My New Blog.

The download time on this blog is apparently significant due to the single page format , so i've created another one: http://www.babb2.blogspot.com/ which will be the place I will post blog entries from now on.

Local birding: Brockholes Wetland LWT - 9th August 2008.

Put the time in during Spring and you should connect with an Osprey at Brockholes, but you can never be confident of connecting with one in autumn. So this bird, my 11th locally this year and dramatic as always, was both welcome and somewhat unexpected. The bird appeared as a heavy, prolonged spell of rain was setting in and to see one actually catch a fish onsite was an ambition realised.

Local birding: Brockholes Wetland LWT - 3rd Aug 2008.

Finally caught up with the Little Egret, which has present on+off for the past few days. It spent an hour on the Main Pool early-mid pm having appeared to have flown in from the SW. When not onsite, and thats most of the time, I suspect its feeding somewhere downriver between Brockholes Bridge and Walton-le-Dale.

Another shot of the Egret below and a 1st summer Hobby, both by Bill Gregory.

Local birding: Hobby and Med Gulls - Brockholes Wetland LWT - 2nd Aug 2008.

Record shots of 1st summer Med Gull above and juvenile (right) below. Both unfortunately unringed.

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry LWT - 31st July 2008.

Record Shots

Above: 1st summer Hobby. Below: Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits.

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry LWT - 26th July 2008.

An idyllic day spent on the local patch in beautiful weather enjoying some quality local birds: Hobby, a moulting 2nd summer-3rd winter Med Gull and the 8th site record of Marsh Harrier, a juvenile high south at 13:40.

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry LWT - 15th July 2008.

The first autumn flock of Dunlin (7) included a colour ringed bird. Hopefully the poor videograbs taken on very high magnification will be enough to clinch the details, given it took nearly 2.5 hours to obtain these!

Details as follows, as best as I could make out.

Left Leg: No ring on Tibia. White over Blue on Tarsus.

Right leg: White (poss metal?) ring on Tibia. Blue over White on Tarsus.

I can't recall ever personally having seen a colour ringed Dunlin before and would love to clinch this. Will update blog entry in due course if successful. A Hobby over Preston Old Road at Hoghton on the drive home was a nice bonus.

Gannet - Lower Foulridge Reservoir, Lancs - 13th July 2008.

Above: 2cy Northern Gannet, Lower Foulridge Reservoir, Lancs, 12th-13th July 2008.

Found early evening of the 12th by Burnley birder Gary Waddington, this bird to the best of my knowledge represents the first truly twitchable Gannet in East Lancashire. Indeed it was an East Lancs tick for some local birders of c40 years standing.

I arrived at 10:20 on the 13th to be confronted by the surreal sight of the bird on the water and at 10:42 the bird took flight, gradually gaining height as it did ever wider circuits of the reservoir until finally seen circling away to the east, at great height, at 11:03. I left feeling optimistic that the bird stood a decent chance of making it back to the coast, and it came as some surprise mid-afternoon to hear it was back on the reservoir!

EDIT: The bird was last seen heading SW at 15:43 on 14th July. Hopefully it made it back to the coast.

Above & below: Ringlets, 15+ were in a small grassy area nr Rowley Lake, Burnley.

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry - 9th July 2008.

The superb juv Black-necked Grebe is present for the third day on No1 Pit. This species has now been recorded at the site for the third consecutive year.

This delightful juv Common Redstart is only the third site record in the period Aug 10th 1998-9th July 2008, and a Brockholes tick for Myself, 9 years 11 months after adopting the site as my local patch.... and thousands of hours later! Everything in context, the pleasure I got from this bird was immense, thats the magic of local patch birding. Previous site records: a male on 23rd April 2006 and a juv on 22nd July 2007.

Also an adult Green Sandpiper, one of two birds on+off in the past week.

Local birding: Black-necked Grebe - Brockholes Quarry LWT, Lancs - 7th July 2008.

This juv Black-necked Grebe on No1 Pit (aka the largest lake) is the fourth record of the species (totalling 5 individuals) at the site in the period Aug 10th 1998-July 7th 2008. Of these, Two have been juveniles, both occuring in July (22nd-26th July 2001 & 7th July 2008), one in non-breeding plumage from 15th-23rd Sept 2006 and a stunning pair on 6th May 2007.

Local birding: 4th July 2008

A magic local days birding was highlighted by Hobbies hawking Insect prey at Brockholes. 2 Green Sandpiper also present.

The evening was spent watching local Barn & Long-eared Owls, reeling Grasshopper Warbler and 3 (1ad, 2x 2nd sum) Mediterranean Gull.

Rose coloured Starling - Lytham St. Annes, Lancs - 28th June 2008.

After the bird at Inskip earlier in the month, who would have thought another Rose-Coloured Starling would be found in the county, and within 10 or so miles of Inskip as the RCS flies! This absolutely beautiful adult showed down to 25ft on feeders in a back garden at 69 Highbury Road East. Many thanks to the owner for access to the driveway.

Melodious Warbler - Jackhouse Reservoir, Oswaldtwistle, Lancs - 20th June 2008.

A day of mixed feelings began from mid-morning with a real sense of personal disappointment as the grim dawn of realisation set in that Myself and others assembled at the site in the early morning had failed to realise the Hippolais Warbler singing and showing well was in fact a Melodious Warbler and not an Icterine Warbler as assumed the day before.

Despite some mumblings and thoughts amongst those gathered that the primary projection did appear short and the leg colour appeared brownish, it seems that birders, Myself included, were 'blinkered' by the obvious wing panel and the identification was not questioned until later in the morning when Gavin Thomas enquired if anyone had queried the ID. As a result, phone calls were made, research of available literature, study of available photos and some soul-searching by several of those assembled earlier began in earnest!

The bird shows an obvious secondary panel, unusual for a spring Melodious, but confirmation of the short primary length, six evenly spaced primary tips, primaries being only 1/2-2/3 tertial length, and brownish, not blue/grey leg colour visible in the photos kindly emailed to me were the most damning, undeniable pro-Melodious features.

Buoyed by the fact I was now satisfied with my own conclusion that the bird was indeed a Melodious, a degree of contentment descended as the afternoon wore on. Indeed, it was refreshing to do some serious reading on the two species, something I have not done for quite a number of years. But all in all, another harsh, self inflicted, but ultimately rewarding learning curve and salutory lesson to take on board and move on! - Great bird!

UPDATE, 21st June: Bird trapped and ringed at c05:15. This in my view was completely unneccessary as the ID was no longer in doubt.

Rose coloured Starling - Inskip, Lancs - 12th June 2008.

A county tick for me, this Rose Coloured Starling initially proved mobile and elusive until the owner of one of the gardens it frequented kindly allowed us in from where the bird showed well in an adj back garden. I departed the site at 16:00 and learned later that the bird was not seen again after 18:10. A Peregrine overhead was the only other bird of any note.

Spurn, East Yorkshire: 29th-31st May 2008.

I got more than I bargained for during three days at Spurn in the form of an appalling allergic reaction to the plague of Brown-tail Moth larvae currently consuming the Buckthorn along the Peninsula, covering not only my neck, but also, arms, hands, thighs, chest, sides.... and thankfully to a lesser extent, the 'crown jewels'!

It is the hairs from the Caterpillars that are responsible for the most irritating rash I have ever had, despite no known contact with the Caterpillars and my skin. The hairs are also blown on the wind so anyone vulnerable to this allergy would be lucky to visit the worst affected areas of the Peninsula and remain unscathed I reckon. If someone had offered decapitation as a remedy for the rash on my neck at the peak of the irritation, I would gladly have taken it! No doubt this will remain a problem for Myself and undoubtedly many other people in future years as long as this Moth remains a problem at Spurn, not a pleasant prospect! And to top things off, I also found a disgusting Tic embedded in my shin!

To further highlight the problem, I also heard of two small children who were hospitalised over the weekend due to this.

Nevertheless, in between the itching and scratching some excellent birds were had at what is in my opinion the best mainland spring & autumn birding site on the British mainland, with highlights of an overdue life tick in the form of a Thrush Nightingale, a female Montagu's Harrier that flew along the Humber shoreline at the Crown & Anchor, 4 Marsh Harrier, Osprey, Hobby, Ortolan Bunting (Sammys), 5 Red-backed Shrike, Golden Oriole, 4 Marsh Warbler (2 seen), 3 Icterine Warbler (Point, Palm, Rose Cottage), male 'Blue-headed' Wagtail type (briefly, flushed from the road at the Lighthouse), Wood Warbler ( a superb singing male in the Crown car park), Avocet (flew in-off the sea at the Point, then flew back out), 2 Turtle Dove and three species of Owl; Long Eared, Short-eared and Barn. Additionally, commoner migrants were also represented with nice numbers of Whinchat (inc. 10 together south of Sammys Point), several Cuckoo, 2 Redstart, 1 Tree Pipit, c15 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Chiffchaff and a Goldcrest. Notable birds missed included 2 Nightjar, male Montagu's Harrier, Bluethroat and Grey-headed Wagtail.

Above: 1st summer Thrush Nightingale - Trapped and released back at Chalk Bank.

Above: Marsh Warbler, Sammys Point. This superb singing male was the most showy individual of this species during my stay. The same couldn't be said of the Ortolan in the same area which I finally connected with at the 5th attempt, and then only a close flight view was had.

Above: Icterine Warbler. Frequenting an isolated Gorse patch nr the Palm tree just south of the Point Car Park, this bird showed well for 30 mins until a Roe Deer ploughed right through the centre of the Gorse! - From conversation with Barry Spence, the previous spring record day total for Icky's at Spurn was 'just' two. The previous day, 28th, the observatory day total was an astonishing 10, truly record breaking!

Above: Golden Oriole, Wire Dump. Typically mostly showing only in flight, I fell lucky when the bird landed on the side of an Elder and remained in view for a couple of minutes.

Above & below: Red-backed Shrikes: Female in the triangle and a male at Wire Dump.

Above: What was presumably the same Hobby twice flew north over Rose Cottage within an hour as I scanned for more Raptors following the movement of 1 Osprey , 2 Monties and two Marsh Harriers earlier in the afternoon.

Above & below: Long-eared Owl. This bird was found roosting in the hedge on the Humber side of Rose Cottage, viewable distantly from the Canal Zone footpath at 21:30.

Above: This Short-eared Owl showed well as it sat on the Humber saltmarsh off the Warren mid-morning of 31st.

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry - Grey Plover, Garganey & Med Gull - 27th May 2008

Above: Drake Garganey & male Grey Plover - Tony Disley.

A cracking afternoon on the patch with three quality species, all stunners. Also up to 9 Ringed Plover and 2 Common Tern briefly.

Mountain Hare - Scotland - May 2008

Two of three Mountain Hares which gave me my best ever views of the species during a few days in Scotland recently.

North West Tour: Red-Backed Shrike, Whiskered Tern, Temmincks Stint - 18th May 2008

A whistle stop tour of SW Lancs, the Wirral and Cheshire in the company of John Wright, Mike Ainscough & Bill Berry saw us connect with three of the four target birds with the exception of a Red-rumped Swallow at Leasowe which departed less than an hour before our expected arrival time.

Above : Red-backed Shrike - Formby Mosses, M/side - 18th May 2008. This singing male, my first ever of this species in Lancs/Merseyside, showed well on a fenceline as it gorged on Bees to a small, but very appreciative crowd. A Quail sang from an adj field on a few occasions.

Above: Whiskered Tern - Inner Marsh Farm, Wirral - 18th May 2008.

Above: Garganey - Inner Marsh Farm. One of three drakes present at this superb reserve.

Below: 1st & 2nd summer Mediterranean Gulls - Inner Marsh Farm.

Above: Temmincks Stint - Frodsham N06 Tank, Cheshire - 18th May 2008.

Local birding: Glossy Ibis - Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 1st May 2008.

The long staying Lancashire Glossy Ibis hasn't been seen on the local patch since 07:55hrs on 2nd October 2006, but whilst it remained on the Ribble marshes Brockholes regulars have always hoped it would visit the site again one day. However, it was still a major thrill/shock to find the bird perched on a rock at the eastern end of the Main Pool at 18:30, whilst on Whimbrel roost duty. And what a stunning bird it is nowadays in 2nd summer plumage.

The Ibis remained in the vicinity of the Main Pool for forty minutes from my arrival time but was constantly mobbed by a flock of c20 Black-headed Gull whenever it attempted to land out from the 2nd passing place, causing the bird to head upriver east of the site on two occasions between 18:45-19:10 before it thankfully returned to the Main Pool on both occasions allowing Tony Disley, the only Brockholes regular who missed the bird in 2006, to successfully twitch it.

However, at 19:10, after continued bombardment by the BHG's, the bird decided enough was enough and headed purposefully upriver, at least as far as Elston New Hall Farm on the north bank and Lower Hall Farm on the south side, cSD597317. Did this enter the ELOC recording area?

Whimbrel roost count duty then took over, but the Ibis was picked up again in flight, distantly upriver, briefly at 19:50, then at 20:20 the bird overflew the 2nd passing place delighting the Whimbrel observers present all to briefly as it continued SW over the site and was watched as it disappeared into the distance downstream. This was a disappointment as we thought there was a great chance the Ibis would have roosted onsite. Alas it was not to be.

Above: Black-headed Gulls give the Ibis a hard time over the Main Pool.

Lets hope it drops in again sometime! An absolute stonker of a bird!

Little Terns - Lower Foulridge Res, Lancs - 27th April 2008.

A remarkable day in an East Lancashire context with no less than THREE Little Tern passing through the site during the course of the day.

Black Grouse - Langdon Beck, Co. Durham - 16th April 2008.

A lovely morning in the North Pennines in the company of Tim & Janet Davie and Bill Berry produced 20+ Black Grouse, inc. 4 females, in the Langdon Beck area along with two Ring Ouzel and the sight & sound of displaying Curlew, Golden Plover, snipe and Lapwing. Absolutely Magical.

Above: Hawfinch - Sizergh Castle, Cumbria - 16th April 2008. This bird fed relatively unconcerned on the verges of a busy car park. Another two birds were seen in trees on adjacent farmland.

Bowland - Ospreys - 14th April 2008.

A two Osprey day today bringing my total locally this spring to 8 birds, my best ever haul! The first flew NW over Whitray Fell at 13:45, having gone through Stocks Res some 30 mins earlier, whilst the bird in the image above appeared high over the bay nr the old hide at Stocks just before 18:00 then flew north. Two male Hen Harrier, Merlin, Red-breasted Merganser, Ring Ouzel, Short-eared, Tawny & Little Owls were other highlights during an enjoyable day in the Bowland area, rounded off nicely with 3 roding Woodcock at St. James Church, Dalehead, at dusk.

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry - 10th April 2008.

Above: A pair of Raven have been regular of late.

Above: Weasel.

White-spotted Bluethroat - River Lune, Aldcliffe, Lancs - 8th April 2008.

Only my second Lancashire Bluethroat and a top draw find by Dan Haywood, this cracking 1st summer male White-spotted Bluethroat showed well on+off amongst tidal debris on the saltmarsh at Aldcliffe Marsh.

Local birding: Ospreys - Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 8th April 2008.

The Ospreys keep coming on the local patch with a vigil from 09:00-16:30 producing singles north at 12:11 & 12:56. Although neither bird was seen to fly in from a particular direction, both showed no interest in following the river upstream of the site as they headed on the same northerly flightline, overflying the site quite high. My gut feeling is that they had arrived from the south and not arrived from downriver. The record shot above is of the 12:11 bird. A White Wagtail, 2 Willow Warbler & 3 Wheatear were also new-in . Seven Ospreys are now considered to have gone through since 4th April and still time for more! - At 16:30, I cracked to twitch the River Lune Bluethroat!

