Whilst birding the Sarrar area of the Eastern Province Phil Roberts and I found two Black Scrub Robin Cercotrichas podobe a species that has only been recorded five times in the Eastern Province making this sixth record as posted about earlier. Amazingly we then found a third bird some kilometres further down the main road […]
15,354 Days and Counting
As of today, the Ides of March 2017, I saw my first Black-capped Chickadee 15,354 days ago. I’ve seen more than one chickadee on most of those days and over 200 in a single day on a few Christmas Bird Counts. I’m sure I haven’t seen an average of 65 chickadees a day over that […]
Results of the Best Photo of the Week Ended 18 Mar 2017
We are delighted to announce the results of our latest photo competition. Kath Aggiss wins First Prize for her brilliant capture “Dalmatian Pelican”. Noushka Wildlife is awarded Second Prize for her outstanding image “Landing Cargos!”. Third Prize goes to Alan Jonker with “Knysna Louri”. See detailed results below: (click on thumbnails for full scale […]
Marsh Harrier and Short-eared Owls at Elmley NNR
I took a drive down to Elmley this afternoon after work thinking it’s as good a place as any to clear the head after a very hard week of chasing numbers. I spent two hours there with little to note other than singing Skylarks, Lapwings and a few Redshank before it all kicked off. First […]
The decline, East to West, of the Golden-winged Warbler
The once common Golden-winged Warbler now has one of the smallest populations of any songbird not on the Endangered Species List. An estimated 400,000 breeding adults remained in 2013—a drop of 66 percent since the 1960s, based on Breeding Bird Survey numbers. This survey, which focuses on males singing on territories, began in 1966; we […]
Tits up
I went for a walk in the forest today to see what the situation was like for drumming woodpeckers. The snow made the going rather tough and I should maybe have chosen skis. There was not much in the way of drumming although I did hear one distant bird. It only drummed very occasionally and […]
What’s Worse Than Forgetting My Camera?
Sometimes when I get up early to go birding on the weekend I forget some of my birding gear because I’m in too much of a hurry. If I forget my scope it’s no big deal. I can still get by with the use of my camera and binoculars. Forgetting my binoculars is more of […]
Still waiting
Yesterday was a sunny but cold day with an unpleasant northerly wind. Today was without wind and temperatures warmed through the day from -6C to around zero with snow now falling which will turn into rain overnight. Yesterday I checked out the Glomma and Aurskog Høland but found much less than last week with the […]