Paul's Birding Diary

Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th November 2010 A male Reed Bunting was present for much of today on my bird table (above) ; counts of 24 Chaffinches (yesterday) and nine Greenfinches (today) were the highest so far of the winter. A walk around the local Quedgeley patch yesterday produced a Water Rail at the canal end of Dimore Brook, and a Kingfisher between here and Clearwater.

Sunday 21st November 2010 I am still trying to re-acclimatise to the cold following my recent holiday in hot and sunny Tenerife; I'll post a report from the holiday soon. Perhaps a spell in the Holden Tower would be just the thing to toughen me back up, I thought! With just a flask of hot tea to keep me going, a coupe of hours this morning at the trust produced a good selection of birds including a gull apparently matching the one photographed by James on 12th , believed to be a hybrid Herring and Lesser Black-backed. The photographs below show the bird compared to the standard 'local' specification Argenteus Herring. The large size of the bird, especially the head and bill makes me wonder whether the Lesser B. liaison was with an Argentatus (Scandanavian) Herring.

Saturday 23rd October 2010 The Oxford juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs was showing well in the morning sun at Port Meadow this morning (above and below) . It was well worth the journey, especially being a lifer for myself, Andy and Mark. A good supporting cast completed the Three Amigos trip, including a Jack Snipe with 14 common Snipe , a Ruff , five Dunlin , c380 Golden Plovers , c420 Wigeon and two flyover Redwings heading south.

Friday 24th September 2010 I made the assent (Ok, I'm being dramatic - it was a fairly quick climb from Elim Arts Centre, West Malvern) up North Hil l , on The Malverns, this afternoon and was rewarded with fantastic views of two LAPLAND BUNTINGS , around the summit. I took loads of photos, this is just a selection.

Friday 17th to Sunday 19th September 2010 I made the journey to Upton Warren, Worcestershire, this afternoon to see a first-winter GREY PHALAROPE (above and below) , showing well on the flashes. Other birds of note were two juvenile Little Stints (below) , a Green Sandpiper , two Common Sandpipers and a Peregrine . The two juvenile PECTORAL SANDPIPERS were still showing from the Robbie Garnett Hide yesterday morning (below) , I'd checked them out after work on Friday but went back for a longer look; two Wheatears , a Peregrine , five Bar-tailed Godwits and a Grey Plover were seen from the Holden Tower.

Saturday 11th September 2010 The highlight this morning was two Ospreys at Frampton on Court Lake (above) . After that excitement things were pretty quiet at Fretherne with just a few warblers in the shape of a Lesser Whitethroat and three Chiffchaffs of note and equally quiet at Sharpness despite the impressive tide; again the only interest here was a few warblers, another Lesser Whitethroat , a Blackcap and more Chiffchaffs . A visit to WWT Slimbridge to round off the morning produced a second-winter Mediterranean Gull , 2-3 Wheatears , 5+ Yellow Wagtails , a and three GreenshankRuff on the Dumbles, a Garden Warbler was along the Holden walkway and a juvenile Black Tern was on South Lake (below) .

Tuesday 7th September 2010 Two Black Terns (above and below - same bird) were on the sailing lake at Frampton this evening, until dusk at least, also a Common Tern and a Kingfisher ; another Kingfisher was on Court lake.