Local birding: Ospreys - Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 6th April 2008.

The early April 'push' of Ospreys up the country is one of my most anticipated aspects of the local birding calendar and today was one of those magical days on the local patch, with no less than THREE Osprey moving through during the course of the day.

Mark Fanshawe rang at 10:00 to say there was an Osprey in view over No1 pit. Then another call followed at 10:15 to say he had another in view at the same time!! The first bird moved on in a NE direction but fortunately the 2nd bird lingered in the area for 4hrs allowing c20 birders, including myself, to twitch it.






After fishing both onsite and on the adj River Ribble to the NE of the site, this Osprey eventually caught a Fish and after some 20+ minutes of flying around with it at various heights and at distances of c1km, it eventually came nearer and to our delight landed in Boilton Wood to commence feeding.

Gavin Thomas could see the bird perched from his viewpoint near the M6, but the main group of birders including myself to the east of No1 Pit could not. Suddenly, spooked by a Buzzard, the Osprey took flight and to our astonishment flew and landed on a lampost on the north carriageway of the adjacent, busy M6 Motorway. As there was no multi vehicle pile up, we assumed no birders had driven below it for the ten minutes it remained before it returned to Boilton Wood to recommence feeding!

Photo: Gavin Thomas.

By shifting our positions to the bund separating No2 Pit from No3 Pit, some superb views of the Osprey were had for 20 minutes, much to the delight of all present.

It was during these views that we noticed the bird was colour ringed Red/White 6A on the left leg. The bird was ringed at a site called Ordie 4 near Dunkeld, Perthshire, ex brood 2/2, ring no. 1337913 on 14th July 2001. From 2005 it has been a breeding bird in Aberfoyle in Central Region, Scotland.

Above: Photo - Mark Fanshawe.

Below: Showing some of the ring detail. Photo: Gavin Thomas.

Following increasing harrassment from the local Magpies and Carrion Crows, Osprey No2 eventually flew NE, upriver, at 14:20 for at least a kilometer, still carrying the remains of its catch.

A few other birders had arrived onsite too late, and whilst stood on the compound banking at the NE end of the site, scanning upstream to see if bird No2 would reappear, Gareth Morgan rang at 15:10 to say that there was an Osprey over No1 Pit! - This bird had missing inner primaries in the left wing and was clearly ANOTHER bird as the earlier two were both fully winged!

Above & below: The third Osprey of the day was in view from 15:10-15:20 as it passed over the site, pausing to hover over the small, newly created scrape in the compound, before fishing briefly below Tunbrook Wood, then flew due north.

I remained onsite until 19:00hrs but there was no further Osprey action. Todays events highlight well the value of all day, multi-observer coverage.

Local birding: Ring Ouzel - Higher Wenshead Farm, Darwen - 3rd April 2008.

This cracking male Ring Ouzel was presumably one of three birds reported early morning. Bill Berry saw two male Ouzels in the area at 11:15, and the bird in the image above was the only one I could find 12:30-13:20, before I had to cut and run for a dental appointment. Great to see Ring Ouzel so local.

Local birding: Yellow-legged Gull - Withnell Landfill Site, Lancs - 1st April 2008.

2nd summer Yellow-legged Gull - Withnell Landfill Site - 1st April 2008. This bird has moulted a tail feather as well.

Ross's Gull - Marton Mere, Blackpool, Lancs - 31st March 2008.

The day started with a 4+ hour search at Jackhouse Reservoir, Oswaldtwistle, for the reported Little Bunting of the previous day. No sign unfortunately, 4 Reed Bunting, a female Brambling and a pair of Bullfinch the highlights.

A return home for a bite to eat early PM was rudely interrupted by news of an adult Ross's Gull at Marton Mere, Blackpool. The bird, sporting a pink flush underneath, showed very well from the southern side of the Mere until c17:10 when it disappeared as mythically as it had arrived, much to the chagrin of those arriving after work!

Above: Adult Ross's Gull - Marton Mere, Lancs - 31st March 2008. A strong candidate for county bird of the year already!

Above: Ads Yellow-legged Gull - Marton Mere, Lancs - 31st March 2008. This bird was seen down to the bright red ortbital ring briefly as it bathed frantically at the western end of the Mere mid-pm. The quality of the videograbs don't do the bird justice.

Below: Ads Med Gull. One of a stunning pair that came into bathe on a couple of occasions. Unfortunately the height of the Phragmites hampered views.

My first Willow Warbler of the year was singing in trees along the southern side. The day ended on a potentially costly note with the apparent death of my DSLR (hence no flight shots of the Ross's Gull) and the loss of one half of a pair of £30 gloves at the site. Damn!

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry - 28th March 2008.

Migrant grounding weather of SW wind with rain deposited a Scandinavian Rock Pipit, the only decent bird new-in of note during a very wet morning visit. 2 LRP, 18 Shoveler, 2 Teal, 60+ Sand Martin noted. Black-headed Gull numbers were very low in contrast to recent days. Gadwall numbers have done the usual March-plummet with only two birds seen.

Local Birding: Brockholes Quarry - 27th March 2008.

Above: This stonking pair of adult summer Med Gulls dropped in twice during my visit, specnding over an hour on the Main Pool on the second occasion.

Above: Kittiwake - briefly at 10:30, the third individual this week.

Below: Med Gull & Kittiwake.

Above & below: This Jack Snipe gave distant vews on the opposite bank of No1 Pit. Later I approached it to within 10ft only for it to fly c1,000th sec before I pressed the camera shutter....AARRGGHHH!!

Below: Sightings of Raven are becoming more frequent at the site, this is one of a pair that flew south.

Additionally, several Buzzard inc 5 together, 1 Dunlin, 50+ Sand Martin and Chiffchaff were seen.

Local birding: Kittiwake - Brockholes Quarry - 26th March 2008.

Above & below: Kittiwake - Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 26th March 2008.

An enjoyable couple of hours at Brockholes with a Kittiwake and a pair of adult summer Med Gulls briefly, 1+ Dunlin, 1pr Pintail and 23 Teal all new-in.

Mark Breaks was also on site, the day before he sets off to Fair Isle for another season as assistant warden. As he left, I wished him all the very best, then attempted to bite my lip for what seemed like an eternity before the inevitable "You lucky B****r!!" spewed out!!......... Pardon my french!

Local birding: Kittiwakes - 22nd March 2008.

A check of Fishmoor Res from 07:15-07:30 drew a blank for any of the Kittiwakes of the previous evening, so it was straight to Brockholes in the hope of one there. No joy, so back to Fishmoor for 09:15 to find an adult Kittiwake present, so presumably a new bird.

Above: Ad Kittiwake - Fishmoor Res, Lancs - 22nd March 2008.

Whilst I was checking Rishton Res, Zac Hinchcliffe texted at 10:10 to say there was an adult Kittiwake on No1 Pit at Brockholes, which thankfully remained until 11:45 when it flew SW with other Gulls. Hopefully the first of a few spring records at the site.

Above: Ad Kittiwake - Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 22nd March 2008.

Afterwards, checks of Anglezarke, Rivington and Yarrow Reservoirs failed to produce any Kitts whilst a large Raptor causing havoc amongst the Gulls over the Island at Belmont Reservoir as I drove past was 'only' a Buzzard on closer inspection, much to my disappointment!

Local birding: Kittiwake & Whooper Swan - 21st March 2008.

Above: 2 ad Kittiwake (foreground) with a Common Gull - Fishmoor Res, Lancs - 21st March 2008.

The delightful Kittiwake is one of my priority species to record locally annually, so following a fruitless vigil at Brockholes yesterday and this morning, and feeling a little disillusioned with the northerly wind, I returned home to do some work on the PC.

At c16:30, following an earlier 'eye-brow raising' pager message relating to 8 Kittiwake at Audenshaw Res, Gtr. Manchester, I noticed that numbers of birds at this site had increased to 13, then 16, by late afternoon.

A sudden attack of guilt at not being out in the field, coupled with paranoia set in, so it was a case of straight in the car and head towards a local waterbody.

At the jcn of my street and the main road I had to decide whether to turn left to Brockholes or right to Fishmoor, mindful that the incoming roosting Gulls at the latter site may drag a Kittiwake in with them.

I plumbed for Fishmoor, arriving just after 17:00. At 17:16 an adult Kittiwake appeared amongst Black-headed Gulls in flight over the water. Brilliant! This was followed 15 mins later by two further adults on the water, the single bird joining them briefly.

Above: 3 adult Kittiwake - Fishmoor Res, lancs - 21st March 2008.

Bill Berry successfully twitched the Kittiwakes and left for home at 18:35. Five minutes later whilst watching the 'pair' to see whether they were intent on roosting, 7 Whooper Swan suddenly appeared high overhead, heading west, a direction that would take them over my house. Without hesitation, the trusty Citroen Berlingo was put into Ferrari mode as I set off in hot pursuit, just about succeeding in catching the Swans up as they overflew Feniscowles before continuing west over Hoghton Bottoms.

Kittiwake takes the Fishmoor Res Gull total to a very impressive 11 species since 1st Jan. The single bird appeared to head onto the roosting roof with the other Gulls whilst the 'pair' appeared indecisive, gaining height over the water before repeatedly dropping back down. I didn't see the outcome due to the Whoopers!

Heres hoping for more local Kittiwake tomorrow......

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry - inc. LRP - 15th March 2008.

Above & below: Little-ringed Plover - perhaps the first of the year in Lancs?

Good early spring fare was to be had on the local patch today with collective notable sightings amongst the regulars of 1 Little-ringed Plover, 21 Sand Martin, 1pr adult Med Gull, fem/imm Merlin, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Dunlin and a Jack Snipe.

Local birding: Iceland Gull - 14th March 2008.

This very pale 2ndw Iceland Gull was viewable distantly from Withnell Landfill Site in fields north of the M65 mid-pm.

At around the same time Burnley birder Mark Fanshawe found an ad Taiga Bean Goose nr Pilling whilst looking for the Ross's Goose, and managed to 'phonescope' the bird. Here are two of his photos.... What an absolute stonker!

Bill Berry and I attempted to twitch it but dipped. A Short-eared Owl, a species in short supply this winter locally, along Bradshaw Lane was some compensation however. A Little Egret was on the saltmarsh off Lane Ends and c20 Corn Bunting at the Eagland Hill feeding station.

Local birding: Y.L. Gull, Med Gull & Rock Pipit - 13th March 2008.

A 2nd summer Yellow-legged Gull and a long overdue Med Gull + 2 Nordic Jackdaw were at Withnell Landfill Site today.

Above: Yellow-legged Gull. Below: Ad Med Gull

Withnell Landfill Site, Lancs - 13th March 2008.

Below: Scandinavian Rock Pipit - Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 13th March 2008.

Local birding: Brockholes Quarry - 10th March 2008.

I cannot recall ever seeing a Barn Owl as dark as this in the UK, but does this bird fall within the range of extreme variation in female alba or could it be a contender for a guttata/intergrade?? The photos should enlarge if you click on them. I have thus far looked at over 230 photos of 'alba' Barn Owls on the internet taken in England and have not seen anything approaching this bird.

Other highlights include 6 Sand Martin on No1 Pit, a delightful pair of adult Med Gull 14:50-15:00 and a fem/imm Merlin over the main pool at 16:15.

Local and Noth Lancs birding inc Chough - 7th March 2008

What was presumably the same Nordic Jackdaw as yesterday was present amongst lesser marked birds at Withnell Landfill and a check of the available Gulls revealed nothing of note until, as y/day, bird scaring rockets exploded overhead ruining any chances of further scrutiny.

Steven Flynn and Bill Berry were down at Brockholes, where earlier Steve had seen an adult Med Gull, and a spare of the moment decision was made to try for the Warton Crag Chough.

Above: 1stw Little Gull - Heysham Outfall
Below: 2nd summer Med Gull - Heysham North Harbour Wall

Enroute we called into Heysham reserve which produced highlights of single Little Gull and Med Gull . Thanks to PJM for assistance in accessing various areas of the site.

Not realising time was pushing on, we didn't leave the Heysham area until almost 16:00, arriving at Warton Crag Quarry at 16:25 to find the Chough showing well to birders already present, but at 16:40 the bird vanished into one of the holes in the quarry face circled in the photo below and had not re-emerged by 17:00 when we left. Raven and Peregrine were also seen overhead.

A quick scan of Pine Lake revealed c20 wigeon, 1 Goosander, but not the hoped for early Sand Martin.

Back at Brockholes Quarry, 127 Curlew, a few pictured above, came into roost by 18:25, as did 54 Oystercatcher on No1 Pit and a very respectable count of 46 Goldeneye.

Local birding: Nordic Jackdaw - 6th March 2008.

Its been some time since any Jackdaw flocks co-operated for me at Withnell Landfill Site, but today c100 were feeding in adj sheep fields. This Nordic bird was by far the most well marked bird I saw in the fifteen minutes before two almighty, ear-drum shattering rockets from the Landfill Site exploded in rapid succession at 12:30, scattering the Gulls and Corvids for miles around, inc 1 Raven. I left shortly afterwards, but returned at dusk to see both the Barn Owl and a Little Owl in fields between the A675 and the Landfill Site. The Barn Owl has been present all winter according to the Farmer and great to have this species so close to home.

In between visits here, another 30 minutes hopeful scanning for the Tockholes Shrike drew another blank with nothing of note at the Fishmoor Res roost either.

Local birding: Glaucous Gull - 4th March 2008.

A 1stw Glaucous Gull gave distant views in fields north of the M65, east of jcn3, west of Stanworth Reservoir, amongst 400+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls and much smaller numbers of Herring and GBB Gulls from at least my arrival at 11:50 - c15:00, later roosting at Fishmoor Reservoir.




Bill Berry just missed it at Withnell but was more than compensated with a Barn Owl quartering the perimeter of the tip at 15:30. Several Buzzards could be seen soaring around midday by scanning to the NW and North of the site between Hoghton Tower and Pleasington.

A Thirty minute search for the Tockholes Great Grey Shrike, last reported almost two weeks ago, again drew a blank, but what a good site the area around Cartridge Hill is for Raven, with a pair giving great flight views early - mid pm.

Blog entry for recent Hungary trip now uploaded, either scroll down to view or click here.

Cattle Egret - Higher Poynton, Cheshire - 1st March 2008.

Following a drop-off at Manchester airport, i decide to try for Lesser-spotted Woodpecker at Dunham Massey Park. Unfortunately blustery weather conditons did not help my cause and I decided to give it up as a bad job after three hours searching. I will return in better weather, if I don't find/see one locally beforehand!

After this latest demoralising LSW dip, I decided it was high time I indulged in the nationwide Cattle Egret influx by twitching the bird at Higher Poynton, Cheshire. The Egret showed well as it fed amongst Cattle a couple of fields away from my position. A pair of vocal Little Owl were also heard in the vicinity.

Nordic Jackdaw - Towneley Golf Course, Burnley, Lancs - 26th Feb 2008.

Gareth Morgan photographed this Nordic Jackdaw on his mobile phone whilst at work today.

As for my activity today, a check of Withnell landfill area early-mid afternoon revealed few Gulls. Burnley birder Tony Bennett put in a few hours from late morning and apparently saw fewer Gulls in the area than I did. Gull numbers can be unpredicatable at this site, and there is a falconer onsite at least two days a week.

I gave up on the Tockholes Great Grey Shrike after thirty minutes in very windy conditions and drove to Brockholes where the usual good selection of waterfowl was present including the Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid, a fine drake Pintail, 37 Goldeneye, 24 Pochard, 35+ Tufted, 2 Wigeon, 27 Gadwall, 24 Shoveler and 2 Shelduck as well as 38 Oystercatcher and 27 Curlew present by 16:30. I expect more of the latter two species will be coming into roost onsite towards dusk.

