High Tide on The Wirral : 1st November 2016 A high-ish tide on the Wirral took the birding group up there for the first session of November. At 9.2m at 11.48am it wasn’t ever going to be a great high tide but we thought it would be good enough for Hoylake and then we thought…
Summary October 2016 Species this month = 109 New Species added to 2016 Year List in October= 10 Sanderling at Hoylake 1st October, Black Swan and Cattle Egret bot at Burton Mere Wetlands on 1st October, Long Tailed Duck at Chanonry Point and Alturlie Point on the 15th October, Black Guillemot at Chanonry Point on…
Etherow Country Park : 31st October 2016 On the last day of October we took a drive out to Etherow Country Park where I hoped to add to my year list what is normally the easiest year tick of Mandarin Duck I am ever likely to find. As it happened they proved to be a…
Birding Group Visit to Sandbach Flashes : 25th October 2016 This weeks birding group visit to Sandbach Flashes was pleasant enough on a relatively mild autumn morning. Unfortunately there weren’t many birds around and it was probably one of the least productive visits to this site we have had. Oh well, it was a nice…
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…
