Acrocephalus arundinaceus and Phylloscopus ibericus

The question is - any idea what these 2 latin bird names are? Well.. they were once again 2 birds that turned up and both were birds that I hadn't seen in Britain before.. The first is a Great Reed Warbler that turned up at Straw Bridge Ponds in Ilkeston near Derbyshire and the second is an Iberian Chiffchaff that turned up at Potteric Carr YWT near Doncaster.

This year I am going all out and trying to see 300 different species of birds in Britain. This is going to be acheived by not being able to drive. Therefore, every rare bird that turns up I need to take advantage of and twitch in order to reach my target.

Still being based in Bangor, this was my starting point. I left Bangor at 6:02am and after changing at Crewe and Stockport, I finally arrived at Doncaster at 9:40am. A short taxi journey and I was at Potteric Carr reserve - 20 mintues later and after a long walk to 'St.Catherine's field' where the bird had been showing, there it was sat in the top of a tree singing it's little head off! Tick!

It was now getting on for 12:30 in the afternoon so another short taxi journey back to Doncaster station and a change at Sheffield and then onto Langley mill train station arriving at 2:40pm. The plan was to walk the 7 miles from the train station - which is exactly what I did. The weather was glorious sunshine and I was absolutely sweating in my jeans, but finally after an hour and a half of constant walking I reached the ponds, only to hear the Great Reed Warbler singing away on the furtheset pond from the car-park. A short walk round the first pond, under a dis-used railway bridge and there were 4 birders staring into the tiniest patch of reeds you have ever seen. Somewhere in there was the bird.. It soon showed and what an absolute stonker! Tick and job done!
I watched the bird for about an hour and then was kindly offered a lift back to the train station by a birding couple in which it was greatly appreciated! Arrived back in Bangor at 10:22pm and sat down in my room with a 12inch ham and pineapple pizza and collapsed into bed after a long and tiring days twitching!

Maltraeth CES site

It's that time in the day when the sun is at its strongest and so after having a sunbathe in the back garden for an hour or so, it was time to go indoors and do some much needed blogging..

During my first year at Bangor I have been involved in Steve and Rachel's CES Ringing site. CES stands for {Constant effort site} and this runs throughout the summer up until the end of August. There are several birds monitored during this ringing project and so far we have had a great start. Unfortunately I have only been able to make 1; maybe 2 of the 5 visits that have been done so far this year. From what I have seen from my 1st visit, it is a great site with lots of scrub, reedbed and alot of potential. I recently have had an email from Steve with the totals from the CES site and from what I can see we have had a wide variety of species with just under 300 birds being ringed..

Sparrowhawk, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Song thrush, Grasshopper warbler, Sedge warbler, Reed warbler, Lesser whitethroat, Blackcap, Willow warbler, Long-tailed tit, Blue tit, Great tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Lesser redpoll, Bullfinch and Reed bunting have all be mist-netted and ringed at this site.

I had a nice surprise one morning when I had a text from Steve to say they had caught a Great Reed warbler at the site - unfortunately I didn't make this session so sadly I missed this great bird. I have attached a picture from the bird in Spain so to show you folks what it would have looked like. I have managed to see a Great reed warbler this year in Britain but more on that later..

I am hoping to make the next visit at the end of this week before I go away for the weekend..

Oriental Pratincole - what a twitch..

Every year in Britain, at least one species of pratincole turns up and in most cases, I am unable to twitch them. The only pratincole species I have seen in Britain was the Black-winged Pratincole at Martin mere.. This was to change when news reached me from Jason stannage that a newly found Collard pratincole was infact a 'mega', that of an Oriental Pratincole! This had only occured in Britain 5 times according to Rare Bird Alert. This bird was showing extremely well at Frampton Marsh RSPB on the North-east coast near Boston. Soon after the birds ID was confirmed, several of my mates twitched the bird and saw it and every opportunity that became available I was busy..

This bird was one that I was going to twitch and so - on Tuesday 11th May I set off at 5:14am from the station at Bangor - my only day off during the week. A change at Crewe, Derby, Nottingham and I soon arrived at Boston at 11:09am. On arrival, the bird came on the pager and it was all go.. A short 5 minute taxi journey and I was steaming down the path towards the East hide at Frampton Marsh RSPB. 15 mintues later and the bird was in view and on my yearlist - what a stonker!!

I watched the bird for a good hour or so and in that time managed to snap 300 pictures of the bird in which only 18 were decent. Other birds seen included 500+ Dark-Bellied Brent Geese, 4 Little-ringed plover and 4 summer-plumaged Curlew sandpipers. I was later informed that I had walked past another yeartick - a drake Garganey in which I need to get soon..
I left Boston at 3:44pm and arrived back in Bangor at 10:22pm. A grand total of 12 hours and 33 minutes on trains..