In a very difficult near gale force wind, the Fishmoor roost was disappointing in terms of 'large' Gull numbers. An adult Med Gull was amongst the Black-headeds.

Adult Caspian Gull - Withnell Landfill Site, Lancs - 25th Feb 2008.

This absolutely wonderful adult Caspian Gull - a real personal ambition bird to find locally in this plumage - was amongst a gathering of only c30 Herring, c40 LBB and c120 Black-headed Gulls in a field adj to Withnell Landfill Site, off M65 jcn3, late afternoon. The camcorder once again proving absolutely invaluable in fully documenting every aspect of the birds plumage characters and behavioral traits.

An unexpected bonus was the two occasions the bird 'long-called' atop its small raised grassy knoll as it warded off any LBB Gulls showing any interest in attempting to displace it. Much to my annoyance I missed it with the camcorder on the first occasion, but luckily it called again and this time the video was rolling capturing this behavior of which I had seen so much of for the first time whilst embedded in the White-tailed Eagle hide only a couple of weeks ago in Hungary. The following 'grabs' are in sequence.

Shortly afterwards the Caspian Gull took flight alone and was last seen heading in a westerly direction, but still in the vicinity of the site, until lost to view behind bushes, so there is a chance it merely took a wide arc round to the Landfill site. The only thing against this being that this flightpath was at odds with all other gulls moving between the fields and the tip.

Local birding: YL Gull & Med Gull - 23rd Feb 2008

A fine adult Yellow-legged Gull first located on the water off the JJB car park at 17:35 by Cllr Wright, was also seen distantly on the roosting roof by Mark Fanshawe and Myself from the bank of Guide Res. Unfortunately the light had deteriorated to the point where a videograb would not have done justice to this smart bird, so I made no attempt. Two adult Med Gulls also roosted, one in virtually full summer plumage except for a pale area at the base of the bill (above) and another, much less advanced individual. The YLG brings the Gull total to ten species since 1st Jan.

The Tockholes Great Grey Shrike was looked for by several observers during the course of the day, but no joy. With no known sightings since Wednesday, has the bird moved on? Only time will tell.

Local birding: Iceland Gull - Fishmoor Res, Lancs - 22nd Feb 2008.

Very windy conditions for the third consecutive day at the Fishmoor Reservoir roost really hampered viewing. The 2ndw Iceland came into pre-roost on the water at c16:55 for a few minutes before flying onto the roosting roof where it remained in view for 15 minutes until a lot of birds were spooked and it took flight with no further sign both on the roof and the water until dusk so I can only assume it relanded unseen out of sight on the roof. An adw Med Gull was also seen on the roof briefly. I think the Iceland is most likely feeding at Whinney Hill Tip during the day.

Local birding: Hen Harrier and Iceland Gull - 21st Feb 2008.

I put some more time in for the Tockholes Great Grey Shrike today in two sessions, 10:30-11:30 and 15:30-17:00 but perhaps unsurprisingly no joy in the windy conditions. Several other observers similarly drew a blank. Perhaps the GGS was keeping deeper into the Slipper Lowe area out of the wind? A grey male Hen Harrier distantly quartering moorland between Great Hill and Withnell Moor from 15:55-16:15 more than made up for the Shrike though. Also Sparrowhawk, 2+ Raven, and c50 Fieldfare.

It was almost impossible to keep the scope steady in the strong westerly at Fishmoor Res from 17:30. An Iceland Gull appeared on the water at 17:50. Good scope views were nigh on impossible on the banking of Guide Res due to the wind resulting in appalling scope shake coupled with distance making ageing difficult, but it appeared to be the same bird from the previous night.

Local birding: GGS and Iceland Gull - 20th Feb 2008.

Great Grey Shrike - Tockholes, Lancs - 19th Feb 2008

Fog was a major problem today in the upland areas of East Lancs around Blackburn. Indeed it was not until 13:00 when visibility finally improved enough to begin a meaningful search for the Tockholes Great Grey Shrike. The fog however did not deter John Metcalfe, who after dipping the bird on the 19th began his search at 07:30 in the freezing pea-souper.

I rejoined John in his search mid-pm after I had aborted earlier in the morning due to the weather.

By 16:00 it was looking grim, the murk was again descending and the light fading. John decided to head home at this point, and we recanted about the time during the early days of the Hollins Farm Great Grey Shrike when after four unsuccessful hours searching I met John, who was arriving to look for the Shrike just as I made my way from the site. My final words to him were " I wouldn't be best pleased if it appeared for you as soon as i left". Ten minutes later my mobile rang and I answered to the voice of a rather smug JM announcing that the Shrike was perched where I had been staring for four hours prior! Sods Law!

Back at Tockholes we joked as JM was leaving that I would deliberatley stay longer to get my revenge by locating the Shrike just after he had left.

At 16:10, during the umpteenth final scan with my bins before departing for Fishmoor Res, I noticed a distant bird perched atop a mature deciduous tree in the area of 'Piccadilly' on the OS Map. In the grim light and distance I could make out no colour or Shrike-like jizz but thought I would scope it. It was the Shrike and revenge was had on JM with an equally smug phonecall at which point John turned round only for the Shrike to disappear c1min before he arrived back.

I couldn't have written a better script!

We both searched until 16:50 when I left to dash to Fishmoor before it was too late, but not before I sent JM a final smug textmessage.

I arrived at Fishmoor at 17:05 and hurried onto the bank of Guide Res so I could scan both the roof and the water before the fading light went completely and was rewarded with a 2nd winter Iceland Gull on the water from 17:20-17:45.

2ndw Iceland Gull in near darkness - Fishmoor Res, Lancs - 20th Feb 2007.

My frantic checking of the Gulls was interrupted at 17:10 by a textmessage from a jubilant JM who had just ragged the Shrike by the skin of his teeth..... Damn!

Seriously though, after 9.5hrs searching for the Shrike, 6hrs of which was in freezing fog with very restricted visibility, John surely deserved it!... what a trooper!

Great Grey Shrike - Tockholes, Lancs - 19th Feb 2008.

A cracking reward for Darwen birder Alan Taylor during his monthly walk over Darwen Moor on 18th Feb. This 1stw bird was typically mobile and elusive on the 19th, but gave itself up on a couple of occasions between 11:45-15:40, ranging between the A675 at Piccadilly/Slipper Lowe/Hollinshead Hall/ plantations below Cartridge Hill and Conyries Plantation. Also in the area, a cracking juv Peregrine chasing an all white Dove below Conyries Plantation, c4 Raven, 30 Fieldfare, 3 Stonechat and c10 Siskin.

Quite unbelievably, this is the 5th Great Grey Shrike to be recorded in East Lancashire since 2nd Oct 2007! - Totally unprecendented.

I would appreciate any information anyone could provide regarding any previous records in the Blackburn area, as everyone I have so far spoken to are not aware of any.

Brent & White fronted Geese, Merseyside - 15th Feb 2008.

In contrast to the generally distant views of Geese on the vastness of the awesome Hortobagy, Hungary only a few days beforehand, some close views of several hundred Pink Footed Geese were had on the Merseyside Mosses between Hightown and Little Crosby with highlights of an adult Eurasian White-fronted Goose and a colour ringed 1stw Pale bellied Brent amongst the carrier species. Ringing details of the Brent Goose will be posted in due course hopefully, assuming that I am correct in saying the letter on the blue ring is an X!

I noticed that as with the Goose flocks Over Wyre, the Pink-feet in this area were also regularly buzzed by the scourge of Microlight hangliders.

Peregrine and a few Buzzards were also noted, and hailing from East Lancashire as I do, it was nice to see twenty or so Corn Buntings, a non-existent species in my home area.

Hortobagy, Hungary: 8th-11th Feb 2008.

Firstly, a little background to this short trip. It is thanks to East Lancs birder and Birdquest tour leader Mike Watson who in late 2007 posted a trip report on his blog involving a day spent embedded in a White-tailed Eagle photograpy hide in the Hortobagy, Hungary. Mikes account and photographs of these truly awesome birds were simply mindblowing, and so it was that plans were made for a long weekend in February with the itinarary of one days photography in the Eagle hide and 1.5 days days guided birding.

Feb 8th: Steven Flynn, John Wright and I departed Liverpool at 12:55 and arrived at Budapest, Hungary at 16:30. Our guide, Janos Olah of Sakertours, was there to meet us and so began the 2.5hr journey to the town of Balmaz which was to be our base for three nights. The start of our journey was still in daylight and a Great White Egret feeding in a roadside ditch was noted within a few minutes of leaving the airport. A Long-eared Owl, the commonest Owl in Hungary, was seen in the headlights c30 minutes from Balmaz.

Before being shown to our apartment, Janos took us to a local restaurant in Balmaz where we were firstly introduced to a popular Hungarian 'shot' of alcohol before indulging in a delicious selection of Hungarian dishes, washed down with a couple of local beers. The shot was particularly savage, taking me a good minute to recapture my breath after downing it in one!

Following the meal we were taken the short distance to our excellent accomodation, then it was a case of settling in relatively quickly and getting some sleep as we were up at 04:30 to be embedded in the White-tailed Eagle hide before first light.

9th Feb: Janos arrived at the apartment just prior to 05:00 and shortly afterwards we hit the road for the 20 minute journey to the hide with Janos detailing final instructions on maximising our chances of success.

The pre-dawn temperature as we arrived at the hide was -5 degrees, relatively balmy by Hungarian standards apparently. Once We and our equipment were inside Janos lit the heater, deposited the huge basket of rations, and reiterated some key instructions. One thing that was not in our favour was the fact that the weather forecast was wall-to-wall sunshine. In the short life of the hide (this being the first winter of operation) this weather condition had proved least succesful in terms of the Eagles coming down to feed on the catfish staked outside the window.

John set up his scope, whilst Steve and I set up our camera gear. Amongst the instructions for sunny days was to sit well back and have scrim netting up in place between us and the window until the sun had moved around enough so as not to be illuminating the inside of the hide. This would be around 11:00.

As dawn broke, there was a great sense of anticipation amongst the three of us as to what the day would bring!

Above: Dawn anticipation!

At 06:24, the first of two flocks of c200 Eurasian White-fronted Geese could be heard, then seen passing over, and the first two White-tailed Eagles of the day left the roost site and headed west straight over the hide followed by another two birds shortly after.

At 06:55, there was an almighty thud on the roof of the hide as something deemed to be of significant size and weight landed on the roof. For the next 15 minutes, we sat there in total silence listening to what we percieved were the sounds of a bird with large talons shuffling about! Although we never saw the culprit, our gut feeling was that an Eagle was perched just above us, although we will never know for sure.

At around this time, the first birds to appear on the Catfish in front of the hide was a flock of Hooded Crows plus a couple of Raven. The latter species was only present briefly, with no further sign for the remainder of the day.

Above: Hooded Crows - Hortobagy, Hungary - 9th Feb 2008.

Common Buzzards could be seen in the surrounding area from 07:05 and two WT Eagles were perched in the treeline in the photo above at 07:20. This set a theme for the Eagles for the remainder of the day, with up to 14 birds seen from the hide either perched or in flight in the wider area, but sadly none came down onto the Catfish during the entire session. That's the unpredictability of bird photography for you!

Above & below: White-tailed Eagles, Hortobagy, Hungary - 9th Feb 2008.

Back to events in the morning. At 07:25, we heard the first call of what had to be a Caspian Gull overhead and by 07:32, seven Caspian Gulls had landed by the Catfish. For the next several hours up to 50 Caspian Gulls at a time, of all ages, were in view down to feet from the hide. From an educational perspective, this was was worth its weight in gold as far as I was concerned and more than made up for the lack of Eagles to photograph. It was truly Caspian Gull heaven!

Below: 1stw Caspian Gulls

Below, two images of same bird: some 1stw birds were (to us) extensively and very strongly marked on the underwings.

Below two images: Another even more coarsely marked individual in all respects.

Below: 1stw underwings.

Below: 2ndw Caspian Gulls.

Above & below: 2ndw Caspian Gull under & upperwings.

Below: 3rdw Caspian Gulls.

Below: presumed 4th winter Caspian Gull.

Below: Adult Caspian Gulls.

Above: Adult & 1stw Caspian Gulls.

In terms of leg colour amongst the adults present variation ranged from some birds with bright yellow legs, to the majority either showing pink or pink/grey legs.

This 2ndw Yellow-legged Gull (below) made a brief appearance mid-afternoon.

Above: left-right - Myself, Steven Flynn and John Wright in the WT Eagle hide - 9th Feb 2008.

Above: a photo of the outside of the hide at dusk with Janos inspecting the condition of the Catfish.

In total we spent 12 enjoyable hours in the hide. It's normal practise not to leave the hide in daylight and thankfully the four immodium tablets taken beforehand did their job!

Other birds seen from the hide in the wider area included 2+ Rough-legged Buzzard, a male Hen Harrier, 1 Great Grey Shrike, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Fieldfare and Starling.

10th Feb: Following another hearty meal in the local restaurant the previous night, we were up at 05:30 for a full days guided birding with Janos, who arrived promptly before 06:00 and kindly provided breakfast whilst we talked about the itinerary for the day. Shortly afterwards, we loaded our gear into the 4x4 and we were off en-route to a Great Bustard site. The journey was interrupted briefly as we drove through a small village when I noticed some interesting shapes in a deciduous tree in a churchyard which turned out to be several superb Long-eared Owls. During this brief stop we counted at least 15 birds as they flew into nearby conifers to roost. A great start.

Continuing enroute to the Bustard site, we stopped a few times to scan several pylons for perched Saker Falcon but with no success. Multiple large skeins of Eurasian White-fronted Geese totalling several thousand could be seen flying over the wider area.

As we neared the Bustard site we started to see Hen Harriers inc some fabulous grey males. Indeed by 09:00 we had already seen 15 birds.

Above: Male & female Hen Harriers, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008.

Below: Janos, JW & SGF scanning for Great Bustards - 10th Feb 2008.

It was whilst scanning some fields for Great Bustards that we heard Penduline Tits calling from a phragmites ditch. There were three birds in total and i managed to get a record shot of one before they all flew some distance. With a scan of the binoculars you could not fail to see a Hen Harrier in this area.

Above: male Penduline Tit, Hortobagy Hungary - 10th Feb 2008.

Whilst parked here, the first Bustards were located briefly before they flew to distant fields where they landed near to a flock of 17, all males. Fortunately the track went in that direction although we had to stop and view from a considerable distance due to the very wary nature of the birds. Nontheless, I am very pleased with the videograbs obtained of these incredibly impressive birds.

Above: Male Great Bustards, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008.

Below: JW and Janos watch the Great Bustards whilst I am momentarily distracted by yet another Hen Harrier.

The first Rough-legged Buzzard of the day appeared behind the Bustards as we watched them and a flock of 46 Twite flew overhead, calling.

Moving on, our next target species was Saker Falcon. Whilst enroute, the first of 3 Crested Larks were noted as well as a few more Hen Harrier, several Reed Bunting and a Corn Bunting. A significant flock of Eurasian White-fronted Geese in fields relatively close to the road just had to be scanned and JW duly picked out the first of 9 Red-breasted Geese of the trip, a good spot considering the very strong, low, side-on sunlight and the fact that the RBG was low down amongst a large scrum of White-fronts. Fortunately it became more obvious allowing for a videograb.

Above: Ad Red-breasted Goose - Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008.

Further on, a superb pale 'northern' Common Buzzard was perched in a nearby field. A striking bird.

