Tales From An Essex Birder

 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...

 After a last minute decision to switch location from Leasowe to Frodsham Marsh, me and Marc headed towards Cheshire in the hope of some ornithological goodies. With a myriad of spring specialities on offer at the marsh - Green-winged Teal, Ring Ouzel and Garganey to name a few. All of the following pictures are taken by Marc. Nevertheless, we crossed the bridge over the M56 and arrived at the marsh at about quarter to 3. The first port of call was to be the paddock, which we both scanned to no avail. A few Blackbirds got the heart racing but me and Marc failed to turn one into a Ring Ouzel. Heading left towards the tanks, we carried on in the drizzle to the soundtrack of Chiffchaffs whilst Swallows flew overhead. A distant Marsh Harrier was a good addition to the day's list. After walking up the incline onto the path, we eventually arrived at the number six tank and decided to have a scan. Nothing of note was picked up on the water, however a male Blackcap provided some worthw...

 After a chaotic couple of weeks of gigs and uni assignments, I finally find myself with a bit of time on my hands to write the blog again. Needless to say, being in my final year of uni has meant that the amount of time that I have spent in the field has been somewhat limited. As a result, I will cover my last two trips out in this same blog post. Martin Mere - 24/01/2023 After dipping a Yellow-Browed Warbler at Burton Mere in the autumn last year, I had still failed to see this leaf warbler. So when a wintering individual at the sewage works of WWT Martin Mere turned up, it proved to be too tempting to resist. I played it extremely casually and it took me a few weeks or so after it turned up for me to finally get the chance to go and see it.  But alas, me and the main man Marc ventured out to the reserve via public transport on an extremely blustery day in the hopes of connecting with the target. With an uncharacteristically early start, we were at the sewage works by about ...

After a night which featured very little sleep (as is typical of a Saturday night at uni) I had arranged to go to Marshside with Marc in order to try and connect with the Lesser Yellowlegs that had been gracing the reserve for the last week or so. However, news that the Hoopoe - which had been photographed the day before - was still present at Ince Blundell was just too tempting to resist. Despite having never seen one, the Hoopoe was a truly special bird to me and one of my favourite species without doubt. I can still remember receiving an eye spy book that featured this funky mediterranean bird amongst many other species. The beauty and punk nature of the species had me hooked instantly. I have previously dipped the species in Coverack, Cornwall over two years ago on my 18th birthday so my desire to see the species only intensified. Anyway, fast forward to the 30th October... me and Marc hopped on the train to high town and then embarked on the half hour walk to the site with virtual...

Having been back at uni in Liverpool for close to a week, it was decided that some birding was certainly in order. Thus me and Marc decided on a trip to WWT Martin Mere due to its good public transport links as well as the reserve having hosted both a Purple Heron and a Spotted Crake the day prior.  The arranged meeting time was 10am at Liverpool central station, however an impromptu night out and the losing of my phone resulted in me waking up at quarter to 11 and turning up an hour and a half late still pissed. Safe to say this was not my finest start to a birding trip and poor Marc had been waiting for me all that time! After apologising loads, we eventually got going. 2 trains and a couple of hours later we eventually arrived at the reserve. In broke student style we walked through a footpath at the back and hopped a fence - managing to get in without paying the entrance fee! A stop in the first hide revealed a decent amount of action with large numbers of finches taking advant...

It's been a solid 9 months since the last blog post and I can only apologise for inactivity - however it was a flurry of top birds that has given me back the bug for both twitching and blogging. Ever since dipping an American Robin earlier in the year (the less said about that the better) my luck has been in and I've had four successful twitches on the bounce - all of which I plan to document on here. 29/05/2022 The first of this series of birds rocked up on 29th May 2022. Having just finished my second year of uni, I found myself with some time on my hands for the first time in the while - which I planned to utilise by birding as much as possible. The day was intended to be a lazy one. I awoke with a lousy hangover due to some excess drinking the previous night - a standard procedure at uni - and I remained in bed until around midday. However, all was about to change when I received the update from Birdguides that the touring White-Tailed Lapwing had stopped off at Bickershaw...

The constant revision during my Cheshire stay often resulted in life feeling somewhat mundane. After the previous day's success with the Siberian Stonechat twitch, I decided to keep things interesting. News of Whooper and Bewick's Swans within walking distance of where I was staying proved just too tempting to resist. So, after revising hard, I decided to try my luck at the two species in the light that remained. Off I set with high hopes and visions of interesting Swans - the flittering of 3 Long-tailed Tits just before entering the marsh were a nice welcome. As a first-timer there, I was shocked at the sheer size of the place with seemingly never-ending fields in front of me. After some helpful directions from a fellow birder, I set off in the direction of the Swans just as a Kestrel hovered close by. Eventually, my chosen path led me up to the grazing marsh where I was greeted by a large number of distant Lapwing - with a solitary Great Black-backed Gull mixed in. So...

Having not been to see a rarity more than an hour from my location, I'd consider myself a somewhat modest twitcher. So when news of a Siberian/Stejneger's Stonechat in Cheshire came up on BirdGuides, I started to feel twitchy and just couldn't help going for it. Despite my Twitter handle suggesting that I've travelled up from Essex to see the bird, I have in fact been staying in Cheshire with my grandparents - a mere 25 minute drive away from the site in which the bird was seen. Circumstances (in other words revision) meant that I only had a couple of hours to have a good crack at seeing the bird. So, after an early start and 3 hours of revision, I managed to find sufficient time to have a go at the bird. The pre-twitch feelings of mild nervousness began to strike me on the drive to the Flashes, however news that the bird had been seen half an hour prior gave me some encouragement. On arrival, we spotted a few birders to reaffirm that we were in fact in the right plac...

A visit to my Grandparents' house up in Cheshire meant only one thing for me - some left of field birding! With this in mind I decided to take a trip to Hope Carr nature reserve in order to try and add the reported Blyth's Reed Warbler to my life list. After a fairly late start, me and my Dad embarked towards Leigh in search of the site. However, it proved extremely hard to find, and if it wasn't for the help of Elliot Montieth, we'd probably still be somewhere in Greater Manchester now! Anyway, eventually we found the place (which was not the most glamorous reserve I've been to) and, seeing fellow birders, we headed towards the perimeter fence opposite the Industrial estate. Speaking to a few of the guys raised my hopes of seeing the bird as they had had brief glimpses and views of the Warbler in flight. A  Goosander  got the day's list off to an interesting start, providing a year tick of a bird that is seldom seen on my patch. After searching for the...