APRIL BIRDING HIGHLIGHTS!!!

At the start of April I got off to a flying start.. Very little birding was done in April due to revision for my exams..

Although mentioned before; my trip to Catalunya in North-east Spain with Alex Jones and Stephen Menzie for 9 days - 31st March - 9th April is something I will remember forever. A total of 192 species were seen, with a grand total of 6 lifers for myself. Alex however gained over 50 new lifers..

I suppose seeing my first Sand martins, Swallows and House martins of the year at Conwy RSPB on the evening of 19th April, was something every birder looks forward to each year. The sky was full of them and always a welcome sight in the spring. Large numbers of White wagtails were also seen during the month.

A trip to the Great orme and Conwy RSPB on 23rd April proved productive with Tree pipit, Yellow wagtail, Swift, Reed warbler, Sedge warbler, Whitethroat and Lesser whitethroat all being first for the year! Grasshopper warbler too.

The final bit of birding that I managed to fit in during April, was our monthly sunday field trip with our Southport RSPB group in which myself and my dad lead.. This time it was upto Dunsop bridge and Abbeystead in the Trough of Bowland where delightful birds such as Pied flycatcher and Dotterel were seen.

That about sums it all up really.. As you can guess from this, on arrival back in england after coming back from Spain, I didn't go birding for at least a week or more as I was all birded out - literally..

It's about time

Good afternoon all blog followers..

The first thing I have to do is apologise for the continued lack of posts over the last few months. The reason for this is due to the fact that I have literally not stopped since the beginning of May. However at the end of May, I had my end of semester 1 exams which put the stress levels up to the max as you can imagine. It was a hell of a relief when they came to an end.. Other matters that have been keeping me busy include one hell of a lot of birding, a few twitches here and there with some being successfull and some a total disaster, yearlisting, a few fishing trips and weekend's birding away. Honestly, since I finished my first year at Bangor univeristy on May 25th, I have not had a day free..

Over the next few days, all that I have been doing over the last few months will be revealed so bear with me and you will see just what a busy time I have had...

Ternalicious

Another long and enjoyable day's birding along the North Wales Coast on the Sunday just gone.. I met up with good friend Alex early on the Sunday morning at 9am at the layby by the Aber Ogwen reserve by the main road. Since I had been revising solidly for the past 3 days and not venturing out of my room, I somewhat needed some fresh air and the 3 mile walk certainly did the job.....

First stop was Aber Falls at Abergwyngregyn where we enjoyed good views of Wood warbler trilling up in the dense canopy of the truely wonderful Sessile oak woodland, which is predominantly what this site is protected for.. The bird sang from several branches but there was not enough time for a record shot as it was quite flitty. Other birds here were Pied flycatcher, 4+ Male Redstarts, Dipper and singing Garden Warbler

Next stop was South Stack RSPB on Anglesey - Hundreds of Auks on the cliffs! Birds seen here were Guillemot, Razorbill, Chough, Wheatear, 3+ Puffin - {Yeartick} and Alex picked out a Dark-phase Arctic skua {Yeartick} tanking it towards the direction of Holyhead..

Puffin - one of several individuals seen

Next stop was onto Cemlyn bay where we had great views of Sandwich Tern, Common Tern and at least 2 Arctic Terns {the latter/2 yearticks}.. Trying to ID the Arctic terns with a heat haze was rather tricky but we managed to pick out to definete birds; with much smaller legs, bright red bill with no dark tip and a less-extensive black cap..

A short seawatch provided nothing out of interest and no Manx shearwaters, which was a surprise.. However, a Chough appeared, which was colur-ringed! I persued it and got a decent enough shot. I am currently waiting on confirmation of when and where the bird was ringed etc etc

Satisfied with that and 4 yearticks for me and 8+ for Alex, we moved off and onto Penmon point near Beumauris on Anglesey in search for Grasshopper warblers... We were not dissapointed... First the characteristic pose of a 'gropper' reeling, then better pictures..

Grasshopper warbler reeling

Grasshopper Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler reeling

A total of 90 species was sufficient enough, so we called it a day and headed for home..

