The Juvenile Birder

Winter Waterfowl! We arrived at Swine Moor at around 7:40am, with Dave, in hopes of spotting two Snow Geese roosting with the Pink-footed Geese. Once we made our way onto the very windy and exposed bank, we scanned the wetland, only to find all the geese had already left their roost and flown off. Disappointed, we waited around for a while, spotting a few Greylag Geese flying in along with five white Domestic Greylag Geese . Eventually, we gave up and decided to head over to Tophill Low NR. As soon as we arrived at Tophill Low, we made our way over to the main hide and started scanning through the thousands of ducks. It wasn't long until we spotted our first target, a pair of Red-crested Pochards , which were quite close to the hide in amongst a large flock of mixed Aythya ducks. Further out on the reservoir, we spotted many Shovelers , Pochards , Gadwalls , Wigeons , Tufted Ducks , Goldeneyes , Coots , Teals , Great Crested Grebes  & Mallards . We then moved on to ...

Cumbria Crack! We arrived at Sizergh Castle at first light in hopes of seeing Hawfinches. We parked on the left side of the car park, and walked over to the veranda. There were a number of birders lined up. We approached them and met Joe and Steve, who kindly pointed out two showy male Hawfinches  less than 40m away. We also saw a female Hawfinch. I managed to get a record shot of both of them, before heading over to the River Kent for Dipper.  Image from @RobsBirding, not same bird We arrived at the River Kent at 8:00am.  As soon as we arrived, we set up the scope along the bank of the river, since the bridge was shut, and on the first scan, I managed to the see the Dipper  bathing, however I wasn't quick enough for a photo. We stayed for an hour, seeing the Dipper  a few more times, however I wasn't quick enough for a record shot. Satisfied with our views and eager for a lifer, we set off on the hunt for the reported Richard's Pipit.  We arrived in Ulvers...

Small Bird, Mighty Twitch We arrived at Linford Lakes NR early morning at around 7:00am in hopes of seeing a Little Crake. We had to queue at the reserve gates, as the hides to view the Little Crake were full. After a few minutes, we were guided towards a bank, which provided more distant views of the section of reedbed where the Little Crake had favoured. Since we didn't have our tripod on us, the kind warden let me use his. Soon after, he received a call saying that the Warbler Hide had two spaces available. Since we didn't have a tripod, the warden let us have the space, so we made our way to the hide. Once at the hide, we took a seat and waited in the freezing cold. After around two hours, I was frozen solid. Even with a coat, my hands and feet were numb. On the lake  there were three Great Crested Grebes  fishing, as well as two Egyptian Geese  and a few Great White Egrets . One by one, the birders left the hide, defeated. After most of the people in the hide had lef...

Day 2: You Can Never Have Too Much of a Good Thing! We set off from our Inn at 6:30am and went over to Blagdon Lake for a Ring-necked Duck. We found the lake, which was huge, but at the two different locations that we stopped we were unable to find the duck. We could not get close to the lake; it was always overlooking private land and we were unable to therefore walk the circumference of the lake. We also tried to get to the location of the Bristol Dartford Warbler at Trooper's Hill but there was a lot of road works taking place in Bristol and the old sat nav we have could not navigate us to the right location. We ended then going to WWT Slimbridge. We arrived at 9:30am and rushed straight to the Rushy Hide in hopes of seeing the Bewick's Swans. We entered the hide and the three Bewick's Swan were sat right up front, on the mud, showing very well. I had only seen Whooper Swans at WWT Martin Mere, a site local to me, and had been scanning the flocks at Martin Mere for ages...

Murmurations ! We arrived at 6:10am in hopes of seeing some Great Bitterns. We went to the Causeway where we were greeted to the continuous booming of Great Bitterns, a sure sign they were there. We went towards the Causeway Hide, seeing a Eurasian Wren on the way. There, two juvenile European Otters were seen playing with each other while the mother was somewhere nearby, probably hunting. We continued along the Causeway when we stopped at the channel crossing to scan the reedbeds yet we saw no Great Bittern. We heard a possible Red Fox along the way but never saw it. Common Pochards, Common Snipe, and many more were out but no Great Bitterns. We then headed towards the saltmarsh where we saw Black-Tailed Godwits, Pied Avocets, Eurasian Oystercatchers and Common Redshanks feeding in huge numbers out on the lagoons.  We then arrived back on the main reserve. We went to the Grisedale, Tim Jackson and Lilian's Hide without seeing anything. We then went to the Causeway Hide where ...

 The Last 2021 Has to Offer! We arrived at around midday on the last day of 2021 (aka New Year's Eve). We first came to the Discovery Hide where we saw lots of winter waterfowl like Black-Tailed Godwits, Mallards, Common Pochards, Tufted Ducks, Eurasian Wigeons, Northern Lapwings, Northern Pintails and Whooper Swans. I talked to someone who said they'd seen a Smew on the mere ​earlier this morning. He said it was the first time he'd seen a Smew in this country. We then moved to the Janet Kea Hide and met someone along the way. He said that he'd just seen some Peregrine Falcons, a Merlin and lots of Western Marsh Harriers in the United Utilities Hide and he also said that he'd seen a Slavonian Grebe, around 30 minutes ago, from the screens that overlooked the mere. We took a look at the screens to try and spot the grebe but had no luck. We then came across somebody who pointed it out at the very back near some Northern Shovelers. I looked through my binoculars and, L...

 Christmas Rarity! We arrived at midday on Christmas Eve. We were hoping for some festive sighting and we got what we wanted. We first went in the Discovery Hide where we saw Common Pochards, Mallards, Common Shelducks, Northern Pintails, Ruffs, Tufted Ducks, Eurasian Wigeons, Whooper Swans, Greylag Geese and Northern Lapwings all over the mere in their hundreds . We then made our way to the Janet Kea Hide in hopes of spotting some Bramblings. We didn't see any Bramblings but we did see European Goldfinches, Eurasian Blue Tits, Great Tits, European Greenfinches, Common Chaffinches, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. The highlight though was a rare Willow Tit that hopped onto the feeders a few times. We then went to the Gordon Taylor Hide where we saw lots of Eurasian Teals and one Northern Shoveler resting on a muddy island. We also saw Western Marsh Harriers hunting some huge flocks of waders to end the Christmasy Day.