Phil Roberts and I went to Haradh recently and found plenty of good birds despite the temperature being 1 degrees Celsius the coldest day for many years in the region as well as a bitingly cold northerly wind. Some birds were winter visitors such as Mallard, Northern Lapwing, Desert Wheatear, Eastern Imperial Eagle and Tawny […]
Tag: marsh harrier
Birding the pivot fields – Haradh
The winter months are a good time to visit Haradh pivot irrigation fields as they hold a lot of good birds at this time of year. Large numbers of wintering Harriers, particularly Western Marsh Harrier and Pallid Harrier occur here and I saw well over thirty birds of both species during my visit. Another group […]
Snow Buntings at Salthouse
Barn Owl, Buzzard and Marsh Harrier at Burnham Norton kicked the day off well. A Water Rail was a nice surprise at Brancaster Staithe whilst watching a good variety of waders in the harbour. At Thornham the Twite flew back and forth but remained mobile and a Kingfisher buzzed through without stopping. Lot’s of Skylark […]
More Harrier action at Wallasea
Another trip to Wallasea Island at first light this morning. A Male Merlin zipped along the reeds and a female was seen sitting on a fence post too before two Ring-tail Hen Harriers and a Marsh Harrier came out to play. Several Kestrel and a few more flying passes from the Merlins kept me entertained […]
Harriers and Shorties!
My day started in gloomy weather at Wallasea this morning where four Marsh Harriers and a single Ring-tail Hen Harrier entertained me. With the Shorties staying down I headed off in search of a bit more light and found some in Cambridgeshire and the Short-eared Owls came out to play at this venue too. A […]
Western Swamp Hen in the Bank
So having dipped the Western Swamphen the day it left Minsmere I’ve been watching it during it’s stay at Alkborough Flats in Lincolnshire. As I’ve stated before I have this soft self imposed two hour twitch rule and with Swampy now 200 miles from home I’d need to break that rule if I wanted to […]
Bonaparte’s Gull at Oare Marsh AGAIN!
Work took me to Kent today so a quick trip to Oare Marsh was on the cards.I arrived at lunch time and Napoleon was sitting pretty just by the bridge on East flood a few yards from the road. He was in the company of hundreds of Black headed gulls and Black-tailed Godwits but was […]
It’s a Great Hobby
Pun fully intended! A drive down to Dunge this morning at stupid o’clock gave Jim and I the chance to dip the “red male” Rosefinch reported yesterday but as the handful of readers of this blog will know, Dunge always delivers! A splendid Hobby sat up on a shed at the road side and allowed […]