1} Cormorant, 2} Shag, 3} Little egret, 4} Grey heron, 5} Mute swan, 6} Greylag goose, 7} Canada goose, 8} Shelduck, 9} Mallard, 10} Eider, 11} Buzzard, 12} Sparrowhawk, 13} Kestrel, 14} Peregrine Falcon, 15} Pheasant, 16} Moorhen, 17} Coot, 18} Oystercatcher, 19} Lapwing, 20} Dunlin, 21} Redshank, 22} Curlew, 23} Whimbrel, 24} 1 Arctic skua, 25} Black-Headed gull, 26} Common gull, 27} Herring gull, 28} Lesser-Black-Backed Gull, 29} Greater-Black-Backed Gull, 30} Sandwich tern, 31} Common tern, 32} Arctic tern, 33} Puffin, 34} Guillemot, 35} Razorbill, 36} Feral-pigeon, 37} Stock dove, 38} Woodpigeon, 39} Collard Dove, 40} Cuckoo, 41} Swift, 42} Skylark, 43} Sand martin, 44} Swallow, 45} House martin, 46} Meadow pipit, 47} Pied wagtail, 48} Grey wagtail, 49} Wren, 50} Dipper, 51} Dunnock, 52} Robin, 53} Redstart, 54} Stonechat, 55} Song thrush, 56} Mistle thrush, 57} Blackbird, 58} Blackcap, 59} Garden warbler, 60} Lesser whitethroat, 61} Whitethroat, 62} Sedge warbler, 63} Grasshopper warbler, 64} Willow warbler, 65} Wood warbler, 66} Chiffchaff, 67} Goldcrest, 68} Pied flycatcher, 69} Blue tit, 70} Great tit, 71} Coal tit, 72} Long-tailed tit, 73} Nuthatch, 74} Treecreeper, 75} Magpie, 76} Jay, 77} Jackdaw, 78} Chough, 79} Rook, 80} Carrion crow, 81} Raven, 82} Starling, 83} House sparrow, 84} Chaffinch, 85} Linnet, 86} Goldfinch, 87} Greenfinch, 88} Siskin, 89} Reed bunting, 90} Wheatear,

Yearticks in blue...

Yorkshire Yearticking...

It has finally reached the point in my first year of univeristy life, where my exams are now upon me. I have a total of 5 exams during the next few weeks, so the stress levels are already at their peak right now. As well as having 5 exams to revise for, I have 3 reports to write up and another 2 online tests which shouldn't be that bad!

Having needed a break from uni for a while, myself and my dad have just got back from a superb weekend's birding up on the East coast in Yorkshire. We departed Ormskirk early on Saturday afternoon and were back by 6pm on the Monday. A total of 110 birds were seen during the weekend with many interesting birds seen - a day at Spurn, but more of that later..

I have an hour or so to spare before I get back to the revision so here....we.....go.....

Hightlights include:

- North Cave Wetlands on Saturday afternoon where we picked up 2 Pectoral Sandpipers which were showing pretty damn well as the pictures will show.

- A day at Spurn on the Sunday connecting with 4 yearticks which included: Whinchat, Cuckoo and Little Tern and Spotted Redshank in full summer plumage,

- A day at Thorne Moors on our way home on the Monday produced: Marsh Harrier, Turtle Dove, Hobby, Garden warbler and Barn owl in the morning,

- A summer plumaged Red-necked grebe at Ten Acre Lake near Doncaster,

A nice tally of 110 birds for the weekend was respectable and a total of 10 yearticks - Marsh Harrier, Hobby, Spotted Redshank, Pectoral Sandpiper, Little tern, Turtle Dove, Cuckoo, Barn Owl, Whinchat and Garden Warbler brought my yearlist for 2010 to 202! The Red-necked grebe was my 3rd this year..

Dunsop bridge and Abbeystead..

Hen Harrier - Male

I just never stop birding and yearlisting.. On Sunday 25th April {just gone}, it was our RSPB Southport group field trip to Dunsop bridge.. If your wondering, I came home this weekend especially for this trip..

Anyway, myself and my dad were up at 7am and all raring to go for a day's birding up in the Trough of Bowland.. I really didn't want to get up this morning as my bed was so warm and comfy...but... as always, if I didn't go, I would most probably have missed something.. At 8:20am; Chris Bridge, Martin bridge, Mike Preston and Ted set off from our house in Ormskirk and headed for a full day out in the Trough..

Dipper nest

After just over an hour's drive, we were greeted by a few folk in the car-park who were joining us today.. By the time it was 10am, the group head count was 22.. I had my work cut out today I can tell you.. This particular walk was up into the valley where the pair of Eagle owls bred last year.. Hopefully we would see them..

Just as we began the walk and just before an open field, I spotted a flash of Black and white.. This was a nice surprise as I knew straight away what it was, I had found a single Male Pied flycatcher sat on the side of a dead Oak tree.. Good views were had and after everyone in the group had seen it, I set the scope up to get a shot, any ideas what happened next? Yup the bird flew off, over the river and deep into a sessile oak woodland.. Nice!!

