Kristian's Wildlife Blog

Yesterday, me and Austin made the relatively short journey up to Kendal for the Common Rosefinch which had been hanging around a private garden for several days. After arriving and quickly identifying the garden, which could only be partially seen from the road, we waited for about half an hour with no sign. However, we then noticed a birder walking up a nearby lane and he informed us the bird was singing and showing well along a line of trees at the bottom of the path. We rushed down only to get the news it had just flown off! We waited for several more hours but eventually had to leave with no sign! Typically, the bird was reported first thing again this morning, so I decided to give it another go. After arriving and walking down the lane to a small group of birders, I met the news that it had just been seen again! I waited with the group for about 30 minutes before a lady spotted the Common Rosefinch well hidden in a small tree in the garden. The bird was distant and obscured from ...

With some nice weather this weekend, I decided to switch birds for butterflies and head up to the Silverdale area, hoping to see a few scarce species I haven't seen before. In the past couple of weeks I've seen both Green Hairstreak and Small Copper close to home, but Silverdale is the closest place for the target species I was after. I arrived at Warton Crag car park at around 11:00am with clear blue skies and surprisingly very few people! I immediately noticed several Common Blue and Small Heath flitting around the calcareous grassland below the quarry. Common Blue were one of the commonest species Moving through a small area of broadleaved woodland, I ended up on the craggy slopes with areas of calcareous grassland, stone outcrops and low scrub. I soon picked out my first target species - Dingy Skipper . These cool, yet slightly dull, butterflies were literally everywhere and I saw perhaps 50 by the end. Though slightly smaller than the Common Blues, they were constantly ...

While I've yet to see the Grey-Headed Lapwing, I settled for some great birds closer to home today. Me and Carl visited two sites in North Wales in the hopes of finding Wood Warbler, one of the more obvious UK species I'm yet to catch up with. With some great local information from John Roberts, we arrived at Bod Petrayl in north-east Wales at around 7:30am. Just as John had said, Wood Warbler was the first bird we heard after leaving the car! It took a little while to spot it in the poor light as it darted amongst the conifers adjacent to the car park, but when it came down to the lower branches the views were great! Poor light, but some great views of Wood Warbler ! We did a bit of exploring in the surrounding woodland - really interesting to see well-developed coniferous woodland with diverse ground flora, alive with birds compared to most desert-like plantations! It wasn't long before we picked up another Wood Warbler , also in conifers on the other side of a small lak...

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...