Dartford Waffler

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 [...]

Pre-Trip Birding Around Incheon | South Korea Birding

Have you ever started a birding tour by getting off of the plane and rushed into a vehicle, sleep-deprived and confused, spending the remainder of the day birding in extreme weather conditions, seeing some amazing birds but not being able to enjoy them properly due to your body being on the verge of shutdown? Well, [...]

Top 5 Birds of Cambodia Birding Tour 2023 | Cambodia Birding

Cambodia is the last refuge of a number of exciting species in Southeast Asia as well as the home of a wide range of birds at a greater abundance than most of the surrounding countries. Leading the Calidris Birding Tours trip to Cambodia in March 2023 gave all of the tour participants the opportunity to [...]

Waterbirds at Prek Toal Reserve | Cambodia Birding

One of the great spectacles of any birding trip to Cambodia is a visit to the waterbird colonies at Prek Toal Reserve on Tonle Sap where birders can be surrounded by huge numbers of waterbirds from a trip on a small boat. This is exactly the situation I found myself in when leading the Calidris [...]

Birding at Bach Ma National Park – Vietnam Birding

At the beginning of November 2022 I found myself with the opportunity to visit Bach Ma National Park, near Danang in Vietnam. While other sites in Vietnam could promise more new birds for me but I had limited time and so arranged a driver to take me from Danang to the national park and back, [...]

Ring-necked Parakeets Sunflower Feast | British Birding

December 14th, 2021

Nick

One day in October 2021 I made a visit to a local woodland, Farningham Woods, but was distracted before I got there by large numbers of Ring-necked Parakeets feeding on sunflower heads along the entrance road to the woods. The sunflowers were grown as a wildlife boundary crop in a strip a few metres wide but stretching for about half a mile alongside the country lane leading to the woods. Seemingly every sunflower head had its own Ring-necked Parakeet in attendance, plucking the seeds out to enjoy a feast.

When I was birding as a youngster Ring-necked Parakeets were seldom seen in the area I grew up in near Dartford, Kent. Instead if I wanted to see them I had to make a short journey into the London borough of Bexley where there were colonies that never seemed to spread. However, in the late 1990s they started to spread into our area of Kent and now they are a common sight but I have never seen them in the numbers that were buzzing around these sunflowers, swooping in from nearby trees in squadrons of 20-30 birds with a flock of about 500+ birds in total.

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Shellness High Tide Birding | British Birding

October 25th, 2021

Nick

The Roman philosopher Pliny claimed that a full moon caused moisture to form in the brain leading to madness and there may be something in this as I made the uncharacteristic decision to wake up at an unholy hour and embark on a day of dawn to dusk birding on the Isle of Sheppey on the advent of a full moon. An incoming tide always provides some good opportunities to take photographs of wading birds as they are gradually pushed closer and closer to the high tide line so I decided to start my day on the beach at Leysdown Coastal Park where I hoped to video and photograph Ruddy Turnstones. These stocky shorebirds are always numerous in this area at this time of the year and their characterful nature makes them an interesting subject. The roaring wind meant that I needed to get down to beach level to be able to steady my camera and doing my best commando crawl I got really close to a small group of Turnstones. Read more »

Brent Geese Arrive | British Birding

October 17th, 2021

Nick

One of my personal key indicators of the onset of autumn is the mass arrival of Brent Geese to the North Kent coast. As early as September small numbers of these migratory geese arrive in dribs and drabs, seemingly disappearing as soon as they arrive and then suddenly large numbers of Brent Geese can be seen coming in off of the sea. Last week I went out on a foggy morning and spotted a group of around 140 Brent Geese feeding on exposed mudflats and as I watched them, twenty more came out of the fog of the North Sea to join them. Then another twelve. Forty-three more. Another small group, and another. Gradually the group in front of me had swollen to over 400 birds and as the tide covered the mud they all took off and flew towards the coast just east of the town of Whitstable where I caught up with them a few days later but by this time their numbers had increased to 3-4000 birds; truly impressive. Read more »

Black-headed Gull Ring Reading | British Birding

September 29th, 2021

Nick

For photographers large congregations of birds at close range are a blessing so it was with this expectation that I took Michael Wong to Erith Pier, on the River Thames, in early August. Although for many people a bunch of gulls might not seem that exciting, the bright early morning light, variety of species and plumages made for some nice photographic opportunities. Black-headed Gulls made up the bulk of the birds but we also got lucky with a juvenile Mediterranean Gull, a few smart Lesser Black-backed Gulls, plenty of Herring Gulls and a couple of first year Yellow-legged Gulls. In addition while I was scanning birds on the exposed mud I noticed another point of interest; a Black-headed Gull wearing a yellow leg ring. Read more »

Gannets at Bempton Cliffs | British Birding

September 2nd, 2021

Nick

Sitting just a metre away from Britain’s largest seabird with the wind in my face and only the sound of tens of thousands of nesting Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes and, of course, Gannets gave me the sense that I was perched on the cliff face nesting site with the multitude of birds but in actuality one individual Gannet had accidently landed in one of the viewing platforms at Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve giving me an incredibly close encounter with this massive bird.

The noise and smell of the nesting birds hits you before you reach the cliff tops but this still does not prepare you for the first time you see the amazing sight of the masses of Bempton Cliffs seabirds at the height of the nesting season. While you are not guaranteed to end up sharing a seat with a Northern Gannet when visiting Bempton Cliffs, as long as you time your visit in the breeding season you are guaranteed spectacular views of these fantastic birds as they fly past at eye level and argue among each other on the cliffs. Read more »

Birding at Higham Marshes | British Birding

August 3rd, 2021

Nick

Birding locally has been imposed upon us for long periods in 2020 and 2021 and although this limits our possibilities it has also provided an opportunity to really look closely at what birds can be seen close to home. Although I enjoyed travelling further afield as soon as I was able to I also enjoyed poking around local places that I had previously not spent much time in, and found a real gem in Higham Marshes. Higham Marshes is an RSPB reserve adjacent to the much better-known Cliffe Pools and along with the next parcel of land, Shorne Marshes, protects a large plot of the North Kent marshes. There are no facilities at Higham Marshes, no car park, only access via public footpaths and this makes it an area that is visited by just a few people and helps to create a very wild atmosphere surprisingly close to large areas of human habitation and industry. In spring 2021 I made many visits to Higham Marshes, seeing a wide variety of birds and was able to see the changes in species as the seasons changed. Read more »

Gulls on the Thames | British Birding

July 30th, 2021

Nick

The mid summer doldrums do not offer many interesting birding options when you don’t live close to coastal sites but when the weather is bad and you have burned up the morning watching the Olympics on television it is useful to have only a short drive to a spot on the River Thames where a wide variety of species of gulls often congregate. For those that enjoy the esoteric discipline of gull-watching this time of the year is when many species start to disperse after breeding and parts of the River Thames seem to be a favourite location for a couple of the UK’s scarcer species to relocate to at this time of the year: Yellow-legged Gull and Caspian Gull.

Erith pier is definitely in definitely one of the also-rans in terms of the most memorable piers of Britian, nothing more than a few hundred metres of platform dog-legging into the Thames at the back of a supermarket car park, but it is situated directly south of the large landfill at Rainham on the northern bank of the river; a location that draws in very large numbers of gulls. The numbers and proximity of gulls here make it an interesting spot for a quick visit to check for rarer species and to take some interesting photos of gull behaviour, particularly their frequent squabbles. Although I had to retreat to the car a couple of times when heavy showers passed through I was treated to a good variety of species in different plumages including a few Yellow-legged Gulls. Read more »