Black-necked Grebe St Aidan's

Black-necked Grebe, St Aidan’s

Described by the RSPB themselves as “Yorkshire’s worst kept secret”, the presence of breeding Black-necked Grebes at the charity’s St Aidan’s reserve has been well known and publicised since 2018. The intervening years have seen some truly stunning images of these rare birds shared across social media bumping them even Read more…

Purple Sandpiper

January Birding

For most birders that first outing of the new year is always extra special. It doesn’t matter what one might see from Robins and House Sparrows through to Golden Eagles or Firecrests, all species carry with them an additional excitement factor of being “first for the year”. When else for Read more…

Turnstone

Lyme Regis and Seaton Wetlands

The second half of our Dorset break began with yet more unseasonably warm, sunny weather. So warm in fact that as we strolled along the seafront in Lyme Regis strange and long forgotten thoughts began to surface in my mind. Admittedly they had a job to push through the overriding Read more…

Farne island Seals

Northumbrian Sea Dogs

After the frankly ludicrous heatwave over Easter it was back to reality with a bump come May, a week of which we spent camping along the Northumberland coast at Seahouses. Our main objective for this trip was to get across to the Farne Islands where breeding birds promised to wow Read more…

Reed Warbler, Ham Wall

Reed Warbler at Ham Wall

This year, even with three months still left to go, has been one of my most enjoyable to date. Almost every weekend has seen us out and about both locally and further afield including over a month spent exploring the wilds of Scotland. Along the way we’ve experienced just about Read more…

Birdfair 2018

Quite why it’s taken me until Birdfair’s thirtieth year to put in an appearance I’ll never know but, in the words of those great philosophers i.e. our mothers, better late than never. For those who may be unfamiliar with the event it’s essentially Glastonbury for birders with hundreds of talks Read more…