The final days of the Rockjumper tour I was leading were spent in the steppes and wetlands around Nursultan (until recently Astana…). Together with our sharp-eyed local guide Andrey, we birded one day west of the city, and another day south. Birding was fantastic, with non-stop action both in quality and in numbers. Insect load […]
Tag: yellow wagtail
Migrants – Jubail
A steady trickle of migrants have been passing through the Eastern Province in the last couple of weeks with several Red-backed Shrike appearing. Lesser Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher, Common Redstart, Pied Wheatear, Tree Pipit and Western Siberian Stonechat were also seen in small numbers. Very few Yellow Wagtails have been around recently compared to recent years […]
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 […]
Winter birding – Haradh
Phil Roberts and I went for our normal winter birding trip to Haradh recently and saw a lot of good birds. Best was 14 Sociable Lapwings which I have already posted about but we also saw a number of other good winter visitors and early spring migrants. The first pivot field we stopped at had […]
Wheatears everywhere – Haradh
Whilst birding the pivot irrigation fields of Haradh in late January we came across large numbers of both Desert Wheatear and Isabelline Wheatear. The bird spent most of their time around the stony edge of the large pivot fields or in the field themselves where they tended to use sand banks to sit on. We […]
Baird’s Sandpiper at Reculver
We decided on a trip to Reculver this morning despite knowing we could encounter trouble with the M20 being closed. We set off at 5am and arrived at Reculver towers around 6.30am. With a pound in the pay and display we set off along the sea wall for the mile or so walk to Coldharbour […]
6th and 13th August – Pennington Marsh
A free Saturday morning on 6th August and I couldn’t resist the pull of Pennington Marsh but a few beers the night before meant a slightly later start so I wasn’t in the car park at Lower Pennington Lane until 08:00 by which time the dog walking hordes had descended. I wandered a short way […]
Photos and video from Oppland & Hedmark Guiding
Day 4 of my guiding of Lotti and Detlef on Thursday was in Maridalen. The Three-toed Woodpeckers showed impeccably well but we then had a great disappointment when I discovered that the Red-breasted Flycatcher nest had fallen down. Whether it was a predator (squirrel or Great Spotted Woodpecker) or the wind is unknown but there […]