The Young Birder

Finally, after a winter of mostly grey, wet days, it feels like it might just be spring!  This is a really interesting time of year, where winter migrants are starting to head back to their breeding grounds and our summer breeding visitors are starting to arrive. Its the time of year where local birding gets more exciting, as you never know what might turn up. Spring got off to a good start a couple of days ago up on the Malvern Hills (one of my regular stomping grounds) when I was very pleased to encounter this male Wheatear , my first of 2024. One of my favourite spring migrants, this Wheatear will be heading north to breed, perhaps in northern England or even Scandinavia.  Chiffchaffs are starting to arrive in good numbers now with freshly arrived migrants from the Mediterranean turning up every day on my local birding sites. A few of these birds might actually be overwintering birds which didn't leave Britain for the winter, a phenomenon which has been occurring much more frequ

The north Norfolk coast in winter is a very special place - huge open skies, vast expanses of saltmarsh and large numbers of wintering bird species. I've been lucky enough to visit a few times now and  I went up there again for a week in early January this year - although most days being clear and sunny, though the force 7 north-easterly wind did make it rather chilly to say the least! My first location of the trip was RSPB Titchwell Marsh, where 5 years ago I saw my first ever Bearded Tit and Bittern. The scrapes and reedbeds were very   quiet, with just a few Shoveler , Teal and Wigeon to be seen. Down on the beach there were a few more bits around, including a flock of 200+ Bar-tailed Godwit and a group of 6 Sanderling .  Titchwell is a very reliable site to see Sanderling in winter -   as the species is site-faithful, they will often return to the same site year on year. Sanderling have a rather sweet feeding habit, where they run along the tide line, probing for food as they

It's been a while now since my trip to Spurn and I'm birding locally again...  I'll start off with this splendid male Snow Bunting  which was seen around the summit of the Worcestershire Beacon, Malvern Hills, for around a week during late October. The Beacon has become a frequent stop-off point for the species; last year a female overwintered there. They often seem to be  indifferent to passers-by and even dogs. I'm pretty sure its an adult male, with the large white patch on the primary coverts, spade shaped greater coverts,  thick brown edges to the tertials and the rounded tips to the tail feathers clinching it.  The contrastingly pale mantle (upper back) with the brown of the scapulars (the feathers between the back and coverts) suggest that it is of the sub species  nivalis , which occurs in Scandinavia and westwards into Greenland. Snow Bunting's are a bird of extremely harsh environments where they are perfectly adapted to cope. Like other birds which are fo

Last month, I was lucky enough to spend a week birding at Spurn Bird Observatory, Yorkshire, on the North East coast. After visiting in September ( click HERE to see my previous Spurn blog post ), I was hooked and keen to go again in peak migration season. Spurn Bird Observatory's recording area stretches from Easington, right down the the far end of the point, and is well known among birders for having a very impressive list of rarities. Spurn is also known for receiving huge numbers of commoner migrants during peak passage period. I was lucky to have timed my visit just right as the weather conditions that week were near-enough perfect; overcast, light rain and easterly wind. I've included this photo of a Goldcrest first as they were one of the highlights of the trip, which were arriving throughout the week.  They were absolutely everywhere, even in the pub car park! Wherever I walked Goldcrests were flitting around and calling all around - very special to see. It is unbeli