Long Tailed Duck - Upper Roddlesworth Res, Lancs - 28th October 2007

Upper Roddlesworth Reservoir
juv Long Tailed Duck
juv Long Tailed Duck
Juv Long Tailed Duck (Poor Flight Shot)

An Early Afternoon trip took my Parents and I to Upper Roddlesworth Res near Darwen to go and see the Juvy Long Tailed Duck that has been present whilst i was was in Denmark.

The Bird didn't show for the first 30 minutes, but eventuall gave distant but decent scope views. The Bird was rather active and sometimes dived for as much as 5 minutes at a time which was astounding!

A nice Year tick, and County bird

Goldcrest and LT Tits, Longsands - 28th October 2007

single Goldcrest and 15 Long Tailed tit in my Garden this Morning...

Eastern Jutland, Denmark - 24th-27th October 2007

The main idea for this trip was to see my mums friend, who lives in Denmark, but I tried to get a few trips out to the coast and woodland areas where possible, as her friend also enjoys watching Birds. We drove down to London Stanstead on the 23rd and got the 07.15 flight to Århus which only took an hour and a half. We Got picked up mid morning from the Airport and set off for Randers. This enabled us to have the whole afternoon free to do what we wanted. But Birdwatching began as soon as we arrived as she feeds the birds in the garden. The Highlights bird of this short watch from my Bedroom was however perched in a tree briefly, two gardens away - A Hawfinch!

Above - Hooded Crow, Vorup Enge

Our Trip took us to the outskirts of Randers to the Fjord of the Gudenådale. Here I saw maily common wildfowl including Cormorant, Coot, Mute Swan, GC and Little Grebe, Mallard, Shoveler and various other Wildfowl along with a single snipe which flew in from the East. Highlights of this reserve came from the Reedbeds and from overhead. Firstly from the second Hide I noted a pair of Beared Tit fly 50ft direcly up from the reed bed, then flew across the mere to the other side of the reedbed. After this a walk over the Bridge across the River produced a group of 15 Waxwing and a Kingfisher. This is the largest group of Waxwing I have seen and the first Time I have been alerted by their call, as my previous experiences have been with mainly silent feeding Birds.

Above and Below - Tree Sparrow

Our First full began with Mist over Randers but Garden Watching was still pretty decent as Tree Sparrow were almost ubiquitous and Fieldfare and Redwing were always overhead.

Above and Below - Fussing Ø
Below - Brambling

The First Trip of the day took us to a wonderful Forest on the Outskirts of Randers about 50km to the East. This was called Fussing Ø which held birds even in the Car Park. Marsh Tit, Brambling, Chaffinch, Goldcrest and Nuthatch. The Wood itself was split into obvious sectors, with the first part being Coniferous Pine, wher instantly I was alarmed by a group of 6 Common Crossbill calling overhead. Great Spotted Woodpecker and Treecreeper were obvious but as far as I am aware, none of the Treecreepers were of the Short Toed variety.
It was at about 30 minutes into the walk that I saw the Best Bird of the Trip, well the only Lifer! A Black Woodpecker called loudly and flew through a clearing, then Perched Briefly before presumably chasing after another bird as two birds were calling each other after this encounter.

Above - Øster Hurup

Above - Oystercather and Argentatus 'Scandanavian' Herring Gull

The 26th was Spend to the North East of Randers at Øster Hurup, which is a small touristic coastal village where I was able to get a short Sea Watch in before Dinner. Here I saw lots of Birds on the Sea including - 2 Red Necked Grebe (close in), 5 Great Crested Grebe (>S), 50+ Velvet Scoter, 100+ Common Scoter, 1 Black Guillimot (>S), 1 Razorbill (Close in), 5 Guillimot (>N). Also 15 Scandanavian Herring Gull were on the Beach

Above - Crested Tit
Above - Fieldfare.

On Our last day, we only had the Morning, so I spent time in the Garden which payed off as two Crested tit came back and forth throughout, whihc was amazing. I was only able to get one poor record shot, but you can tell what it is! Alos a group of 3 then a single Waxwing flew South, which could mean I saw as many as 19 on this trip. Brambling and Chaffinch were everywhere and two House Sparrow Flew over, whihc were the only two of the trip! Finally before we left, a Nuthatch was feeding on the Peanuts.

