Every weekend of our year so far has involved birding in some shape or form, this weekend was no different although we decided to plump for some none to strenuous twitching, hoping to bump the life list ever closer towards the 200 mark. Arrived yesterday at a leisurley 12.00-ish at Allestree (a suburb of Derby) where a Waxwing has been in residence for a few weeks now. No problem at all finding it (lifer no 196). It was a very beautiful and confiding bird, just sat at the side of the footpath scoffing away on the rowan berries, absolutely stunning to watch. Was a good laugh too with the other birders and the constant enquiries from members of the public.  Close enough to the bird to grab these poor pics…nice to have the memory though…

As it was only a further 14 miles up the A6 it would have been rude not to have a try for the Hawfinch at Cromford, Derbyshire. If anyone is thinking of going be warned – the location on Birdguides for the courtyard is ‘slightly’ innaccurate, we quite confused but some locals put us on the right track. It took a lot of searching but eventually we had a distant view of two Hawfinch (lifer no 197) on the exposed treetops viewed from the canal wharf. We went back again to the churchyard to see if we could get any nearer but couldn’t pick them up again. We were chuffed to bits anyway as we were lucky to see them so late in the day.

Today we stopped off at Stubbers Green at midday en route to fulfil mothers day obligations. This time our luck was in with the 2nd winter Caspian Gull, it was easy enough to find as its a small place and I’d seen photos of this particular bird. I was really pleased to see it and spent some time checking out the ID features. A great place to watch and learn about gulls and easier to manage than the roosts. Lifer no 198 and the 12th Gull on our UK list! There were also a couple of Nordic Jackdaws seen by others and the Iceland Gull was seen briefly this morning.

A seminal birding moment for me this morning; after years of wishing, hoping and dipping, there it was – a Black Redstart. It was an immature male bird, wintering at Sharpness Dock in Gloucestershire, twitched from the car. It showed amazingly well and was full of character; it fed, preened and tail quivered a plenty. We watched it for about an hour, before heading off to Slimbridge WWT.

 At Slimbridge we first visited some of the hides overlooking the Tack Piece. Lots of Bewicks Swans (lifer), Lapwing, Curlew, Buzzard, Shelduck, Gadwall, Shoveler, Redshank and some good year ticks such as Pintail, Ruff and Spotted Redshank. We had a GS Woody (year tick) on the way to the Holden Tower.

I found the Holden Tower very uncomfortable and awkward to bird from with my scope and I couldn’t get a very good handle on things but we saw lots of Eurasian White Fronted Geese and the Tundra Bean Goose, with a little help (lifer). There were also Barnacle Geese (year tick), Golden Plover, many Wigeon and a few Dunlin. Didn’t see any Little Stints though.

We then went off to Fretherne to look for the Cattle Egret, which has been reported in a paddock there along with several Little Egret. We didn’t see any Egrets at all, but then I’m not quite sure we were in the right place. Driving round the wider area on the off chance of picking Egrets up….we came across something better (IMO, anyway)…two Little Owls; we watched them from only 10 feet away and we could see straight into their yellow eyes (year tick). We’re off out soon to celebrate a most memorable days birding….especially the Black Redstart…here’s to many more…

Yesterday morning our Ireland trip was coming to an end so we briefly popped out to Glenveagh National Park in Donegal, mainly as a reconnaissance mission for future visits. Golden Eagles were reintroduced here in 2000 in the hope that they will be able to re-establish themselves as a breeding bird. See this link for more details http://www.goldeneagle.ie Our hopes weren’t high on seeing one though as the area is so vast, we were struggling for time and to be honest I’d much rather see them on the BIG Scotland trip that we’ll probably do next year.

Anyway we didn’t see an Eagle and we didn’t see great numbers of species here but there were some nice spots. About seven Ravens over (year tick), common woodland tits and finches including Long Tailed Tits, Coal Tit (of the Irish race of course), a Siskin and a Mistle Thrush. There were 30 Lesser Redpoll feeding in the car park and two of these I suspected were Mealy Redpoll (a potential lifer) based on the ID pointers I know such as size, colour etc…..however after checking the RSPB distribution map it seems that they don’t occur in Ireland! The whole task of Id-ing Redpolls has just got more confusing and I can’t find much about separating these two, its not even covered in Collins. I’ve posted a thread on Bird Forum to see if anyone can offer useful advice. Also saw two Red Deer sleeping.

Anyway…what an amazing trip, we’ve had a fab time exploring Donegal, got 5 lifers and lots of other nice birds, worked on our gulling skills (even managed to get Max interested – a reformed gull-hater!). We’ll definately be back there not too far in the distant future

Located within Donegal Bay on the north westerly coast of Ireland, Killybeggs Harbour leads out into the Atlantic and is one of Irelands biggest fishing ports. These two factors make it popular with gulls and gull watchers. I’m certainly no gull expert, but I’m very keen to develop my skills and knowledge in this area. Target bird for today was Glaucous Gull. The first promising spot was a fish processing centre, south of the main harbour. The workers kindly let us stand within their grounds, allowing a good vantage point for both the gulls visiting their facilities and also out over the water. On the downside it did stink.

The gulls visiting the processing centre were mainly Herring and a few GBBG, there were also Common and Black Headed about. Nothing unusual so far. Things started to pick up when we spotted a pair of Red Breasted Mergansers on the water, and then a few more (year tick). I began to scan gulls on the water and I found a very white gull swimming. Luckily it was in scopable distance and we were able to ID it as a first winter Iceland Gull (lifer) It later rested on the rocks. Also a Shag was preening with the Cormorants on the rocks (year tick).

