Long Time No Post!

As you will have noticed it has been ages since I last posted. This is because i started college on the 6th September and I hadn't really comprehended the amount of work I would actually have! This has meant I've had very little time in the evening and so been unable to post at all, however I will hopefully be able to post a bit more regularly now that I've managed to get into a routine with homework. I'm not going to do a post for each day since I last posted, I'm just going to this one big one with the highlights, and then post a lot of pictures later.

Glasson - 03/09
I went to look for a Little Stint with the Dunlin flock but unfortunately it wasn't present, however at least 6 Curlew Sandpipers were nice along with an adult Yellow Legged Gull, 2 Mediterranean Gulls and a Raven.

Starr Gate, Freckleton, Stanley Park - 05/09
I met up with Ash around lunchtime and headed down to Starr Gate in the hope of connecting with a few seabirds. A gorgeous pale phase Arctic Skua flew right along the shoreline giving great views was the highlight, with 2 Manx Shearwater and 17 Bar Tailed Godwits the best of the rest. Then it was off to Freckleton to look for a Marbled Duck that had been seen the previous day (obviously dubious origins), however soon after we arrived Ash got a text off Larry to say he'd found a Black Tern (Fylde Tick) on the lake at Stanley Park, so it was a quick turn around and half an hour later we were watching it fishing and lying around less than 5 metres from us at times!

Fleetwood Marine Lakes - 08/09
A disappointing seawatch off Rossall didn't produce much however a summer plumage Red Throated Diver on the marine lakes certainly made up for this, although it wasn't looking too healthy, as was a Manx Shearwater which was on the other lake which died later that evening.

Pennington Flash - 10/09
A lovely warm day with intermittent sunshine provided a nice back set to a great variety of wildlife seen during the day including my second ever Grey Phalarope, a Black Necked Grebe (yeartick), 9 Green Sandpiper (1 flock), 3 Willow Tit, 5 Bullfinch, and my first Southern Hawker dragonfly.

Rossall Point - 12/09
After a pretty rubbish watch the previous day the strong winds finally came good and I had my first Leach's Petrel and Great Skua of the year along with 3 Arctic Skua and a nice juv Common Tern on the beach.

Rossall Point - 13/09
Another after college seawatch produced my most wanted species of the blow, a juv Sabine's Gull (lifer) flying south at middle distance. I also had a probable Long Tailed Skua however it barrelled through so fast that I didn't get much time to view it and I've got zero experience of the species before so I'm not going to claim it.

Rossall Point - 14/09
My final seawatch of the period (11:45 hours in total) didn't produce any new yearticks however the Great Skua flew past right along the surf line past me giving by far the best views I have had of this species. There was also a large flock of c900 Knot on the beach in front of the coastguard tower providing quite a spectacle as they flew around.

Fairhaven Lake - 14/09
An evening trip down to see a storm blown Grey Phalarope that gave unbelievable views, sometimes swimming less than 3 foot from where I was sat on the edge of the lake, just magic!

Pilling Marsh, Bradshaw Lane - 23/09
Lots of Pink Footed Geese arriving back in the country (had my first of the Autumn over Carleton on the 16th) and with about 2000 on Pilling Marsh I went to have a look through them and was rewarded with a single Barnacle Goose (yeartick). Then on the way back we drove down Bradshaw Lane and got stunning views of a Barn Owl hunting right past the car, and 3 different Marsh Harriers in the space of 15 minutes!

Glasson - 24/09
Big thanks to Len for picking me up the evening and taking me to Glasson to twitch the Lesser Yellowlegs (lifer) which Stuart Piner found at the mouth of the Conder. We managed to find it as the light was fading but still managed some good views.

Carr Bank, Nateby - 02/10
I had planned to go up to Carr Bank at Arnside to look for the Buff Breasted Sandpiper and 2 Pectoral Sandpipers and so arrived there mid morning and spotted a few birders on the edge of the marsh. I walked up to them and just as I arrived Bob Stinger walked off and informed me that a Solitary Sandpiper had just been found in Nateby near Garstang! This is a proper mega for mainland Britain so I didn't stay long looking through the waders, got the 2 Pectoral Sandpipers (lifer) along with 2 Little Stint and 3 Curlew Sandpipers, before heading off back down the motorway to nateby where I was directed to a farmers field who's land the bird was on. It was a very well organised twitch with the farmer allowing cars to park on one of his fields at the cost of £4 per person, and then let us walk across 2 of his fields to view the scrape that the bird was on. I arrived at the place where at least 40 people were already present and got my first views of the Solitary Sandpiper (lifer) as it fed distantly on the edge of the water. I managed to get the views that I wanted of the diagnostic dark rump and got to see all of the fylde birders and some from further afield.

