Slaty -backed Gull on the tip

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to take part in the high tide count on Sunday 20th February along the Thames with other birders to count the waders in roost, my position was to count from the stone barges at Rainham Marshes. As I got out of the car a fellow birder said to me "thought there would of been more birders here" and I replied "erm I thought it was just me doing the count here?", the guy said "NO the Slaty-backed Gull back am I in the right place?". I replied "WHAT THE F..K" so it was a long run back to the tip and viewed the bird from the fence with the other 30 birders who were there. It did look like a right brute of a bird and the wide tertial crescent stood out really well, so, do I sound lucky?, well yes but I did miss it three times before...........

Waxwings at the Valley

I only popped out for milk this morning and ended up finding 54+ Waxwings at the Ingrebourne Valley behind the bus depot at 10.50 am, so a quick drive home to get the camera and get some record shots of this smart birds. With poor light and the Waxwings only staying for ten minutes here are some of them. Steve Smith and my daughter managed to see them and best of all they flew off and went over my garden for a long waited garden tick......

Rufous Turtle Dove

Picture the scene, I got up at 4.30 a.m. have been in the car for 2 hours with Paul Boy and Martin (Blow Monkey), plus it's pissing down. There is a queue of 200 birders which are in front of us to try and see the Rufus Turtle Dove in Chipping Norton, Oxford. It's not your normal Saturday morning but that's what us birders do! Paul and I and a few of the other birders in the queue got a brief flyover view of the dove going into one of the gardens to feed, so we were pleased that the dove was still there. Twenty minutes went by when we gained better views of the dove when it was seen in a large tree preening in a large tree between 2 houses and very smart to. Later we had a quick run to the corner of the road where we had good scope views of the dove sitting in a large ash tree at the back of the field where we viewed from behind the gate, unlike some twats!!!!


The Good,the bad and the ugly

It's been a good week

With Waxwings turning up everywhere locally most birders have now got them on there year lists, but how many birders have them on their self found list.This week I managed to find 11 in Grays Essex and 30 at Brent Mead place near Brent Cross London and its all down to luck because of the amount of traveling I've done for work this week. This mornings trip to the Ingrebourne Valley did not produce much, but had a Shelduck mid week, which puts me on 70 species for the Ingrebourne year list.