Lake District June 2021 I had only ever visited the Lake District once before. That was when we were staying in a friends cottage to break up the trip back from NW Scotland. We did spend a pleasant day driving around part of it and having a nice walk just north of Ullswater. My daughter and her partner were coming with us and we'd booked a Jenkinson's Cottage close to Loweswater The trip up wasn't to bad even though it poured with rain for half the journey but during the course of our weeks stay it was dry for most of the the week apart for a bit of drizzle on the Tuesday and first thing on Th ..read more

 Norfolk early May 2021 Well yet again this spring Norfolk was very quiet. Water levels on the east side of the county were very high, making it unattractive to wader. This is the first time in years that I haven't seen any Little Egrets or Great White Egrets. I only visited so called Broadland hotspots but these sites would normally have them. Common spring migrants were few, with only 3 Wheatears and 1 Whinchat, a Golden Oriole sang for 5 minutes from woodland near Rush Hill Scrape but then went silent. I presumed it moved off as I never heard it again and it wasn't reported by anybody ..read more

 Regent's Park Bird News March            2nd:    2 Lesser Redpolls,             3 Cetti's Warbler males singing 3rd:    50 Goldfinches in and around the Cricket Pen, area 31.           6 Lesser Redpolls, 5 Siskins in Silver Birches by the Cricket Pen. 5th & 6th:  1f Stonechat in Triangle Pen.           1f Kingfisher Still present favouring area 3 and 34.           1 Water Rail showing in the Rail Ditch area 2.  9th ..read more

                                           Birds in Regent's Park so far in 2021                                          The Kingfisher continues to be seen. She seems to prefer the end of the NE arm of the lake with the waterfowl collection or the quiet stretch of water where the two blue bridges  are.                     &n ..read more

 August 2020 Pictorial Although I have been moving between Regent's Park and Norfolk I still managed to connect with some decent migrants in what was a fairly quiet month for migrants in the park. The only species annual species that I have missed out on was Whinchat, 3 were seen but none stayed longer than a few minutes. I managed to get 2 park ticks, Great White Egret seen flying high south on the 24th and Cattle Egret watched by Dave Johnson flying over the park early morning on the 8th. I tried to intercept it as it flew towards the mosque but as I was driving towards Hanover Gate the ..read more

 Birds seen in Norfolk during August  One lockdown was over we have been up and down to Norfolk as much as we could. The weather was kind to us with hardly any rain falling in the first 3 weeks and when it did rain it tended to be at night. The last week the remnants of an Atlantic storm gave us strong winds and heavy rain. There was a good number of Pied Flycatchers were scattered around the coast, unfortunately although I saw several they tended to be to distant, wader passage began and although water levels on the broads dropped Snipe's Marsh at Cley NWT Reserve once again was a g ..read more

 Regent's Park 8th-10th August Having enjoyed sometime in Norfolk after lockdown was relaxed it was time to get looking for some early autumn migrants in the park. On Saturday the 8th I went to my favourite spot, the Chat Enclosure. There was a few Blackcaps, 1 C.Whitethroat, 1 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaffs and a few Greenfinch and Goldfinch family parties. Slightly disappointing but then again Norfolk was quiet on the passerine front. I then went home for some breakfast. I had just taken my first mouthful of cereal at 7.20am when my phone rang. It was Dave Johnson he asked if I was back ..read more

                    Regent's Park May 2020 pictorial May continued where pretty much where April left off with good weather and birds passing overhead, well we presumed they passed overhead although we didn't see them. There were a couple of surprises but overall it was just summer visitors arriving and setting up territories. The Lockdown had it's pluses, fewer cars meant a much more peaceful London. Bird song particularly the dawn chorus seemed louder it wasn't really it was just that the gradual hourly build up of traffic from 5 ..read more

                                                                Regent's Park Lockdown April Almost as soon as the lockdown was announced the skies turned blue. The winds weren't often very favourable and on days with winds from a southerly direction there was no rain to ground any migrants overnight. On the odd exception that a migrant landed they seldom stayed longer than a day. The grass loving species; Whinchat, Yellow Wagtail ..read more

Regent's Park 13th to 29th March 2020 The last 2 weeks have been very dry with winds changing from northerlies to south west, veering to the south east and then around to the north east. Migrant wise, the Stonechat passage ended once the wind changed. Chiffchaff numbers increased slowly with 12 being the highest, it has since declined to 5 singing males. Blackcap males have been heard singing but not forcefully. A male Reed Bunting arrived in area 5 on the 17th and was joined by a female on 23rd. There was a small movement of Linnets from mid month with the odd bird calling as it flew over, 7 ..read more