Fairhaven Lake - 05/10
A trip down to Fairhaven Lake after college with my camera to see my first Fylde Slavonian Grebe which was showing stupidly well. I stayed for 2 and a half hours and was treated to it fishing sometimes about 5 feet away from the bank where I was lieing down so got some pretty nice shots which I will post later.

Pilling Marsh - 08/10
A nice group of 16 Barnacle Geese (my highest ever in the Fylde) were with the Pink Feet out on the marsh along with my first 3 Whooper Swans of the year (2 east, 1 south).

Singleton - 09/10
A Hooded Crow that was first found by Barry Dyson on the 3rd was eventually located again by Paul Slade on the morning of the 8th at the southern end of Poulton Industrial Estate. I went down in the evening on the 3rd but couldn't locate it, then 3 times on the 8th but still no sign and then once again on the morning of the 9th but it had moved off before I arrived. I was beginning to think I was jinxed however driving along Station Road I noticed a lot of crows in the field next to the road, so getting out and scanning through them I spotted the Hooded Crow! My first in the Fylde.

Fleetwood Golf Course - 12/10
An early finish on Wednesday afternoon allowed me to catch a bus to Fleetwood when I got a text that there was a Pomerine Skua sitting on the gold course! I ran from the bus to the southern end of the course and started walking north along the edge till I spotted 4 birders walking out onto the course. I watched where they were going and was amazed to see them getting to within a few metres of a gorgeous adult pale morph Pomerine Skua (lifer) just sitting in the grass. It didn't seem to be very healthy however after a few minutes it took off and flew right past me and over the sea wall and out of sight. It was relocated later on in the afternoon on the beach at Cleveleys allowing lots of great photos to be taken (look on the FBC website to see what I mean!).

So that's me up to date now. My lists are now as follows: British Life List - 267, Fylde Life List - 224, British Yearlist - 209, Fylde Yearlist - 198 (so close to my target of 200 now!)

Moths at the Mere - 31/08/11

On Wednesday night me and my Dad went on a moth and bat walk around Marton Mere with Ash and Aaron and a few of the rangers. Before we started me and dad went down to the edge of the mere and although it was almost dark I was able to pick out the Barn Owl sitting on top of the box on the island before flying off towards the fields at the back. We met at the ranger base at 9pm and then headed off towards the western end where the moth traps were set up. There were a few Pipistrelle Bats flying around but it wasn't till we reached the moth traps that things started to liven up. There were already plenty of Common Rustics in the trap when we arrived arrived and these provided the main bulk of what we saw during the night. We spent about 3 hours around the area of the traps sometimes searching the neighbouring fields for moths with the nets and in total we caught 16 species.

1 Angle Shades (NFM and one of my favourite species, pic 1)

2 Brown China Mark (NFM)

1 Lychnis (NFM, spent ages trying to find it in the book!)

14 Sallow (pic 2)

1 Old Lady

1 Mother of Pearl

1 Shaded Broad Bar

1 Copper Underwing

1 Smokey Wainscot

1 Straw Dot

80+ Common Rustic agg

6 Lesser Broad Bordered Yellow Underwing

5 Large Yellow Underwing

2 Lesser Yellow Underwing

1 Common Carpet

1 Common White Wave

Waders Galore - 29/08/11

With hordes of Curlew Sandpipers flooding into the country over the past week I thought it was about time I went out and got one in the Fylde so decided to check Skippool and then Glasson which are the 2 best wader areas. The tide was dropping when I arrived at Skippool so the waders were starting to come back to feed and I had the resident Spotted Redshank along with a Greenshank, 18 Ringed Plover (most I've had here), 29 Golden Plover, 21 Black Tailed Godwit, 7 (yes only 7!) Dunlin, 80+ Curlew and loads of Redshanks and Lapwing. I also noted the adult Yellow Legged Gull which I've seen a few times here over the past month. However no Curlew Sands so I headed off to Glasson in the hope of locating one there.

