Update from past 2 weeks!

So sorry about the lack of posting. Been extremely busy with school GCSE's, a weekend in Derby and birding trips. Here is an update from the last 2 weeks.

On Sunday 30th November, a good friend of ours David Walsh took us down to do a 3-ish mile walk around Gedgrave Marshes and Butley area. It was a great walk, well worth the 4 hour walk! We got the ringtail Hen Harrier that had been present there for sometime (and still present there now!) with 2 Short-eared Owls on Havergate Island, with a second Hen Harrier. It was a great afternoon after a nice lay in!

The following weekend, I was really excited as we were going up to Swanwick in Derbyshire to take part in the annual BTO Conference 2014. It was the first time I had been, so I didn't really know what to expect, but it was definitely worth going!

Friday evening, we eventually arrived at 6:05, 2 hours after the sat nav predicted our arrival! However, it was great! I caught up with my young birding buddies which I hadn't seen since April I think: Ellis Lucas, Toby Carter, Abby and Evie Miller, Findlay and Harley Wilde and Josie Hewitt!

We had a great dinner (Lasagne!), and then enjoyed the first talk, which was by  Helen MacDonald, where she talked about the history of hawks and humans. It was then a quiz where the young birders and I got together to form a team, where we came 4th I think out of about 9, so not bad considering the in-experience!

Saturday morning dawned, and the BTO Director, Andy Clements, kicked of the conference with a warm welcoming. We then listed to several talks, but it was then James Pearce-Higgins talk which I found particularly intersting about birds and climate change.

It was then lunch with Andy Clements (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Chris Packham, (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and the other young birders (! lol). It was great to talk to Chris about the challenges he has done this year, including the illegal persecution of birds in Malta. We all also got a signed book from Chris about his "100 Things That Caught My Eye". 

We then had other talks, the highlights being Dave Leech's talk about nest recording (brilliant) and Mark Thomas about the illegal persecution of raptors, which was really inspiring! We then had dinner where I had Salmon - delicious!

Sunday morning was when all of the young birders, including myself, had to give a talk of how we got inspired by birds. All of the talks went really well, and I got a lot of positive feedback afterwards.

We then had our final lunch, before leaving - We had a brilliant time, and thank you to the BTO and Lucy McRobert for inviting us to the conference, Mum, Dad and I really appreciated it! 

Stour Estuary - Birds by Barge boat trip - 14th Dec 2014

The day started off well with a Peregrine on the first light ship, after setting out from Harwich towards Mistley early in the morning...

We then clocked on to a cracking Red-throated Diver on the way west, and then presumably the same bird at Mistley...

Mark Nowers, the guide of the tour, then clocked on to the Surf Scoter that has been wintering on the River Stour, where it showed really well, but we only had the little camera to hand, so hence the quality of the pictures.

On the way back, I picked up a cracking Great Northern Diver, which came really close, but again, only the little camera was around! Could've had some cracking pictures in the end, but hey ho!

Overall, we saw 38 different species which I've just added to BirdTrack! Here they are:

1. Surf Scoter
2. Herring Gull
3. Sanderling
4. Marsh Harrier
5. Buzzard
6. Turnstone
7. Wigeon
8. Teal
9. Great Black-backed Gull
10. Redshank
11. Black-headed Gull
12. Great Crested Grebe
13. Brent Goose
14. Mute Swan
15. Cormorant
16. Dunlin
17. Knot
18. Red-throated Diver
19. Goldeneye
20. Common Scoter
21. Lapwing
22. Shelduck
23. Gadwall
24. Woodpigeon
25. Lesser Black-backed Gull
26. Bar-tailed Godwit
27. Avocet
28. Great Northern Diver
29. Little Grebe
30. Black-tailed Godwit
31. Curlew
32. Peregrine
33. Red-breasted Merganser
34. Common Gull
35. Jackdaw
36. Carrion Crow
37. Rook
38. Oystercatcher

Happy Birding!!!!

Isle of Islay - Birding Days 3 and 4

Birding Day 3!

These 2 days are days where we didn't see much, so I have merged them together to make one post. Anyway, enough of the waffling, let me tell you about our days!

