Kristian's Wildlife Blog

With plans to perhaps go birdwatching down south for the White-Crowned Sparrow this weekend, things changed when reports of rare Scoters started turning up from Lower Largo in Fife, Scotland. Surprisingly, I'd been in Lower Largo only several weeks earlier while working up near Perth. We set off, with Austin driving and me and Carl as passengers, at around 4am, arriving at the village before 8. There were plenty of birders there, and this was a good thing as I would have really struggled to pick these birds out on my own! Very quickly, I was watching a drake Surf Scoter through someone else's scope (thanks Ray!). These North American ducks are fairly regular visitors to the UK, and in my opinion are the most distinctive Scoter species. The views were amazing, my previous sighting of this species was much more distant. I also saw my first few Black-Throated Divers , some looking great in breeding plumage! The group we were standing with also picked out a drake White-Winged Scot...

Back at Pennington Flash again this afternoon. Thankfully, a few Little Gulls were still hanging around. I counted at least three adult birds, one of which showed much better than my visit on Friday. The light was still poor, but this bird flew within 20 metres of the shore line At one point, the sailing boats came pretty close to the spit, forcing the Little Gulls and several Common Terns towards the northern shore. The sailors didn't seem too interested in the Little Gull above their heads The bird of the day though was a Black Tern . I spotted it almost immediately on a buoy, but it performed several flights around the flash while I was there. With lots of Sand Martins, Swallows and House Martins over the water, it was difficult to keep track of at times. The Black Tern is a holarctic species, but in Europe it is a more common breeder further east. Apparently they did used to breed in the UK, but now are passage migrants that turn up regularly on inland waterbodies such as Pen...

After spending the week on holiday visiting family in Mallorca, I was glad the inland Little Gull influx continued until I got a chance to catch up with them! After work, I made the short trip to Pennington Flash Country Park, near Leigh, where there have been some impressive numbers over the last few days. I soon picked up several distantly from the car park, so made my round to the far side of the flash. They never came particularly close, but these were only my second Little Gulls and my first in summer plumage so I was super happy to see them! Their characteristic, tern-like flight was the key ID feature when viewing distantly They spent the majority of the time in the middle of the flash I watched them for about an hour as several weather fronts came through. These birds are a nearctic species that can be seen fairly regularly on passage in the UK, but doesn't breed regularly. They are certainly small, but their bouncy flight, dark heads on the adults and almost pinkish tinge...

A family trip to Mallorca to visit family over there presented a good opportunity to do some birdwatching abroad! My cousins live in Santa Ponca, a town and resort in the far west of the island, about 40 minutes drive from Palma. Pretty much all the birds I saw were opportunistic while walking around Santa Ponca, with a day trip to Palma on one day as well. This meant I was pretty limited in terms of what I could hope to see. Arriving in the afternoon, in sunny but fairly cool weather, we were picked up from the airport and headed for my cousins' house. I hadn't been to Mallorca during spring for many years, so it was a real shock to see the place so green! Soon after arriving at their house, I added the first of the expected species - Common Swifts were abundant, Hoopoes were regular around the house and a few of the commoner species from home were present too like Blackbird , Greenfinch , Woodpigeon and Collared Dove . A Red Kite , which is a relatively common bird in Mallor...

An early morning start on Saturday saw me and Austin head over to West Yorkshire where two Night Herons had been found the previous day. We arrived just after dawn, with frost on the ground and low fog hanging over the River Calder, where the birds had been reported. Making a short walk along the river bank, we heard Chiffchaff , Willow Warbler and Blackcap , with a few Goosander on the river and small groups of Sand Martin flying around. There were already a small group of birders present when we arrived, and unbelievably both Night Herons were showing out in the open on the north bank of the river! Night-Herons, or Black-Crowned Night Herons, are a widespread species with a cosmopolitan range across tropical and sub-tropical latitudes. In Europe, they breed sparsely across central and southern Europe, with a few attempted breeding records in the UK too. They're often quite secretive birds, and tend to hunt during the night or early morning. The first individual made several su...

After seeing my first ever Alpine Swift at Doxey Marshes, Staffordshire last weekend, I didn't think I'd be seeing another quite so soon! These swifts have a huge distribution across Africa, Asia and southern Europe, breeding on cliff faces at high altitudes and sometimes on old buildings in the Mediterranean. They're pretty distinguishable too, being significantly larger than our more familiar Common Swifts and having a distinctive white band across the chest and neck. The influx of Alpine Swifts into the UK this spring has been unprecedented, so my poor views of the Doxey bird didn't really feel satisfying. Unbelievably, on Friday another bird turned up even more locally! Elton Reservoir is barely 12km away in a straight line, but being busy Friday afternoon meant I wasn't able to go and see it. On Saturday morning the bird was reported again though, so me and Austin made the trip over. Unfortunately, we'd missed the bird, with the small group of people still ...