Above: 'northern' Common Buzzard, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008.

Two Great Grey Shrikes, the first of a day total of 12 were noted on roadside bushes enroute.

Shortly afterwards, Janos pulled up, scanned with his binoculars and announced the presence of a Saker-like object perched atop a distant pylon, so we drove closer, flushing another Crested Lark in the process, to find a pair of Sakers perched up, the larger female being particularly impressive.

Above: The male Saker photographed below was on the upper right arm of the pylon.

Above: Janos points out the perched male Saker Falcon.

Above & below: female Saker, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008.

Above & below: male Saker, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008. This bird was apparently very heavily marked below.

Above: Janos, JW and SGF watch the male Saker Falcon. The female was perched on the pylon in the background.

Next on the agenda was to search for Lesser White-fronted Geese amongst the vast flocks of eurasian White-fronts with the hope of locating more Red-breasted Geese in the process, and for this we drove to the wider area of the White-tailed Eagle hide noting another couple of Great Grey Shrikes en route as well as hearing Long-tailed Tit, presumably caudatus, but unfortunately could not locate them.

Approx 1/4 mile from the hide is an observation platform and it was atop this that we scanned the very distant flocks of White-fronts. 6 Red-breasted Geese were picked out, but no Lesser-White-fronts, perhaps due to the distance. Up to six White-tailed Eagles were in the area, but interestingly, none in the vicinity of the hide. JW noted a couple of soemmeringii Jackdaws.

Above: 4 of 6 Red-breasted Geese amongst Eurasian White-fronts taken at c1mile range in a breeze and heathaze from atop the observation tower. About as record shot as you can get, but surely remarkable any image can be obtained at such distance!

Above: Eurasian White-fronted Geese, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008.

Two of the White-tailed Eagle's, one older than the other, briefly locked talons. although distant Steve did a good job documenting the incident with the dSLR.

Above: Two White-tailed Eagles spar briefly (SGF).

Below: The observation platform. It was from here y/day that Janos could see two White-tailed Eagles perched on the ground only 20m behind the photography hide we were in!

We continued in our search for a Lesser White-front by driving to a wetland reserve that Janos had been working on for three years to create, and what an excellent area it proved to be with many Eurasian White-fronted Geese, Tundra Bean Geese, eastern Greylags, 2 Red-breasted Geese (the latter an overdue site tick for Janos), Great White Egret, several Hen Harrier, 3 Rough-legged Buzzards, many Common Buzzard, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, White-tailed Eagle, calidus race Peregrine, 2 Great Grey Shrike and 2 Penduline Tit seen on the wetland area itself and neighbouring fields.

Above: Steve & Janos scoping the wetland area.

Above: An adult male Rough-legged Buzzard lands in a field (SGF).

Above: 1stw Hen Harrier, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th feb 2008.

Above: calidus Peregrine, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008. Perched on a fencepost at distance out on the wetland, the bird was overall a noticably colder, grey tone than birds I am used to seeing in the UK.

Apparently any 'pied' Woodpecker seen in the towns of Hungary is most likely to be Syrian, the next species on our hitlist, so a trip into Balmaz town itself was necessary. Firstly though, we were keen to see the Long-eared Owl roost. Most cities, towns and villages in Hungary have their own LEO roost apparently and Balmaz is no exception, with an all time record roost count of a mindboggling 300 birds!

I have to say though, that nothing prepared me for the awesome spectacle ahead involving one of my favourite species!

To begin with there was at least 30+ visible in coniferous trees in residential gardens, a wonderful sight, but then things became totally insane as we rounded a corner to find ten Long-eared Owls perched fully out in the open in leafless deciduous trees right by the side of the road, behavior totally at odds here in the UK!

I was so caught up in this mindblowing phenomena that I began to get carried away, exclaiming "My God!, how many more must there be, this is just one street in the town!" only to be brought back down to earth slightly as Janos told me that they were only concentrated in this area of Balmaz! These continental LEO roosts simply have to be witnessed by UK birders to be fully appreciated, it was incredible!

Above: The LEO's tolerated such close approach for several minutes before flying into nearby conifers. They don't spook at all as people just walk on by.

Below: a closer view of the LEOs in the trees above - Insane from a UK perspective!

Above (BA) & below (SGF): closer still!

Above: 13 LEO's visible if you look hard enough.

Above: More trees, more LEO's. JW & SGF count yet more Owls.

Below: 20+ LEO's in this tree!

c90 LEO's were seen in total, whilst Janos estimated that the true total was probably nearer 150!

After feasting on the LEO's we had c1hr to find a Syrian Woodpecker before it was time to head off for the Greater Spotted Eagle roost site. It took us a good forty minutes before we finally located one, a male, which showed well in gloriously warm late winter sunshine, in Walnut trees in residential gardens.

Above (BA) & below (SGF): Male Syrian Woodpecker, Balmaz, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008.

The views obtained were excellent allowing all the features that separate Syrian from Great Spotted to be fully appreciated, as well as the call.

Now mid afternoon we were straight back in the 4x4, arriving at the G.S. Eagle site some 30 mins later. Following a 20 minute muddy walk to view the wood, Janos feared it may already have gone to roost. But we needn't have worried as Janos brilliantly located at distance and with such confidence, the Greater spotted Eagle perched low in an adjacent copse.

Shortly after I had managed to obtain some video of it perched, the Eagle flew, but instead of flying over us, it flew round towards the back of the wood in a low, wide arc totally against the light. However, as its apparantly mainly a jizz thing when seperating Greater from Lesser spotted Eagle in flight it didn't really matter. Steve did very well obtaining the flight shot below.

Above (BA) & below (SGF): ad Greater Spotted Eagle, Hortobagy, Hungary - 10th Feb 2008. This bird has wintered here for the 10th sucessive year, first appearing as a juvenile. The yellow cere is another apparent difference between Greater and Lesser.

With the light beginning to fade we hurried around to the back of the wood to see whether the Eagle was in view, noting another Great Grey Shrike as we arrived at the far side. There was no sign of the Eagle, it must have gone further into the wood to roost, so I decided to get a blog image of the GGS. Upon obtaining said record image, I hurried on to catch up with Steve, John and Janos, whom I could hear was whistling as I attempted to catch up. By the time I had done so Janos had stopped whistling and I continued ahead for 20yrds or so, before glancing at the wood to notice a dark shape appear atop the trees. I binned it and was shocked to see a fantastic Black Woodpecker in full view which I frantically shouted to the others to come and see, totally oblivious to the fact that Janos had in fact called the bird out with his whistling! Still, i'm glad i was too dozy to realise what was going on, as it would have lessened the surprise of when I first clapped eyes on this superb bird.

Above: record image of the Great Grey Shrike.

Below: male Black Woodpecker!

A pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker and a flock of Fieldfare enroute back to the 4x4 rounded off a superb days birding. Our final night in the restaurant was buzzing as we recanted the days events. Even Cllr Wright, who is considerably better travelled than I, announced that the days birding was amongst his top 10 best birding days ever!

11th Feb: Janos really wanted us to go home with great photos of the White-tailed Eagles and so allowed us to spend more time in the hide on our final day. We were flying at 17:10, so the plan was that we would only have until 10:30 in the hide, then straight back to the apartment for our luggage before heading towards Budapest, taking in a little birding at Hortobay fishponds before ending the trip with Eastern Imperial Eagle at a site closer to Budapest.

So, once again, we were up at 04:30 and in the hide and set up well before first light. The weather was again wall to wall sunshine, so confidence was not sky high that we would succeed in obtaining our photos, and this is how it transpired. Once again it was a super Caspian Gull fest as well as the other usual suspect, the Hooded Crows. This time though a Common Buzzard came down to the Catfish, allowing for great photos. As nice and welcome a bird as the Buzzard was, one can't help but imagine what a White-tailed Eagle would be like at the same range!

Above: Common Buzzard, Hortobagy, Hungary - 11th Feb 2008.

Several White-tailed Eagles were in the wider area and on one occasion it did appear that two birds were flying low directly towards the Catfish, but to our utter frustration they landed at c100m range before flying back off more distantly!

10:30hrs arrived and Janos came to pick us up. Once back at the apartment and luggage was loaded we travelled towards the Fishponds, briefly stopping off to look from an observation platform where four Bewicks Swan had been present a few days earlier. Janos hoped we would be able to grip his friend Mike Watson, who needs Bewicks Swan for his Hortobagy list, but sadly there was no sign of the Swans.

An hours birding at firstly the Fishponds, then a vast lake, produced highlights of 4 White-tailed Eagles, Tundra Bean Geese, Eastern Greylag, 4 Smew, several Great White Egret, Great Grey Shrike and Penduline Tit heard.

Above: SGF and Janos birding one of the Fishponds.

Below: Tundra Bean Geese, eastern Greylag Geese and GW Egrets some of which are photographed below. The Smew were unfortunately too distant for images.

Time was now of the essence and it was full steam ahead towards the Eastern Imperial Eagle site near Budapest. Janos had a couple of scouts on the ground in the hope that they would have an Eagle 'pinned' down for us upon arrival. However, the sunny weather was ideal for the Eagles to be displaying at height and even Janos's men on the ground were having trouble locating the target birds.

Now in the area, we were beginning to think we may dip, but no, amidst the many Common buzzards thermalling, Janos located a pair of Eagles at great distance and we raced round where one of his scouts had the birds at closer range. Time was really tight now, so I just had time to scope and digest the features before it was time to depart for Budapest Airport and our flight home, thus ending a short but extremely memorable first trip to the Hortobagy.

Totals of selected species: 11 species of raptor including 25 White-tailed Eagle, 1 Greater Spotted Eagle, 2 Eastern Imperial Eagle, 2 Saker Falcon, 13 Rough-legged Buzzard, 30+ Hen Harrier, 1 Marsh Harrier, calidus Peregrine. Caspian Gulls, 9 Red-breasted Geese, c30 Tundra Bean Geese, 19 Great Bustard, 1 Black Woodpecker, 1 Syrian Woodpecker, c90 Long-eared Owl, 15 Great Grey shrike and 5 Penduline Tit.

Many thanks to Janos Olah, a top guide and truly exceptional birder, for a wonderful short break, the guided birding carried out with military precision! - I highly recommend both Janos and Sakertours to any UK birder contemplating a birding trip to the Hortobagy and beyond. And Janos has been kind enough to offer us a free day in the hide next winter in the hope that we can exact revenge on the White-tailed Eagles with the dSLR.

Local birding: Fishmoor Res - 5th Feb 2008

This ad-type Caspian Gull like bird got the pulse racing. I emailed the images to respected Gull enthusiast Dick Newell who commented as follows: "I wouldn't like to call it. I guess it could be a Caspian Gull, though it looks a bit dark, which looks rather extensive to be explained as staining. Some argentatus can show a very long bill and can be as dark as this. If its head feathers are depleted, which look as though they might be, then that can make the bill look very long. So, no, I don't think it is clinchable as a Caspian Gull."

Damn!

Local birding: GW Teal, Slav & GG Shrike - 27th Jan 2008.

A full day in the field with Gtr Manchester birders Phil Rhodes and Neil Tasker. Both were keen to see the Slavonian Grebe at Barrow Lodge and Great Grey Shrike at Hollins Farm, Higham.

Above: Great Grey Shrike, Hollins Farm, Higham - 27th Jan 2008.

Shortly after we set off on foot from the car parking area at Grove Lane Plantation, the pager alerted us to the presence of the Shrike at 10:08, only 15 minutes ago, but by the time of our arrival at Hollins Farm at 10:35 the GGS had dissappeared and it was over an hour later when Phil located the bird in the millenium planting at 11:45. After ten minutes of reasonable views, the Shrike began to move further up the long, northward extending belt of planting at which point we left bound for Barrow Lodge.

Above: Slav Grebe - Barrow Lower Lodge - 23rd Jan 2007.

Upon arrival, the 'big gun' photographers were out in force, and perhaps not surprisingly the Slav was maintaining its distance from the roadside bank of the lodge for the hour or so that we were onsite.

Now mid-afternoon, a decision was made to visit the Stocks area mindful of a significant arrival of wildfowl the previous day, and also in hope of perhaps a Hen Harrier or even the elusive Stocks Shrike.

First stop was the field opposite Dalehead Church and a walk up the road followed but no sign of the Shrike on any of the isolated Hawthorns. Next we stopped at the causeway where Margaret and Brian Breaks informed us of the scale of the wildfowl spectacle to be had further towards the bay following a further large overnight Duck influx to the site.

Viewing from the picnic area between the car park and first hide, it was indeed impossible not to be impressed with the number of Wildfowl present and a significant number of the 596+ Wigeon, 326+ Pintail and 540+ Teal counted earlier were on view with more Teal asleep on the far side of the reservoir. At 15:30, I had the good fortune to notice the vertical white stripe of a Green-winged Teal asleep and partially obscured on the far bank below Eak Hill. It wasn't until some 30 minutes later that the bird awoke and moved position revealing no anomalous features to suggest anything other than a pure GWT. In the poor light and at distance, the bird appeared to be an adult drake, unless any subsequent closer views indicate otherwise. The poor quality of the videograbs below reflect the poor light for videoing on 200x magnification.

Drake Green-winged Teal - Stocks Reservoir, Lancs - 27th Jan 2008.

Above: a fraction of the Wildfowl present on the open water. Just where do these huge mid-winter influxes of wildfowl to Stocks originate from, particularly Pintail?

Both drake Tufted x Pochard and female Ferruginous x Pochard hybrids were present today. A Common Buzzard heading to roost over the reservoir rounded off another excellent days birding in East Lancs.

Local Birding: Slav Grebe, GG Shrike. 18th - 23rd Jan 2008.

The last five days has seen me covering local sites. Brockholes Quarry is as full as i've ever seen it. On the 21st Jan, the LWT staff had to evacuate their vehicles from the site as the River Ribble burst its banks submerging the access road outside the entrance gate. My visit on the 22nd saw the reappearance of the female Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid and my first Oystercatcher of the year at the site. Whilst watching the Oyc, I unwittingly flushed a Jack Snipe from bare mud, much to my utter frustration at another potential photographic opportunity missed! Also on the 22nd, an hour at Pleasington Old Hall Wood drew the almost predictable blank for Hawfinch.

Above: female Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid- Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 22nd Jan 2008.

No Gulls of note have been located at the Fishmoor Reservoir roost despite daily coverage by up to six observers since 17th Jan, although a Bar-tailed Godwit flying amongst Lapwings during particularly wet and windy weather on the 22nd was a welcome bonus, and was from memory only my third mid-winter east lancashire 'Barwit'. Withnell Landfill Site has had virtually no Gulls so far this week and what Jackdaws are present appear to be spending much of their time on the inaccessible tipping area.

23rd Jan saw me put in 1.5hrs at Spring Wood, Whalley, location of the last ELOC Lesser Spotted Woodpecker sighting, and it predictably drew a blank for the target bird. It is now so long since I saw this species I'm beginning to feel psychologically beaten before I even enter woodland nowadays! I also revisited the Slavonian Grebe at Barrow Lower Lodge (my 3rd visit in recent days) and also the Great Grey Shrike which is still in residence by the River Calder east of Padiham, and was showing in & around riverside Hawthorns from 13:55-15:00 at least.

65 Pink-footed Geese > west over the GGS site - 23rd Jan 2008.

Local birding: Caspian and Glaucous Gulls - Fishmoor Res, Lancs - 17th Jan 2008.

Above: 1stw Caspian Gull. Although taken at distance, these images show the jizz, white headed appearance with obvious 'shawl' effect of streaks on nape, predominantly white underparts, pale borders to greater coverts with rather dark outers, 'thumbnail' tertials, good primary projection and long, dark, parallel bill. There was also a small area of dark smudging around the eye. Difficult to judge extent of grey feathering to upperparts, but certainly present. Long legged appearance in lower image.

