Paul's Birding Diary

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.

Sunday 5th September 2010 I returned to see the RED-NECKED PHALAROPE for the third time at WWT Slimbridge again this afternoon, hoping for a closer view but still as distant as it was on Thursday. I was also hoping to catch up with another bird, one I missed in the Spring, and as luck would have it, the juvenile WOOD SANDPIPER flew into view on the Top New Piece (from Zeiss Hide) at 4.20 this afternoon, fed for a few minutes amongst the vegatation, flew calling and posed for half a minute with the ducks and then disappeared again at 4.35pm; I didn't have time to look for it on South Lake. Yesterday there were nice views of juvenile Curlew Sandpipers with two on the Top New Piece and later one on South lake (above) and also a Little Stint on the TNP, plus 48 Dunlin , two Ruff and the RED-NECKED PHALAROPE . Two Spotted Redshanks were on South Lake yesterday and on the TNP today, and up to four Ruff and at least 70 Black-tailed Godwits were also on site between the two areas.