Tales From An Essex Birder

I have been dying to get out to the Yorkshire coast in the autumn time for a long while now. For whatever reason, i just haven't been able to do it over the past few years. Whether living abroad in Dublin, or being without a car in Liverpool, I have year on year missed the boat with autumn migration. Despite a pretty rammed schedule consisting of trips back to London and plenty of uni work to be getting on with, I managed to set aside a weekend in mid October to live out my migration fantasies. 18/10/2025 Marc agreed to join me on this endeavour, providing some much welcome company. So after a 7am start, we hopped into the trusted Mini and headed east towards the coast - with hopes of seeing something special. The journey was fairly straight forward and passed quickly. Our first stop of choice was to be the South Landing car park next to Flamborough observatory where, upon arrival, we could immediately tell that there were a gluttony of birds to be found. In the car park alone ther...

 After moving back to Liverpool - my home away from home - to start a PhD, I have had relatively little time to go birding. However, weaponised by the addition of a car, I now have the freedom of travel without any reliance on public transport. This was exercised on a trip to Burton Mere a few weeks prior which yielded a White Stork (that I refound) as well as Spotted Redshank and Spoonbill. So, when news broke of a stunning male Woodchat Shrike on the Bridgewater Canal in Daresbury, Cheshire, I simply couldn't resist it. With a gluttony of great photos surfacing on Twitter (I refuse to call it X) and the birding seemingly stay put, I hopped in the car with the intention of my first twitch upon returning to Merseyside. Luckily, the journey was short, picking up my good friend Marc on the way also allowed for some top company and some good chats. We soon arrived, after parking up at a local housing estate, we embarked on the walk to the pin point that our trusted BirdGuides had prov...

 As usual, Abberton Reservoir has delivered the goods this winter with a gluttony of the season's specialty species on offer in around the reserve currently. Back from Ireland for just under a week, I jumped at the opportunity to go birdwatching at my county's premier location.  1st trip - 16/02/2025 Setting off fairly late to the reservoir with my parents and girlfriend, I had initially intended to have a chilled couple of hours at the reservoir. But, as always this was not the case, I couldn't help but run round the reservoir chasing the less common species. After a jaunt to the visitor centre to learn about the day's sightings, we decided that the first stop was to be the Layer-de-la-haye causeway. In the highly exposed winds, it was seriously chilly as we ventured. out to a central spot on the causeway. Along the way an Egyptian Goose , some Goosander and Goldeneye kept me company. A prolonged scan at first revealed the usual Great Crested Grebes . However, a siz...

 I'm really enjoying birdwatching in Essex at the moment. Admittedly this is because my county has had the spoil of all the sightings in East Anglia - the thought of travelling to Norfolk when there is more to be seen in my own county is certainly not an appealing prospect at the moment.  Still revelling in the glory of the Yank pair of Canvasback and Northern Waterthrush which have directed most of the nation's twitchers to Essex, I decided to go for my third lifer in my own county on the trot! After receiving excellent directions from a kind birdwatcher on twitter, a trip to Bradwell-on-sea was in order. Having never visited this reserve before, I really wasn't sure what to expect. It truly felt like I was in the middle of nowhere as I passed field upon field before arriving at Bradwell-on-sea which consisted of - yep, you guessed it - more fields!  As I parked the car and set off on the sizeable walk towards the goose's favoured fields, the bushes initially seemed qu...

Revelling in my newfound freedom post essay deadlines I decided on a trip to Abberton Reservoir, my favourite reserve in Essex, in the hope of seeing Smew and some of the other goodies that had been spotted by the throng of twitchers many of whom - after seeing the Waterthrush - descended on Abberton Reservoir. This had resulted in the large expanse of the reservoir being well-covered over the past couple of weeks. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and give it a go myself. I arrived casually in the late morning and decided to have a look around the reserve before heading to the various causeways or viewpoints. Before I'd even walked into the visitor centre, I noticed a large number of winter thrushes congregating by the car park, a look in the scope revealed that these were in fact Fieldfare - a lovely start to the day's proceedings.  Fieldfare This was to be the theme throughout the day as the reserve itself revealed a gluttony of winter thrushes. Posing by the bushes o...

 The day was another mundane Thursday. In the midst of writing a uni essay, I had struggled to find time to get out birding and had thus far not ventured out to get my year list kickstarted. However, this was about to change. The previous night, a report on BirdGuides revealed that a Northern Waterthrush had been photographed in a local garden in Maldon - only a half hour drive from my house. Although briefly delighted I had tried to contain my excitement as rarities found in gardens are often either never seen again or access is restricted. Fast forward to the following morning and the news that this mega bird had been seen in a nearby creek immediately set the alarm bells ringing. Initially, I simply hoped it would remain long enough to connect with the bird after the due date of my essay (4 days later). But returning to my work jittery and unable to concentrate after receiving such mega news, I decided to drop everything in an attempt to see the bird. As I fired up the mini for ...