Brian's birding blog

Thursday, 16 July 2026

Took Dad for a lifer

My Dad loves a lifer, a new tick, a reason to update his list but he was away in Bruge with two of my (six) brothers on Monday so couldn't make it, Tuesday I was tied up with family stuff so I asked if he'd like to tick a new bird on Wednesday. He said he'd rather wait for news before we go so I started my day at the George where I added Great-black backed Gull to my July site list and ticked a total of 56 species before he called to say the Godwit had been seen and I shot off to pick him up for the trip.

A Great black backed Gull

We arrived and found the bird with relative ease and Dad enjoyed adding it to his life list. The bird was in Suffolk where as it was in Essex when we saw it Monday so it's now found its way on two of my county lists. We headed for home via Abberton but failed to find the Ring-necked Duck and missed a Caspian Tern that flew in about an hour after we'd left. I'd had a stone fly up and crack my windscreen on the way home so turning round for the Caspian Tern was an option even with it being a full fat Essex tick for me.

This morning another walk of the George delivered 59 species with the highlights being Teal and Common Gull both my first returning summer birds. I also saw Peregrine and recounted the Tufted Ducks (750) Coots (320) and Crested Grebes (69). I find it fascinating watching the numbers grow but this year I've watched it in more detail than before. It's also noteworthy that when the spring migrants arrive you work mostly with your ears but now we've reached summer and breeding is well under way or even finished that I now find myself less reliant on my hearing and more reliant on my eyes as the birds are much quieter now. I wanted to see 80 species for July and today I pulled that off with the Teal and the Common Gull. (Others have seen LRP and Ringed Plover this month but these are the only two species reported that I haven't personally seen.)

Common Gull

Teal with Tufted Ducks and Coots

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Missed opportunities first half of 2026

Opportunity for life ticks has been limited but I've managed to pick up four new birds so far this year (Killdeer, Tawny Pipit, Eastern Sub-alpine Warbler and a FIRST FOR BRITAIN with the Western Reef Heron) but here's a list of the new birds that I've missed in the first half of 2026. I put this together for my own interest but hopefully one or two people reading it might find either the detail interesting or the fact that I find the detail interesting, interesting. 😉

Bufflehead: The drake that was first found last year remained at Foryd Bay Caernarfon until 29th January but would go missing for long periods during it's stay which put me off from making the long almost six hour drive for it. The bird was refound at Llyn Coron, Anglesey on 9th February and remained until 20th but again the journey was beyond me for a duck that I figure will one day be found closer to home.

(First accepted record was on Scilly in 1920 and since then there have been a further sixteen records with the most recent being the Warwickshire bird that covid restrictions prevented me from twitching. There have been two Suffolk records as well as one dating back to 1961 in Bucks plus Dorset in 2010 and Lincolnshire in 2012 so it feels like I'm due a chance to nail this one at some point without putting in a 12 hour return drive for it.)

Stejneger's Scoter: The bird found in Fife in 2022 has been accepted as a first for Britain. Another this year has been reported as a second winter male or possible hybrid (Stejneger's/Velvet) but later confirmed as a full Stejneger's Scoter and remained into May with it's last reported sighting on 3rd May. Its such a long trip for a sea duck that I'm afraid it will have to wait a while longer.

A Tengmalm's Owl was discovered on Shetland on 12th March and was still there on 13th but not after.(33 previous records but only 7 since 1961)

A Lesser Kestrel at Goonhilly Downs in Cornwall, found at Croft pascoe pool on 1st May it remained until the early evening on 6th May. (22 previous records with the last on Scilly six years ago.) Distance and family commitments prevented me entertaining the 12 hour drive for this one but I regret not finding time or motivation for it.

Wilson's Storm Petrel have been reported again this year with the first as early as 29th January from Penzance followed by two on a Scilly Paleagic on 29th May and the last on 29th June with a dozen in between from the Cornish Coast and the Scilly paleagics in June.

A Thrush Nightingale was seen on Foula on 19th May and another on Fair Isle on 20th and again both outside my mainland target listing zone.

A Collared Flycatcher was photographed at Insh in the highlands on 29th May but not seen again and in no way twitchable not that I would have tried at this distance.

A Northern Parula was found on Fair Isle on 23rd May and remained until 26th May but is of course well outside my twitching zone. (15 previous records but none since 2010)

A Green Warbler was at Winterton on 16th June. Originally ID'd as Greenish Warbler it was later found to be the rarer Green Warbler after study of sound recordings.

A Trumpeter Finch spent some time in Irleland before relocating to Fair Isle where it was seen between 28th and 30th June.

So with all the above and my lack of twitching the islands I've missed with regret the Bufflehead in Wales, Lesser Kestrel in Cornwall and the Fife Scoter. All involved a lot of miles and hours travel and as much as I'd liked to see these three birds I couldn't justify the time away chasing them all.

Hudsonian Godwit in Essex

I've seen Hudsonian Godwit twice in the UK with one in Hampshire (Titchfield Haven 2025) and my first a bit further away in Cheshire (Burton Mere 2024) but when one turned up at Minsmere in Suffolk I was thinking maybe if that hangs around I'll put in the two hour drive to see my third but the bird sadly didn't hang around. It arrived on 1st July but wasn't seen again until it was picked up with the Black tailed Godwit roost at Stutton Mill in Suffolk on the evening of 12th July. The interesting thing about this is that the river Stour it was roosting on defines the border between Essex and Suffolk and an Essex tick of this rarity seemed possible.