Above: 1stw Caspian Gull. On the open left wing, a faint pale window to inner primaries, dark secondaries separated from main body of greater covert feathers by pale tips to the latter. Extensive pale underwing of right wing.

Above: 1stw Caspian Gull. Three images showing the broad, black tail band extending right across and of equal width, and basally white uppertail with some dark spotting. A dark line of barring on the uppertail can be seen just in from the tail band.

Above: 1stw Caspian Gull. Long-legged appearance.

This fabulous Caspian Gull was located halfway across the factory roosting roof to the south of the reservoir in difficult conditions with a constant, strong south-westerly in my face. In this wind my eyes were watering so much I had to hope that the camcorder/scope was clearly focused on the bird for much of the time I had it under observation. Any dog walker within earshot would have been able to clearly hear me swearing loudly at the wind to calm down as I battled the elements to secure supportive images before it could walk out of view on the roof or fly at any second. Mild panic would be an understatement but the Camcorder once again proved its worth!

As it happens, the wind actually played to my advantage, unsettling the Caspian Gull and allowing crucial features such as the pale underwing and tail pattern to be videod.

It was a large bird, noticeably larger than nearby argenteus Herring Gulls and was considered to be a big male Caspian.

Twice the Gulls flew up and scattered widely before eventually relanding. Following the second occasion the Gulls flew, I barely had time to 'blog' a 1stw Glaucous Gull as I desperately tried to refind the Caspian, but did not succeed in relocating it before darkness fell.

Above & Below: 1stw Glaucous Gull - Fishmoor Res, Lancs - 17th Jan 2008.

Finding and fully documenting my own East Lancashire Caspian Gull was my primary objective for winter 2007/2008. A magic and long awaited moment!

Moor Piece Ringing Session - 16th Jan 2007.

A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon was spent at Moor Piece helping the assistant warden of Fair Isle no less, aka Mark Breaks, as he conducted a ringing session in a private garden.

1stw male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Nuthatches

Adult Robin

1stw Dunnock

Coal Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Blue Tit

Mark Breaks extracts another Coal Tit from the mist net.

Of 49 birds trapped and ringed, c2/3 of the total was comprised of Coal Tits. Other birds seen but not ringed included 1+ Siskin, 1 male Brambling and Mark also saw a Woodcock fly through the garden.
Mid-morning saw a visit to Withnell Landfill, but the Jackdaws were not in the fields betwen the tip and M65, whilst a look through the Gulls failed to reveal anything of note. Enroute to Moor Piece I simply had to pay homage to the superb Slavonian Grebe present at Barrow Lower Lodge for the fourth day.

Nordic Jackdaw - Catforth, Lancs - 15th Jan 2008.

Stuart Piner kindly sent me these pictures of a Jackdaw showing Nordic features, one of two similarly marked birds present in a flock of c30 Jackdaw in fields by his home in Catforth, NW of Preston.

Local birding: Slav Grebe, Nordic Jackdaw & Iceland/Glaucous Gull - 13th Jan 2008.

News broke mid-morning of a Slavonian Grebe, a major east lancashire rarity, at Barrow lower Lodge adj to the A59, south of Clitheroe.
Whilst en-route, John Wright and I noticed a flock of c30 Jackdaw feeding on Pleckgate School Playing Fields, Blackburn, SD681303, which we felt compelled to check for the presence of any possible Nordic Jackdaw. The shock result in the dull light conditions was that virtually all the Jackdaw present showed traces of a half collar, the bird below being the most well marked of the flock.

At Barrow Lodge, the Slavonian Grebe put on a virtuoso performance for the inevitable gathering of many local birders, showing to within feet of the bank at times allowing good photos and simply stunning scope views.

Above: Margaret Breaks eagerly 'snaps' away at the Slav.

What a great bird......its been a long time coming!

The day ended on a frustrating note at the Fishmoor Reservoir roost, where in near darkness at 16:40 I briefly saw an adult Iceland/Glaucous Gull on the factory roof which evaded positive ID.

Local birding: 10th-12th January 2008.

10th Jan: Saw more Nordic Jackdaw searching at Withnell Landfill. 2+ well marked birds were noted before the local gamekeeper/land manager appeared equipped with a portable hide and shotgun intent on setting up bang in the centre of the fields where the Gulls loaf and Corvids feed with the mission of shooting/scaring as many as possible on behalf of the farmer. At this point I left and drove to Brockholes where the Green Sandpiper remains on the back sludge tanks. Adult Med Gull roosted at Fishmoor Res, but again few large Gulls to go through continuing the apparent crash in the numbers of the larger Gull species locally this week!

Green Sandpiper - Brockkholes Quarry - 10th Jan 2008.

11th Jan: A lot of effort with scant reward. No Corvids or Gulls at Withnell Landfill ... It appeared the guy shooting the previous day had done his job well! Whinney Hill Tip was the next port of call, but no Gulls were apparent and precious few Jackdaws to look through.

At this point Allen Holmes texted to say the Higham GGS was showing, so off I went spending the next three hours dipping the bird despite extensive searching from Grove Lane. Two Snipe, 20 Siskin and 1 Stonechat was the best I could muster.

Now 15:00 paranoia dictated that I had to get back for the last of the Fishmoor roost and headed back to the car. John Metcalfe was cycling along Grove Lane and a conversation ended with me saying "I wouldn't be best pleased if he rang me as I arrived back at the car to say that the Shrike was showing"... This is exactly what happened.... aaarrrgghhh! The final nail in the coffin was a sum total of just 20 large Gulls to roost by 16:30... absolutely woeful!.... One of those days!

12th Jan: Mid-afternoon saw a quick dash over to Grove Lane for the GGS which had been showing all day. The bird was never close but at least it was in view allowing a token videograb.

Local Birding: Eastern Jackdaws & Long-tailed Duck - 6th Jan 2008.

John Wright and I spent 4+hrs looking at the Jackdaws frequenting the Sheep fields adj to Withnell Landfill Site. Two well marked eastern birds were in view at the same time, whilst at least four other potential candidates with much weaker markings were also noted. Bright sunlight hampered attempts at picking out all but the strongest marked birds for much of the time, the above videograbs of the latter were only obtained mid-afternoon when some welcome sustained cloud cover arrived, essential light conditions when looking for these birds.

Late afternoon saw us nip to High Rid Reservoir and the 1stw female Long-tailed Duck just over the border in Greater Manchester, whilst the journey back saw us call in at a local Barn Owl site where one bird was quartering away as the light faded.

Local Birding (Eastern Jackdaw & Great Grey Shrike) - 5th Jan 2008.

Following a phonecall from Barry James, I set off from home intending to twitch the Ightenhill Great Grey Shrike which BJ had just relocated, but got waylayed en-route at Withnell Landfill in the hope of obtaining better images of the well marked eastern Jackdaw which I saw the other day and fortunately I succeeded. There may be a few more birds present, but not as well marked as this individual.

Above: Eastern (presumed Nordic?) Jackdaw - Withnell Landfill Site, Lancs - 5th Jan 2008.

I'm unsure how many records of the eastern races of Jackdaw there have been in Lancs but i'll try and find out.

The last week of cold easterlies has seen a noticable influx of argentatus Herring Gulls locally, some being real brutes.

Above: Argentatus Herring Gull - Withnell Landfill Site, Lancs - 5th Jan 2008.

At 14:50, Peter Ross rang with news that the Ightenhill Great Grey Shrike was still showing in the same location as Barry James had seen it some four hours earlier, so a snap decision was made to forfeit the Fishmoor Gull roost and nip over to try and connect before dark. Councillor John F. Wright, fresh back from a few days in the lakes, accompanied me for this twitch and we arrived at the location of the bird following a muddy 15 min yomp through Hagg Wood just before 16:00 to see the Shrike briefly perched back-on atop a Hawthorn on the southern bank of the Calder before it flew to trees on the north bank where it gave frankly unsatisfactory and partially obsured views before moving even further into cover presumably to roost at 16:15, at which point we headed back to the car. Didn't see it well enough to age with confidence. Still, my third local GGS of the winter secured, but I shall be back to obtain better views and images hopefully.

Above: Great Grey Shrike - Ightenhill, Burnley, Lancs - 5th Jan 2008.

'eastern' Jackdaw - 3rd Jan 2008.

This interesting bird showing characteristics of 'eastern' Jackdaw was feeding in sheep fields between Withnell Landfill Site and the M65 Motorway this afternoon.

Brockholes Quarry - 29th Dec 2007

First attempt at video upload from my rather dated camcorder.

An enjoyable couple of hours at the local patch in rather inclement conditions produced a Green Sandpiper (above), 2 Jack Snipe, 1stw Peregrine, 1 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 160 Mallard, c80 Teal, 25 Shoveler, 30+ Gadwall, 10 Wigeon, 12 Pochard, c20 Tufted, 4 Goldeneye, 3 Little Grebe, 400+ Coot, 5 Redwing, 3 Skylark, 13 Meadow Pipit, 1 Reed Bunting and 1 Grey Wagtail. The numbers of Siskin are particularly worthy of mention, with 200+ in the area including a flock of c150 in the Alders at the bottom of Boilton Wood and at least 50 between Main pool and no1 pit.

Stocks Reservoir, Lancs - 23rd Dec 2007.

A wonderful afternoons birding was had at Stocks Reservoir on a perfect winters day. Things got off to a flyer at 12:10, shortly after rounding the bend at St. James Church, Dalehead, when I noticed the wintering Great Grey Shrike atop a Hawthorn in the field opposite, but in the time it took me to reverse back along the road to park the car the bird had flown.

Whilst waiting for the bird to reappear, in the company of John Metalfe & Barry James, I noticed a blob low down in a Hawthorn on the rise of the field, clearly something interesting. Scoping it revealed a superb Short-eared Owl, a species that appears to be in short supply locally this winter and a very welcome bird. The Shortie was seen briefly in flight later whilst BJ and I attempted to relocate the Shrike following a second and final sighting of the GGS at 13:00. The views of the Shrike on both occasions were such that I didn't even have time to obtain an image of the bird for the blog.

Above: Short-eared Owl - Stocks Res, Lancs - 23rd Dec 2007.

Above: drake Green-winged Teal - Stocks Res, Lancs - 23rd Dec 2007.

At the island viewpoint overlooking the reservoir, it took some 20 minutes of determined scanning before the Green-winged Teal, found the day before by Brian & Margaret Breaks, was located.

Those familliar with the site will know the distances involved when looking from here towards New Close Bay, so I have to be happy with the record images obtained should the bird depart before any better photos can be taken. This is the third East Lancashire record, all of which have occurred at Stocks. The first in 2002 was found by John Metcalfe and the second was also found by the Breaks's.

Whilst at the viewpoint a skein of 34 Pink-footed Geese headed east - west.

JM and BJ departed for home and I was joined at the viewpoint by BB & MB before we both headed in seperate directions, with the Breaks's heading for the Hodder inlet area whilst I decided to look for the Shrike around Rushton Hill and the field opposite the church. No further joy was had in relocating this most mobile and elusive bird but a few Crossbill could be heard calling from a nearby Plantation.

Now gone 14:30, I made my way to School Lane car park where I found Margaret and Brian returning to their car. I was particularly interested in seeing the Tufted x Pochard hybrid and was told that the bird was present in the bay. I soon located it amongst the Aythya flock and what a splendid example of a drake Aythya hybrid it is.

Above: Drake, presumed Tufted x Pochard hybrid - Stocks Reservoir, Lancs - 23rd Dec 2007.

Now almost 15:30, I walked up the main path towards the new hide, pausing to watch and film this Green Woodpecker as it 'yaffled' from atop a tree. As i put the camcorder away I glanced towards the plantation to the right of the path, noticing a perched brown blob, a lovely Tawny Owl sat out in the open.

With barely another soul around, hardly a breath of wind, the chill of a winter evening setting in and a big moon visible in the sky, I loitered in this area, taking in the splendid isolation of my surroundings until the light had almost faded. This had the usual effect following time spent in Bowland by making the journey home to urban Blackburn feel even more depressing than usual!

Dark Herring Gull type - Whinny Hill Tip - Dec 20th 2007.

I've struggled to find anything of note amongst the local Gulls this week although I've not looked every day. This very dark 1stw Herring Gull type being the best I could come up with. This striking bird was unfortunately too distant to shed any further light on the reasons for its appearance. Distance = difficulty of viewing for anything other than white wingers is going to be a problem at Whinney Hill Tip this winter. The 1stw Glaucous was last seen on 15th Dec and now looks to have moved on. The regular adult Med Gull continues to be seen in the roost.

Everything flushed and scattered for miles and the reason became clear soon after! - This Guy was letting off bangers then releasing the bird. I hope he's not going to be onsite daily!

Away from the Fishmoor Gull roost and local landfill sites, birding activity this week has seen me bring forward my 40th birthday by a couple of months so I could upgrade my Binoculars at Focalpoint, from a battered old pair of Leica 8x32 Trinovids to a pair of Zeiss 8x32 FL's. A three hour search for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at nearby Marbury Country Park in the company of Bill Berry and Tim & Janet Davie drew a blank although they are being seen with some regularity at the site at the moment. Janet did fortunately manage to see a Bittern in the Coward Reedbed however. It is now 12 long years since I last saw a LSW anywhere! - This must be remedied in 2008!

If visiting Brockholes Quarry, you can't fail to be impressed by the number of birds using the site at the moment with numbers no doubt boosted by cold weather movements from elsewhere, resulting in good mid-winter counts of 133 Teal and whopping site counts of 50 Gadwall and 496 Coot amongst a nice selection of waterbirds which also included a Ruddy Duck.

Snow Bunting - Bowland, Lancs - 13th Dec 2007.

Steven Flynn was keen to see a Snow Bunting, so He and I ventured into Bowland for a couple of hours from early afternoon with the intention of twitching one which had been present for a couple of weeks at the junction of Ringstone Lane along the Slaidburn-Bentham road. This smart bird now thought to be a female rather than a 1stw male (per coversation with Mike Watson) duly obliged feeding fairly close to the car whilst we remained inside. A Raven over and three Stonechat en-route were the only other birds of any note along Slaidburn Rd. A search for the Waddington Fell Great Grey Shrike on both the journey up and the return back to Blackburn proved negative despite seemingly perfect conditions for the bird to be showing, with just single Stonechat and Common Buzzard of any note. Nevertheless, it was great to be out in Bowland on such a glorious winters day.

Local birding - 12th Dec 2007.

Above: 1stw Glaucous Gull - Whinney Hill Tip, Altham, Lancs - 12th Dec 2007.

Time spent on a very chilly day at the two local landfill sites eventually revealed both 1stw Glaucous Gull and ad Med Gull at Whinney Hill Tip, but both giving very distant views mid-pm.

c150 Pink-footed Geese flying west at 14:20 was a nice bonus. Neither of the Gulls were located in the Fishmoor Reservoir roost, but both would have inevitably roosted in my opinion.

Local birding - 10th & 11th Dec 2007.

10th Dec: The 1stw Glaucous Gull came into roost at Fishmoor Res at 16:10, seemingly plummeting from the sky only to land out of sight on the roof. Fortunately the Gulls were spooked shortly after and it then flew to the water just before darkness fell.

