We went for a fantastic three-week holiday taking in a three-night stop at San Francisco either side of a week on Maui and a week on Big Island. I didn’t record every sighting as it wasn’t really a birding trip, as such, and I wanted to record lots of other things too. I did, however…
The sad loss of a very good friend took us to Portugal for her funeral. We were in Lagos between 15th – 19th January. The unhappiness of the occasion was soothed a little by the odd couple of hours birding that I managed to fit it. It was a bit of relief from the intense…
Wales Break : Waxwings and Winter Thrushes : 14 – 16 December 2016
Highlands Birding Break : Summary The main reason for returning to Grantown-on-Spey at this time of year was that we had missed some of our usual highland birds as a result of being a bit later than Spring. We didn’t have a choice in the matter because we were en route to visit my brother…
Highlands Day 5 : 18th October 2016 For my last morning in the Highlands I took a walk with John Poyner through the Anagach Woods, down to the River and back. The approaches to the woods were full of migrant Blackbirds all flighty and calling, probably ready to go further afield after feeding up at…
Highlands Day 4 : 17th October 2016 We started off the day with a drive up past Nethy Bridge to Dorbach to the area of moorland that holds the Black Grouse lek we have seen before. The last time we tried here the rain was so heavy and the mist was so impenetrable that we…
Highlands Day 3 : 16th October 2016 We stared out at 8am and drove down to the main car park at Abernethy Forest. This proved unproductive so we changed plan and went on to the RSPB Loch Garten visitor centre where we had more success. After the Osprey season they actually mothball the visitor centre…
Highlands Day 2 : 15th October 2016 We had the idea that the Black Isle might not be as wet as the rest of the immediate area which turned out to be a rather optimistic outlook as it actually rained non-stop everywhere we went and often quite heavily. We started out for the Black Isle…
Highlands Day 1 : 14th October 2016 John Poyner, my guide for the weekend, picked me up from the airport and drove me to the hotel at Grantown-on-Spey. After checking in and unpacking, I decided to go for a walk in the Anagach Woods nearby. I was hoping for Crested Tits but I didn’t have…
WWT Slimbridge 31st August 2016 We had a long drive ahead of us up to Manchester and it turned out to be bir arduous and our worst trtaffic of the holiday despite most of it being over a bank holiday and our return day being a normal day. Still we thought we had time for…