Further on up the valley, a few Swallows flew through heading towards the car-park and Willow warblers sang throughout.. A Redstart sang from a small wooded area but after a thorough search, the bird never showed.. One or two Dippers on the river and a Grey wagtail flew over.. On the telegraph wires, several Tree pipits sang and good views were had of these..

Eagle owl watchers..

After 3 miles or so we reached the area where the Eagle owls had bred last year, but to everyone's dissapointment, they weren't there!!?? Hmmm... they had most probably moved and bred further up the valley.. {Remember those words}. A group of 5 birders were there before us and they too, knew no more than us... A well deserved lunch break was enjoyed by all and soon after, I picked out a Male Hen harrier in a nearby gulley which showed well for about 20 minutes.. Great stuff!! A single Peregrine falcon circled high up and was lost to view..

Time to head on down now and a nice surprise came in the form of a flock of 19 Lesser repolls that flew over us and headed up the valley following the line of conifers.. Did it hold any Mealy's? Who knows? Remember I said the words: ''They have probably moved further up the valley to breed'' Well, on our way down to the car-park, a couple of birders stopped us and asked if we had seen the Eagle owls, the answer was no ofcourse. They then went onto tell me that they had moved further on up the valley about 1/2 mile from where they nested last year!!!!!!!!!!!! Grrrrr, I couldn't believe what they had just told me,, absolutely bluddy typical... Oh well, I'll just have to come back in a couple of weeks time to see them...

Golden plover

Male Dotterel

Back in the car-park, some of the group headed on home and a few of us headed over to have a look for the Male Dotterel that was in a field on Abbeystead lane with 50 Golden plovers.. This bird we saw and enjoyed great views.. Tally for the day:- 60!

Male Dotterel

Species list:

Grey heron, Mallard, Goosander, Hen Harrier, Buzzard, Kestrel, Peregrine falcon, Red grouse, Pheasant, Oystercatcher, Dotterel, Golden plover, Lapwing, Curlew, Snipe, B.H.gull, H.Gull,, L.B.B.Gull, Feral-pigeon, Woodpigeon, Collard dove, Great-spotted woodpecker, Skylark, Sand martin, Swallow, Meadow pipit, Tree pipit, Pied wagtail, Grey wagtail, Wren, Dipper, Dunnock, Robin, Redstart, Stonechat, Mistle thrush, Blackbird, Blackcap, Willow warbler, Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Pied flycatcher, Blue tit, Great tit, Coal tit, Long-tailed tit, Nuthatch, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion crow, Raven, Starling, House sparrow, Chaffinch, Linnet, Lesser redpoll, Siskin, Goldfinch, Greenfinch. 60!

One hell of a morning..

Lesser whitethroat

Studying at Bangor university was a very good choice of mine and I would recommend it to anyone if thinking of somewhere to study.. I have settled in extremely well.. Been lucky enough to meet all the birders in North wales and am now great friends with all.. Met some life-long friends like Alex, conquered my once 'fear of trains'' and now know the best sites in North wales for most species.. Most of all, I am now in-undated with texts if a rarity turns up somewhere, or any scarcities that are around.. What I am about to tell you is just what I am talking about..

Many of you have probably visited the Great orme in Llandudno for various reasons.. In a birder's eye, it is a fantastic place for birding, especially in the spring.. So, on Thursday 22nd April a Corncrake was found on the orme by the limestone pavement by Marc buzzard - cracking birder! I couldn't believe it when I got at least 5 texts from several people telling me that there was a Corncrake on the bluddy orme.. I was still in bed at this point.. Unfortunately I was unable to twitch this bird as I had 3 lectures and a field trip in the afternoon that was essential.. Funnily enough the bird was only seen during a few hours of the morning.. I am pretty sure that I would have connected with the bird if I had have twitched it in the morning, oh well.. The Isle of Mull for me in June...

After realising that there could be anything up there, whether it be grounded migrants or 'vis-mig', this was too much to miss..

Early the next day on the morning of Friday 23rd, I was up at 4:45am and on the 5:40am train from Bangor to Llandudno junction, a quick change of trains and I arrived at Llandudno at 6:20am.. A brisk powerwalk through Llandudno, onto the promenade, up the side of the orme and I was on top near the cemetery for 6:50am.. Now, what have we here.... There were birds more or less in every direction....

Lesser whitethroat

Birds encountered during the morning - 6:50am - 9:00am..