11th Dec: Having turned down the opportunity of a lift to the Burniston Desert Wheatear, I spent from mid-morning birding locally. A fifteen minute scan of Clowbridge Reservoir revealed no sign of the Great Northern Diver. Seven Goldeneye and 5 Goosander were noted. The 1stw Glaucous Gull wasn't located at Fishmoor Res in the evening, and 30 minute (IE brief) checks of both Withnell Landfill Site and Whinney Hill Tip mid morning also drew a blank. Only the next couple of nights will reveal whether this bird has actually moved on. Just the beautiful regular adult Med Gull (above) of any note in the roost.

Local birding - 8th & 9th Dec 2007.

8th Dec: Called in briefly at Clowbridge Reservoir in poor weather to see the Great Northern Diver actively feeding along the far side of the reservoir. This was followed by a visit to Fishmoor Res just after 15:00 en route home to find the 1stw Glaucous Gull roosting on the former Corus factory roof to the south of the site in conditions so appallingly wet and windy it became impossible to view through the scope after thirty minutes onsite.

9th Dec: All night TV pay-per-view coverage of the Hatton v Mayweather fight did not finish until almost 06:30, so despite feeling tired I decided to stay up and go out at first light. First port of call was to check Fishmoor just before 08:00 to find 99% of the Gulls had already left the roost. Withnell Landfill was the next destination, but hardly any Gulls appeared to be present. The only other place likely to hold the Glauc was Whinney Hill Tip, a site sadly devoid of Gulls for the previous two winters for reasons put down to probable efficent bird scaring tactics. It was pleasing to see at least 100 Herring Gull over the site and the Glauc was soon located amongst them, but due to the lack of tipping on a Sunday the Gulls chose to spend much of the next hour largely out of sight, inactive, atop a large, high plateau area within the site, the Glaucous only giving three flight views and two views on the ground, all brief. Twenty Siskin flew low past me, 24 Meadow Pipit were present in the Tip and two delightful Goldcrest gave views down to three feet.

Above: 1stw Glaucous Gull - Whinney Hill Tip, Altham, Lancs - 9th Dec 2007.

I had hoped to spend a full day in the field but sadly fatigue took a firm grip soon after, so I returned home for a revitalising brew only to collapse on the setee in a prone position reminiscent of gallant Ricky in the 10th for the remainder of the afternoon!

Local birding - Glaucous Gull - 5th Dec 2007.

The 1stw Glauc was at Withnell Landfill Site until 13:00 at least, remaining in view long enough in an adj field for Bill Gregory to twitch what was a new bird for him all the way from Leighton Moss. Well done Bill! - The Glauc came into roost at Fishmoor Res from 15:20 in near gale force winds. Ad Med Gull also roosted at Fishmoor plus 19 Goosander and a Peregrine flew over.

Local birding - Glaucous Gull - 4th Dec 2007.

Decided to visit Fishmoor Res at first light to see which direction the 1stw Glauc would head off in; east towards Whinney Hill Tip, Altham or west towards Withnell Landfill Site off the A675 at M65 Jcn3, SD639239. I located the Glauc on the roosting roof at 07:45 (See above videograb), in thoroughly miserable drizzly conditions and it was not until 08:10 that it flew straight into the murk giving me no definate indication of flight direction, but a hunch that it had flown west.

I then left it until early afternoon before visiting Withnell Landfill and succeeded in locating the Glauc in an adj field where it remained for 25 mins with only a single Herring Gull for company in that particular field. A local Falconer, hired twice weekly by the owners of the site 'Biffa', appeared and duly spooked all Gulls onsite.

The next sighting of the Glauc was back on the factory roof at Fishmoor Res, c15:40 -dusk, but was largely out of sight. It appeared to have flown directly onto the roof instead of pre-roosting on the water first causing fellow East Lancs birders Bill Berry, Bob Ashworth and Tony Bennett to dip unfortunately. Bob & Bill Berry also had an adult Med Gull.

Cumbria - 30th Nov & 1st Dec 2007.

A two night stay at a property named 'Cannon Close' at Storrs on the outskirts of Bowness-on-Windermere, SD398954, with Pam and my Parents unfortunately coincided with really miserable weather conditions. However some decent birds were had in between the squally showers and the Shops!

30th Nov: Up at first light and around the grounds of 'Cannon Close' which overlooks Windermere. From the bedroom window, c70 Tufted Duck, 3 Goldeneye, 1pr Red-breasted Merganser and 86 Coot were 'offshore'. I was disappointed that no Hawfinch were seen or heard around the grounds as on my previous two stays at the property, but weather conditions were not very conducive. There was also a Grey Squirrel in the grounds. I'm not sure as to the status of Greys in this part of Cumbria, but perhaps it's presence should be reported to someone?

Driving to Grasmere two female Scaup could be seen from the car with the naked eye as they fed close to the nigh-on-impossible to park along stretch of the A591 at Rydal Water. Nontheless I risked the chance of a multi vehicle pile up and managed to obtain a few photos without really being able to enjoy the birds before having to drive on.

Above: Two fem Greater Scaup - Rydal Water, Cumbria - 30th Nov 2007.

Keswick was the next destination after Grasmere. By now the weather was appalling so following another tour of shops I made the decision to drive to the coast in the hope that the weather would improve a little away from the fells. This proved to be the case, so a little birding time was had at both Maryport and Workington Harbours with the highlight being an adult Mediterranean Gull at Workington Harbour.

Above: Ad Med Gull & Turnstone - Workington Harbour, Cumbria - 30th Nov 2007.

Back at 'Cannon Close' before dark and a vigil at the Trees where I had seen Hawfinch perch in a pre-roost manner on previous visits again drew a blank. We had to vacate the premises by 10:00 the next morning and I was hell bent on not dipping on Hawfinch at the site where I had experienced veritable fests of up to 9 birds in the past!

1st Dec: Again up at first light with the aim of seeing a Hawfinch a priority, but despite two hours of scanning there was not a sniff of said Finch in and around the grounds. The weather had improved but was still showery, with some hail. 10:00hrs arrived and my Mum suggested we all take a final stroll to the waters edge at the foot of the garden. Upon arrival I noticed a bird perched prominently atop a tree a few gardens away. Through the 'bins' it was clearly a Hawfinch and I legged it back to the car for my scope and camcorder. Fortunately the Hawfinch was still present when I arrived back and I even managed to force everyone to take a look through the scope without too much resistance! Indeed, I had to forcibly remove my Mum from the eyepiece as she was holding up the queue!

Above: Hawfinch - 'Cannon Close' Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria - 1st Dec 2007.

Elated at having a Hawfinch finally under the belt and with my 100% record of connecting with this species at the site intact I was content for the remainder of the day!

See March and November 2006 archives for previous blog entries from this location.

Great Northern Diver - Clowbridge Reservoir, Lancs - 28th Nov 2007.

Peter Grice rang just before 09:00 with news that he had just discovered yet another Great Northern Diver at Clowbridge Reservoir... his 3rd for the site!

An adult-type, the bird showed mainly in the centre of the reservoir, but did venture to within feet of the opposite bank on a couple of occasions. A magnificent beast! The above images are videograbs through the Leica 77mm in grim conditions of low cloud and rain.

Bill Berry still hadn't seen the Waddington Fell Great Grey Shrike, so we drove there next and were fortunate to eventually see the bird perched on wires immediately south of the Quarry at 13:30 despite the poor visibility with low cloud a problem.

Nothing to report at Fishmoor tonight Gull-wise. I didn't arrive until 15:00 and conditions were terrible for the first c45 mins so the Glauc, if it did come in early could have been on the roosting roof throughout, but certainly didn't appear on the water until c16:10 when i left. 16 Goosander and a Goldeneye present.

Off to the lakes for a couple of nights from tomorrow, staying at the property on the outskirts of Bowness-on-Windemere which has produced Hawfinch fests in past visits. Fingers crossed for another.

Glaucous Gull - Fishmoor Res, Blackburn - 27th Nov 2007.

Given the demise in the numbers of the larger Gull species in the past two winters due to seemingly very effective bird scaring measures at the local landfill sites, this 1stw Glaucous Gull was a very welcome sight at the local Gull roost from 15:30. The regular adult Med Gull also roosted.

As wonderful a scope that the Leica Apo 62mm is, its times like this in dull, fading, late November light when you just wish you had a larger objective lens to obtain better quality videograbs. I knew I should have put the Leica 77mm in the car boot as well!

Great Grey Shrike - Waddington Fell, Lancs - 25th Nov 2007.

The 1stw Great Grey Shrike was showing upon arrival at 08:50, but proved more distant and elusive for much of the next hour as it favoured the Quarry side of the road. An hour at Stocks Reservoir followed with highlights of 3 Crossbill > SW over the causeway and 6 Pintail amongst numbers of Teal and Wigeon. A Little Owl was at the usual barn on Champion Moor.

Desert Wheatear - Towyn, Conwy - 20th Nov 2007.

Above: Male Desert Wheatear - Towyn, Conwy - 20th Nov 2007.

An early afternoon search for local Hawfinch at Pleasington Old Hall Wood, Blackburn was rudely interrupted with news of this fine male Desert Wheatear in North Wales, the second top draw bird in Conwy in three days following on from the Hume's Warbler at nearby Penrhyn Bay on 18th Nov. Accompanied by Bill Berry, the two of us drove down to Towyn, arriving by 14:15. Following a c1 mile walk down the sea wall we arrived to find the Desert Wheatear showing well along a c50m stretch of the sea defences until our departure back to the car at 15:45 following a rapid deterioration in the already gloomy light. A real beauty!

Above: The Desert Wheatear site. The bird mainly fed over on boulders to the right of this path, but would also feed on the path itself, perch on the railings and feed down to the left on occasion.

Hume's Warbler - Penrhyn Bay, Conwy - 18th Nov 2007.

Above: Hume's Warbler - Penrhyn Bay, Conwy - 18th Nov 2007.

Above: This blurred image does show the leg colour well.

Above & Below: Hume's Warbler location and twitch - 69 Penrhyn Bay East, Conwy - 18th Nov 2007. The bird frequented the trees in the front garden.

A hastily arranged twitch down to North Wales late morning with Councillor John F. Wright and Dave Bickerton for this, only my third Hume's Warbler, saw us arrive onsite at c13:00hrs. After less than a ten minute wait, the Hume's began calling and proceeded to give very good scope views in trees in the front garden of the above property.

Considered by Councillor Wright, who has seen many abroad, to be at the brighter end of the scale of Hume's, the bird still appeared colder and more washed out on the upperparts, particularly the crown and nape, and tertials than Yellow-browed with a reduced median covert wingbar, largely dark bill (this individual showed a restricted pale area to the base of the lower mandible which apparently some Hume's can show), pale cheeks and dark legs. The bird also showed fairly colourful flanks and vent, both of which contrasted with the off-white belly. The Hume's was extremely vocal at times, calling on c50 occasions whilst we were there.

Afterwards, we called into Llandulas on the way home. Many distant Common Scoter could be seen offshore as well as several Red-breasted Merganser and a single Great Crested Grebe.

Great Grey Shrike - Waddington Fell, Lancs - 17th Nov 2007.

Serial Shrike finder Brian Breaks discovered his second East Lancashire Great Grey Shrike in less than a month with another cracking first winter bird, this time at Waddington Fell. Although typically mobile, the bird showed well on wires by the road around Waddington Fell Quarry for much of the day.

Spurn - 11th Nov 2007.

Above: Little Auk - Spurn, East Yorks - 11th Nov 2007.

Despite feeling a little under the weather the previous evening, I still awoke early and made a snap decision to drive to Spurn for a few hours seawatching.

From Sandy Beaches Caravan site I recorded the following from 09:00-14:00. Wind N, F4, 4/8 cloud, occasional squally showers.

Black-thoated Diver: 1 juv north close inshore.

Red-throated Diver: 2 > S.

Diver sp: 1 > N.

Little Auk: 13 > N, 62 > S. Multiple birds were also noted on the sea.

Puffin; 2 > S.

Razorbill: 1 > N.

Skua sp: 1 > S distant. Gut feeling was Pom.

Grey Phalarope: 1 1stw > N.

Purple Sandpiper: 2 on concrete tank blocks, then > N.

Brent Goose: 9 > N, 3 > S.

Mallard: 1 > N, 3 > S.

Common Scoter: 1 > N, 2 > S.

Goldeneye: 1 drake on sea.

Red-breasted Merganser: 1 drake > N.

Kittiwake: 9 > S, 4 > N.

Woodcock: 1 > 'in'.

Asio Owl sp: 1 > 'in', distant over Warren.

Starling: 17 > 'in' - Four flocks.

I decided to travel home whilst it was still light and recorded two inland Little Auks in the process. One flew low over the road in front of the car on the outskirts of Ottringham and appeared to crash land in a field on the opposite side of the carriageway, whilst another flew at height over the dual carriageway by the Seven Seas factory nr King George V dock on the outskirts of Hull, heading towards the relative sanctuary of the Humber. If I was (un)fortunate enough to see two from the car, how many more of these poor little blighters must be wrecked inland?

South Gare, Cleveland - Little Auks & Poms - 9th Nov 2007.

With a time shedule meaning we would have to depart home at 14:00, Councillor John F. Wright and I travelled to South Gare, the closest east coast site to home, in the hope of a few hours decent seawatching. We were not to be disappointed.

Above: Little Auks - South Gare, Cleveland - 9th Nov 2007.

Above: Pomarine Skua - South Gare, Cleveland - 9th Nov 2007.

Above: Pomarine Skua - South Gare, Cleveland - 9th Nov 2007.

Above: Three of five Pomarine Skuas - South Gare, Cleveland - 9th Nov 2007.

Above six photos: Two of five Pomarine Skuas - South Gare, Cleveland - 9th Nov 2007.

Upon arrival at the Gare at 08:15, we were immediately struck by the mountainous surf, which would not have looked out of place in Hawaii! - It would have been life threatening to have attempted to walk to the end of the gare as the breakers were crashing right over.

An immediate seawatch was in order. Viewing from as far as we dare venture towards the end produced highlights of 1 Bonxie > S, 1ad light morph Arctic Skua 'in' over the Gare onto the Tees, a few Guillemot, Kittiwake, Red-throated Diver and Common Scoter logged by 09:30.

Three Purple Sandpiper on the seaward side of the Gare were flushed by a fem/imm Merlin. Between 09:30-10:15, we decided to look for Snow Buntings on the edge of the dunes. A Purple Sandpiper feeding amongst tidal debris with Turnstone, and a Rock Pipit was the best I could muster, whilst Councillor Wright ventured further, and was eventually rewarded with a fem/imm Snow Bunting. By this time I had ventured back towards the end of the Gare and had recommenced seawatching from 10:25.

At 10:35, a distant Skua was clearly an adult light morph Pomarine complete with spoons. A quick mobile phone call to Councillor Wright who was still on the beach resulted in him miraculously connecting with the Pom, despite his lower viewing position and looking over the huge surf. Two Little Auk then flew north. Things were looking up.

The Councillor hurried back and we continued seawatching until 13:45hrs recording the following:

Little Auk: 242 > N - Largest flock 12.

Razorbill: 1 > N.

Guillemots: double figures 'blogging'.

Pomarine Skua: 10 (4+5 > N, 1 > S). Both flocks were unexpectedly close, and heading north. The first was a flock of 4 comprising of 1ad and 3 considered sub-ads, whilst the second, a flock of 5 was a superb mix of 1ad with full spoons, 2 sub-ads, 1 dark juv and a superb pale phase juvenile). The single south was a distant adult with full spoons.

Gannet: 2 > N, 3 > S.

Great-northern Diver: 1 > S.

Red-throated Diver: 3 > N, 7 > S.

Long-tailed Duck: 1 juvenile > N.

Eider: 7 > N.

Common Scoter: 15 > N.

Red-breasted Merganser: 4 > N.

Grey Plover: 1 > N.

