May 2019 Summary
May 2019 : Summary UK Species Year List to May: 161 Total UK Species in May: 128 New “Year Ticks” in May: 23 New “Life Ticks” in May: 0
May 2019 : Summary UK Species Year List to May: 161 Total UK Species in May: 128 New “Year Ticks” in May: 23 New “Life Ticks” in May: 0
The last birding group day of May was to Burton Mere Wetlands on the 28th. Early rain eased off to give us an overcast but mild morning. The highlights were a pair of Spoonbills in Summer plumage, preening on the bridge pool, flying overhead and roosting in the trees. Another good sighting was a pair…
One of the birding group visits I look forward to most each year is our visit to the Goyt Valley looking for Redstart, Spotted and Pied Flycatchers and Tree Pipits. We usually also go to the nearby Dane Bower Quarry to look for Ring Ouzels and Wheatear. Were we going to be lucky this year?
The first birding group day out after our holiday in Norfolk was to WWT Martin Mere. We changed our usual routine and decided to do the reedbed walk for the first time (at least my first time) This involves heading out to the Harrier Hide first and then going through the door in the middle…
Between 26th April and 10th May we had a birding holiday based on East Anglia and North Norfolk in particular. On the way there and back we also took in Rutland, Suffolk and Lincolnshire. Our itinerary was as follows :
We drove from Thornham up around the wash and headed for RSPB Frampton MArsh. We had never been to this reserve before so we were very curious – especially since we had had such glowing reports of from a couple of birders we met once at Rutland Water. It looked very ominous all morning as…
From Holmes Dunes we drove back past Thornham and on to RSPB Titchwell for our last visit of the holiday. The weather was a bit better today so we were hoping for one last chance of Turtle Dove that are known to purr near the car park. And that is exactly what we found.
We had much better weather on our last day in Norfolk and we started out at Holmes Dunes NWT reserve, once again looking for Turtle Dove. We arrived an hour before the gate opened so we started to park up near the houses. As we approached we saw a couple of birders so we pulled…
The weather took a turn for the worse this day and we abandoned all idea of any birding except a quick run out to Chosely Dring Barns where, on Chalkpit Lane, we found two male and three female Dotterel and a single Golden Plover. That was the sum total of birding that day!
The weather had been pretty mixed so far during our stay in North Norfolk but the morning of the 7th was one of those mornings where all the birds are out singing and my morning walk along the marsh and down through the reed beds to the silted-up harbour was a beautiful start to the…