A brief stop on the way at the Conder Pool saw another Spotted Redshank and a Greenshank on the river before getting to Glasson where I spotted Paul Slade already set up looking out over the river. He informed me that he had seen a Curlew Sand with the Dunlin flock at Cockersands so it was back in the car and down there where we were greeted with a strong wind blowing straight into our faces coming from the river which meant it was very difficult to view the mixed Dunlin and Ringed Plover flock on the short in front of us. I decided to view from the car as it offered some shelter and after several scans which revealed a few Sanderling and a couple of Turnstone I eventually found the Curlew Sandpiper (yeartick) feeding in the centre of the flock. A small flock of Oystercatchers that flew downriver were the final waders of the day and brought the total to a respectable 13 species.

Leighton Moss - 28/08/11

Sorry for a lack of posts this week, a couple of late night moth walks have taken it out of me and with college starting on Tuesday I've been pretty busy. Last week a Great White Egret turned up in the egret roost at Leighton Moss so me and Ash went up there the next day with his dad in the hope of seeing it and for me making it the fourth year in a row I've seen the species at Leighton. We had a great day all round with Marsh Tit (yeartick) and Nuthatch around the feeders, lots of birds of prey including an Osprey which caught a fish near Public hide then flew off north and a juvenile Marsh Harrier quartering the reeds opposite Lilian's hide. Plenty of Little Egrets around however the Great White never showed and hasn't been seen since so has obviously cleared off somewhere, other birds seen include at least 12 Greenshank, Raven and 7 Pochard. The best sight of the day however has to be the fawn Red Deer that appeared right in front of us from the Grisedale hide and showed brilliantly for half an hour or more.

Fylde Tick - 27/08/11

With a Fylde list of 217 species you would imagine that I had seen pretty much all the common resident and migrant species to occur in the area, however one big gap had always been Redstart which I had never managed to connect with on spring migration. Well on Saturday I tried to rectify this when I recieved a text in the evening off Len saying that there was a juvenile near to Cockersands near Glasson and luckily my dad agreed to take me to try see it. We easily found the right field and started to scan along the hedgerow along the edge where a few birds were perching before dropping down onto the recently plowed ground to search for insects. There were several Robins doing this and after a short while I spotted the juvenile Redstart about 20 metres away in the last hawthorn bush before it dropped down allowing me to see that it was a very orange example, almost as bright as the Robins it was feeding with! It continued to feed for the next 10 minutes allowing for very nice views until it disappeared into the depths of the bush and out of sight so we headed home very happy. This was my 218th Fylde bird, and took my British and Fylde yearlists up to 192 and 187 respectively.

Wryneck Dip - 26/08/11

On Wednesday a Wryneck was found on Horwich Moor, right on the border of Lancashire and Greater Manchester however it disappeared on Thursday before being re found on the morning of Friday. Ash and Aaron thought it was worth a look so we headed off in the morning arriving on site about 11:00 and after a quick look round we found the area where it had been seen last and also a couple of birders who informed us that it hadn't been seen since about 8:30. In the fields next to the woods where it had been seen were a few Pied Wagtails including on melanistic bird that was very dark, a sooty black colour all over. The birders said it was last seen flying over the road where we viewing up onto the moors above us so we decided to head up there but unfortunately all we could find were 7 Wheatear, 3 Kestrels and a Tree Pipit. Despite this disappointment a nice surprise was found on the slate bank next to the road as we passed on the way down, a gorgeous Wall Brown butterfly, a new species for all 3 of us. It gave great views however it didn't like to sit still for very long and whenever it did land it was always in an awkward place! Got a few half decent shots and the best 2 are below. This is my 28th species of British butterfly and my 12th new species of the year.

