Midlands Birding Blog

On the 1st of July, a Fea's-type Petrel was spotted flying north past Flamborough Head prior to 10am. What ensued was one of the best examples of birding cooperation that I have ever seen. By quickly sharing the news and communicating online, the bird was seen at a further 13 coastal sites in the north east of the country, 13 more opportunities for photographs and corroboration. Thanks to better photographs further up the coast (and great online collaboration after the photos were shared) the bird was identified as a Soft-plumaged Petrel - a first for Britain, subject to acceptance. This is both a fantastic record and display of the power of digital communication. This bird would surely never have been identified let alone accepted had it not been for technological advancements. You might wonder, with 626 species now on the British list, when will it stop increasing? I would argue not any time soon, thanks at least in part to our ever-improving technology. I think new seabird addit...

It's been a while since I wrote a blog post, but I've been doing lots of birding in the meantime. A month and a half ago I started my June to September Birding Challenge. The idea was to try and see as many birds as I could from the 1st of June until the end of September to take advantage of being lucky enough to have a 4 month summer away from university. The busiest times for a student always seem to be April/May and October, which are annoyingly some of the best months for birding. I seem to have all the time in the world in June and July when there just aren't very many birds to see! The main motivation therefore for starting from scratch being that June and July can be frustrating months for birding (although this year seems to have been a bit of exception) and I was hoping that starting a new list would help make things more exciting. My target, though optimistic, was to beat 200 species which was my previous year list record for an entire calendar year! I would be he...