On our last day in Amsterdam over February half-term we decided to pay a visit to Amsterdam Zoo, one of the oldest in Europe. It was two minutes walk from our hotel and we thought we'd just pop in for a couple of hours before heading in to the City but in the end we spent most of the day there. As well as all the 'usual' exhibits, the Zoo boasted a planetarium, butterfly and reptile houses which kept us fully occupied despite its relatively small physical footprint. Short-toed Treecreeper, 21st February Longer billed and a shorter hindclaw than Common Treecreeper ..read more

After success with our quest to see the Spectacled Eider on Texel on 18th February, Steve Smith and I stayed on the island that night which presented us with more options on how to spend the following day. At some point the plan was to end up at the naturepark in Lelystad where a long-staying Pygmy Cormorant would be my second 'world tick' of the trip, before Steve would put me on a train to Amsterdam to meet the family.  Drake Smew, Den Helder Drake Smew, Den Helder, 19th February Drake Smew, Den Helder The morning dawned bright and breezy and after a hearty b ..read more

I have resisted Euro-twitching for similar reasons to why I have never twitched Ireland - first, it's a long way away and, second, it feels like a slippery slope from which, once descended, there might be no easy return. This self-denying ordnance came under some theoretical pressure in January when a Spectacled Eider - a globally rare species which would ordinarily require a trip to Alaska/NE Siberia to be seen on its breeding grounds - was located on the Dutch island of Texel.  Spectacled Eider A wider angle of the shot above I say theoretical as my only realistic oppo ..read more

The journey clockwise around Poole Harbour as far as Sandbanks from my home in Wareham is one I make frequently on the bike and offers some of the best urban birding opportunities in the area. It can also be done via a mostly off road routes or in cycle lanes. I say mostly as there is a stretch of the A351 between Sandford and Holton Heath where the shared pedestrian/cycle path ends and bikes are directed on to the road - it's one of the nastiest stretches around to cycle on so please remember that if you are one of the many drivers who seem to be of the opinion that cyclists 'should' be using ..read more

2024 was the first year since I started keeping track (in about 1998) during which I was unable to add to my British list. In fact it was worse than that as it actually shrank, the crunching of three flavours of Redpoll into one reducing the number of species I have seen in Britain from 501 to 499. I sort of decided to knock the twitching lark on its head when I reached 500 but now I have to do it all over again! And possibly several times as the list is about to shrink further still with Green-winged Teal, Hudsonian Whimbrel and Hooded Crow also about to lose full species status. Several oppo ..read more

With birding by bike dominating my spare time over the last four years, I thought I should follow up my last post with a 'green' birding equivalent: an A-Z of the best birds seen travelling under my own steam. Quality of the photos was a criteria in the 'brown' version but I'm afraid I don't have that luxury for this one!  We start, with indisputable logic, with the letter 'A': an Alpine Swift at Old Harry Rocks in May 2022, which took two attempts to catch up with, was a strong contender, as was an 'in the hand' Aquatic Warbler at Lytchett Bay in August of the same year, at which I arriv ..read more

It was a barn-storming April for the non-motorised yearlist, during which I added rarities (Forster's Tern, Hoopoe, Night Heron, Woodchat Shrike, Dotterel), scarcities (Dipper, Nightingale, Scaup, Ring Ouzel, Pied Flycatcher, Great White Egret, Grasshopper Warbler) plus 23 other species to the tally. May also got off to a reasonable start with a May Day Hobby, but my first twitch of any distance on the bike was for a Little Gull at Longham Lakes. It took two attempts to see it with a successful 28 mile round trip on the 7th. Little Gull, Longham Lakes, 7th May Little Gull ..read more

With the nights drawing in there's a bit more time to sit in front of the laptop of an evening and ponder the big questions in life, like 'could I do an A-Z of decent rare bird photos I've taken in the UK'? At the risk of ruining the suspense, the answer is 'no' - there isn't a species on the British list that begins with 'X' - but this is my best shot otherwise: A: I've seen several species which begin with 'American' so plenty of options here, though I've gone for something different: Alpine Accentor. A cheeky half-day off saw me racing the sunset to the Suffolk coast at Slaughden in October ..read more

After working until midnight on Friday night, I wasn't feeling up to a big bike ride on Saturday morning, so I bimbled around Hartland Moor, eventually making my way to the hide at Middlebere over high tide. It was pretty quiet though the Avocet flock was building up nicely to over 250 birds, half a dozen Spotted Redshank and a Great White Egret were nice to see, and passing Marsh Harriers and Hobbies kept everything on its toes.  As I was making myself comfortable in the hide, news broke of a Red-breasted Flycatcher on Portland. I'd not seen this species travelling under my own steam be ..read more

My plan, hatched in January, to concentrate this year on new birds for the non-motorised life list (as opposed to yearlisting) has one significant limitation - namely, the appearance of birds which I haven't already seen. With the list standing at 267 species at the end of 2023, most of the 'easy' stuff, quite a few minor rarities and even a couple of 'megas' were already on the list, and the options obviously narrow with each new species seen. The first sniff of a new bird in 2024 - a Little Bunting at East Morden on 4th February - evaporated no sooner than it had been discovered, and I had t ..read more