I knew I shouldn’t have taken them Cattle Egret eggs

Now that I have your attention I can inform you of some birdie from the past week or so news:


I had some problems with my Swarovski tripod so I emailed Swarovski Optik in the UK and they told me to send it to them. They informed me that they would either fix it free of charge or if it was better to give me a new one this would be done. So I waited a short while and then came the delivery man with my brand news Swarovski tripod! Then a few days later came a letter from Swarovski with a cheque for the amount of postage I paid to send them my old tripod! Now that is what I call service!

Anyhow, it has been quite a good week on the birding front. My Dad is on holiday from work and my Mum is just plain on holiday in Palma soaking up the sun. So me and my Dad have gone out birding quite a lot, although my Dad hasn’t admitted it I think he is starting to like just a little bit more than what he used to. On Thursday we went away to Leighton Moss RSPB and had a pretty average day but we did see some quite good birds whilst there. The highlight was when the local Lapwings and Starlings all went up clearly an indicator of a predator in the area. My Dad spotted it pretty much straight away through my bins and I managed to get my scope onto it and it was a juv Peregrine, its inexperienced showed as it say on the post looking like it wasn’t to sure what to do. It eventually flew up and disappeared behind the mounds of grassland and we saw it soon after chasing two pigeons and then chased one right over the top of us over the hide, fantastic!

We had a good day at Salthome on Saturday (yesterday) and I saw the long staying Whiskered Tern, about time it nicked off as its starting to feel common! Other highlights included a bit of a wader fest with Avocet, Greenshank, Whimbrel, and Black-tailed Godwits being the highlights.

(Whiskered Tern - Again! - Andrew K)

(Avocet - Andrew Kinghorn)

(Black-tailed Godwits - Andrew Kinghorn)

(Dunlin - Andrew Kinghorn)

(Snipe - Andrew Kinghorn)

Today was a good day with a text from Long Story Cuttin’ it Short who alerted me that a Black-necked Grebe was on part of his local patch. I went to go and see the bird and got a shot for my Flickr album. Also around where 2 Green Sandpipers and a Willow Warbler still singing, presumably he wants to find a mate and raise a family again before the long trip back south?

(Black-necked Grebe - Herrington County Park)

Until next time, Foghorn out!