Displaying Goshawk Thursley Common

A good day was had at Thursley Common on Sunday with a couple of friends. We enjoyed good, though distant views of a displaying male Goshawk and good views of a Woodlark. This brings my year list up to 132. No Dartfords or Stonechats... the snow must have killed some birds off then... :-(. David.

Blasted Golden Oriole...

Having heard constant reports of continental birds rolling in, I decided to try my luck at Bockhill. Rarity count: ZERO. I missed 5 crossbills and a Golden Oriole at Kingsdown by an hour. Seems to be the story of my life, really.

I had a fairly good time on the cliffs, but the peregrines showed at fewer intervals than usual and it was always hard to capture them as the autofocus locked onto the sea. I did manage to take a few quality shots, seconds before noticing a rather bemused fulmar sitting on a ledge only a metre or so from me.

Donana Trip April 2008

Hi, Ben here. I returned from a fantastic holiday to southern Spain last week, and what a great week I had! I managed to tick all but one of my target species (Baillon's Crake), and have photographs of all the best birds on my Flickr site. Of twitching interest I saw a Pied Kingfisher, a Bald Ibis and the best rarity of them all: an adult male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, which was seen by three other birders. Just a shame that it was too dark to photograph as it kept to the top branches of a stone-pine. Here are five of my best shots: Greater Flamingo, Purple Heron, Purple Gallinule, Montagu's Harrier and Squacco Heron. These individuals were very confiding; all seen within a few metres of me, some from a hide, others from the car.

Go BIGBY!

Hey everyone, sorry for not posting much lately.

I just wanted to make sure everybody knows about BIGBYing, or participating in a Big Green Big Year. It's simple - you count every bird that you see that didn't require use of a gas-guzzling vehicle on any part of the trip, from door to door (not sure about buses though...). Catch a train, bike to your local patch. It's much more challenging than regular ol' birding and is guilt free. You can sign up and become an official BIGBYer, or just do it on your own:

http://www.sparroworks.ca/bigby.html

Please consider joining the group of BIGBYers. We are the next generation of birders! We can pioneer this new trend and make a difference! It's so easy -- why not?! Especially since half of us can't drive yet!!

Some phone-binned garden bird videos

Here are some videos I took by holding my camera phone up to my binoculars. I was a bit bored while my mum and nan were chatting downstairs so tried this method, not expecting much but it actually came out alright.

Cat and Goldfinch

Female Blackbird

In order of appearance: Blue Tit, female Blackbird, House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Starlings and finally the female Blackbird again