Yesterday afternoon while walking up Partington lane heading towards the precinct I noticed a flock of 45-50 agitated Starlings flying around St Peters church giving out an alarm call. I looked around for a Sparrowhawk but could not find one. There are normally between 50 and 70 Starlings roosting...
Up to 70 ish Med Gulls in Flocks at Llanon, south of Aberystwyth. In various ages and moult. There were some superb adult summer plumaged birds there when we popped down.
Wader passage is well under way.
Red Kited everywhere as you can imagine. Several over our house everyday and the feeding stati...
The Wild Daffodils are now at their peak and make a great sight once you go through the 2nd gate from the car park towards the War Memorial. They have been there for donkeys years but I feel they were probably planted originally. Are there any other sites in Gtr Mcr? Unfortunately a few of the garden varie...
Had a morning at Hale Head, Widnes taking part in day one of the National Migration Watch series. The watch started at 06.45 and finished at 13.00 although I wasn't there all of the time. In total 513 individual birds and 12 species where counted. The full list was Merlin 2, Hobby 1, Skylark 54, Swallow 1...
2 Hours early afternoon today 2 Garganey 50+ Teal 400+ Black-tailed Godwits MIKE -- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Wednesday 22nd of August 2012 10:06:52 PM
Whilst i was in back garden this afternoon I noticed a spiral of gulls and a much bigger bird with them. When I grabbed my bins to get a better look I realised that the bigger bird was in fact a Comorant that was using the thermals the same as the gulls. I can't recall ever seeing a Comorant using thermals bef...
Saturday 13th February 2016. Morning wander along my childhood stamping grounds, on Seaburn and Whitburn beaches, Sunderland, on a receding tide. A very enjoyable couple of hours preceded an even more enjoyable couple of hours at the football. Small raft of Eider within 50 yards of the shore 50+ Pi...
19 nests in trees near to the centre of Hollingworth as I passed along the A628 today. Also Jackdaws nesting in the chimney of the Junction Inn. -- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Monday 7th of February 2011 09:04:44 AM
Was lucky enough to spend two days in Scotland with Marcus of ebirder fame, to try and improve my birding and photography skills but to be honest the birding was so spectacular the photography moved rapidly down the priorities!
Some of the following are sensitive species so I'll only give approxim...
Had a couple of hours at Delamere today - no sign of the Firecrests reported over the last few days and only brief flyovers of the 20+ strong flock of Crossbills. Still it was quite pleasant "down in the woods" with lots of Great Spotted Pecker activity.
I would imagine most of us have had a Bird they most wanted to see at some time or other. A Bird that's been Number 1 on their wanted list.. Mine was a Snowy Owl. I remember as a child reading about Britains first ever recorded breeding Snowy Owl's on Fetlar, discovered by Bobby Tulloch on Stakkeberg in 196...
Was way up in the North of Scotland this week and took half a days leave to get some birding in on the way back to the airport. Didn't quite go to plan as there was a whiteout and some scary driving conditions which meant I had to stick to the coast rather than go eagle spotting...
Highlights:
Perfect gr...
If anyone is in need of a pair of superb powerful binoculars for observing a nest site for bird protection ie peregrines etc we have taken in a pair of Vortex 18x56 .mint basically used once . They are about £1800 new these are on offer with 12 months guarantee for £960 . Be aware they are not really hand hol...
Peregrine late morning perched in top of a hedge off Parkside Rd. Different bird to the one I saw at HGF earlier this morning Also female Pintail on Newton Lake (Willow Park) late afternoon and 28 Linnets on Parkside Rd -- Edited by Mike Baron at 17:33, 2008-11-08
I have been told by an RSPB volunteer living in Rochdale, Jill Brown, who is involved with the Manchester Peregrines, that a pair is now in residence at the (secure) Town Hall tower, hopefully using the tray we put up in February 2009.
Any sightings at all gratefully appreciated!
If anyone is interested in collecting the following before I consign them to the tip, please contact me. All in decent condition. WWT WILDFOWL & WADER COUNTS 1990-1991; 1991-1992 BTO NEWS JOURNALS NOV '84-NOV '85; JAN '86 - DEC '86. (12 in all).
I visited the new RSPB reserve St Aidans today near Swillington in Yorkshire. Today was the opening day and we decided to arrive early so we would not have to struggle parking. Arriving at 9.20am there were just 4-5 cars parked and there appeared more staff and volunteers than visitors. Although with...
A wander down the perimeter of Eccles Sewage Works was interesting with over a 100 Pied Wagtails feeding on and around the sewage beds,also at least 150 Black Headed Gulls ,2 Herring gulls and a few Jackdaws also feeding on the beds.On the adjacent Ship Canal there were another 50 plus Black Headed Gul...
I have been keeping an eye on some berry trees at the junction of St Johns Road and Delamere Road in the hope of getting some Waxwings closer to home. Had a look late morning and there were 8 Redwings going at the berrys also a Goldcrest in one of the trees but alas no Waxies.
From Barton swing bridge to Travelodge 12.30 to 2pm. Chiffchaff - 5. Whitethroat - 2 (pair) . Chaffinch - 5. Common Buzzard - 1 over. MS canal ........... Kingfisher - 1 . Great Crested Grebe - 1. Cormorant - 4 . Mallard - 6 . Canada Goose - 65 (Eccles side ) . Swallow - several over the area . I only went as far...
A walk around Greenfield sewage works this morning. Five goosander and a dipper on the river. A mixed flock around the feeders above the bowling green included a couple of bullfinch, a few redpoll and a nice male brambling. A walk in the afternoon to Dovestones produced plenty of fieldfare and redwin...
May 8th to 19th Stayed on Gozo, a small Maltese Island. Relaxing holiday with binoculars at hand, weather mild & windy. Just caught the tail end of the main migration season for the Maltese Islands. Our first visit for 10 years, after spending some time researching on the internet, half expected...
11/04/2013 - A Bittern was seen at the reserve today. It was first seen in flight heading towards the water treatment works reedbed just over the railway line. After a stake-out it eventually flew out and landed really close by giving good views. It seems this is likely to be a different bird to the one l...
