Welcome to my new Blog!!

Hi and welcome to my new blog which will mainly be about my birding trips and photography hoby with the occasional digression into my other interests such as physics and astronomy. I hope you like it!

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Albert the Albatross

What is more improbable - a) England’ football team beating Germany in the knockout stages of a major competition b) Seeing an Albatross in England Actually the answer is a) because it has not happened since 1966 rather than b) as Albert the Albatross, as he is affectionally known, has made a number of passing visits to the UK since 1967! On Monday evening reports started to emerge of Albert associating with the Gannet colony at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, almost one year after his last brief visit to the same site. During the intervening period there have been a number of sightings of Albert across Europe, particularly from the Baltic Sea where he appears to have spent much of the last 12 months. In fact there were reports that he had been attacked and killed in the area by two eagles. Reports of his death were clearly greatly exaggerated! The Black-browed Albatross is ci...

The Hawfinches of the Forest of Dean

Hawfinch - Forest of Dean, winter 2017 A highlight of my winter birding is my annual trip to the Forest of Dean to see Hawfinches. I was unable to go last year due to the post-Christmas lockdown so this year’s visit was even more richly anticipated than normal. Parkend in the Forest of Dean is my usual chosen location for watching Hawfinches. Here the proven technique of using your car as a hide normally works well. I must also say that, after a number of quite strenuous twitches recently, I was also looking forward to a much more leisurely birding session! The story of Hawfinches in the UK is, to my mind at least, a fascinating one. It is what is known as an eruptive species meaning that it occasionally erupts from its traditional breeding grounds to invade on mass countries much further away. This is thought to be driven by a combination of breeding success and local crop failure resulting in not enough food to go around. Records indi...

Perseverance or sheer stupidly? – The Belted Kingfisher nailed at the 4th attempt!

Belted Kingfisher I have had three failed attempts, or dips as birders call them, to see the Lancashire Belted Kingfisher over the last few weeks, including two harrowing encounters with the slope of death, see here . So when the bird was relocated a few miles away from its original location in an altogether less challenging spot I was soon off on my 4 th attempt to see this truly stunning mega rare vagrant from North America. We had friends from the village coming to dinner on Wednesday night so I really didn’t fancy a strength sapping silly o’clock departure. I hence left home at 07:00 on Wednesday morning and heading north again up the car park previously known as the M6. The Kingfisher had relocated close to Samlesbury at a place called Roach Bridge on the river Darwen. I arrived at 09:30, found a parking spot very close to the bridge, and set off along a muddy footpath towards the reported location. Disconcerti...

The Standlake Birder

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