Introduction.

Hi all, my name is George Brooks and I am a young wildlife photographer and birdwatcher. This blog will show my visits around the country. I will only write about my trips that have been noteworthy. My visits will be mostly around Oxfordshire (my home county), Cornwall and Norfolk as well as places like rutland water and slimbridge. All photographs are copyright of George Brooks.

  

Log Book 

5th April 2009

Gerrans bay

A great day for wildlife began with a walk along Nare head. There were several common birds such as cormorants ( end total 48) chaffinches, stonechats and skylarks. Out to sea was 4 shelduck, a juvenile great northern diver and 3 sandwich terns. Back on the cliff a chiffchaff was singing and a little further on was a common lizard.

11th April

St anthony head.

The calm summers evening on the head was extremely tranquil. There was a few birds around which began with an extremely tame chiffchaff. Later we went to the hide where there was a pair of peregrine falcons, along with a shag. Then the bird of prey theme continued with a buzzard above my head before it was mobbed away by a raven.

1st May 2009

Farmoor

A nice end to the day with several singing sedge warblers along with my first reed warbler of the year. There were a few tufted ducks on shrike meadow. Along the river was a hunting common sandpiper. Also on the river was a kingfisher, and the walk was concluded very nicely by a fly over cuckoo.

2nd May 2009

Norfolk ( Cley marshes )

We arrived at about 12:00 at the cley marshes visitor centre. I have never been to this part of Britain before and so I had high expectations. My aim for this trip was to see a marsh harrier. As we stepped out of the visitor centre we could here many sedge warblers chirping away, lapwings flying about, and within a few seconds I had spotted my marsh harrier, with 2 flying over the reeds.

Whilst making my way to the first hide I saw oystercatchers, lapwings, sedge warblers, a water vole and yet another marsh harrier. From the hide I could see a huge selection of waders. There was a colony of around 200 avocets, several black tailed godwits, 10 redshanks and many lapwings.

There was also a great selection of wildfowl which included teal, gadwall and shovelers. Outside the hide was the best bird of the day. A pair of bearded tits. Shelduck, a greenshank and avocets greeted me as i walked up the east bank to the coast. On the far side of arnolds marsh I could see over 100 sandwich and common terns. On the sea itself there were 3 common terns and a grey seal.

Outside the final hide was a very close marsh harrier and a male pochard. Again there were several birds including more avocets, black tailed godwits and shovelers.

3rd May 2009

Norfolk ( Cley marshes/Pinewoods )

I awoke early and headed down to cley again today. The same birds practically today with 2 marsh harriers, 1 bearded tit, several avocets on the scrape with other waders such as a single dunlin, a redshank, 6 black tailed godwits and several lapwings.

Other new birds were a tufted duck and some meadow pipits. I returned home just in time to avoid the rain. When the weather improved I headed to pinewoods to find a different variety of species. Highlights were a treecreeper, a chiffchaff, some mistle thrushes, a sedge warbler and a pair of whitethroats.

 14th June 2009

Otmoor

Otmoor proved itself worthy of an rspb reserve today. The day began with the sighting of a yellowhammer and a whitethroat in the car park. However this was nothing special so I moved on through the reserve.There was a sedge warbler and reed bunting singing in unison in a tree. The raptors however were what made the day special. There was a marsh harrier on the far side of the reedbed and a hobby hawking over the greenways.

7th August 2009

Rutland water

I got up early and headed off straight away to rutland water. Rutland water has two nature reserves. Eggleton and Lyndon. They are both wetland areas and since passage waders are starting to increase this would hopefully be a good time to search the flocks for rarer species. Not only that but ospreys breed at this site and I have always wanted to see them in the wild. This was going to be a great oppurtunity.