It was very unfortunate having to leave by 14:00 at the latest and an increase in Little Auk passage during the final minutes of the seawatch made our departure even more painful! - Nontheless, another excellent day was had.

Purple Sandpiper - South Gare, Cleveland - 9th Nov 2007.

A bad day on the patch

This NW birder had a lucky escape and must have felt a bit of a numpty in the process. Read the full story with pics here: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article435031.ece

Spurn - 6th Nov 2007.

Miffed at missing an excellent movement of Pomerine Skuas along the east coast at the weekend, fresh NW winds forecast for Tuesday meant a hastily arranged day at Spurn with Tim & Janet Davie was in order in the hope that if not a repeat of the weekends events, there would be at least some leftover Poms and Little Auks still be had moving up and down the North Sea.

Setting off from Blackburn at 05:15, I was in-situ and staring out at the north sea from the end of Bluebell Lane by 08:00hrs. With the exception of 12:15-13:30, when we tried for the Crown & Anchor Yellow-browed Warbler, seawatching was continuous until 15:30.

A record shot of the first group of Poms I encountered, a flock of four, involving 2 juvs, 1 pale phase sub-ad and one pale phase adult shadowing a flock of Kittiwake. These were the closest birds of the day and this record shot was from a single photo taken in hope with the dSLR. At least the adult Pom is readily identifiable!

Above: A 'close' up of the adult Pom

08:00-12:15hrs

Red-throated Diver: 26 > S (under recorded).

Diver sp: 3 > S

Gannet: 27 > S, 2 > N.

Bonxie: 1 > S

Pomerine Skua: 20 > S

Kittiwake: 185 > S

Little Auk: 5 > N, 2 > S - Two birds over breakers.

Auk sp: 14 > S.

Common Scoter: 193 > S, 6 > N.

Velvet Scoter: 1 > S.

Greater Scaup: 1 female > S.

Long-tailed Duck: 1 juv > S.

Eider: 1 drake > S.

Teal: 1 > S.

Wigeon: 5 > S.

Goldeneye: 1 > S.

Pink-footed Goose: Skein of c128 > S.

Brent Goose: 3 > S.

Siskin: 2 > 'in'.

Snow Bunting: 1 fem/imm > N, later one/another heard overhead.

Above & Below: Yellow-browed Warbler - Crown & Anchor, Spurn - 6th Nov 2007.

A male Blackcap was also present in the Crown & Anchor bushes.

I returned to the same seawatching position from 13:45-15:30 whilst Tim & Janet walked round the triangle, rejoining me in the latter stages of the seawatch.

13:45-15:30

Great-northern Diver: 1 > S, close enough to be able to see the 'half-collar' detail on the sides of the neck, then landed on sea between the Bluebell and Warren.

Red-throated diver: 6 >S.

Pomerine Skua: 4 > S.

Gannet: 3 > N, 2 > S.

Kittiwake: 31 > S.

Common Scoter: 4 > S.

Razorbill: 2 > S.

Auk sp: 3 > S.

Left - Right: Myself, Janet & Tim Davie - Seawatching at Spurn, East Yorks - 6th Nov 2007.

With the final hour of light now upon us we embarked on a walk along Kilnsea Cliff then back along Beacon Lane. No sooner had we started walking, we looked offshore to see a superb 1stw Glaucous Gull heading south over the breakers. The walk was quiet with the exception of c20 Blackbird in the hedges bringing a quality days birding to a close.

Local birding - Long-tailed Duck & Barn Owl - 4th Nov 2007.

The juv Long-tailed Duck on Upper Roddlesworth Reservoir seemingly reappeared today after a few days of either negative visits or no news at all. I assume it has been visiting another water. Sadly, although still appearing healthy, the bird is now entangled in some fishing line, as can be seen in the lower image. As yet, it doesn't appear to be affecting its ability to feed, but it can only be bad news for the bird. A Barn Owl at a local site was a nice way to end the day.

Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid - Brockholes Quarry, Lancs - 31st Oct 2007

Pochard sized and brownish flanks, tinged greyish, too contrasty with breast were indications enough to rule out pure Ferruginous. Wing-stripe not critically examined, but secondaries appeared wholly white. Poor light affected quality of videograbs.

Local Crossbills - 30th Oct 2007.

This singing male Crossbill was one of a party of 9 present along the SW edge of Stones Bank Plantation, SD693163, around midday. The flock flew towards Belmont village at 12:30. Also along this edge were 2 Brambling, 10 Redpoll, 20 Siskin, 20 Coal Tit and a Buzzard.

Great Grey Shrike - Stocks Reservoir, Lancs - 28th Oct 2007.

I joined Councillor John F. Wright for a trip up to Stocks Reservoir late morning. First port of call was a check of Fishmoor Reservoir, Blackburn, which held c25 Tufted duck, 2 Goldeneye, 1 Goosander and small numbers of Gulls.

30 mins later we arrived at Champion Moor Flood where 21 Wigeon & 3 Teal were present.

It was whilst here that I received a phonecall from Margaret Breaks to say that She and husband Brian had located a Great Grey Shrike in the classic 'Shrike-field' opposite Dalehead Church adj to nearby Stocks reservoir.

Five minutes later we were onsite. The Shrike was perched prominantly against the skyline atop one of the isolated Hawthorns scattered around the field, but against the light.

We walked around the field edge up by the Island viewpoint where some excellent views were had of the Shrike in superb light revealing strongly patterned underparts indicative of first winter plumage - a new Great Grey Shrike to the area following on from an adult present in four of the past five winters, and a very welcome injection of 'new Shrike blood' at that, assuming it stays on to winter of course.

Above: 1stw Great Grey Shrike - Stocks Res, Lancs - 28th Oct 2007.

Shortly after the arrival of several local birders, the Shrike flew high and distantly NE over the Gisburn Forest, seemingly going down somewhere beyond the Cocklet Hill area. I've never seen a Shrike fly as high or distant ever!

Following the unexpected departure of the Shrike from this area we proceeded to the new hide overlooking the Hodder Inlet. Plenty of birds were present; mainly Teal & Wigeon, 30+ Cormorant and Lapwing in three figures. A small flock of Lesser Redpoll 'buzzed' over.

From the Vicarage garden, an apparent Tufted x Pochard hybrid could be seen roosting alongside Tufted Duck on the opposite bank.

Above: Apparent Tufted x Pochard hybrid - Stocks Res, Lancs - 28th Oct 2007.

We then decided to drive 'around the block', which involves a very scenic drive up over Bowland Knotts, then across to the Slaidburn-Bentham road and over Whitray Fell, Merrybent Hill and back down to Slaidburn. A couple of Stonechat were noted as well as a big female Peregrine on a fencepost, but only a single Common Buzzard. This fine male Hen Harrier was the obvious highlight as it quartered over moorland mid-pm.

Above: Male Hen Harrier - Bowland, Lancs - 28th Oct 2007.

Given how far the Shrike had flown, it was with some surprise when Gavin Thomas rang to say it had returned to the field by the church, so following on from a short refreshment stop at the Riverside Cafe in Slaidburn, we returned to the site only for the Shrike to disappear again moments before.

We gave it forty minutes, but with no further sign we decided to do the Gull roost at the Hodder inlet where a 2ndw Mediterranean Gull was located late on amongst several hundred Common Gull and lesser numbers of Black-headed, 29 Lesser Black-backed and 2 G.B.B. Gull.

Above: 2ndw Mediterranean Gull - Stocks Res, Lancs - 28th Oct 2007.

There ended a really enjoyable afternoons birding, interspersed with some enjoyable banter with fellow east lancs birders, amidst the stunning late autumnal scenery of Bowland.

Long-tailed Duck - Upper Roddlesworth Reservoir, Lancs - 27th Oct 2007.

Found by Darwen birder Ian Cameron, this juv Long-tailed Duck is the sixth I have seen locally following singles at Rishton Reservoir in November 2005, Clowbridge Reservoir in Dec 2001, River Ribble at Balderstone on Feb 1st 1991 and singles at Lower Rivington Reservoir and Stocks Reservoir in Dec 1988.

Filey, Flamborough & Spurn - 24th-26th Oct 2007.

24th Oct: I decided to book into Spurn obs for a couple of nights, but felt compelled to travel first to Flamborough and the Red-flanked Bluetail that had already been present for four days.

Up to eight Lapland Buntings had been present at nearby Filey Country Park for a few days and the Filey website suggested that the favoured stubble field could be ploughed imminently, so I decided to try for these first and wait for news of the Bluetail.

My arrival at the stubble field coincided with the arrival of the farmer to commence ploughing. The subsequent Tractor noise ensured that the numerous Skylarks etc were regularly airbourne and I quickly located two Lapland Buntings in flight, which was followed by several further views, but I could not make any increase on two birds. A single Goldcrest was feeding on the cliff edge.

The next three hours was spent walking down Long Lane, checking Arndale Ravine and involved an hours scan off the end of the brigg.

With the exception of small numbers of mixed Thrushes, mainly Blackbirds with a few Redwing and Fieldfare, the only other land migrants were a few Goldcrest, a Brambling and a Lesser Whitethroat. A Long-eared Owl had been seen earlier by one of the Filey regulars.

This female Long-tailed Duck was easily located off the south side of the Brigg, but I could not locate either the Grey Phalarope or Slavonian Grebe, both of which had been reported earlier. Other birds seen offshore included; 24 Common Scoter, 1 Eider, 5 Dark bellied Brent Geese, several Razorbill, 1 Shag, 7 Red-throated Diver, 1 juv Gannet and 1 G.C. Grebe. 40 Knot were on the Brigg end.

There had been no sign of the Bluetail and now mid afternoon I saw no rush to get to Flamborough and so made my way slowly calling at a few sites enroute.

First port of call was Bempton which produced nothing of any note. c500 Golden Plover were thoroughly 'grilled' in fields nr Speeton before they were flushed by a fem/imm Merlin.

North Landing at Flamborough was quiet migrant wise with the exception of c40 Blackbird and a few Redwing.

With the light now beginning to fail I parked at the lighthouse car park and walked the outer head, flushing a nice Woodcock from the outermost hedge in the process. A few Guillemot, Razorbill, Eider and Red-throated Diver offshore brought the day to a close and I headed off in the darkness bound for Spurn. Another Woodcock flew in front of the car at Danes Dyke and a Barn Owl was on roadside fenceposts just outside Ottringham.

Once at Spurn Obs, conversation with other birders revealed a day total of 29 Woodcock and two Yellow-browed Warblers at the point. The concensus being that the weather had looked promising, but had disappointed thus far.

25th Oct: The day started with a wander around the Warren area where several Goldcrest were present in the Sycamores. 3 Brambling > S and 3 Lesser Redpoll were grounded. Blackbirds, Fieldfare & Redwing were present in small numbers, some coming in-off. A Sparrowhawk flew along the 'Big Hedge'.

I decided to drive to Easington, starting at the Cemetary. Decent numbers of mixed Thrushes, mainly Redwing and Blackbird with some Fieldfare, were present in and around the village and 3 Goldcrest, 1 Brambling and a Woodcock were noted at the Cemetary.

News then came through of both Dusky & Pallas's Warblers at the Point, so off I drove spending the next five hours mainly in and around the Point Dunes. Several nice binocular views were had of the Pallas's, but frustratingly I didn't see or hear the Dusky Warbler at all. 3 Woodcock, 3 Brambling & a Reed Bunting were grounded in this area.

Thrushes were visibly leaving the Point, with c250 Redwing, c200 Blackbird and small numbers of Fieldfare involved. A Swallow 'blogged' around the area and a cracking adult male Black Redstart appeared very 'new-in' as it perched on Elders in the middle of the Point Dunes before discovering the area around the point buildings and adj Humber shoreline, an area long favoured by this species at Spurn. A truly beautiful bird.

Above: Adult male Black Redstart - Spurn Point - 25th Oct 2007.

A return further north yielded few rewards, save for a Woodcock which flew past the car at the 'Narrows'. Several Goldcrest were in the Crown & Anchor car park and a walk around Sammies Point was very quiet for Passerines in the bushes, with only a single Goldcrest noted as well as small numbers of Thrushes. A Sparrowhawk flew through.

The remainder of the day was spent checking through several hundred Golden Plover which were by now coming off the Humber on the rising tide and settling in fields between Easington and Kilnsea.

The American Golden Plover had been reported the day before, but there was definately no sign of it this evening despite searching by several observers.

A single Pink-footed Goose was present in fields north of Kilnsea. 1+ Water Rail was calling from Canal Scrape at dusk and several Goldcrest showed to a couple of feet along the path to the hide.

With darkness having fallen I retreated back to Warren cottage for the evening log. Whilst waiting for the proceedings to start, Spurn warden Paul Collins entered holding a Little Auk which had been reported by a member of the public on the road at Chalk Bank. The bird seemed ok after a check and deemed healthy enough to be ringed before being released into the darkness on the Humber shoreline. This bird was an unexpected bonus given only single figures reported in the north sea over the past couple of days previously.

Above: Little Auk being processed by Paul Collins in the Warren ringing lab, prior to release - 25th Oct 2007.

26th Oct: The shipping forecast the previous day had indicated that the easterlies would continue well into Friday, but by dawn it was apparent that the wind had already switched to the SW. The remainder of the day was overcast, with visibility decreasing as the afternoon progressed.

At the Warren, a fem/imm Yellowhammer > S was noteworthy, with presumably the same bird flying back north over 'Clubleys' 45 mins later. A fem/imm Merlin chased Meadow Pipits high over 'New road' and 10 Fieldfare and a Rock Pipit > S.

A thorough scan of c500 Golden Plover on the Humber off the Entrance Gate did not reveal the AGP.

Once on the 'Canal Zone', I decided to walk along the actual Humber shoreline rather than the path and was rewarded with a fine adult male Snow Bunting which flushed, calling, before heading south and was eventually noted over the point c45 mins later. 2 fem/imm Red-breasted Merganser came 'in-off' across the 'triangle' and down the Humber, several Reed Bunting were present in the spartina and c60 Blackbird were present in fields around 'Cliff Farm' where a buck Roe Deer sat obliviously in the front garden!

I continued my walk along the Humber shoreline as far as the Riverside Hotel, noting more small numbers of Blackbird & Redwing, 2 Goldcrest and another superb Woodcock which flew towards the Crown & Anchor area. c150 Dark-bellied Brent Geese came off Beacon Ponds and across to the Humber.

At this point fellow east lancashire birders, Councillor John F. Wright and Margaret Breaks, arrived at the Crown & Anchor car park where they were fortunate to see a Woodcock in the hand prior to release and were told by the warden that both the Dusky & Pallas's Warbler were still present at the point with a Little Bunting also reported there, so I met them and we made our way down, but not before Councillor Wright and MB had noted two flocks of Siskin, totalling 50 birds, flying south.

The adult male Black Redstart was still present by the snackvan and a nice male Brambling fed nr the point ringing lab as we made our way towards the point dunes.

Above: Male Brambling - Spurn Point- 26ht Oct 2007.

Several views of the elusive Pallas's Warbler were had by all three of us and it was heard to call on a couple of occasions as it loosely associated with several Goldcrest. I went one better with the Dusky Warbler and actually heard it call on three occasions, but it was nigh on impossible to see in the Buckthorn although a few birders did manage a glimpse. 2 Chiffchaff were also in the point dunes as well as small numbers of mixed Thrushes. A fem/imm Snow Bunting > S as did 207 Siskin in seven flocks between 12:40-13:20.

I returned to the Warren for a brew noting a Little Egret on the Humber which was the same bird as I saw on my last stay at Spurn three weeks previously, with distinctive rusty staining on the wings, whilst Councillor Wright and MB noted a fem/imm Black Redstart at the point, in the same area as the adult male, whilst en-route back to their car.