Brilliant Bat Walk - 24/08/11

The birding during the day was pretty poor however I was looking forward to the evening as I was going on a bat walk around Stanley Park with a few of the rangers, Ash, Aaron, Dave and some of the public. We started around 9pm and set off with a load of torches and a few bat detectors which quickly picked up the clicking of a Pipistrelle Bat flying around the edge of the bowling greens so we all stopped to look. Whilst we were doing this a large moth flew in front of Ash's face and with some excellent net skill he managed to catch it and upon placing in a pot we could see it was an Old Lady moth, my first ever of this large species, and further round a Crescent moth in the gardens. Walking down towards the lake we saw a Brown Long Eared Bat and then over the lake itself we watched at least 4 Daubenton's Bats picking insects off the surface of the water. On the boathouse we found 3 more Old Lady moths resting on the wall

Walking up along the edge of the northern lake and then across the road into the woodland gardens we saw several more Pipistrelle Bats however there wasn't much else about until the definate highlight of the night was found on the way back to the visitor centre. Walking along the western side of the north lake Ash spotted a couple of moths resting up on an oak tree so we went to investigate and found that it was covered in at least 40 moths including 5 absolutely beautiful Red Underwings, a new species for me and probably my new favourite species out of all the ones I've seen. I hadn't taken my camera since I wasn't expecting to need it but luckily Ash did so the below photo is one of his and shows how nice they were. 4 new moths and 2 new bats meant a very good night and hopefully I will be doing another event at the mere on wednesday.

Shard, Bank End and Glasson - 23/08/2011

Went out looking for a yeartick or two Over Wyre and although I didn't find any there were plenty of good birds around. I stopped off at the Shard Bridge first of all on the way out to chekc the wader and gull flocks to see if anything had dropped in. There were at least 400 Black Headed Gulls in one large flock however they were a bit distant so I could only find one adult Mediterranean Gull amongst them. A couple of Little Egrets fishing in the shallows and a flock of 127 Golden Plover were the only other sightings of note so I moved on the Bank End.

It was just over a year since my last visit to Bank End when I saw a couple of juvenile Yellow Wagtails with the Pied Wagtail flock on the marsh here. Well a feeling of de ja vu occured as once again I was looking at a pair of juvenile Yellow Wagtails only this time they were accompanied by a nice adult female. Amazingly these are my 8th, 9th and 10th Yellow Wagtails of the year in the Fylde despite having only ever seen 1 in the past.

The final stop was at Glasson to look out over the river at the waders however it was just the usual fair with several hundred each of Golden Plover and Lapwing along with about 90 Redshank and 50 Dunlin.

The Patch - 22/08/11

My first check of the patch for a while as I hope to find a good migrant here some time during the open so I will be visiting a lot more in the next couple of months. In the crematorium a pair of Sparrowhawks circled overhead and a male Kestrel hunted over the neighbouring fields. On the pond the 2 White Cheeked Pintails were still in residence along with 48 Mallard, 2 Coot (including the colour ringed bird) and a family part of 4 Canada Geese. From here I went to Bispham Marsh which was surprisingly quite however the first few ducks are starting to arrive back and I had 2 each of Shoveler and Teal on the south half, the only migrant passerine was a Whitehtorat in the scrub to the south of here. Although the birds weren't mind blowing the dragonflies certainly made up for it with a male Emperor on the crem pond, a male Common Darter in the scrub and at least 7 Migrant Hawkers which seemed to be everywhere.

Skippool Creek - 20/08/11

Just catching up with a few days birding since I got back off holiday. I decided to check Skippool Creek to see how the wader numbers had changed since I went away but surpringly they were pretty similar. The adult Spotted Redshank had completed it's moult into winter plumage and had been joined by a juvenile bird. There were more gulls about with at least 3 Mediterranean Gulls (2 adults and a 2nd winter) and an adult Yellow Legged Gull in the area before they were all pushed off by the tide. The total for the watch was:
2 Spotted Redshank
3 Mediterranean Gull
1 Yellow Legged Gull
2 Greenshank
8 Ringed Plover
47 Black Tailed Godwit
1 Golden Plover
39 Dunlin
60+ Curlew
300+ Redshank
350+ Lapwing