I went to lyndon reserve first. I walked down to manton bay, visiting the other hides on the way. However the first hides were a bit of a waste of time, for I couldn’t see anything at all. The last hide though was by far better. At first there appeared to only be a few lapwings and waterfowl. However amongst the lapwings was an array of different waders. These included 2 common sandpiper, 3 snipe, 6 dunlin and 5 ringed plover, as well as a fly through flock of curlew and black tailed godwits. However the most interesting wader was a curlew sandpiper feeding alone in the centre of the mud. Amongst the mallards in the water were shoveler, teal and tufted duck as well as great crested grebes. However there was a star amongst them too. A female garganey. I watched the flocks for a long time and I began to think about leaving, when suddenly the waders took to the sky. Circling above was an osprey. It soon landed on a post giving exceptional views. I was extremely pleased. I had got my osprey tick and two new surprises as well.

Next I moved to eggleton. There were far more hides here, surrounded by bushes which contained willow warblers and a garden warbler. From the different hides I saw species such as green sandpiper, ruff, greenshank, egyptian geese and common terns. My favourite place here was crake hide. It was by far the smallest of the hides but from there you could see, green and common sanpipers, greenshank little egrets, shelducks, a kingfisher and a few sedge and reed warblers.

8th August Rutland water

Another day at rutland water was again at Lyndon. The feeding station yet again had several tree sparrows, as well as other smaller birds. We only visited shallow water hide this time. Here we could see several waders again including a turnstone, 2 Ruff, 5 little ringed plover, 2 green sandpipers and some blackwits. On the water there was an egyptian goose and a greenshank.

Some images from scotland

Summary of late august in cornwall

In cornwall this year I saw several different species of passage birds, at several different sights. The best birds were the waders. At gerrans bay there were huge numbers of oystercatchers. The largest count was 56 birds. Other waders there included 5 turnstone, 2 Ringed plover, 3 dunlin, 4 curlews and a sanderling. Not only that but a common scoter was seen very close to the shore. Waders were also common at hayle estuary where I saw whimbrels, turnstones, 2 common sandpipers and several redshank. However the largest number of redshank was seen in a group at restronguet creek. An end count revealed 77 birds in one large group on the foreshore. Other good birds were sandwich terns in the creek, fulmars out to sea from hells mouth and a few gannets in the fal estuary.

19th September-Otmoor

A quiet day on the moor with lots of life by the screens. they included, 2 green sandpipers, 3 snipe, a kingfisher some teal and gadwall and a grey heron. However the star bird was a spotted flycatcher between the two screens.

Summary of september at farmoor

September is always a good month for birds, and at my local area at farmoor it showed. Top species included a ruddy duck, barnacle goose, wheatear and several ringed plovers and dunlins, as well as the usual common terns and meadow pipits

October 27th-Hayle estuary

I had already visited this reserve earlier this week and there was several winter visitors around. However I saw all of them and more today. It began with a visit to copperhouse creek where there were plenty of waders. They included some blackwits, curlews, redshanks, 6 ringed plovers, lapwings, oystercatchers and dunlin as well as a selection of wildfowl such as teal, wigeon and shelduck. I then moved on to carnsew pool in the hope of spotting some rare grebes. However, the only thing there was a little grebe. Finally I went to Ryans field to see what was about. In the distance there was a flock of canada geese, and on the islands there were a few redshank. Then amongst the canada geese was a large white bird. I looked at it for a bit and thought it was a little egret. However as I looked closer, I saw it had a large spatula shaped bill. The spoonbill then took off and landed on Lelant water where it began to feed.

7th November – Rutland water

 Once again I returned to this reserve to have a look at the wildfowl and waders. As soon as I arrived, as I looked out of the visitor centre I saw shovelers, teal, wigeon tufted ducks and 6 egyptian geese. Lagoon 4 showed several tufted ducks, a single egyptian goose and a very nice female scaup. Shoveler hide showed all the same species as well as a red crested pochard and some common pochards. Lagoon 2 showed a green sandpiper, 6 pintail and seven Redshank.

After visiting eggleton I went to lyndon.