The Juvenile Birder

Egg-cellent Bird Hunt! We set off at 3:00am and arrived at RSPB Middleton Lakes at around 6:00am in hopes of seeing the rare Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Once we arrived at the site, there was another birder there who said that the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers were often seen in the oak trees opposite the car park. We waited in the car park, and after a few minutes, we heard one drumming. It took a while, but we eventually located the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker  in the middle of the oak tree. It showed incredibly well, before eventually flying off. Soon after the  Great Spotted Woodpecker started drumming in the exact same spot! Overjoyed with our views, we made our way to Whitemoor Haye for a rare grebe. We arrived at Whitemoor Haye at around 8:00am in hopes of seeing a Slavonian Grebe. As soon as we arrived at the site, we noticed multiple singing Yellowhammers . We walked further down to a gap along the road and started looking for the bird. As I was scanning, I noticed a flash ...

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...

 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.