26/03/2024 Undisclosed Location

Black-necked Grebe: Locally they are listed to breeding at Woolston Eyes NR in Warrington. But with with an abundant wintering numbers after a successful couple of breeding seasons there might be new birds prospecting for new breeding territories, hence the undisclosed location. 


There has been records of adults with young at Moore Nature Reserve. Typically BNG colonies are associated with nesting black-headed gulls, which must give some measure of protection from aerial predators.
There are just 55 breeding pairs in Britain, with around 120  individuals here in the winter months. Whilst numbers here in Britain are limited, the black-necked grebe is the most abundant grebe in the world, with many of these residing in North America. 

BNG favoured habitat is shallow, eutrophic waters, usually with extensive vegetation along the fringes and often floating aquatic plants, and a site preferably sheltered from strong winds. This flash appears suitable albeit without any nesting gulls. 


 

25/03/2024 Aviemore, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Capercaillie: The always excellent Damien Young is due to tie the knot in April, so we organised a stag weekend in Aviemore with the hopes of seeing some of the Scottish specialties. With a few notable absences the stag party consisted of Toby Young, Kristian Wade, Patrick Earth and of course the stag.


We got lucky with this bird as walking through some undisclosed Caledonian forest hoping to see our first crested tit and walked right up to this resting bird off the public footpath. Astonishing crazy scenes! 

Crested Tit: Although other types of crested tit occur in Europe, Scotland has a special subspecies of crested tit called Lophophanes cristatus scoticus. 
They are mainly found in large areas of ancient pine forest and newer Scots pine forestry plantations across central and eastern Highlands, from the River Spey catchment to the Dornoch Firth.


The white cheeks and lack of wing barring identify it at this range. More closely it has a very distinctive black and white crest, which it can fan and raise upwards. 
We checked the feeders at RSPB Loch Garten in the rain while standing under the small shelter beside the visitor centre with was closed. We gave it enough time before the rain settled down but only got a skip full of coal tit and a few chaffinches before moving on. Our next stop was Nether Bridge, a Caledonian pine forest just north of Loch Garten. here we had two cresties attending the bird feeders. 
Snow Bunting: Our next target bird was the ptarmigan a bird most of the lads needed so I took them to Cairngorm Mountain where I saw them back in 2016. Apart from a large herd of reindeer all we couldn't find any ptarmigan, so we had to entertain ourselves with a large flock of 36 beautiful white snow buntings that are resident around the ski centre. 
Ptarmigan: We had to travel over to Glen Shee and scale the munro mountain's Cairnwell Pass at the head of Glen Shee. This was a tough, hard hike to the top and not for the weaker legged. We scanned them scree and searched all over before stumbling across a couple of birders viewing the northern slopes where two birds hundred down.



Their unusual name comes from the Scottish Gaelic meaning ‘croak’, in reference to their grumbling, croaking-like call.
Ptarmigan usually live above the treeline, in the hills and mountains. In Scotland, they usually occur above about 800m, moving up and down the mountain in response to weather and food availability. 



The pair had seemed to have lost their pure white plumage that they had only thee weeks ago or so and were now perfectly camauglaged against the patches of snow amounts the loose boulders and rocks.  The walk down is always good for the soul. 


Golden Eagle: On the way over to Glen Shee we kept out eyes open for any large reports, we had dozens of buzzard and a few red kite  until we got to the upland moors near the A93 Military Old Road, here we spotted two golden eagle. A juvenile and an adult, of which had. statute tracker on its back. 
There are no particular ‘hotspots’ for seeing eagles and their eyries are a closely guarded secret, but if you spend time in the uplands and keep looking up you may be lucky enough to see this great bird soaring around ridgelines, catching the thermals and looking for prey.





Ptarmigan: Saturday evening I booked us all in to the Speyside wildlife pine marten hide on the Rothiemurchus estate near Aviemore. Their hide regularly gets badger and pine marten can also be seen. 
Badger: Each evening wildlife watching experience lasts approximately two and a half to three hours. Our guide for the evening was chap called Harris, an extremely pleasant fellow with a. wealth of knowledge.
Pine Marten: Harris even took his time to show us a resident Scottish wildcat that they have currently in the grounds close to the hide, unfortunately it evaded us on this night, but Harris did get us two plant ticks, including holly fern and twinflower.  The pine marten were the highlight of the evening but the new hide is poor for photography and not great for phones either, both these images where taken with my iPhone. 
Red Kite: This was a top weekend spent with some of the best humans I know. Here's to Damian and Helen and to their big day in April. 


For the pine Martin hide check this link below out. www.speysidewildlife.co.uk

22/03/2024 Garnock View in Kilwinning in Ayrshire

Myrtle Warbler: Known to be the first and only American warbler species to be recorded in Ayrshire the bird was first seen on the 20th of February. Its taken me 32 days to get off my backside and travel up to see it, but with a stag weekend in Aviemore planned in it came at a good time, besides this is my 4th Myrtle in the UK. 



The bird has set up camp in a garden in Garnock View in Kilwinning in Ayrshire, a row of small gardens close to a block of flats, its goes to show that anything can turn up on the garden feeders.    





The bird was protective over the fat balls at the feeders and was actively chasing away any small bird that took its chances on them. We didn't stay long as we needed to catch up with the rest of the stag party and head off further North towards the Cairngorms. 

24/02/2024 My Garden, Golborne, Cheshire

Siskin: Birders are most likely to encounter these agile little birds in coniferous forests and plantations but, particularly in winter they can be attracted to garden feeders. 