Whilst indulging in the aforementioned cup of tea, more Siskin, totalling 27, moved south.

Now mid-afternoon, the three of us decided to walk north from the warren, through Clubleys and along kilnsea Cliff to the north end of Beacon Lane and back down to the Warren, with the highlight being a nice fem/imm Black Redstart around the Gun Emplacement on Kilnsea Cliff. A fem/imm Merlin perched on a fencepost off Beacon Lane and a Chiffchaff and 3 goldcrest were by the Bluebell.

Above: Black Redstart - Kilnsea cliff, Spurn - 26th Oct 2007.

Above: Fem/imm Merlin - Beacon Lane, Spurn - 26th Oct 2007.

By now it was late afternoon, so it was time again to check the Golden Plover flocks between Easington & Kilnsea. Alas, there was again no sign of the AGP amongst several hundered of its commoner relatives. A juv Ruff and 3 Black-tailed Godwit were noted amongst a Curlew flock, drawing to an end an enjoyable three days on the east coast.

The Observatory day total for Siskin was 654. Not bad considering there was no dedicated narrows watch from mid-morning.

Local birding - 19th-20th Oct 2007.

19th Oct: A browse of the Rossendale Ornithologists Club sightings forum revealed numbers of Crossbill in the Haslingden Grane area, so I paid a visit to Calf Hey Reservoir mid-pm. No Crossbill were seen or heard, but 415 fieldfare > W/NW between 15:15-15:34, 15 Siskin were in trees nr the reservoir, a fem/imm Stonechat by Ogden Res and a distant Peregrine over Hare Clough.

20th Oct: Three hours late am - early pm saw me indulge in a little vis at Wells Lane, Brinscall, totting up 260 Fieldfare > E/SE, 1 Brambling > E/SE, 2 Skylark > E/SE and 3 Reed Bunting >E/SE in 40 mins. A pair of Stonechat were also present. Three hundred Fieldfare were in hedgerows on the north side of Abbey Village.

A walk along the SW side of Stones Bank Plantation nr Belmont revealed plenty of cones on the trees with 2 male Brambling the highlight, 10 Siskin, 8 Lesser Redpoll, 20 Chaffinch and 30 Fieldfare noted, but no Crossbill. A Raven flew north.

Above: Male Brambling - Stones Bank Plantation.

Upon arrival back at home, three Buzzards and three Swallows went south over as I unloaded my gear from the car. Very nice.

Raddes Warbler - Leasowe, Wirral - 16th Oct 2007.

A walk around my local patch, Brockholes Quarry, was rudely interrupted by news of this Raddes Warbler, south of Leasowe Lighthouse, Wirral.

Arriving at the twitch site at 14:30, almost an hour passed with no sight or sound of the bird. Then at 15:30 the Raddes began calling and was soon located in amongst the vegetation of the overgrown embankment it was frequenting. Several further excellent binocular and scope views were had of the bird up to 18:00, but the Raddes could go missing for 30-60 min periods, then usually it would be located by call which was especially nice to hear as I can't recall having heard Raddes in the field before. A superb bird. Due respect to the finder of this major NW rarity.

Back at the car, a short walk to the beach was rewarded with a distant adult Med Gull amongst hordes of Black-headed Gulls and a female Peregrine perched on the beach.

Looking across to the Seaforth and Formby Point coastline, it dawned how close this bird was to Lancashire.Above: The Raddes Warbler was frequenting the weedy embankment beyond the hedgerow on the opposite side of the public footpath.

Above: A section of the assembled birders watch the Raddes from the adj Golf Course edge.

Spurn, East Yorkshire - 8th-11th Oct 2007

8th Oct: The weather forecast on sunday 7th Oct indicated that the following day would be the last of the easterlies for the foreseeable future, so a decision was made to head off to Spurn for a few days to hopefully connect with birds already present, with maybe the chance of a few new birds being found in the short window before the easterlies ended. Although I have visited Spurn for days only on numerous occasions in recent years, it is twelve long years since I actually stayed at the observatory.

Above: Barred Warbler - Canal Scrape car park, Spurn - 8th Oct 2007.

Whilst enroute on Monday morning, news came through on the pager of a Dusky Warbler on Vicars Lane, Easington, so this was my first port of call. After only a short wait the Dusky gave good binocular views and called frequently. A Great start.
Two vocal Yellow-browed Warblers were showing in the Crown & Anchor car park and a Barred Warbler gave excellent views in the Canal Scrape car park bushes. Once checked in at the obs and gear dropped off, a quick chat with the warden, Andy Gibson, as to where the recent Sibe Stonechat had been seen revealed that it had not been recorded for a couple of days. I still thought I would check the area just in case and so headed off down to the point.

On approaching the stretch of road at the Narrow Neck, I noticed a birder walking back north along the road and a small passerine at the roadside edge just beyond him. The birder was making no attempt to flag me down as I approached, but I still wound the window down to ask him if he had seen anything of note. Upon doing this, and without even stopping in his tracks, he told me in the most casual fashion " Little Bunt on the road" and carried on walking! - The passerine was still visible with the naked eye from the car, so I drove a little further, admittedly slightly scepticle given the birders extremely laid back attitiude and 'binned' the bird.... Strewth! It was a Little Bunting!! - I can only assume the finder has seen a few hundred more Little Buntings in his time than I have? The bird remained on the road for a further ten minutes before flying to the beach as other birders arrived, whilst the finder had long gone! For the remainder of my stay at Spurn the Little Bunting remained on the seaward side of the road, in the Marram Grass, as far down as Wire Dump, delighting many observers. A little Gem. Two Wheatear were on the Humber shoreline in this area.

Above: Little Bunting - Seaward side of Post 58, Spurn, E. Yorks - 9th Oct 2007.

Above: Birders search for the Little Bunting - 8th Oct 2007.

After feasting on the Bunting, I continued down to the point which fortunately coincided with the catching of a nice juv Common Rosefinch in the point Heligoland Trap late afternoon. The end of an excellent few hours birding.

The weather forecast for the 9th was heavy rain encroaching from the west, lasting for the majority of the day. Given the high pressure system was still over the north sea, I wondered if it would result in a few more grounded birds.

Above: Juv Common Rosefinch - Spurn Point - 8th Oct 2007.

9th Oct: The day initially dawned dry, but it was obvious looking to the west of the impending deluge. And so this is how it turned out to be. Birding the bushes was nigh on impossible for much of the day so after spending a futile hour trying to relocate the Blyths Reed Warbler at Southfield Farm in horrendous conditions, I retreated to the Crown & Anchor car park and watched a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers from under the shelter of the car boot door. This was followed by a seawatch, the only realistic option available given the deluge. From 12:20-17:10 the following were recorded:

Red-throated Diver: 3 > S.

Gannet: 1 > S.

Little Gull: 1ad 'in'.

Common Tern: 1 > S.

Common Scoter: 17 > N, 3 > S, 30 on the sea.

Teal: 1 > S.

Mallard: 4 > S.

Goldeneye: 1 > S.

Common Gull: 3 > S.

LBB Gull: 1 > S.

Herring Gull: 3 > S.

GBB Gull: 2 > S.

Brent Goose: 2 > S.

Knot: 10 > S.

Grey Plover: 4 > N.

Dunlin: 1 > S, 1 'in'.

Ringed Plover: 2 > S.

Sanderling: 1 > S.

Song Thrush: 1 'in'.

Redwing: 219 'in'.

Fieldfare: 10 'in'.

Blackbird: 11 'in'.

Brambling: 2 'in'.

Chaffinch: 1 'in'.

Some of the Thrushes coming in were literally exhausted, flopping down on the beach and on the cliff edge. As unfortunate for the birds as it is, this is what I come to Spurn hoping to see.... the awesome wonder of migration. I can only imagine how horrible the conditions must have been for these Thrushes, at least for the final third of their journey across 400 miles of open sea. Be it a Thrush or a Goldcrest, it is hard not watch in awe when land birds are coming in off the sea. A total of 1700+ Redwing were entered into the observatory log that evening. A final walk from the Obs to Canal Hedge for the last hour of light in the still torrential rain revealed plenty of Thrushes and a few Brambling. Some of the former were already moving on.

10th Oct: As forecast, the weather had cleared. It was immediately obvious that the majority of birds had indeed moved on. I walked from the Obs to Chalk Bank. There were some tired Thrushes feeding along the Peninsula, but the modest highlight of this walk was a juv fem Peregrine north over the Humber and just general good views of mixed wader species, c80 Brents on the Humber, a Goldeneye > S and a 1stw Sandwich Tern 'out'. A Common Seal was on the beach.

Further views of the Dusky Warbler, Little Bunting, Yellow-browed Warblers & Rosefinch were had and also several views of the Blyths Reed Warbler at Southfield Farm, however i would have liked better views of the latter, which did not call whilst I was watching it. A drake Common Scoter was on the pond by the Bluebell. A distant 'narrow-winged' Harrier in total silouette over Easington Riding School was likely to have been the same ringtail Hen Harrier which had flown north from the peninsula earlier. Two juv Little Stints were on flood water in fields just south of Easington and reasonable numbers of Thrushes were still present around the village.

The day ended with a final look for the Blyths Reed warbler revealing only a single Chiffchaff in the same area and a Barn Owl put on a good show just north of Kilnsea.

Above: Sanderling & Turnstone - 'New road', Spurn - 10th Oct 2007.

Above: Common Seal - Spurn - 10th Oct 2007.

Above: apparent Atlantic White-sided Dolphin washed up just north of Spurn Lighthouse - 9th Oct 2007.

11th Oct: South-westerlies forecast indicated that there would be some visible migration on offer, so I spent three hours at the Narrows from 09:40-12:40 logging the following:

Gannet: 1 > N.

Herring Gull: 41 > S.

Little Egret: A juv flew up the Humber landing at the Narrows, gradually moving north along the saltmarsh to the Tank Blacks at least.

Sparrowhawk: 1 juv > N.

Golden Plover: 2 > S.

Carrion Crow: 4 > S.

Great-spotted Woodpecker: 1 > S.

Swallow: 11 > S.

Starling: 14 > S.

Redwing: 3 > S.

Blackbird: 1 > S.

Meadow Pipit: 103 > S.

Rock Pipit: 8 > S.

Skylark: 56 > S.

Pied Wagtail: 2 > S.

'Alba' Wagtail: 3 > S.

Chaffinch: 4 > S.

Greenfinch: 87 > S.

Goldfinch: 161 > S.

Redpoll sp: 1 > S.

Linnet: 16 > S.

Above: Little Egret - 'Narrows', Spurn - 11th Oct 2007.

Above: Visible migration watch - 'Narrows', Spurn - 11th Oct 2007.

Weasel & Common Lizard were noted whilst stood at the narrows, whilst a distant object offshore could have only been a largeish Cetacean sp in my opinion which appeared to lounge on the surface interspersed with submerging for c10 minutes at a time. The poor grab below doesnt do the brief video footage obtained much justice which created a talking point when shown to people at the observatory log that evening.

This was followed by another look for the Dusky Warbler which although still present did not show in 2hrs I was there. The Little Bunting again showed well and the day ended with a walk around the point where 10+ Fieldfare and 50+ Redwing were present in the buckthorn, along with a only my 3rd Goldcrest of my time at Spurn. The Rosefinch and 5 Brambling were present at the mouth of the point Heligoland trap.

Above: female Great Crested Newt - This was brought to the obs by a visitor from Skeffling. It's staggering to think that these impressive little beasts can live as long as 27 years!!

So, overall an enjoyable and varied few days with some good birds seen. It was also good to meet some of the 'new' bunch of 'regulars' at the obs, indulging in some enjoyable 'birdy' banter in the evenings.

Spurn rarely disappoints and this visit was no exception.

Brown Flycatcher - Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire - 4th Oct 2007

Above: Brown Flycatcher - Old Fall Plantation, Flamborough Head - 4th Oct 2007.

The discovery of a Brown Flycatcher at Flamborough Head broke mid-afternoon on the 3rd whilst I was attempting to photograph the Burnley Yellow browed Warbler. That evening John Wright and I arranged to travel over with Tim & Janet Davie who had kindly offered a lift.

Departing Blackburn at 06:15 there was a nervous wait for pager news on the continued presence of the bird. Overnight weather conditions had been perfect for migrants moving on and to be honest we were fearing the worst. It was not until almost 07:45 whilst we were negotiating the York rush hour traffic that the news we had been waiting for was heralded by a chorus of pager bleeps. The Flycatcher was still present! Instantly, the mood of the car changed and it was full steam ahead to the Old Fall Plantation.

Above: A section of the Flycatcher twitch.

The Flycatcher was showing upon arrival at the assembled crowd, but in the first hour which involved the bird showing on+off all I could manage was binocular views of a small Flycatcher but I had not yet seen any plumage features.

Eventually, the bird was located in a leafy glade and in better light. Thankfully I obtained some excellent scope views in this area of the Old Fall Plantation followed by several more over the course of two hours. A really excellent bird, full of character.

Three flocks of 20+ Redwings and a Golden Plover flew over the area whilst we were there.

Left-Right: With the Brown Flycatcher in the bag, Myself, John Wright & Tim Davie strike a relaxed pose at the Old Fall Plantation whilst others panic in the background - 4th Oct 2007.

A big twitch usually results in seeing a few faces from down the years and today was no exception. Almost as rare as the Flycatcher was a sighting of Dave Jackson. Dave is the birder who introduced John Wright and I to the wider world of birding outside of Blackburn in the mid-eighties resulting in my first visit to Spurn in May 1985 and to the Scillies with him in October of the same year. In 1987 Dave relocated to the midlands and weve hardly seen him since, but we remain grateful to him for the enthusiasm and encouragement he gave to us over twenty years ago which no-doubt acted as a catalyst to both of us in cementing a lifelong passion for birding.

Left-Right: Me, Dave Jackson & John Wright - North Landing, Flamborough Head - 4th Oct 2007.

Back at the car we learnt of a male Red-backed Shrike which had been found at North Landing. Initially elusive, this smart bird showed well in Sallows and in hedgerows nr the Viking Pub. A Peregrine flew over and a Yellow-browed Warbler and single Goldcrest was present in the Sallows frequented by the Shrike.

Above: Male Red backed Shrike - North Landing, Flamborough Head - 4th Oct 2007.


Above: Yellow browed Warbler - North Landing, Flamborough Head - 4th Oct 2007.

Above: 1stw Turkestan Shrike - Buckton, East Yorkshire - 4th Oct 2007.

Next on the agenda was the Turkestan Shrike present at the end of Hoddy Cows Lane, Buckton. This bird gave mostly distant scope views, but eventually showed closer and we left satisfied with the views obtained. A skein of c80 Pink-footed Geese came in-off the sea and a few Redwing and two Stonechat were noted.

Now late afternoon, we decided Filey Country Park would be our final destination of the day. Despite no news from this area during the day, it was satisfying to locate a Yellow-browed Warbler in fading light at the seaward end of the Arndale Ravine. A nice end to an excellent day on the east coast.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Queens Rd, Burnley, Lancs - 3rd Oct 2007.

Burnley birder Russell Carter is certainly on a roll at the moment, discovering East Lancashires fourth Yellow-browed Warbler in trees at his Burnley workplace only a few days after having the good fortune to see 2 juv Gannets heading west over Wood End Sewage Works, Burnley!

Extremely vocal at times, this cracking one-day wonder YBW showed well on and off in the canopy of Hawthorn and Sycamore. Pity I couldn't obtain any better images but the top photo shows a good suite of features. All three previous East Lancashire records have been found in birders gardens.