10 Fulmar {on the cliffs}
1 Buzzard {over high north}
5 Sandwich terns {offshore}
1 Swift {heading towards Cowny}
3 Sand martin {high over}
15+ Swallow {high over}
5 House martin {high over}
60+ Meadow pipit {passing through all the time}
1 Tree pipit {over}
40+ Wheatear {grounded migrants}
1 Chiffchaff {grounded migrant}
1 Chough {flew through}
20+ Lesser redpoll {high over}
5 Siskin {high over}
1 Golden plover {passing through on limestone pavement}

During the 2 hours and 10 minutes that I was up on the Orme I had 2 yearticks which were Swift and Tree pipit.. A fantastic morning's birding if you ask me.. Oh, and no Corncrake by the way... Must have moved on overnight...

Seeing as though I had had a great morning's birding on the Great orme, I headed on down and called in at Conwy RSPB...

Lesser whitethroat

Birds seen here included:

2 Common sandpipers,
30+ White wagtail,
1 Yellow wagtail, {yeartick}
2 Lesser whitethroat, {yeartick}
1 Common whitethroat, {yeartick}
5 Sedge warbler, {yeartick}
3 Reed warbler, {yeartick}

Sedge warbler

2 yearticks on the Great orme and 5 yearticks at Conwy RSPB, that was enough for me as at this point I was flagging as I had been up since 4:45am.. Yearlist total - 189!!

The essential field trip that I mentioned was a walk around Newborough forest on Anglesey, which revealed another yeartick. A Grasshopper warbler was reeling it's head off near a dune slack... Brief views... Yearlist 190!!! What a day!!!!

Evening yearticking at Conwy..

Female Wheatear

This is more like it.. The spring migrants are back 'en masse'.. Still loads more to come in though.
Monday 19th April was the first time in 10 days in that I had been out birding properly.. After an extremely hectic day at uni, I hopped on an evening train at Bangor and had a few hours of productive birding at Conwy RSPB..

Over the past few days there had been a Lesser whitethroat and a Yellow wagtail on the reserve so these were the targets for the night.. A phonecall from Alex revealed him to have just arrived at Conwy and 5 minutes later and I was in the car with him as he had picked me up from Llandudno station - handy!

Male Wheatear

Once through the visitor centre, the birding began.. Sand martins galore and 2 House martins flitted around {both yearticks}, Lots of Swallows and White wagtails totalling at least 80+ {yeartick} and about 7 Wheatears along the coastal path that runs around the perimeter of the reserve.. 4 Yearticks in less than 20 minutes - great stuff!! Met up with Rob sandham at the Lesthroat site and a good listen and scan of the scrub for half an hour, revealed no Lesser whitethroat.. Oh well, maybe next week?? No Yellow wagtail either so we called it a night..

A few Blackcaps, Willow warblers, Chiffchaffs and a Common sandpiper called around the reserve..

White wagtail

Not a bad few hours birding with 4 yearticks added to the 2010 yearlist...

Whimbrels at Wigg...

Whimbrel

I do hope you all enjoyed the Catalunya trip report and the pictures... Whilst in Spain it was non-stop digiscoping for me as Alex and Menzie will know, over 900 pictures were taken, with only 350 decent ones.. Moving on now and back in sunny Britain..

Once we landed in Liverpool on 9th April, I didn't want to see another bird for at least a week, never mind have my bins around my neck, but.. as always this was to much of a challenge... I did however last until 17th April when I ventured out for a light spot birding..

On the evening of 17th April, myself, Steve and Rachel had evening's mist-netting session at 'Wigg' near Paenmenmawr in North wales. On arrival and once stepping out of the truck, a few Whimbrels could be heard whistling out over the Menai straits.. The words - ''Would we catch one of those tonight'' went through my head... A quick scan over the pool was in order to see if there was anything around the pools, but only the odd Redshank and Canada goose were evident.. After the decision was made on where to set the nets, half an hour or so later and all were set ready..

Whimbrel

We did however, have a 3 and 1/2 bour wait until high tide.. This was no big deal as the stars were out 'en masse' tonight, clear skies and not a breath on wind! When the tide came in, we soon realised that there were very few birds present, the odd Curlew and Redshank called but that was about it.. What would we catch?

During the night we managed to catch:

12 Curlew {Ringed 10}

8 Redshank {Ringed 4}

2 Whimbrel {Ringed 1}

Whimbrel

Oh yes... you have read that right indeed, we did in fact catch 2 Whimbrel within 15 minutes of each other.. You can imagine what was going through my kind when we caught the first one: ''I hope they have both ringed one'' Once back at the truck, Steve passed me the Whimbrel in the sack and at that point I knew it was mine to ring!! The second bird was caught 15 minutes later and was ringed by Rachel...

An extremely long night as we finished at 2:30am...