We moved up to a more industrious part of the harbour just past the pier. We had just set up scope and I had a white winged gull resembling Glaucous but then all the gulls flushed from the rocks! The bird in question flew briefly back into sight a few times, but the views were not sufficient to rule out Iceland. We had a couple more Iceland Gulls and more Shags here. Hundreds more gulls turned up as some fishing boats had come in and it just became complete mayhem and it was also very cold so we went for fish and chips instead.

After lunch we returned to the spot. The gulls had returned to the rocks and I immediately found the Glaucous Gull (lifer). This time the views were excellent and its mighty size was apparent, stood next to the Herring Gulls. Also got some views of it in flight. There were also quite a few seals in the harbour.

Then something amazing and totally unexpected happened. I saw a small bird swimming not too far from the shore. I took this for a small grebe, but when I got it in my bins it was clearly some type of Auk. It had striking white wing patches and it was smaller than a Guillemot. It could only be a Black Guillemot in winter plumage (lifer)! I looked in Collins to confirm this. We had awesome views of the little fella. There is even a terrible digi-scoped pic which I might post when I return to the UK tommorrow.

Arrived in County Donegal yesterday after a pretty hairy landing in high winds at Derry Airport. I’m not the best flyer in the world anyway, so I was mightily relieved to be back on terra firma. Not much happened after that apart from my Dad’s garden bird feeding session which consisted of marauding hoards of Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit and a Pheasant. There was also a Sparrowhawk over and we found some Fieldfare flocks in the fields near his cottage.

This morning we borrowed Dad’s car and firstly headed off to the new bird hide we’d heard about at Inch Lake on Lough Swilly. Along the way we saw several Hooded Crows, a year tick and a very welcome sight after a few years. A field near our destination held about 20 Whooper Swans (Lifer), lots of Greylag and scanning of the further goose flocks revealed small numbers of Greenland White Fronted Geese (year tick). Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Goldcrest, Bullfinch and Reed Bunting were some of the birds keeping us entertained on our walk to the hide.

When we got to the hide we found the area covered by it was very vast and it was quite overwhelming. Also our time here was limited so we contented ourselves by focusing on the nearer birds….found a little gem here – a redhead Smew! She was with the Goldeneye, there were also Teal, Wigeon, Little Grebe, GBBG and lots of other birds which were too far away to see.

Next we headed for Inch Island. This is connected to the mainland by a small causeway. We weren’t exactly sure where to go here so we drove round stopping off at various spots which looked like they might have some potential. Sightings around the island included Fieldfare, Common Gull, Brent Goose, Redhank, Bar Tailed Godwit, Knot and Oystercatcher.

Next stop Fahan Harbour. Highlights here (and these were good highlights) we had a GN Diver preening, continuing the great run of divers we’ve had of late. We then noticed some small brown jobs on the rocks….they were pipits. Powers of deduction and of course great birding expertise (hmm) helped us ID them as Rock Pipits (Lifer). For handy comparision a Meadow Pipit was considerate enough to land right behind the Rock Pipit in my scope, making the difference obvious to see. That Pipit deserves a pint of Guiness

Tommorrow we’re off to Killybegs to look at some gulls….lots of Iceland and Glaucous Gulls seen there lately, also a Kumliens Gull (not quite sure exactly what that is – its not in Collins). Will then spend the rest of the day either round Donegal Bay or take the Trip to Gleveigh National Park (home of the Golden Eagle Reintroduction project).

This morning found us twitching Scaups from the road bridge at Lea Marston & Coton in the wind and drizzle and with poor visibility (it doesn’t get much better than this!! ). Still with persistence, reasonable views of the Scaups eventually prevailed (year tick).

We then went to fields near Wilnecote Tip (between Dosthill and Kingsbury) where a Glaucous Gull was seen yesterday. Unfortunately there was no sign of it. Other large gulls present; LBBG, GBBG, Herring Gull, also a variety of Corvids feeding at the site and mobbing a Sparrowhawk (we also had a Sprawk over our house this morning). I later learned that the Glaucous had come in to roost at Coton.

Finally we went to Laundry Lane by Alvecote Pools to try our luck twitching Firecrests….our luck was in and one showed within 10 minutes of our arrival. Our fourth lifer of the year! It was a really active bird, busier than a Goldcrest and strikingly beautiful

Not at all bad going for a weekend that looked set to be a washout.

Choosing to take our chances against the rain and flooding that has blighted the Midlands over the past week we headed off to Chasewater yesterday morning. The main aim was to tick the Slavonian Grebe, which has been around for the last few weeks. Walking along the East side of the reservoir we soon had one of the two Great Northern Divers giving great views about 20ft from the shore, I never tire of these birds. Also two Kingfishers showed frequently.

Up by Jeffrey’s Swag, we found a feeding flock of Siskin and Lesser Redpoll (both year ticks), which was really nice. Also many Long Tailed Tits. We then had two Kestrels and a Green Woodpecker (year tick) whilst walking over the heathland. It was a mission to find a dry way round to the bay and Sailing Club to look for the Slav Grebe; there was no ‘dry way’ and our route involved wading over the flooded boardwalk, which was 7inches under! Thankfully I had my wellies on, so it was ok, if a little scary. Max on the other hand had not been so sensible and ended up with boots full of water!

We ended up walking a little bit too far round for the Grebe and looking over the Dam for it, when luckily we met a chap called Graham who runs the excellent Chasewater website (http://www.chasewater.org.uk/) – he put us right and gave us a lift back round to the right place…..where the Slavonian Grebe was right in front of us (lifer). Spent some time admiring this bird then we went with Graham to check for Med Gulls on the jetty. There was a fine adult Med Gull there amongst the many Black Headed Gulls and few Common Gulls. A very welcome year tick – one of my favourite gulls.