Tales From An Essex Birder

 Since passing my driving test in April, I have been itching to drive to my first serious twitch. So when news of a Roller in Suffolk was released on BirdGuides, I faced a nervous wait until the Sunday when I was free to twitch the bird. The reasonable hour and a quarter drive from my house to the site coupled with reports of great views meant that I couldn't resist twitching the bird. Luckily the Roller did the generous thing and decided to stay put for the Sunday. Waking up, I experienced the first pre-twitch nerves that I've had for a long while. But after constantly refreshing Birdguides, I saw to my delight that the bird had been reported in the morning. After seeing this, I hastily packed my birding gear into the car and set off to Icklingham (the sight of the twitch) with my Dad. Luckily, the journey was fairly straightforward and very little traffic was encountered - another good sign that I may connect with the bird.  Eventually we arrived at the site. Often it can be...

What a year 2019 has been for me bird-wise! During the year I managed to amass a modest total of 178 species. Here is my birding 2019 as follows: The year started slowly with only a couple of trips down to Rainham Marshes in January - the most interesting birds of note being Ruff , Stonechat and Fieldfare . Believe it or not, a Cetti's warbler was my first lifer of the year! Things started to pick up in the month of February . Despite a fail attempt to see a Blyth's Reed Warbler at Hope Carr nature reserve (believe me we tried), a Green Sandpiper (another lifer) was seen as well as a flyover Goosander . A trip to Pennington Flash after the dip also yielded another lifer - the less common Willow Tit along with some stunning Bullfinches at very close range. March was a particularly good month at Rainham Marshes as I managed 3 patch ticks including 1 lifer. These ticks came in the form of 4 Golden Plover , a flyover Red Kite and even a self found (and somewhat jammy...

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...

For a sixth former like myself the Christmas period means only one thing... revision. However, I was gladly able to have a days break from the slog and elected to go birding a bit further afield. After some consideration, I decided I would pay a visit to my favourite nature reserve in Norfolk -  Holkham. This was mainly to try my luck again at the Shorelark and Snow Bunting that I'd unwillingly dipped almost a year to the day, and maybe even jam in on a White-fronted Goose or two. The day started off poorly when - despite it being 7:30 in the morning, my father and I were stuck in standstill traffic. This, and the fact that it was the shortest day of the year, really had me worrying about how much time I would be able to spend birding. Gladly, we eventually managed to get moving again and arrived at Lady Anne's drive at around 10:45. Birding proceedings began promisingly when a Stonechat hopped out obligingly - a matter of metres from our car - and was eventually joined by...

After all the hype and great things I read about Migfest on Twitter last year - and seeing some of the incredible birds that Spurn draw in - I simply couldn't resist going to the festival. A 4 hour drive and a flyby Tawny Owl somewhere in Lincolnshire saw us arrive at our chosen B&B for the night, before heading down to Spurn the next morning for day 1 of MigFest. Day 1 - 7/9/19 As it was my first time at Spurn I genuinely didn't know what to expect. So when we turned up at Westemere farm to pitch up our tents and were greeted by the worn down barn, I must admit I had a brief moment of slight concern (which soon disappeared)! After pitching up the tents we decided to head down to the Seawatching hide in the hope of seeing some lifers (as I have very little experience with seawatching). On arrival, a large crowd greeted me as well as vast amounts of Gannets (lifer) with a good passage of Sandwich Terns and a Fulmar (lifer). However, my seawatch only lasted around ...

A lot has happened birding wise since I last posted on this blog. Visits to Rainham, Lynford Arboretum and Santon Downham provided me with 9 lifers in the month of April. The highlight of which was a White Stork that I watched fly over the Serin mound on our London young birders trip (which I intended to blog but lost my whole writeup). So when, news broke out of a Bonaparte's Gull and 5 White Winged Black Terns at Abberton Reservoir, I couldn't resist doing some bank holiday birding. After a bit of persuasion, me and my Dad embarked on the hour-long journey to the reserve. On arrival at the car park, we were serenaded by displaying Skylark ; their song, a beautiful way to start the day off. After getting organised in the visitor centre and buying an obligatory pack of Maltesers, we headed out onto the reserve. The path to Gwen's hide provided the first birds of note, with an abundance of Swifts (my first of the year) helping to distract me from my pre-twitch nerves -...