We awoke at 05:30 and then headed the short distance from Casa de Eliza in Limonal, northwards, to the start of the Chical Road. After a wrong turn into a dead-end street we were on our way up the gravelled road, as the light increased we passed through small homesteads, banana and cassava plantations with […]
Author: Simon Colenutt
I began birdwatching at the age of nine when living on the Isle of Wight. After obtaining a copy of the Isle of Wight Bird Report from 1976 I realised that Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua, Pomarine Skua and Black Tern were regularly seen at St.Catherine's Point, only five miles from my home village of Chale Green. To a nine year old these birds were near mythical and so I just had to go and try to see them. Little did I know that these birds were seasonal and after a long winter of seeing nothing I eventually started to bump into other birdwatchers as March drew to a close. It was then that Dave Hunnybun, Dave Wooldridge, Paul Castle, Peter Gandy and Audrey Wilkinson introduced me to the art of seawatching and the joys of bird migration, I have not looked back since.
Noar Hill National Nature Reserve, Selbourne
After a breeding bird survey near to Havant I headed to Noar Hill National Nature Reserve to see if I could connect with Duke of Burgundy. This 20 hectare reserve was was formerly a medieval chalk working is owned and managed by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (HIWWT). The reserve consists of a […]
Red-belted Clearwing, Romsey
Over the winter I purchased a full set of clearwing pheromone lures and a pheromone trap from Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies (ALS) I was keen to see more of these species having only encountered Currant Clearwing and Six-belted Clearwing previously. So with a partial day working at home in Romsey and lovely warm and sunny conditions, […]
Slimbridge WWT, Hayling Island, Denny Wood and Pennington Marsh
With the last days before my next foreign trip, work and family life have been hectic. The glorious, warm sunny Easter weekend of 19th April was spent decorating at home with some time on the beach with friends and family and enjoying the garden. Birding of late has been confined to a few short jaunts […]
Pennington Marsh – 29th February
On a beautiful spring like morning, I dropped Tobias off for his last day at school before the Easter holidays and spent a couple of hours at Pennington Marsh. At the corner of Lower Pennington Lane I had a coffee and watched the Lapwing displaying and listened to the Sky Lark but other than small […]
Great Spotted Cuckoo at Wheeler’s Bay
On 21st March news filtered through of a Great Spotted Cuckoo at Wheeler’s Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Initially details were fairly sketchy but the following day news broke of its continued presence and pictures eventually emerged on Twitter and Facebook, as is the way of todays birding world. This was the second record for […]
Radipole and Lodmoor – 13th February
I was working in Sidford, Devon again today and having finished at around 11:00 I decided to divert my route home and head for the Weymouth area for a couple of light weight rarities. First up, at Radipole RSPB was a first-winter drake Ring-necked Duck which had been present on the reserve since 4th November. […]
North Norfolk – 7th to 10th February
Sarah had brought for me, at Christmas, a photography course with David Tipling and so we all headed up to North Norfolk for the weekend. David is a recent convert from Nikon to Olympus and is now an ambassador for Olympus. The main aim for me was to glean some of his knowledge in using […]