On the 5th, we started off at Duich Lots, a place not far from where we stayed. We were looking for a reported Red Grouse but we didn't see that. We did see a ringtail Hen Harrier though which was nice...

For the rest of the day we headed round to the other side of the Island around Port Charlotte area. It was a miserable day in terms of weather so the only other birds of note during this day was a Peregrine and a couple of Chough which is still better than nothing.

Birding Day 4

Birding Day 4 was a lot more successful than the previous day in terms of birds and whether, so here goes...

We went down to Laggan Point in the morning which is a lovely rocky area good for sea birds...

 We got some cracking Black Guillemots, including a close one on a rock!

We also got a nice family of Ringed Plover here too...

We also got a Shag...

And a very obliging Dunlin...

On the way out the fields were filled with Sand Martins, and a few Hooded Crows...

In the afternoon, we headed out to Port Ellen, Ardbeg and Claggain Bay. We came across a fantastic sight which was a pair of Golden Eagles flying really close to the road. How cool is that!

We got to Claggain Bay and found a summer plumaged Red-throated Diver, Small Copper and 4 Eider. Great stuff!

2014 Year List Total - 205

Happy Birding!

North Norfolk - 2 Great Lifers!

Dad and I headed up to North Norfolk yesterday to try and bring the year list up to about 115, hopefully getting a couple of good birds too. We started off at Edgefield, to look for the Parrot Crossbills (104). It wasn't long before got amongst the throng of birders and enjoyed good views of them in the pines, even if the photos weren't great....

They then flew off because of a Buzzard...

and landed right near to where we parked the car, where we had better light for photo's...

We then moved on up to Wiveton, and after driving around the village, we found a couple of birders. We asked them had they seen the Glossy Ibis. They said no, so we tried from the sluice. Several Curlew (106) in the field though. They got there before us, and pulled us over to say that it was in a flooded field. We pulled up, and what great views...

Glossy Ibis (107)

We also got a Water Rail (108) calling from a ditch in Wiveton.

Got great views before we moved up to Cley NWT. Got 4 Brent Goose (109) on the side of the road before we went to Bishop's Hide - only hide open - and got Avocet (110) onto the yearlist. We then went to Cley Coastguards. We looked to the sea, and got plenty of Red-throated Diver (111), and a distant white wader flying which could of been a Grey Phalarope but was very distant and impossible to tell. We then looked at the amazing numbers of Brent Geese. I reckon there were about 400 birds in the Eye field. I took some snaps...

It was only until tonight that I was looking through my photos of the Geese, and 1 individual caught my eye. I couldn't believe it, but it was a BLACK BRANT!

The fact I had actually known that I had seen this bird, but then I found through the photos I took was quite incredible. When sitting in the van eating lunch, a brief Kittiwake (112) flew into the Eye field, but soon flew off again. Also got Turnstones (113) on the beach.

We then moved on to Salthouse. The devastation of the beach car park is terrible. In fact, there isn't a car park. I forgot to take any pictures of the car park, but I was so shocked it was touching. Got a Redshank feeding on the tidal pools though...

Anyway, we went to Gramborough Hill to look for the Richard's Pipit. We'd missed it by 20 minutes. Dad went to look at the RT Divers on the sea, while I chatted to a couple that had turned up. Within about 5 minutes they were on the bird (114), and dad missed it!!!!!!!!!! Ha Ha Ha! I got great views for about 5 seconds before it flew off into the hill. We then went searching while I called over Dad. I flushed it again from the side of the hill before we lost it for good back into the original field. Boy was he an elusive bird.

Final stop of the day was at Blakeney Harbour. We met a couple of chaps, one who does Norfolk bird tours. They lead us up to the NE end of Stiffkey Fen - getting Pintail (115) on they way. The Harbour was a long way away. The guys picked up 1 Great-Northern Diver (116), 2 Black-throated Diver, 4 Long-tailed Duck (117) and 1 Guillemot (118), all of which we saw. We also got Grey Plover (119) and Bar-tailed Godwit (120).

On the way back, got a massive flock of probably about 2,000 Brent Geese flying over the fen, and 50 Black-tailed Godwits (121) on the fen...

And finally, flushed a Little Owl from the side of the road nearer to home, which brings the yearlist total to 122.

What a great day!

Happy Birding!