seen in Bembridge, the first over the pub, and the second species over the beach).

Along with these new species, we also enjoyed good views of some other species. Highlights were a fishing Little Egret  seen on two occasions in Bembridge Harbour. 2 Greenshanks were also seen here on Friday 12th, up from the single bird seen earlier in the holiday.

Little Egret

After the sight of 2 Ravens flying high over Afton Down on 31st July, we enjoyed excellent views of 2 (possibly a pair?)  at The Needles. Both birds were flying around the New Battery for most of our visit, and eventually came down to grab some picnic left overs from the floor, before landing on a metal mast. Great views!

Ravens (look at those beaks!)

Also seen on Tennyson Down were Stonechats, including at least 3 juveniles.

The last bird of note has to be the juvenile Mediterranean Gull that was kind enough to land on the beach at Bembridge just in front of me, and stayed long enough for a photo.

Mediterranean Gull

Tennyson Down and The Needles

On Wednesday, Jayne and I spent a good few hours walking around Tennyson Down and The Needles, on the far west of the Island. The weather was kind, and we enjoyed some great views, along with some new insects, flowers and a "year tick"; a Dartford Warbler.

We started our walk in the High Down Chalk Pit car park, an old quarry. There were plenty of buddleia bushes here, so we had a quick scan, picking up a number of butterflies; 2 Dark Green Fritillaries, 2 Red Admirals, 1 very tatty Ringlet and  3 Painted Ladies (our first of the year). We also had a male Migrant Hawker, and 2 Peregrine Falcons (1 adult and a juvenile bird).

Painted Lady

We walked up from the car park ( a very steep walk!!), to the monument on the top of Tennyson Down, and walked the 2 miles to The Needles. Along the way we spotted dozens of Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns  and Chalkhill Blues, along with another Red Admiral and another Painted Lady. Bird wise we saw a male Stonechat, with at least 3 juveniles, 3 migrating Wheatear, a hunting Kestrel,  Herring and Great Black-backed Gull, and, best of all, a Dartford Warbler.

When we arrived at The Needles, we spent some time looking around the Old and New Battery, and also enjoyed watching a pair of Ravens flying around, and then sat on the floor, and perched on a telephone mast!

The Needles

Raven

The last thing I wanted to mention was a type of flower called Yellow Wort. This is a chalk loving species, and was quite  common all along the chalky downs. It's a new plant for me, and I like the way the leaves wrap around the stalk. Unfortunately, the petals close up unless there's full sun, so my photo isn't great, but it was nice to see, nonetheless.

Yellow Wort

Year List update:

165 - Dartford Warbler

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

Derbyshire Year Listing

This morning I got up early and had a couple of hours on the moorland in the Peak District National Park, adding 6 new species to the "Year List".

I started off at Padley Gorge where I heard a couple of Cuckoos calling from the moorlands. I then walked down into the oak woodlands where there were a couple of male Pied Flycatchers and several male Redstarts singing.

Padley Gorge

Back up on the moorlands I added a singing Whinchat to the list, before driving across to Ramsley Reservoir. On arrival I had a singing Tree Pipit, several Meadow Pipits, a pair of Stonechats, a singing Redstart, and, best of all, a "reeling" Grasshopper Warbler on neighbouring Leash Fen.

Year List update:

124 - Cuckoo

125 – Pied Flycatcher

126 – Whinchat

127 – Stonechat

128 – Tree Pipit

129 – Grasshopper Warbler

Year List update

I've had a chance to "tick" a few birds over the last couple of days, so I thought I'd update the old "Year List" with the new additions.

The first two species; Stonechat and Pied Flycatcher, were both seen last night at the National Trust's Padley Gorge. The Stonechats, a pair, were seen on the moor side at the top of the gorge, whilst the Pied Flycatcher, a male, was heard singing in the woods and seen visiting one of the nest boxes.

When I got home, I looked at the sightings page of the Sheffield Bird Study Group, and saw that a Grasshopper Warbler had been heard "reeling" at the pond on the nearby Longshaw Estate, so I popped across this morning to pick it up. I arrived at 6.30am, and heard it straight away. Afterwards I went down to Linacre to check the nest boxes, and saw my first House Martin of the year.

Year List update:
136 – Stonechat
137 – Pied Flycatcher
138 – Grasshopper Warbler
139 – House Martin

Barns Ness

This morning's walk saw me heading down the coast to a beach south of Dunbar called Barns Ness. I was hoping to catch up with a Water Pipit that had been reported yesterday, but the tide was out and I couldn't find it anywhere!

Barns Ness lighthouse and beach

First bird of the morning was a Common Buzzard that flew up from a tree as I drove down to the beach. Next up were Meadow Pipits, followed by several Rock Pipits and at least a dozen Pied Wagtails that were feeding on the seaweed on the beach. Redshanks, Turnstones, Oystercatchers and Curlews were all feeding along the edge of the sea. A couple of Stonechats (1 male and 1 female) were seen in the sand dunes and Linnet and Goldfinch flew overhead.

Out on the sea there were several Eider Ducks, 1 Red-throated Diver, Great Black-backed, Herring, Black-headed and Common Gulls along with 2 new species for the trip: Gannets and Red-breasted Merganser (also a Year Tick).

Just behind Barns Ness there is a large, active quarry with a large lake. I had a quick look at it on the way back and added Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot, Lapwing and Shoveler to the morning's list.

Back in North Berwick a short walk along the beach produced the same birds as yesterday, plus a late Swallow that flew south overhead.

Year List:

155 - Red-breasted Merganser

Ring Ouzel Success - Burbage Moor - 2nd April 2011

After a no show last week I decided to make a  return visit this morning with the hope of seeing Ring Ouzel. After about half an hour I heard a familiar sound and spotted one bird flying up the valley towards the edge. It didn't stop, but after another 10-15 minutes 3 birds were seen and heard chasing each other over the rocks. Unfortunately no photos today, as the birds were more interested in setting up territories than posing for me! Instead I've put in a picture of the edge itself- very nice.

Burbage Edge

Other birds present were Meadow Pipit and Wren (many birds singing and displaying), Stonechat (1 heard), Siskin, Fieldfare (8) and Linnet flying over,  Kestrel hunting, Red Grouse and Pheasant calling and several Carrion Crows and Jackdaws also flying over. A great start to a lovely day, but more about that later.