These common resident finches have lemon-yellow plumage, long, narrow curved bills (quite typical among Fringillidae) and forked tails. Their striped appearance is what distinguishes them from similar-looking garden birds.


Dawn and I purchased a new house over the Christmas period and although this brings untold stress with packing, moving driving the morals van and then settling in. A new home brings the excitement of a new garden bird list and new visitors to my garden feeders. 
We lived in our old house in Abram for over seven years and I only recorded siskin twice on the feeders.  When we moved into our new house we had an awful problem with the resident squirrels, they were relentless in sniffing out the feeders, damaging them and emptying the seed. 
So, I decided to upgrade the feeders from to the fantastic Roamwild Pest Off Bird Feeder. These 100% squirrel proof feeders have a spring loaded perches that drop when anything heavier than a small bird lands on them, pulling down a door that closes the feeding holes along with large squirrel baffle on the top and above the feeding holes. 

They are great, I've had no more issues with squirrels and plenty of garden birds enjoying the free buffet.


https://roamwildproducts.co.uk/products/roamwild-squirrel-proof-bird-feeders

18/02/2024 Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire

Great Grey Shrike: I started the day over in a fantastic woodland, the remnants of an ancient royal forest in Nottinghamshire, Sherwood Forest. 

Meeting up with tom Marshall and Matt Woodward, two legends who I've not seen in far too long a time.  


Made legendary as the home of the famous outlaw in the ballads of Robin Hood this 400 acre forest, surrounded by lowland heathland this is one of the premier places in the UK to see the famously scarce lesser-spotted woodpecker. Our main target for the day although we only had a brief male calling before flying overhead and out of sight. 
We moved on to Buddy Common where we got wood lark singing and this smart shrike. the bird was predictably mobile and ranging across areas without access so it was tricky to get anything decent on it, but good to see all the same. 

 

Lesser Scaup: After a laugh and chinwag over a cup of coffee and some scran in the visitor centre coffee shop I moved on back home and headed to Woolston in Warrington to try my luck with the lesser scaup.







Dave Spencer refund the lesser scaup  at Woolston Weir after it being found over the bund on Woolsten Eyes NR. The bird after relocating here was in a poor light and at some distance, let's hope it goes back to the Eyes and shows better. 

11/02/2024 Middleton, Heysham, Lancashire

Glossy Ibis: After a busy few weekends without the chance of getting out for a spot of birding I eventually was let out and caught up with the long staying glossy ibis. These birds look so odd like a cross between a heron and a curlew with green and purple-brown plumage. 
Once a rare vagrant to the UK glossy ibis numbers have increased in recent years and it has become more common, with exceptional arrivals in 2007-11. They were even confirmed as a new British breeder in 2002 when a pair was discovered breeding in Cambridgeshire. 

 

A perfect storm that have created a range of factors are in alignment that have helped the speed of this species. Southern Iberia has experienced extremely dry conditions and a relatively higher winter temperatures across the UK has encouraged large number of glossy ibis to spend the winter here.



This bird has found its winter home on a small flooded pasture field behind a small village near Heysham. Stocked with horses and chickens the flood is pretty extensive and isolated as there's no general access to the fields.  
Upon arrival the bird was at the furthermost side of the pool foraging and probing its long curved big in to the muddy banks.

Eventually, after a short while the bird was spooked by a little eager and flew into the flooded pool opposite the derelict Middleton Parish Hall car park. 
This gave me a chance to get some nice flight shots before it landed and began probing the mud for worms again. 

05/02/2024 Taylor Park, St Helens

Ring-necked Duck: Dave Owen found this smart looking drake RND during his regular wardening rounds of the parks and wild spaces across the area. 

News came out while I was working ut of the Liverpool office, but I managed to make it before the fading light became too much of an issue.


Taylor Park is the largest Victorian park in St Helens named after Samuel Taylor who gave the land the park was built on to St Helens Corporation in 1892. 

Its a nice little park when you look past the obligatory poo bags hanging in trees, such a shame as its a beautiful park! Great children's play ground, boating lake and even a cafe.

RND gets their  name from the dark purple neck band but this is not conspicuous in the field, it catches the light and reflects back, but it its overcast it can be difficult to see. 

They are similar to tufted duck, but lacks the tuft  on the head and has a high crown at the back of the head. They have a grey bill with a white band, a shiny purple head, a white breast, yellow eyes and a dark grey back. 




A scares American vagrant like this pulls in a good crowed of local birders, and it was good to bmp in to some familiar faces. 

13/01/2024 Lunt Meadows, Sefton ecks

Green-winged Teal: Between the family duties around the festive break and now being back at work its took me a while to get myself over to Lunt. 

This yank teal has made itself at home here for a few months now and I'm glad its stuck around so  I could go and see it. The bird was associating with the Eurasian teal on the great-white egret pool at the far end of the site. 

It eventually showed really well after drifting in from the submerged vegetaion and took a power nap on the nearside bank close to the sluice. 

Richardson's Cackling Goose: Another bird that has taken up residence at Lunt, albeit for a much short time so far is this diminutive cousin of the Canada goose, the cackling goose. With stubbier bills, steeper foreheads and a shorter neck they side by side they really do stand out.




Cackling geese that frequently in the wild in the UK, usually associate themselves with either barnacle or pink-footed geese. However there has also been a number of records of birds appearing on their own or with feral geese and these are often assumed to be escaped birds - this may be the case but it is entirely plausible that at least some are wild birds too.


Smew: A good morning spent on the reserve topped off by a drake smew, this bird initially gave me the run around and I saw it fly off from the main lake land on one of the border pools.