Midlands Birding Blog

My family and I went on holiday to Northumberland for a few days this week. With a forecast of strong northerly winds and regular showers, I was hoping that I might get in a couple of hours of sea watching.  Seahouses is the best place for close views of Eider Being a Leicestershire birder, any sort of Skua or Shearwater is usually a year tick if not a lifer for me! So I was hoping for a few new birds for my year list. Sure enough, I found myself in Seahouses on Tuesday evening and managed to get in an hour of sea watching from Annstead Point before dark. The visibility was terrible, and this forced birds really close in to shore. It was evident straight away that birds were moving.  Annstead Point (at the tip of the golf course) - to get here walk South along the coastal path from Seahouses harbour. Standing in front of the hide here provides shelter from the wind and rain A constant stream of gulls and terns flew by. We picked out both Arctic and Sandwich Terns and hundreds ...

A few months ago in June, I set out around Nottinghamshire & Yorkshire to try and beat my previous day record of 101 birds (from Norfolk in January 2018). Despite a great day, with a lifer of Woodlark, I failed on my day list target. On Sunday, however, I managed 105 species, beating my previous record. 93 of these were at Frampton Marsh alone in just 6 hours on the reserve!  The day didn't start off with this in mind. Arriving with my dad at Frampton at 08:15, I had two main targets: 1. to see 20 species of wader in a day (something I've somehow never previously managed) and 2. to find the Temminck's Stint which had been around on the reserve for a few days but been notoriously elusive. This would be a UK lifer, having previously seen one only at Aiguamolls in Spain. I've always loved waders. I'm not quite sure why but from an early age Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint were two of my favourite birds. I love scanning through a teaming scrape, not knowing what ...

My main birdwatching trip during the week's holiday in Devon was to Dawlish Warren, where I was hoping to find the Roseate Tern. Being July, I wasn't expecting too much, but it ended up being a really productive trip. I hadn't realised that for over a year now the path to the bird hide has been closed due to erosion, turning a walk which was formerly quite short into a much longer slog along the beach.  You now have to walk along the path to Groyne 10 and then along the beach to Groyne 18 and then round and back on yourself to the hide. This probably doubles the length of the walk. We had timed our trip so as to reach the hide around high tide and didn't have time to do the new walk. We therefore feared the visit was over before it had even begun, but decided to make the best of the situation and scope the Bight from the dune-top path level with Groyne 10, just before the path is closed. This turned out to be more successful than we expected and I quickly picked up one ...

With the relaxation of lockdown allowing holidays, we took the opportunity to spend a week in our holiday home in East Devon. We are very lucky to be close to both the East Devon Commons and the River Otter. On one night, we went for a walk along the river in the hope of finding one of the Beavers which live there. Introduced in 2015, these were the first Beavers to live in the wild in the UK in 400 years, and they have thrived ever since. Seeing them isn't easy however, due to their nocturnal habits. On this occasion though we struck gold, and this beaver swam right alongside us just a few metres away. It was so close that this video was taken on my iPhone camera.  As Devon Wildlife Trust suggests, we have found the stretch of river near to the village of Otterton to be the most productive, and a visit about an hour before sunset (or later). However, they are known to range from Honiton all the way to Budleigh Salterton on the coast. The River Otter is great during the day too, ...

It's been 3 weeks now since my first ever rare find - or rare possible-find - whatever that may be called!  On the 4th of June, after a long and exciting day in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire , my dad and I called in at Thorne Moors at 18:00, hoping to get to 100 for the day. What we weren't expecting was a rarity! Parking on the road in Moorends, we set off down the Grange Road access track. The vastness of this site soon became apparent; in fact, we walked for at least of 2km before we even got to the moor. We’d clearly come to the wrong place to add waders to our list, or at least the wrong place to find them in a short walk! The moor at Thorne Moors - around 2km from the Grange Road parking Walking through the small area of woodland after the information board before the main moor itself, I heard a strange song coming from quite deep in the trees, behind an area of deep water. It sounded like a Chiffchaff singing its notes in the wrong order. I pointed it out to my dad. Cont...

I'd been planning this day for a while. A big trip through Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire to look for some birds I never normally see (namely Puffin, Turtle Dove, Razorbill etc.), and maybe even a few lifers. Being on a UK list of 253, getting a lifer that isn't a rarity is a rare thing for me nowadays. The possibility of Woodlark and Honey Buzzard in Sherwood Forest was an exciting prospect. As was the chance of reaching 100 birds in a day, something I've only achieved once before in the UK (101 in Norfolk in January 2019).  Tree Sparrows are actually an unusual bird for me - we saw many at Bempton though Major Oak is around 1000 years old! So, on the 4th of June we undertook it. Granted the time of year for a big day list isn't ideal but I always have exams during late April/May and birding from sunrise to sunset isn't conducive to productive revision!  Waking at 05:00 it was just getting light, and the birding began. The first stop was Sherwood Forest and we were ...

As you would expect in mid-June, the patch year list has slowed down considerably in the last few days. That doesn't mean there haven't been a few nice additions.  Yesterday, a morning visit in nice weather gave lots of singing warblers, the best of which was a reeling Grasshopper Warbler in the Owl Field. There were two birds, possibly a pair. It was actually the first time I've ever seen a Grasshopper Warbler before  hearing it first. The female bird perched up on the fence which bisects the field and then flew off into the long grass, then a few seconds later a male popped up from below the fence and began to reel, giving walkaway views. The best birds on the lake were Shoveler , Common Tern and some really showy Reed Warblers . The patch, while there isn't the variety of migration times, is really nice at the moment with the breeding season in full swing and lots of fledglings around.  A visit in strong wind this afternoon didn't produce the passerines I saw ye...