North Norfolk is widely known as one of the best regions in UK for bird watching but it is an area that I have spent little time in so it was nice to have the opportunity to stay with a friend for a weekend and do some birding. Although early July is not regarded as a good time for birding in UK, I was still able to find some nice birds when visiting RSPB Titchwell. I have heard many birders complain about this location over the years due to large visitor numbers and was true that there were many people there when I went, but it is popular for good reason and it is a great place for beginner birders to get good views of large numbers of birds including quite a few scarce ones. I spent quite a lot of time sitting in a hide getting very close views of several male Ruff of various colours, with Little Gull, Caspian Gull, Red Knot, Pied Avocet and many others a little further away.
City Park Bird Abundance | Birding in Thailand
For those of us lucky enough to travel internationally to see birds it quickly becomes apparent that in some countries birds are abundant while in others birders have to work harder to see a wide range of species. This was brought home to me most recently spending a morning at Sri Nakorn Kuean Khan Park [...]
Touristing & Birding at Petra | Birding in Jordan
For those of us who travel with non-birding partners it can sometimes be tricky to balance enjoying time together somewhere interesting and the craving to maximise the opportunity to see new birds in new places. Personally, having a good holiday with my wife is the most important thing when planning trips together but doing some [...]
Rainy Season Birding at Pathum Thani Rice Research Centre | Birding in Thailand
There can be times of the year when bird watching hits a trough because a lack of activity, unhelpful weather or overfamiliarity with a smaller selection of species than at other times. In Thailand these factors are all true in the rainy season with a large number of species absent, on their breeding grounds further [...]
Mountain Birding from Chimgan | Birding in Uzbekistan
I have always loved immersing myself in mountain landscapes but over recent years my opportunity to do so has been limited with much of my time spent in tropical forests and wetlands in Thailand so when the opportunity presented itself to spend some time birding in mountain habitats in Uzbekistan I took it without having [...]
Jakarta Boat Trip Birding | Birding Indonesia
Where can you see Christmas Island Frigatebird, Sunda Teal, Pink-necked Green Pigeon, Milky Stork, Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker, Cerulean Kingfisher, Clamorous Reed Warbler and a wide range of other species in an urban setting? On a boat trip from Jakarta, Indonesia! The island of Java is one of the most densely populated areas of the world [...]
Dartford Marshes in July – British Birding
July 8th, 2018 
Nick Virtually every area of bird habitat in North Kent is under threat, from unsympathetically placed proposals for a solar farm at Graveney, repeated proposals for airports, a proposed new Thames crossing to the ludicrous theme park proposal at Swanscombe, the dwindling wildlife of the area is being squeezed further and further towards oblivion. For an overcrowded and congested region it seems bizarre that authorities seem to think that developments that will bring even more people to the region will solve the problems that have been created by overpopulation and over-exploitation.
Currently there are still a lot of areas in North Kent that do play host to a wide variety and important numbers of birds, but for how long? With this in mind I decided to take a walk at Dartford Marshes, one fragment of habitat that has been progressively carved up and built on in my lifetime but which still provides a decent area of open space for wildlife and people to use. Species of interest included nesting Peregrine Falcon, House Martin, Reed Bunting, Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher and Yellow-legged Gull plus much more. Read more »
Reporting a Ringed Mediterranean Gull | British Birding
July 3rd, 2018 Nick Most bird watchers have an opinion on ringing/banding regimes and not everyone views this practice positively. Whether or not you think that ringing should be done to the degree that it is, the only way that there can be any meaningful things to be learned from it is if birders report sightings of ringed birds. Few birders make a point of actively looking for birds with reportable rings on them but even without looking for them, sometimes birds just turn up in front of you with obvious colour rings that can be read and reported. On 27th June 2018 I spent an hour at the seafront at Leysdown in Kent, UK, photographing gulls, particularly some very smart adult Mediterranean Gulls and, although I did not notice it at the time, one of the photographs reveals an easily read colour ring on one individual’s right leg. Read more »
Heathland Birds at Frensham Common – British Birding
July 3rd, 2018 Nick Last week I made one of my annual pilgrimages to see Dartford Warbler. Last year I had a very successful day twitching at Frensham Common in Surrey so I decided to make the short trip there again to look for the bird that got me into birding as well as other heathland specialists. Arriving at around 9am I spent three and a half hours walking around the heath and woodlands, enjoying some superb weather, nice scenery and plenty of birds characteristic of the area including many pairs of Dartford Warblers feeding fledged young, Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Common Stonechat, Willow Warbler, Common Redstart and plenty of others. Read more »
Farmland Birds – British Birding
June 27th, 2018 Nick Farmland birds are in decline across Britain and indeed pretty much everywhere in the world I have been. When I am back in the UK I am able to take a lot of walks through arable farmland which still has a decent population of some farmland species that are in decline across their ranges so over the last week I have been able to study Corn Bunting and Eurasian Skylark on their breeding grounds while attempting to get an idea of the local population size of these birds. In the case of the Skylarks it is rather difficult to assess the population due to the fact that there seems to be a bird popping up out of the wheat at every other step, but in the case of the Corn Buntings it is easier and I have found at least 15 territories within a short walk of the house. Read more »
Enjoying The Birds You See – Thailand Birding
June 18th, 2018 Nick Sometimes, as birders, we can heap pressure upon ourselves to see certain species and quite frequently the expectations that build up when anticipating a birding trip can be a little unrealistic in terms of entertaining ideas of “cleaning up”. Sometimes these hopes can take a severe hit if there are unfavourable conditions such as high levels of disturbance, a birding site that has been destroyed, the birds simply not showing for some reason and, of course, poor weather conditions. Earlier this year, when leading a trip for Legacy Tours, I encountered a lot of rain while in the north of Thailand, something that has been an ongoing problem this year, and there was persistent rain for much of our time in the area meaning that birding was severely hampered. However, we did manage to see a lot of good birds in the periods of fine weather that we had and all the participants had a good time regardless and just enjoyed the birds we did see and did not spend too much time thinking about the ones we did not. Read more »
Watching Nesting Weavers – Bird Behaviour
May 30th, 2018 Nick For much of the year the three species of weavers in Thailand are rather dull birds which are normally seen feeding within rice fields. Certainly they are nice to see and many people are very happy to finally catch up with Asian Golden Weaver here but seeing these birds in non-breeding plumage is not much of an event compared to seeing them in full breeding plumage and busy building their complicated nests. Right now that is exactly how they can be observed and quite frankly they become a big highlight of a short birding trip at this time of year.
I recently returned from a three day trip, with Michael Livingston, spending time at Kaeng Krachan national park, visiting rice fields near Petchaburi on our way back to Bangkok. It is easy to find weaver colonies in this area with many of them nesting right next to the road and we were able to watch these interesting little characters engaged in nest-building, mating and chick-feeding activities for as long as we liked.
