The Juvenile Birder

 The Butterfly Effect! We arrived at Saltholme Statera Energy Operations at 5:25am in hopes of seeing a rare and showy Savi's Warbler, which we dipped earlier this year at RSPB Burton Mere. We walked through the fields to the reedbed. As soon as we arrived to the reedbed, we could hear the distinctive call of the Savi's Warbler . There were two people already there who put me on the bird which was showing incredibly well. We watched it for a while before it flew deeper into the reedbed, out of view. We then set off in search of butterflies.  We arrived at Thrislington NNR at 7:00am. As soon as we entered the meadow we spotted loads of  Meadow Browns fluttering about, including some that landed just a few feet away. Amongst them were a darker butterfly, the Ringlet ! They were just as common and also landed quite close, showing their characteristic features. We then continued through the meadow, only seeing those two butterflies, until there was a viewpoint with a few butt...

 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...

Birding: A Waiting Game! We started our trip by going to Brierdine (2hrs 45 mins away, we set off at 4.30am). We arrived there at 7:30am and immediately started scanning every tree and bush.  I was very worried about distinguishing between the Yellow-browed Warbler and the Hume's Warbler; Phil told me if you get a good view of a warbler, look at the wingbar. He said Yellow Browed Warber has two obvious wingbars while Hume's Warbler only has one obvious wingbar and a fainter one above. After searching in that area and listening out for the call, we were unsuccessful. We then met a birder who said he had seen this bird in the same place seven years ago. We followed him and other birders began arriving, they went to a patch of greenery that hosted a tit flock that kept doing circuits. Long-tailed Tits  were the most abundant, but a few Goldcrests  and one Chiffchaff  were present, as well as a few Willow Tits  which are a special species that breed here. We continu...