Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello,

Thank you to everyone who has been viewing my blog over the past year. This year has been excellent for birds but I have had my personal ups and downs. I am trying to concentrate on the positives which include:

• Making some great new friends, for example, Eleanor Morrison who I met at the beginning of the year at Stanwick Lakes who I now do a lot of my birding with in and out of the county and who has helped me a lot this year but really there is a long list of young birders who I have made friends with but to name a few they include Paddy Lewin, George Dunbar, Ellie Zantboer, Harry Witts, Frank Osterberg, you all know who you are if you read my blog ha ha. 
• Twitching this year has been fantastic, I have reached my end of year target of 250 birds on my life list which was the Dusky Thrush in Beeley which I saw with a couple of my friends Ben Moyes and Toby Carter. 
• Young Birder of the Year competition in September at Spurn was fantastic. I didn't win but I lost to good competition, George Dunbar, who I am now incredibly good friends with and I think that competition really helped start that friendship off. I have also been to Spurn in October and with a bit of scrolling you can find the post I did on that.
• Doing the Patchwork Challenge this year for Pitsford Reservoir has been great. It has really made me focus on the beautiful outdoors I have on my door step. I really have enjoyed doing this and rivalling with my friends over the year. It gives you a massive high finding a good bird on your patch which you have spent so long on. The highlight for me this year has to be Honey Buzzard but others include Black Tern, Glaucous Gull, Goshawk.

That has just been some of the highlights of my year and I would like to thank everyone that has contributed to it in making it one of my best years. 

Now back to the present, today I was at Pitsford Reservoir south of the causeway, doing my rounds and I found a 1st calendar year Caspian Gull in the Narrows while I was searching for the Slavonian Grebe which was 200 metres east of the Holly tree. Other birds seen today include a Kingfisher, a Raven and a male Stonechat.

Merry Christmas, 

Jacob

Slavonian Grebe

Gadwall

Kestrel

Dusky Thrush

Hello,

Today was spent on a twitch for a rare Thrush from Siberia called a Dusky Thrush. After a few hours of waiting the bird finally showed in the back fields of the village Beeley where this bird has taken up residence over the last 6 days. Then once it disappeared for about an hour and a half, myself, Toby Carter and Ben Moyes found ourselves in prime position at the orchard. The bird had flown into the Orchard without us realising until it started to feed on apples which had fallen onto the floor. Luckily, Toby and Sam had a saved me a nice spot at the front to get the pictures shown at the bottom. The bird, then showed again for a longer period of time at the back fields while it was preening in a tree.

Other birds around were a Crossbill, 20+ Siskin, a Raven, two Grey Wagtails, two Dippers and a Goshawk. Lots of common woodland birds were seen throughout the day including regular Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatches and Marsh Tits.

Regards,

Jacob

Dusky Thrush

Ben Moyes - https://twitter.com/Ben_Moyes16

Toby Carter - https://twitter.com/TobyWarbler

More patch birding

Hello,

This weekend I completed more patch birding at Pitsford Reservoir in a attempt to get my patchwork challenge list up as I am in a constant competition amongst my young birding friends (yes I know, I actually have friends) also it is because every weekend something different has turned up and migration has worked its magic. Well, neither Eleanor Morrison or myself yielded no new birds for the year list on Saturday however it did provide plenty of common things which were 1-2 Redshank, a Green Sandpiper, a few Snipe, a Yellow-Legged Gull, a handful of Siskins going over, a Grey Wagtail, a Shelduck, 20 Pintails (14 drakes), two Great White Egrets, three Kingfishers and three Red-Crested Pochards (2 drakes).

Today however was slightly different with the departure of some species and an influx of others. Todays totals included a Redshank, three Snipe, a Grey Wagtail, a Shelduck, 25 Pintails, four Great White Egrets in all different bays above the causeway and a Kingfisher. Although, the highlight of the day was when Adrian Borely found three Black Tailed Godwits near the Maytrees hide which was an addition to my year list at Pitsford Reservoir. A first winter female Scaup was also seen today but I didn't see it.

A meander round Blueberry Farm this evening up the track showed a Barn Owl and two male Stonechats while plenty of Meadow Pipits were feeding on the fields as the Goldfinches were on the cover crop next to the track.

Regards,

Jacob

Goldfinches

Barn Owl

Stonechat

Great White Egret

Past Spurn trips and Patching weekend

Hello,

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I should have done a couple really in the time I last uploaded as I have been to Spurn twice during that time. First time for Migfest and to compete in the Young Birder of the Year award which was expertly won by George Dunbar. A good friend of mine who I am not at all jealous about winning, why would I be? The last time was for a birding holiday during the October half term with Eleanor Morrison, Harry Witts, Frank Osterberg and Dawood Qureshi (to look at Twitter accounts click links at bottom of post). During this trip I managed to get eleven lifers! These including Yellow Browed Warbler, Little Bunting, Tawny Pipit and Siberian (Stejnegers) Stonechat. The Tawny Pipit and Little Bunting were both self founds and are waiting to be accepted although Little Bunting is more likely to be as I have some horrific record shots, they were both found along Chalk Bank on the 25th October in a matter of five minutes from each other.

