The Juvenile Birder

 Twitching: The Never Ending Story! We arrived at Langdon Beck at 7:15am in hopes of seeing Black Grouse. We drove up a road that our mentor, Rob, told us about and scanned for any moving black blobs. We then continued down the road and over a stream, when we saw a darker bird with two female Pheasants . I thought it could be a female Black Grouse, but when I looked away to examine the photos, I saw a male Black Grouse in a field just further ahead. We drove up and stopped the car with our windows down. We used the car like a hide. I took a record of it, but there were only two (a male and a female) so we continued along the road, to see if there were any more. We then stumbled upon a field with 4, so I took a record shot of  three of them in a row. There were also many Mallards  & Greylag Geese in the fields. We then came to the end of the road where the Black Grouse were at. We had been told by Rob that Red Grouse can sometimes be seen along the B6277. We made our...

 Padley Gorge Disappointment and Encounter With Cows! We arrived at 8:00am in hopes of seeing Wood Warbler ad Redstart. We were told by Scott to go upriver to the left of the river which meant we had to cross it after a very treacherous walk alongside it. We crossed at a point with millions of Grey Wagtails flying upriver and downriver. We then saw a bridge and then a black, small thing was moving up a trail. At first I thought it was a very big froglet or toadlet, but upon closer inspection, was some sort of rodent. I thought it was a mouse, but then I saw the same thing in the water. They were Water Voles! We continued out trek and ended up finding a path. We then asked some people where to go and the all didn't have a clue what those two birds were. Finally, we met a man who was a birder and he told us is was unlikely we were going to see one this late. While we could hear both birds, we couldn't see either one of  them. This was when I really needed a thermal imaging ...

  So Many Mammals! We arrived very early at 9:40 in hopes of catching a glimpse of the masters at camouflage, the Eurasian Woodcock​. We also were hoping for some Cattle Egrets but they never showed. We quickly viewed the main scrape where we saw many Dunlin, Black-Tailed Godwit and Redshank. We then headed up the Reed and Fen trail and into the new section which was a hotspot for Eurasian Woodcocks, if you're lucky enough to spot one. We thoroughly searched the area, looking for the slightest dark spot or movement but had no luck. We then went to Burton Viewing Point which was a good spot to see Eurasian Green Woodpeckers in the field. 2 people had seen one fly towards Burton Viewing Point but I never saw it. We then made our way to the newest hide, the Border Hide. Along the trail, I turned a corner and, Lo and Behold, there was a Red Fox snooping around the path menacingly, about 40m apart from us. It was just at the bottom of the ramp that leads up to the new hide. It kept...

 Winter Thrushes and Elusive Rails! It was our first time visiting Leighton Moss and we were very excited as we had heard a lot of great things about it. ​In the parking lot, we saw a Fieldfare in a bush eating some berries, a stunning winter finch tick to start the day. We then went to the feeding station where we saw Great Tits, Eurasian Blue Tits, Common Chaffinches, European Robins, Common Pheasants and European Goldfinches but my favourite were the Marsh Tits, another lifer. We first went to the Grisedale Hide where somebody had said they had seen four Red Deer earlier on. It was around 12:40pm so it unlikely for us to see the Red Deer but was still possible. We saw Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Eurasian Teals, Northern Pintails and a Great White Egret out on the lake along with around 20 Common Snipe feeding along the edge. After a while, someone pointed out a Water Rail that was just behind all the Common Snipe. I saw it feeding but it wasn't the right lighting to see the pl...