France Day 11 - 18/08

A full day driving meant not many birds seen in France at all except a few each of Buzzard and Kestrel however after crossing the channel things started to pick up a bit, although the weather went downhill. We headed round the south of London and then up the M40 as we hoped this would be quieter, however I also hoped that I would be able to connect with the bird most associated with that particular stretch of road. After a flock of 6 Canada Geese flew over the motorway my dad spotted the first of 14 Red Kites (yeartick) including a few giving great views of what has to be one of my favourite species. This was the last addition to the trip list and took it to a grand total of 84, 9 more than my target. The full list is below with the highlights in bold:
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Black Necked Grebe
Cormorant
Night Heron
Great White Egret
Little Egret
Grey Heron
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Shoveler
Honey Buzzard
Red Kite
Marsh Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Sparrowhawk
Buzzard
Osprey
Kestrel
Pheasant
Moorhen
Coot
Oystercatcher
Little Ringed Plover
Lapwing
Common Sandpiper
Mediterranean Gull
Black Headed Gull
Common Gull
Lesser Black Back Gull
Greater Black Back Gull
Herring Gull
Yellow Legged Gull
Common Tern
Little Tern
Black Tern
Whiskered Tern
Feral Pigeon
Woodpigeon
Collard Dove
Turtle Dove
Cuckoo
Tawny Owl
Swift
Green Woodpecker
Grey Headed Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Sand Martin
Swallow
House Martin
Meadow Pipit
Grey Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
Black Redstart
Stonechat
Blackbird
Mistle Thrush
Sedge Warbler
Reed Warbler
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Long Tailed Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Nuthatch
Short Toed Treecreeper
Magpie
Jackdaw
Rook
Carrion Crow
Raven
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Reed Bunting
Corn Bunting

France Day 10 - 17/08

Final full day in France and my parents wanted to go back to Chambord to have a proper luck around the chateau in the morning so I joined them and it proved much more productive than the last visit. There were lots more butterflies around and amongst the ones I managed to identify were Map (nfm) and female Common Blue. There were also quite a few damselflies and dragonflies including Willow Emerald Damselfly (nfm). Birds were very vocal but unfortunately very elusive with several woodpeckers calling and also a rail sp in an area of reeds. I went in to look for it and looked down to reveal a Grass Snake not 30cm from my foot slowly uncurling itself before slinking away into the undergrowth! Nearby I found some of it's shed skin which I have kept and is now in my brothers room. Other repltiles in the area were Western Green and Common Wall Lizards.

France Day 9 - 16/08

More of the same really however a Honey Buzzard and a Common Buzzard sparing over the campsite early morning was a nice surprise, was just unfortunate that I didn't have my bins with me at the time. The day was spent just around the campsite, swimming and playing tennis however once again in the evening me and my Dad went down to Chambord to watch the mammals. There was a family group of 10 Boar from one of the hides including a tiny youngster.

France Day 8 - 15/08

An absolutely awesome day as we had booked to do a 2 hour (10km) kayak down the river where we were staying getting brilliant views of the local birds. We all went in single kayaks and I quickly left the others behind as I got into my stroke rhythm and the first birds I saw were a small flock of Common Terns fishing right next to the kayak giving great views. Further downriver another party of terns approached me however the calls were different and they turned out to be my fourth species for the trip, Little Terns. Like my previous trips to the river there were plenty of Common Sandpipers and Little Egrets around the banks and sandy areas however I also managed to add Little Ringed Plover to the list when I spotted one on one of the shingle beaches. There were some large flocks of Lapwings in the area, just as I reached the bridge they all took off and looking up I spotted an Osprey circling right above me, magic! Towards the end of the stretch we were on a female Goosdaner took off from right next to me and headed off downriver allowing me to see all the ID features, which looking in the book later on was a good thing because apparently it is quite a rare sighting for the area in summer. The final sighting of the morning was another Osprey fishing in the same area as I saw 2 a few days previous.

Back at the caravan I spotted a bird scurrying up one of the oak trees but to my surprise it wasn't a Nuthatch it was a Short Toed Treecreeper, my first ever. Then during the night I heard a couple of Tawny Owls around the site although I failed to locate them.

France Day 7 - 14/08

The first proper rain of the holiday has us caravanbound for all the morning and into mid afternoon which gave me good chance to carry on reading the Darren Shan demonata books that I had taken with me on holiday (I took 5 books and I finished them all in 7 days!). Luckily by mid afternoon it had cleared up so once again we headed to Chambord and to a viewing platform where we were treated to some great views of at least 5 Boar, 37 Red Deer and 2 Coypu.

