Wales day 2 and 3 Choughed to Bits

 

Day 2 we drove to Fishguard finding a Black Guillemot in the harbour, heard Grasshopper Warbler in a reed bed near by. At Strumble Head plenty of Manx Shearwaters off shore.

 

Day 3 Stopping overnight in Pembroke we headed off early am to St.Martins Haven. Before getting the boat to Skomer found 2 pairs Choughs   

 

Pair of choughs

Arriving on Skomer Guillemots Razorbills and Puffins everywhere, plus some more Choughs Wheatears, and a Spotted Flycatcher

Guillemot

Razorbills

Spotted Flycatcher

Wheatear

 

 

 

Also those Puffins

 

 

 

Finally a Raven

Wales day 1 18th May

 

 

 

 

A couple of days in Wales with Paul, Bob and Christine. We first stopped off on a hill near Abergavenny the target being Red Grouse which was found fairly quickly and likewise the other target species of Winchat, Dipper, Pied and Spotted Flycatcher and Wood Warbler 

 

 

Red Grouse

Red Grouse

Winchat

Winchat

Dipper

Dipper

Pied Flycatcher

Pied Flycatcher

Wood Warbler

Wood Warbler



Green-veined White

Back to France Mon 14th April.

A day trip to France taking in Crecy Forest that was bird less,  a walk around the outskirts of Marquenterre found this Blackcap with an unusual song and Crested Tit high up in the pines 

Our main target was Bluethroat and after a couple of sites Paul found one at Sailly Bray where we had been last year without any luck

 

On the pools at Le Crotoy there were, White Storks flying over, 3 Cattle Egrets, a drake Garganey and  Spoonbills

Monday 31st March 2014 I couldn't resist it

 

 

 

Monday 31st March do I go to work or twitch the Hoopoe at Climping - Paula says twitch the Hoopoe so off we go - on it straight away when we got there but was always quite distant.

 

next stop was to Swanbourne lake where we got the best ever views of a Firecrest

As things were going well we then went to Coldwaltham and took another view of the Great Grey Shrike. Possibly one of my top 10birds

Off to France Thursday 13th March 2014

 
 

 

Thursday 13th March Chris, Christine, Bob and I took the 7.50 Eurotunnel and within an hour and a half we were in Crecy Forest which was alive with Bird song mainly Nuthatches. Spending 3 hours at various sites we had brief views of what we think were Middle Spotted and Black Woodpeckers, I also managed to get onto a Short Toed Treecreeper but the others didn't.

 

Our next stop was at Marquenterre 

 

Avocet

Spoonbills - 5 of the 40 plus seen

Close up Teal

In the Heronry Spoonbills were building nests and the Storks repairing theirs as they use them all year round as a roost.

After a lot of searching we found the pair of Night Herons hidden amoungst a Willow

Night Heron

There were still a few Whooper Swans that hadn't moved north despite the warm weather.

Whooper Swan

Staying over night at Mers Les Bains near Le Treport the plan was to visit the pools at Ault, however with thick fog along the coast we heade back to Crecy Forest but other than the common birds no Woodpeckers were seen or heard. Next we went to Sailly Bray a bit early for Bluethroats but we a couple of great White Egrets, Marsh Harrier, Med gulls, Cettis, and we all had good views of another Short-toed Treecreeper.

Next stop was at Stella Plage near Cucq for Crested Lark - this was a bit of a gamble as there were miles of sand dunes but once leaving the car park in the first dune a bird was spotted in the marrum grass. 

It soon disappeared but Christine relocated it and we all got a reasonable look but when it flew to the beach and then onto the car park we were happy it was a Crested Lark much larger than our skylark

Crested Lark

Crested Lark



A good couple of days with warm weather and good company