The next birding group outing was to North Wales starting at RSPB Conwy. We had thought just to do a quick tour of the nearest hides but, in the end, we did the full circuit. There were reasonably good numbers of birds but for the best was a very good sighting of a Lesser Whitethroat.
We had the very first visit of Ring-necked Parakeets to our garden on the 8th of June with three of them being quite entertaining. Of course, that may not be so appealing if the three grows to thirty! Also in the garden the same day were good numbers of House Sparrow, fledged Starlings, Robin, Blackbird…
The fist birding group outing of the month was an overnight trip; this time to Blacktoft Sands, North Cave and Bempton Cliffs. This was our first chance of the year to get most of the cliff-nesting birds that we had not already got. An additional bonus was a couple of other passerine year ticks.
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.