France Day 6 - 13/08

My dad agreed to take me to do some proper birding during the morning so we headed towards the town of St Viatre in the heart of the Sologne, a huge area filled with hundreds and hundreds of lakes, a massively important wetland area. The roads go past lots of the best lakes so we drove around for a bit and whenever we spotted a good lake we just pulled over and took a look. The first lake held the most birds with plenty of Black Necked Grebes fishing along with Great Crested and Little Grebes, Shoveler and Gadwall. Around the edges of the lake were lots of Little Egrets and a few Great White Egrets that towered over everything else! The next lake held a 30 strong flock of terns and a few came close enough to be identified as adult Whiskered Terns along with a few Common Terns mixed in as well, and then in the distance we heard a late Cuckoo calling. The rest of the lakes held much of the same however I think I heard a Little Crake at the last but it never showed which was a shame as it would have been a lifer for me. Most birds were wary and far away hence why the photos are terrible!

After lunch at the caravan we headed to the next to along the river from ours to book something for later in the holiday (find out what in a later post) and whilst me parents went to look round the town me and my brother went down to the river to see what was about. A pair of Ospreys gave brilliant views as they moved up and down river fishing although we never saw them complete a full dive so didn't catch anything. A few minutes later another large bird of prey flew downriver which turned out to be a gorgeous adult Honey Buzzard, which was mobbed by my first adult and juvenile Yellow Legged Gulls of the trip.

In the evening we went out for a meal but on the way we stopped off at one of the viewing platforms at Chambord to look for mammals and got distant views of a wild Boar and 5 Red Deer but we hadn't brought the binoculars so couldn't see them very well.

France Day 5 - 12/08

Another day, another chateau, this time Chenonceau which is built across a river which I hoped would mean there would be a few birds around, I was wrong. On the way I spotted an adult Night Heron sitting on a tree by a pond next to the road but unfortunately we couldn't stop to get better views of photos. The woods around the car park at the chateau were alive with the noise of Nuthatch's and I counted at least 8 before giving up as they were moving around constantly. We looked around the inside of the chateau for a bit however I got bored (not my sort of thing at all!) and went to look around outside for birds. There were loads of House Martin nests around one of the towers and a few Pied Wagtails around the gardens but apart from that it was pretty quiet. Luckily we took a different route back to the campsite which meant going along the main road that went right by the river most of the way, and the first Osprey of the trip was seen almost immediately as we joined the road. We stopped off in the town of Blois on the way back so I could take a quick look out over the river, lots of Common Terns were fishing on the far bank however my eyes were drawn to a darker bird flying purposefully downriver, a juvenile Black Tern.

France Day 4 - 11/08

A holiday with parents to the Loire area in France can only mean one thing, chateaus! Luckily we only visited two during the holiday however I will admit despite being boring inside they are pretty impressive buildings. Just 5 minutes down the road from out campsite was the largest chateau in the area, Chambord, surrounded by a huge walled area of forest full of birds and mammals (well that's what I was told!). There is a large straight lake next to the building which was devoid of bird life however there were several dragonflies around including a gorgeous Small Pincertail. There were also lots of butterflies around but they never landed proving a difficult identification challenge and I was only able to identify Large Tortoiseshell and Small Heath. There weren't many birds about although Sedge and Reed Warblers were heard in the areas around one of the observation platforms which are where you are meant to get good views of mammals in clearings in the woods. There weren't any about when we were there but apparently the best time is morning and dusk so we decided to come back another time. However on the way back in the car through the forest I spotted a large Boar close to the road, the first of the trip but definitely not the last.

France Day 3 - 10/08

Just like at home my mum was up early and was rewarded with a Red Squirrel scurrying along the ground at the back of the caravan, the only one any of us saw all trip. I slept like a log however all the others were woke by at least 1 Tawny Owl calling from the trees just above the van. I was woke however by the noise of a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling somewhere nearby and eventually it gave brief flight views extinguishing hope that it could have been one of the 7 species present in the forests around nearby Chambord! After breakfast I went with my parents down through the town to the river to see what birds could be found in the local area, although I certainly wasn't expecting how much I would see! A couple of Black Redstarts were feeding around the trees in a local park before we reached the river and immediately spotted plenty of Little Egrets and Grey Herons. A Turtle Dove flew out of the trees lining the bank of the river and a smaller heron flew along the opposite bank of the river, which through my bins I could see was my first ever Night Heron, a juvenile. On the river itself were plenty of Common Sandpipers calling loudly as they chased each other about, and a second summer Mediterranean Gull sitting on one of the many islands. Away from the birds there were loads of Banded Demoielles lining the shore, literally hundreds along the stretch I walked along, giving great views and allowing for a few photos.

