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 »
Wetland Birding in Khorat | Birding in Thailand
Thailand is full of Birds Thailand is an extremely popular birding destination because of a number of top-quality sites around the country that provide the opportunity to see a wide variety and number of species, including many that are hard to see elsewhere or have very limited global ranges. Many species of birds are more [...]
North Sulawesi Highlight Species | Birding in Indonesia
After leading the highly successful 2026 edition of the Calidris Birding Tours North and Central Thailand tour, I had some time to spare and decided on a return to Indonesia. previously, in 2024 to focus on North Sulawesi’s endemic species. This trip report covers top sites on Sulawesi’s Minahasa peninsula — Gunung Mahawu, Dumoga-Bone and [...]
Gull Feeding Frenzy at Samut Sakhon | Birding in Thailand
A beautiful sunrise, thousands of birds, the sound of the sea; all the ingredients for one of the world’s birding hotspots, but in reality this is the atmosphere I was able to enjoy on a short morning excursion from Bangkok when visiting the “Red Bridge” coastal boardwalk in neighbouring Samut Sakhon province. Rather than being [...]
Birds in a Park in Bukhara | Birding in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is one of those countries that is great for birding and at the same time extremely interesting in touristic terms too; an ideal place to travel with a non-birding partner and then to find time to go birding in locations near the tourist spots and to visit some really spectacular scenery. In late April [...]
Top 5 Birds of Vietnam Birding Tour 2025 | Birding in Vietnam
ietnam is the country in mainland Southeast Asia with the highest number of endemic species and the best place to see a number of regional endemics too as well as a fantastic supporting cast of more widespread birds. Leading the Calidris Birding Tours trip to Southern and Central Vietnam in March/April 2025 gave all participants [...]
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 »
Bird Photography at Abberton Reservoir | British Birding
June 22nd, 2021 Nick June can be a tricky time of the year for birding in Britain with little movement of birds and the excitiement of returning migrants over. Bird abundance is quite low too meaning that bird photography can be quite challenging unless one happens to be lucky enough to be close to breeding colonies of seabirds. However, myself and Michale Wong have been quite persistent and with patience we have taken some nice photos recently and having exhausted all of my regular birding sites we headed to Abberton Reservoir near Colchester, Essex, where we were hoping to find a reasonable abundance of birds and get some flight shots of waterbirds as they fly across the causeways there. Read more »
Finding Common Grasshopper Warbler | British Birding
May 21st, 2021 Nick Common Grasshopper Warbler, Locusteall naevia, is the bird that is usually simply known as “Grasshopper Warbler” throughout Europe. This bird is just one of a group of similar species in the family Locustellidae that are found in many parts of the world and generally these birds are skulking and hard to see. However, when they arrive on their breeding grounds they freqently sing and while this does not necessarily make them easy to see, it does at least give birders a clue as to where to look.
Common Grasshopper Warbler is not exactly a common bird in Britain but it is probably more abundant than most bird watchers realize. Due to its skulking nature and habit of singing in the very early morning and late evening a lot of birders will walk straight past a bush or tufty area of grass where one is silently lurking. Having seen a few Grasshopper Warblers over the years I have learned the type of habitat this species of Locustella likes and in the area of SE England I am in there are several sites to look for them and over the last few weeks I have been fortunate to see a few of them at a couple of local places. Read more »