Little Bunting

Black Redstart

Redstart

Eastern Black Redstart

Eider

Long-Eared Owl

Long-Tailed Duck

Red-Flanked Bluetail

Snow Bunting

Yellow-Browed Warbler

Yesterday morning and early part of the afternoon was spent meandering around the big side of Pitsford Reservoir in aim to get a few a patch birding ticks for the year. I managed to catch up with the Great Northern Diver which was found the day before, I saw it from Pintail Bay at about 15 meter range unfortunately without my camera. Other birds on the south side of the causeway were three Dunlin, a Brambling, 1-2 Stonechat(s) and two Ravens. I then got to the lodge and located another pair of Ravens calling in the trees. A short stop in the Goosander Hide didn't provide much apart from a Great White Egret. I then got to the Scaldwell Bay were I located another single Great White Egret, a Redshank, a Siskin, a Brambling and 4 Common Snipe. 

This morning was spent ringing in the top of the Scaldwell Bay where we caught 65 birds in total, the highlights being of this were two Meadow Pipit, a Bullfinch, eleven Goldcrest including a bird from elsewhere, two Great Spotted Woodpecker, eight Blackbird, fourteen Redwing, a Song Thrush, a Grey Wagtail which was ringed as a youngster at Stanford Reservoir this year, a Kingfisher, a Willow Tit, three Mallard and five Moorhen. The undoubted highlight was a Woodcock which found its way into a mist net. 

Other birds on-site today included a Crossbill which flew over 07:30, four Great White Egrets, two Scaup at 14:00 (Adrian Borely had 5 at one stage), a Brambling, a Siskin, two Shelduck, a Snipe and just generally a lot of passage going on. 

Regards, 

Jacob 

Woodcock

Meadow Pipit

Moorhen

Kingfisher

George Dunbar: https://twitter.com/georgedunbar_

Eleanor Morrison: https://twitter.com/EcoBittern 

Harry Witts: https://twitter.com/polychloros 

Frank Osterberg: https://twitter.com/frank_osterberg 

Dawned Qureshi: https://twitter.com/GoWildForBees

Seawatching Aberporth

Hello,

I have been staying in Aberpoth, Ceredigion for over a week now and I have been Seawatching everyday from the coastal path that runs out of Aberporth. I have been fortunate while doing my daily seawatching but the regular birds include three figure Manx Shearwater counts sometimes going into four figures and me not being able to get accurate counts so ending stopping, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Common Scoter, Fulmar, Shag, Cormorant, Guillemot and Razorbill. Most of the birds are going south-west.

However I have had quite a few highlights at the same time, with Puffin on the 30th July, Storm Petrel and two Sooty Shearwaters on the 2nd, a adult Little Gull on the 3rd, a juvenile Black Guillemot on the 4th and a adult Pomarine Skua on the 5th.

There has also been a lot of waders around the cliffs and on the seaweed covered rocks below including large numbers of Oystercatchers with the highest count being 70, two Common Sandpiper, three Whimbrel and five Redshank.

Most of the time, there is a small pod of Bottlenose Dolphins, today there was two mothers and calfs.

Regards,

Jacob

Black Guillemot

Bottlenose Dolphin

First 24 hours in Wales

Hello,

Yesterday we arrived at Aberporth in Wales and straight away I went to Seawatching. All birds were flying south west unless stated, the Seawatching produced 28 Common Scoter, thousands of Manx Shearwaters, a Puffin, two Shag, two Cormorant, 200+ Guillemot/Razorbill loafing and 18 Gannet over 10+ Bottlenose Dolphin.

I returned twice during today the highlight was three Whimbrel and a Fulmar but nothing else different from the last. However three Dolphins showed better and the pictures are below.

A visit to Poppit Sands produced 36 Curlew, a Grey Wagtail, a Little Egret and two Siskin.

Regards,

Jacob

Bottlenose Dolphins

Devon Birding

Hello,

I am staying in South Devon for a week and doing a bit of birding here and there. We arrived on last Saturday however I didn't really get the opportunity to go birding till the Monday. On Monday I visited Berry Head in the bright conditions which weren't forecasted. This meant that the seawatch was fairly unproductive apart from the 1000 or so Guillemots on the cliffs.

On the next day (Tuesday) I visited Dartmoor, Princetown for the fruitless search for the juvenile Lammergeier which had been sighted a few times there in the last ten days. However it was not in the area around Princetown in the 2 hour search I completed. However other birds were a lot of breeding Siskins, Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and general common birds. Once we had finished in Princetown, I visited Burrator Reservoir where I found a Dipper and two-three Grey Wagtails. In the evening I visited Clennon Valley Lakes where a Bee-Eater was present in the level field to the west of the Caravan Car Park. I only saw it briefly and heard it calling briefly before I couldn't relocate it so I guess it flew back over the Caravan Car Park.

Wednesday morning I again visited Berry Head were the forecast was right with strong winds and rain creating a half productive seawatch. The totals came too six Gannets, twelve Kittiwake, eighteen Fulmar, six Cormorant, ten Shags, thirteen Greater Black Back gull, forty-two Herring Gull and 99 Guillemots on the water and 1000's on the cliffs...

Today (Thursday) I visited Labrador Bay where I noted 14 Cirl Buntings! Somewhat 12 of these were  singing males and the rest were female feeding along the tracks. Other birds noted were 1+ Peregrine which was calling frequently...

Regards,

Jacob

Cirl Bunting

Fulmar

Jackdaw