France Day 2 - 09/08

A reasonably start and a half an hour drive saw us at the Eurotunnel terminal near Foulkstone on the south coast. The crossing itself was as you would imagine pretty unimpressive, however just 35 minutes we emerged in France near to Calais and on the way out of the terminal the road passes some marshes next to a petrol station. We pulled over I quickly noted one, then two, then three Marsh Harriers hunting close by along with 2 Great Black Back Gulls, Coots and a few Mute Swans. The campsite we stayed at is in a town called Muides sur Loire, which as the name suggests is on the beautiful Loire river in the north of mid France. This is about 5-6 hours drive from Calais which gave me plenty of time to add more species to the trip list (I set myself a target of 75 species for the trip).

It soon became obvious that birds of prey are more common in France that here in Britain. There were Kestrels and Buzzards every couple of miles or so along with smaller numbers of Sparrowhawks and on one occasion a gorgeous juvenile Montague's Harrier. We also spotted a few mammals including plenty of Rabbits and a pair of Roe Deer that were feeding on the edge of a small copse.

Eventually we reached the campsite and our static caravan which would be home for the next 9 days. There were lots of tall oak trees between the caravans which proved to be a haven for small birds, with lots of Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinches, Wrens and lots of noisy Nuthatch's. Still no photos as I hadn't unpacked anything but there will be plenty in the coming posts.

France Day 1 - 08/08

Setting out from home around mid-day on the way to our overnight stop off in Maidstone before going on the train to Calais the next morning, light drizzle hampered the birds seen and the only things of note added between home and the motorway were a single Lapwing and a Buzzard. The rain continued on and off till about Birmingham where Swift and Sparrowhawk were seen but little else of interested was noted at all on the rest of the journey which was slightly disappointing.

Arriving at the Travelodge in Maidstone about 6pm me and my mum set out to Burham Down about 10 minutes away, a chalkhill area where I could have seen Silver Spotted Skipper and Chalkhill Blue butterflies. Unfortunately it was pretty windy and had also clouded over resulting in almost no butterflies at all, in fact 2 Meadow Brown were the only ones seen in half an hour of searching! A Green Woodpecker was a mild consolation as I was heading back to the car but didn't go far to covering the sadness of missing some great butterfly species.

I'm back

Got back from holiday yesterday evening so will be updating the blog very soon. I'm going to be doing a post about each day over the next couple of days to give you a good idea of what I saw. 84 species of bird in total including 3 new species for my world list, you will have to wait and find out what though.

Shut Down

In a few hours I will be setting off on a family holiday to France for the next 10 days so will most likely be unable to get much internet access and therefore won't be able to post on here very much. We are staying in Maidstone overnight tonight and I am hoping to visit a local site for Silver Spotter Skipper butterflies aswell as possibly Chalkhill Blue and Brown Argus. I am hoping to see Red Kite on the way down there and might even get a few lifers in France if I'm lucky. So till then Au Revoir and good birding.

Blackpool Air Show

No birds but a few pics from the Blackpool Air Show today. Highlight was the awesome avro Lancaster Bomber but the red arrows were as always pretty spectacular!

Wader Fest

Yesterday afternoon I checked down at Skippool Creek as the tide was coming in to watch the waders as they were pushed up into an area close to where I view from giving me good views and a good chance to find something more interesting amongst them. When I arrived the water was already pretty high so a large group of waders was already present and I set about grilling the Redshank and Dunlin flock. The total in the roost was:
1 winter plumage Spotted Redshank (same individual as a few weeks ago)
1 Greenshank
1 Golden Plover
2 summer plumage Black Tailed Godwit
150+ Dunlin (mixture of plumages)
80+ Curlew
1 Oystercatcher!
40+ Lapwing
400+ Redshank

More Butterflies from Yesterday

Just a few more photos from yesterday of the various species we saw: Small Copper, Small Skipper, Ringlet, Common Blue, Peacock, Scotch Argus, Dark Green Fritillary.