It was bitterly cold again over the weekend. Although temperatures didn't quite plummet as low as they did a fortnight ago, nor did the snow return, the brisk easterly wind was absolutely awful to be out in. Nevertheless, it did produce a nice adult Little Gull over the wader pit at BLGP. I say wader pit, as things stand there won't be many waders on here this spring as water levels are probably a good two feet above what they were at this time last year. Hopefully it's not the end of this site but things are presently not looking too good. Little Gull, Baston & Langtoft Pits, 18 Marc ..read more

An adult Red-throated Diver turned up in Peterborough during the cold weather last week, and I paid it a couple of visits. On my second visit, the bird spent its time exclusively floating motionless, closing its eyes, and I assumed it was a goner. It has since perked up and moved to Ferry Meadows, where it seems much healthier. Red-throated Diver, Thorpe Meadows Rowing Lake, March 2018 Local birding has otherwise been reasonable enough, with a good passage of birds once the thaw set in, with species such as Pintail and Mediterranean Gull at BLGP and the returning adult Yellow-legg ..read more

This week has become progressively colder in Lincolnshire, with up to a foot of snow having fallen in places by yesterday evening and the temperature having not risen above freezing for three days now. The so-called "Beast from the East" (vomit) has really tightened its grip over the past 48 hours. I've not had chance to do any proper birding yet this week due to work, but a few bits of note. First of all, a single Lesser Redpoll visited my mother's feeders on Monday afternoon, just as the first few flakes of snow began to fall. By Tuesday, the first good snowfall started to concentrate bi ..read more

I will try to produce a more lengthy photo-blog from my January trip to Kuwait with Sam Viles in due course, but in the meantime here is an article I wrote on the few days for the BirdGuides website: www.birdguides.com/articles/a-weekend-in-kuwait Grey Hypocolius, Sulaibhikat, 13 January 2018 ..read more

All in all, a fairly low-key weekend. On Friday I joined Peter Alfrey at Beddington for a couple of hours. We enjoyed the (very white) juvenile Glaucous, the regular juvenile Iceland and a chunky first-winter Caspian among the large numbers of gulls using the (for now) still-active landfill site. I also glimpsed a Mediterranean Gull, which I think gripped Pete off a bit as they've gone very scarce here in winter. Glaucous Gull flies in front of the Beddington 'Death Star' - much more on this obscenity at Pete's blog. On Sunday I popped over to see the Horned Lark at Staines, but it was favo ..read more

While at Choshi Port, Japan, in late January I happened across a ringed, but somewhat unhealthy looking, adult Vega Gull. My assumption was that this might have been ringed locally but, when it transpired that it didn't belong to a Japanese scheme, my ears were pricked. I've just had word back from the Bird Ringing Centre in Moscow that this is a Russian bird. It was ringed in the Chaunskiy district of Chukotka, Russia, on 22 July 2017 and my sighting at Choshi is the first since then. More impressively, Choshi is 4,107 km from where this bird was ringed - quite incredible, and easily my ..read more

It's been a particularly quiet weekend around my local spots, with precious little among the gulls. Aside the usual Bittern and Jack Snipe combination (which are always nice), the highlight of the weekend was a smart Black-tailed Godwit on the wader scrape at WWT London on Sunday afternoon. Black-tailed Godwit, WWT London, 4 February 2018. Herring Gull Y:G41 originates from Rufforth Tip, North Yorkshire, where it was ringed on 30 June 2017. Since then it's been seen intermittently along the Thames in west London, popping up again this weekend ..read more

I was out of the country when the American Horned Lark first appeared at Staines Reservoirs, Surrey, last November. Arriving back on the Tuesday after its initial appearance, I gave the lark a few hours before work that day, only to miss it - was seen again later that day, but then disappeared for the remainder of 2018. So it was with mixed emotions that I read the news on 22nd that the bird was back. Pleased that it had reappeared, but less pleased with the fact that I was sat in north-eastern Hokkaido, Japan. Of course, its presence hardly detracted from where I was, having spent an afterno ..read more

Had a nice day at Dungeness with Rich, Dante and Niall. En route we stopped at Crayford, where a Mediterranean Gull was seen among the good numbers of congregated birds at Jolly Farmers. Then it was down to a rather breezy Dungeness fishing boats, where the regular Caspian Gull was still performing well - this bird is easily the most photographed Casp in Britain this winter and has probably been seen by hundreds of birders since it turned up in September. Still, it's a very elegant individual and always worth photographing. 2cy Caspian Gull, Dungeness, 7 January 2018 Moving down to The P ..read more

Thanks to Lee Fuller and Ian Wells for their help in photographing this beautiful male at Romsey, Hampshire ..read more