What a frigid morning! But if we were cold, the birds seemed even colder. We had something of a fall-out at Park Point—I’m sure our numbers for most of the songbirds are way lower than the actual numbers. We had a couple of Lesser Yellowlegs (the most we saw as a group was one, but […]
Tag: peregrine
Catching a few ticks in Tuddenham
Saturday saw me going solo down at Elmley while the Jims enjoyed Vange Marshes Stilts. I had good but brief views of a day flying Barn Owl, a Peregrine hunting the marshes with several Buzzards and Marsh Harriers. Hares were putting on a show and the mating rituals of Lapwing and Redshank were in full […]
5 bars! Eastern Crowned Warbler!
Phew, what a day that was. Yesterday evening the news of an Eastern Crowned Warbler at Bempton Cliffs broke. I had planned a morning’s birding with Terry a long time ago, which I didn’t want to give up, plus I had stuff to do in the afternoon, so I peacefully (or not?) accepted that I […]
Beitostølen and Valdresflya
Our stay in Beitostølen with visits to Valdresflya continues to produce some interesting birds. On Valdresflya I have seen the Long-tailed Skuas again but they have been too distant for pictures. The two male Long-tailed Ducks seem to have their own areas on a lake and may well have a female on a nest nearby. […]
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald – review
The arcane world of falconry is infamous for a snobbery that dates back to the medieval period, when different raptors were pegged to a hierarchical list of feudal stations. So the noble peregrine was for princes, the dainty merlin was milady’s bird, and – as we know from Barry Hines’s novel – it was just […]
Migrating Over a Carpet of Flowers
The last few weeks have been pretty busy for me with lots of tours and finding lots of migratory birds. This year’s early rain through the month of March was extreme but all along we knew that it would be a spectacular spring and hence have been rewarded with carpets of amazing multicoloured blooms covering […]
Merritt Island NWR, 3/30/2013
This morning I spent the morning at Merrit Island NWR. I first went to Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, and that was pretty fun. The biggest highlights were seeing several American Avocets in breeding plumage and my first Eastern Kingbird of the year. The Eastern Kingbird was right near the restrooms, where I seem to find them […]
Kitty the Toon
A Brand new series of children’s books will be released in the UK in the coming years to help inspire the next generation about British wildlife. The first book is a story about Kittiwakes in the North-East of England which havecolonisedthe city of Newcastle during the breeding season and have become the first inland colony […]