The Juvenile Birder

It Had to be Done! We arrived at Sizergh Castle at 7:00am for a photo shoot for the National Trust with my mentor Rob and a photographer, Paul. We met Rob, for the first time, a year ago, when we were seeking a Hawfinch tick at Sizergh. He helped us then and has been my mentor since.   We parked on the left side of the car park and walked to the veranda of the café where the Hawfinches regularly show from March to the beginning of May. We waited for a bit before spotting a  Hawfinch in a tree, followed by four more (two males and two females) on the ground feeding, on the seed behind a mound, at the back of the car park. Then, the photographer named Paul arrived and started taking some pictures of me and Rob, while we watched the Hawfinches. We then went birding to a nearby wetland and saw some Little Grebes  as well as a mixed flock of Gadwall , Wigeon and Mallard . After the photographer, Paul, took some more photos, we ended up going back to the car park and sai...

Can't See Everything Every Time! We arrived at 6.45am at a private site for Golden Pheasant. We started wandering in the woods, looking for them. After a bit of searching, we saw one in someone's backyard, there was no netting in the yard. We were lingering around the garden to see if it flew or was ringed and we were going to knock on the house when we heard someone talking in the garden we had just seen the Golden Pheasant in. We walked towards the noise and saw a man calling something over. We asked him whether the Golden Pheasant was his pet or a wild bird and he then tells us that it is indeed his pet, who he had raised at put in his garden. He said its name was Cocky and he was trying to call it over to feed it. He also told us about how he had raised many Golden Pheasant in the past, but when he put them in his garden, they just flew off. This was because he didn't ring or clip his birds. After realising we were searching for plastic, we ended up leaving and looking ...

Highlights of the Highlands! We set off from home at 12am with the intention of arriving to the Capercaillie site at first light. We parked up at 6.50am and started walking along the tracks. We scanned the trees and heather looking for them. We then went on a track that a male had been previously seen on. We turned a corner and saw a big shape in the trees. At first, we thought it was some litter, but when we looked through our binoculars, we saw that it was a male Capercaillie ! It sat in the tree for a bit, before flying off. We were shocked at how well the bird showed and managed to get a record shot of it! We then walked further ahead when another male Capercaillie (probably the same one from earlier) flew straight past us deep in the forest. We then continued walking and got good views of  Roe Deer  but didn't see any more of the target elusive birds. We then travelled to a site, known for Scottish Crossbills, seeing some Red Squirrels for the first time along the way. W...

 From Despair to Delight! Image from Levi Gravett (same bird, but take n on different date) We arrived at Llanddulas Beach car park at 8.00am and started scanning towards the left of the car park. We started scanning for over an hour scanning through hundreds of Common Scoters which   were moving about everywhere. There were no other birders to help and I started doubting any success.  Suddenly, a Velvet Scoter came into view, flying low and eventually landing. Knowing that the Surf Scoters had been hanging around with Velvet Scoters, I scanned the scoters nearby and saw a smaller scoter with a funny shaped bill. I tried to keep on the bird but it was difficult with the choppy water and the distance they were at. Then, as it was preening, I saw some white on the back of its head. It was a Surf Scoter ! I stayed on it for a good few minutes before all four Velvet Scoters flew off; as well as the two Surf Scoters. There were also a few drake Red-breasted Mergansers and Gr...

Twitching Top Ticks!  Part I Image from David Woodhouse (same bird, but taken on different date) We were offered a trip to see Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, at an undisclosed site, by a birder called Dave (who we had previously met at Easington & Potteric Carr YWT). We set off at 4:30am and arrived at his house at 7:00am and he took us to the bird location at 7:45am. We were ecstatic when we heard the distinctive drumming and travelled towards the noise. After looking in the wrong spot for a bit, we managed to find the correct area and heard the bird close by. We also met a local birder named Rob, who was also looking for these Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. He said it had been drumming for a bit. We walked towards the sound until it was right in front of us. There was a tree that looked like a stake and had multiple holes in it, so I checked it and I spotted just the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 's head pecking rapidly at the tee. I alerted Dave & Rob and then moved to get a better...

 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...

A Day For Ducks! We arrived at Upton at 8:00am in hopes of seeing an Iceland Gull; reported as following a plough in a field. We found a large flock of Black-headed Gulls with a few Herring Gulls in it, but after searching through the same flock multiple times, we failed to see our target; so we left and headed to Sanderson's Bank in hopes of seeing a reported Tundra Bean Goose. We got there at 9:20am and before we even parked up, I could see there were both Whooper and Bewick's Swans. I scanned through the Whooper Swans and counted at least 10 Bewick's Swans . They were noticeably smaller than the Whooper Swans and had a lot more black on the bill with a circular, yellow patch by the base. We then found a small flock of Pink-footed Geese so we scanned through them multiple times but again to no avail. We saw that the Ring-necked Duck on Dishley Pool had been reported today, so we set off seeking the American vagrant. We arrived at Dishley Pool at 12:00pm and started t...