I really enjoyed this trip and came away with 86 Species from only 3 days

Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 23rd October 2007

An all morning visit to the Quarry - 08.00-12.30

The main reason for the visit was Visible Migration

25 Redwing >SW

32 Fieldfare >NE

1 m Bullfinch >N

18 Skylark >W

4 Woodpigeon >N

21 Meadow Pipit >SW

2 Blackbird >E

2 Mistle Thrush >W

13 Song Thrush >E

3 Siskin >W

1 Redpoll sp >NE

198 Starling >S

21 Chaffinch >W

178 Goldfinch Over

1 Snipe >N

5 Golden Plover circled then >W 11.40

15 Carrion Crow >N

3 Raven >E

3 Blue tit >W

3 Greenfinch >S

32 Jackdaw >S

Grounded Birds
58 Blackbird
13 Song Thrush
18 Long Tailed Tit
6 Wren
15 Robin
12 Dunnock
3 Grey Wagtail
157 Meadow Pipit
200+ Goldfinch
12 Chaffinch
2 GS Woodpecker
2 Green Woodpecker
8 Jay
18 Reed Bunting
432 Black Headed Gull
21 Common Gull
5 LBB gull

North West Fylde, Lancs - 14th October 2007

Rossall Point - The day started with a 30-40 minute sea watching.

1 Arctic Skua, 43 Cormorant, 1 male Eider, 5 Gannet, 2 Common Scoter

Fleetwood Marine Lakes

Not a lot here but 96 Black Headed Gull, 6 Herring Gull, and some obliging Mallard enertained my triggure Happy Finger! (No! I didn't shoot them!)

Mallard
Adult Black Headed

Adult Black Headed Gull

Fleetwood Marsh Nature Reserve - First visit to the site

A nice group of reed fringed lakes with - 2 Ruddy Duck, drake Pintail, teal, 3 Great Black Backed Gull, 134 Herring Gull, 56 Black Headed Gull.

3 Herring, 1 Great Black Back
Herring
Herring

Spurn, East Yorkshire - 7th October 2007

Above - Yellow Browed Warbler, Crown

The Trip Started off at the Crown & Anchor, where literally as soon as I stepped out of the car, a Yellow Browed Warbler called. This was a new bird for me, as I had unsatisfactory views of one in 2005. There were at least 4 Yellow Browed Warblers in the Car Park, but as with most warblers, quite mobile, so the image above is a poor video grab, but hopefully you can still make out the main features

Above - Blyth's Reed Warbler, Blue Bell Cottage

Next stop was Blue Bell Cottage, where after about 15 minutes, I managed to get my first views of a Blyth's Reed Warbler. At First I didn't make a big deal, because I actually thought it was just a chiffchaff, until a neighbouring birder said 'there it is!'. And then I clicked. Noticable features, were the Banana like stance when mobile, the dark, very short looking wings, long paleish bill, and pale blob in front of the eye, which you can make out as well as the long pale bill on the middle Photo. Another Excellent Tick and best bird of the day for rarity value! You may well be able to make more out on the vid Above - Dark Bellied Brent Geese, Humber

Next Point of call was the Point where a Siberian Stonechat had been frequenting for the last week, Annoyingly I could not locate the bird, but it had been seen in the morning, so It may have just relocated for a while. On the way back from the point we stopped to take a photo of a gropu of 68 Dark Bellied Brent, which was a year tick, and a possible first, I am not sure if you can count Dark bellied as a seperate species to Pale?

Above- Jack Snipe, Canal Scrape

Above - The Crowds at the Barred Warbler Twitch

The penultimate stop of the day was at Canal Zone, where a Barred Warbler had been seen whilst I was at the point. I walked up to the crowd of about 50-60 Birders, and I heard the painful, 'There it goes'. This was a downer for me as it hadn't been seen before this for 30 minutes, so I assumed I would have to wait a while for it to show again. Whilst I waited, there were certainly things to keep me occupied. On the far side of Canal scrape, a Jack Snipe on deck showed pretty distant, but photography was difficult. Next on the day list was a swallow, which played to the crowd right in front of our eyes which was a nice late bird. Now came the real birds! An Adult Ring Ouzel was in a bush next to the area where the Barred was, which was fabulous as this was only the 2nd time ever and also a year tick that I thought I had missed. Next to follow was a strange call coming from overhead. A Snow Bunting! It circled overhead calling for at least 30 seconds which was fab....another year tick. A quiet Spell after this caused me to give up.

But after I had passed the last person twitching the warbler, I heard one say, 'It's very Slow Moving, big and grey isn't it?' At which Point I turned round and quickly put my scope out facing the bushes. It was there! all big and grey! A fantastic Juv, that I have wanted to see for years. My 3rd Lifer of the day.

Migration was a big aspect of the day, with loads of mipits, redwing and chaffinch on the move, which was supprising as the sea was actually calmer than a millpond! Apparently this weekend the wind at spurn has been 0mph!

