Barn Owl/Nightjar Surveying

I've been conducting some really interesting Barn Owl and Nightjar surveys at various locations in the UK this year, the Nightjar surveys were very interesting and were great fun getting to play around with a 35K thermal imaging camera and several Ks worth of image intensifying cameras.

A set of Barn Owl surveys in Beverley were particularly interesting providing some really good results and a hunting Hobby at just gone 4.30 in the am was a nice surprise! Not as nice as the lady police officer that pulled me at 3 in the am wondering what i was doing wandering round country lanes at that time in the morning!!! Got your number!!

Twitching ups and downs and run arounds!

Had some ups and downs twitching over the last couple of months (main,y downs), not bothering to go for the Collared Flycatcher(s) and Crested Lark - big mistake, gutted, the Great Not which was a load of balls (but lots of exciting year ticks, Curlew Sand, Greenshank, Little Tern - what joy!!) and dipping the Pallid Swift too, but the fun and games revolved around Pratincoles, the Black-winged vanishing the day before i could get down to try for it and the Collared giving me the run around the country - literally, as described below from my Bank Holiday birding log!...

Had a good weekend, in the end! Started with an early morning trip to Norfolk on Saturday that almost resulted in no birds, however a pair of breeding Montys Harriers (the best kept secret pair in the country!!) was well worth the 400 miles! Spoonbill, Hobby and several warblers (Cettis, lesser white etc) new year birds.

I heard a rumour of a Collared Praticole down there but the little F$%^er decided to bugger off before i could get it!! Nevermind, its only a bird!!

Managed the adult male Woodchat on the edge of sunny Wakefield on Sunday afternoon, showed really well catching bees!

















On Bank Holiday Monday a 5am wake up bark by the dog (thanks Daisy) made me decide to go to Swilly, 45 mins later I was watching the Collared Pratincole and a Whiskered Tern - result. Back in bed with a bacon Sandwich and my beautiful wife by 7.30 am!!!! Jobs a goodun!!

After a fairly stressful weekend the Collared Pratincole finally gave itself up, before vanishing never to be seen again! Its quite amusing that I drove all the way from Yorkshire to see it in Norfolk for it to vanish and turn up just down the road from where i'd come from! Briliant!

Devonshire Wedding then back to work

I'm just back from a week down on the south coast of Devon, we stayed in some beautiful log cabins in the middle of some really nice woodland, with bird boxes and bird tables around all cabins and due to the great habitat birds were super-abundant, with lots of fledglings, being evident Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Blackbird, Dunnock, Chiffchaff and lots of Tits. A pair of Spotted Flycatcher were also present around the cabin for most of our stay which was nice. Highlight however was a nice male Cirl Bunting that showed really well on the cliff top footpath. Didn't really do a great deal of birding but it was nice just having lots of birds around the cabins - and the weather was awesome too. (The Wedding was good too!)

On Monday back at work a nice suprise was that my two pairs of nesting Little Ringed Plover had hatched their young, with one pair having 4 chicks, the other 3. Hopefully some/all will fledge in the coming weeks!

Longtime no news - sorry!

Its not that I haven't been out birding recently, pretty much the opposite, it's just that I've also been really busy report writing in one form or another, however I'm going to try and update the blog over the coming days with my recent goings on, highlights including my Goa Trip Report from April and a few interesting twitches (Great Not, Collared Pratincole etc etc...). Keep your eyes peeled!

Cocks are like buses

Went out for a brief walk at a local nature reserve on Sunday with Jenny and Daisy and after driving all round East Yorkshire on Saturday with one of the main target birds being Woodcock it was probably no surprise that we had one on Sunday too! This bird was giving a nice flyby view which was cool. The site was heaving with Reed Bunting with a few Yellowhammer thrown in for good measure. A Black Swan was motoring about on the water and then a year-tick in the form of a singing Marsh Tit followed us along for a bit as we waded through knee deep mud!

Shag in Beverley (Just for you James!!!)

Saturday was like going back in time as I spent some time driving round the areas in East Yorkshire that I spent 4 years living and birding in. First stop was North Cave Wetlands for the Green-winged Teal, which after a while finally showed itself in amongst the grass on one of the islands. When I used to go birding at this site it was a case of looking through the gap in the hedge trying to avoid getting hit by tractors or boy racers but now there is a car park and some really smart hides and a lot of site improvements for both birds and people! I look forward to returning!!

The drake Green-winged Teal is hidden in the grass, you can just about see the distinctive white line - honest!

On then to Tophill Low Nature Reserve via Beverley, having not returned to the town since I left it in 2004 it was a little strange to be driving round it again! On arriving at Tophill I paid my entrance fee and met up with Lil Rich the site manager and James (Hotspur) who was busy volunteering. We spent a good half hour or so enjoying a warming cuppa and watching the very close range roosting Woodcock waiting for the birds to return to the feeders after a Sparrowhawk had been through (or was sitting there somewhere), eventually the birds started coming back and amongst the many Chaffinch (including a male double the size of the other males), Greenfinch, Tree Sparrow and Tits was a couple of smart male Bramblings, both targets from here scored!

A walk around the reserve looking at all of the site improvements underway resulted in the main targets, the two redhead Smew (presumably a female/1st winter and a 1st winter male), they showed really well, with other bits seen including Pintail and most of the common waterfowl. A possible day-roosting Tawny Owl almost got us all!!! A few winter thrushes were seen moving about, a sign of things to come??? Back at the visitors centre the Water Rail was showing itself under the bird feeders! This ended a really nice day out with 4 strategic year tick! Thanks to James and Rich for the company.

The two 'red-head' Smew at Watton Borrow Pits, fairly distantly just before they moved over to the far pool. One bird is considered to be a 1st winter male, the other is presumably a first winter female.

Same old same old...FOG

I hate fog. Another mornings birding screwed up by not being able to see more than 100m. A really frustrating start to the day with the only glimmer of light being a year tick Nuthatch (134) that was hunter gathering along the wall in front of my B&B window. This was pretty much the highlight of today's birding, other interesting observations included 7 Whooper Swan and a load more common waterfowl. A Grey Heron sat in a nest was a bit early but it looked like it was staking a claim in the immense structure. A few interesting Buzzards were noted, one very pale with another incredibly dark individual that looked more like a Black Kite when it was sat on the ground. Lets hope the weather improves tomorrow...

***Late night update, Tawny Owl (year tick 135), calling outside tonight's B&B in south western Scotland, coolio!