We were told by some neighbours who had been out dog walking that two adult Barn Owls and two chicks had been seen in a field near Brookburn school. The weather has been dry some days and wet others so we took the chance on the next day it was dry and we were not disappointed.
The birding group were due to go to Macclesfield Forest on 2nd May but I chose not to go there because of the hilly nature of that particular walk. Instead, we decided to go to Woolston Eyes nature reserve and we had a very pleasant morning with a good number of species including the year-tick…
A morning out to Burton Mere Wetlands promised the possibility of Garganey as well as all the other usual species. As it happened, we got four new year ticks and some very good views of a bird that had proved very elusive on a previous visit.
The last birding group day out of November was to Burton Mere Wetlands. We didn’t bother going down to Inner Marsh Farm but we had a nice walk on a day that threatened rain but kept dry for us.
The last birding group day of the month was left open for a decision nearer the time. The weather was predicted to be quite bad so a lot of people were put off but five of us took the risk and the risk was well rewarded with a good year tick and some great early…
I had read that a Little Stint and a Green Sandpiper were both to be seen from the Eric Morecambe hide at RSPB Leighton Moss and, since the weather forecast was good, we decided to go up there and give it a shot. As it happened, we were wrong on both counts as the weather…
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?
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…