Back to the good old days? - Brockholes Quarry - 6th October 2007

Above - Adult Water Rail
Above - Common Buzzard

Rock Pipit flew over west 15.18 calling

however the highlight fo me was to observe an adult Water Rail in the South West corner of Main pool on weed, out in the open from 16.10-16.15 (this is a Year Tick)

other sightings (on site species count)

1 Herring Gull, 9 Lesser Black Backed Gull, 2 Common Gull, 160 Black Headed Gull, 50 Tufted Duck, 353 Coot, 17 Wigeon, 14 Pochard, 25 Mute Swan, 15 Linnet, 2 Gadwall, 27 Canada Geese, 5 Meadow Pipit, 1 Buzzard, 4 Snipe, 2 Pied Wagtail, 51 Blue tit, 30+ Great Tit, 15 Chaffinch, 5 Moorhen, 2 Little Grebe, 7 Grey Heron, 13 Long Tailed Tit, 12 Teal, 4 Cormorant, 3 Reed Bunting, 15 Goldfinch, 60+ Mallard

More Vis - 30th September 2007

Yet More Vis, with a Long Tailed Tit flock of 15 passing through the garden. A Song Thrush, 3 Wren and 8 Dunnock passing too.

Over Head:

32 Chaffinch

27 Redwing (inc. 21 in a flock)
44 Meadow pipit

3 Blue tit

39 House Martin

6 Swallow

13 Lapwing

10 Rook

3 Greenfinch

2 Goldfinch

2 Pied Wag

1 Song Thrush

All South (SW, S and SE)

North Easterlies and Vis - Longsands - 29th September

The last couple of days have brought in the big names on Shetland and Orkney - Siberian Thrush, Swaison's Thrush, Lanceolated Warbler, Pallas's Grasshopper, Pechora Pipit, Sardinian Warbler, Red Throated Pipit, Great Snipe, Greenish Warbler, as well as Semipalmated Plover, Blyth's Reed Warbler, and a host of Scarce Drift Migrants.
As would be expected, non of these make their way to Lancashire! However, Autumn has started Early
Vis watch - 08.10 - 09.30
2 Redwing (2nd (1st and earliest ever yesterday, 6) of the Autumn)
1 Fieldfare (")
41 Chaffinch
2 Bullfinch
16 Woodpigeon
3 Meadow Pipit
+ a possible Brambling calling but could not locate as it flew overhead.

Hopefully Tomorrow at Fleetwood Cem will produce (YBW please?)

Weekend in Somerset with Worcestershire Grand Finale! - Lynton and Lynmoth, Somerset - 21-23 September 2007

Wheatear
Above & Below - Raven
A Weekend trip to Lynmoth & Lynton In Somertet, saw myself trying to get the most of the Sea Side Town.

With SW erly winds predicted I was very exited. Unfortunatly the winds and in fact the weather proved to be 'dampners' on the weekend, with SEerly and Sunny throughtout.
We travellend on the Friday, but not much birding was done as the main object for the weekend was to attend my Dad's Best Mates Wedding.
I was out the house on the Saturday at 06.30hrs in order to get First Light Seawatching done. This proved pretty dissapointing with the only sea Birds being Gannet. Ravens were obvious around the 'Valley Of the Rocks'. Aswell as a constant chorus of Migrating Medow Pipit.
On the walk back to the accomadation, I noted a Wheater, which ofcourse, is always nice to see!
Again throughout the day, not a lot of Birding was done, but a quick Cliff top Railway trip to the Harbour at Lynmouth was nice. In the Harbour itself, I noted Rock Pipit, Grey Wag, Great Black Backed Gull, and yet more Raven.

Gannet

Dipper
Rock Pipit

06.30hrs again, but this time I was to walk down to the Harbour and see what the Sea Watching was like there. Straight away I managed to see a flock of 8 Scaup which proved to be the best thing of the Sea Watch as again, Only Gannet seemed to be Oblivious to the Wind conditions.

A Real Suprise was a Dipper on the Harbour Entrance Confluence to the River. This was then joined by a group of 6 Rock Pipit, and strangely 8 Robin feeding on the Low Tide Harbour floor.

On Arrival back Home, I was informed of a Bird that I may be able to see on the Journey Back by Bill Aspin....

Above & Below - Wilsons Phalarope

1 of 2 Curlew Sandpiper

I Thick on arrival at Upton Warren Flash in Worcestershire I was oblivious now to the Dissapointment of the Sea Watching. As well as this, It made up for the Dip of the Wilson's in Co. Durham back in August. It's amazing when you look through your scope and see a new species for the first time. No matter how experienced you are, It always gives you a buzz! No Only was it a lifer...it was a Year Tick, and my 200th Bird of the year! Also on site were 2 Curlew Sandpiper and a Dunlin. The Curlew Sands were also Year Tick so I ended the Trip with 201 under my Belt.

I made a Trip list whilst I was there, and considering I didn't use the car apart from the To and From Journeys, i was pleased with a very respectable 64.