I had been meaning to visit a well know spot in Wales to see a Black Grouse Lek which I’ve never seen. My good birding buddy, Nick , has visited recently and posted some great photos. I hence thought it was time that I got my finger out and went to see this rather unique avian experience. Armed with the usually excellent info from Nick , I booked myself into a local Travellodge on Tuesday night and drove up onto the moor in the dark to recky the location. I had chosen a day forecast to be sunny with an overnight frost which, hopefully, would provide excellent conditions for photography. The only danger was whether there would be an early morning mist over the moor. The lek starts before dawn and continues for an hour or so after so an early start is essential. There is one very extremely important piece of information to know if you plan to visit a Black Grouse lek, it’s absolutely forbidden to get out of the car and disturb the lek....
Dip of the year, when a Black Scoter is not always what it seems, a Great Grey Shrike and Woodlarks at Cannock Chase and a local Ring-necked Duck
Wood Lark Some two weeks ago I attempted to twitch an American Black Scoter in Cheshire, the only UK listed Scoter which I have not seen. It was associating with a large flock of Common Scoters off the coast at Holylake. The beach here is very flat meaning that it was a good 40 minute walk out across the soft sand at low tide to the water. The tide also comes in quickly so an awareness of the tide times for personal safety is essential. To cut a long story short, the massive Scoter flock was very distant with perhaps only 5% of them close enough to be able to differentiate the Common Scoter from the similar Black Scoter with my scope. After a very frustrating morning with no one present managing to definitively get on the rare bird, I left to get some lunch and do some birding elsewhere. About 40 minutes after I left the Black Scoter was reported on RBA – Bl**dy hell!!! So I made my way back to Holylake and once again trudged across the sand. With the t...