Roll on to yesterday morning (13th) and I was walking the reservoir as is often the case these days when news came out that the bird had indeed crossed the river and could now be seen from the Essex side so after a quick call to arrange things with Jim I headed back to the car picked my partner in crime up and headed up the A12 parking outside the CO-OP supermarket and walking up onto the river bank. A group of Godwits were feeding about 100yards along the bank and a returning birder said our target was in that flock but on arrival my Essex birding pal Mike was to tell me the bird had flown down river so we headed along the path crossed the main road and continued down river where we found the bird feeding on the far bank with a Redshank and a couple of Avocet for company. By now it was about a mile from the 120 strong flock of Godwits which seemed odd behaviour. A flock of 8 Redshank arrived and it flew off with them so we set off to look for it further down river but only found 13 Greenshank for our trouble. On the walk back to the car the bird had been relocated and we enjoyed another few minutes in it's company. Two Common Sandpipers, a total of 19 Greenshanks, a Curlew, a Whimbrel and lot's of Oystercatchers made up the best of the rest.

Lesser black backed Gull

Little Egret

Hudsonian Godwit

Hudwit

The Essex tick was bagged and moved my county list to 287

We diverted to Abberton on the way home as Jim wanted to see the Ring necked Duck that had been reported but sadly we couldn't find it but we did see Spoonbill, Gt Egret, Cattle Egret and Common Sandpiper before setting off for home with another short diversion to year tick Osprey as one was sat in a dead tree over looking Hide bay.

Ruddy Shelduck

The UK year list now sits at 226

A quick update on the George since my last post on 10th.....

11th: 61 Species with the highlight being not one but two Med Gulls on the causeway, 4 Oystercatchers, 7 Common Sandpipers, a Redshank, 4 Red Kite including what appear to be 3 fresh juvenile birds and an early Meadow Pipit which was my first since the end of April.

Red Kites

200 Coots

Little Egret

Oystercatcher

Med Gull

Common Sandpiper

Meadow Pipit

Egyptian Goose

12th: 57 species with the highlight being 4 Oystercatcher, a Redshank and a Common Sandpiper but I only did half a circuit as a guy was fishing on West bank.

13th: 55 species in a very quick visit due to the twitch for the Hudsonian but I did see 4 Redshank, 7 Common Sandpipers, 2 Oystercatchers and my first Hobby of July, oh and the five Mistle Thrush were feeding together in the field again too. Also of note is the amount of Lesser Whitethroat I'm seeing on this months visits and I have the feeling I could find lot's more if I had the time to walk even slower than I do which is about 3 hours to cover the four mile circuit with all the stops to look and listen as I go.

Record shot of the FOUR Redshank (for the doubters and there's always one or two 🤣)

Tufted Duck numbers seem to have stuck at around 600 over the last few days.

Had a day off today but I'll back over there tomorrow or Thursday for sure as another birder has reported Common Gulls and Teal today which would both be new for July as I chase a silly target I gave myself of 80 species this month (need two at the moment to achieve that and I still have no LRP or House Martin which I assumed to be bankers) Both LRP, Ringed Plover and a Great black backed Gull have been reported by others too this month so that's a total of five species I've missed so far.

Onwards and upwards!

Friday, 10 July 2026

One of those days

Up on the George at 5am this morning having had a day off yesterday and it turned out to be one of those days, in fact probably the best day I've had up there this year.

First I had a Redshank calling as it dropped on to the pontoons with a couple of Common Sandpipers then a Greenshank flew in calling and landed briefly on the far western bank of south basin. I then scoped the causeway to find five Lapwing resting high up on the lower bank. On the causeway were loads of Black headed gull which is an unusual place to find them and prompted me to scan through them checking the juveniles out when I found an adult Med Gull amongst them. This is a site first for me as I just seem to miss them every year so I was extremely pleased to finally find one. I messaged a couple of the local guys that I thought it might interest and carried on up to the magic corner.

There were lot's of Canada Geese in the top field and I found two Greylags too. Little Egrets and Herons were in good numbers and a total count of the Tufted Ducks showed them at 626 now from just 52 at the start of the month.

As I scanned two fresh juvenile Lesser Black backed Gulls I heard the call of Whimbrel and looked up from the scope in time to see it flying north along the centre of the north basin but I couldn't locate it with the scope so guess it went straight through. A single Raven was heard then seen as it landed on a Pylon and then the final surprise of the day when four Ostercatchers flew around me several times before heading south towards the Girling. I would think these are the local pair with this years recent fledglings. I found six Common Sandpipers in all but couldn't find the LRP that Chris F. had yesterday.

Harry had arrived before I left to try for the Med Gull but in the two hours since I found it and he arrived the bird seemed to have moved on. We had a large flock of around 70 Cormorants fly in from the Girling to round off a cracking days local birding. Oh and after moaning at the lack of Pheasant this month I saw one and heard another on my circuit today.

For the month I'm at 75 for the reservoir and for the year now 115 (life list for KGV now 140)

Greylag with a Canada

Oystercatcher

Oystercatchers

Little Egret

Med Gull

Record shot of 4 of the 5 Lapwings

Med gull

Redshank

oh and I had six Parakeets at the garden feeders too............

Wednesday, 8 July 2026

KGV

I write this blog as a diary of my birding time and that time is at the moment dominated by my continued walks around the King George V reservoir in Chingford around five miles from home and so the blog I'm afraid is also dominated by the diary posts of those walks.

I walked the four miles again today and found 8 Common Sandpipers and a Redshank of interest. As far as new ticks for July I managed to see a Kingfisher and my first Green Woodpeckers were also heard. Tufted Ducks continue to return to complete their winter moult and have sored from just 52 on 1st July to 383 today.

I've set myself a target for July of 80 species and currently sit on 69 so I have to find a few unexpected ticks if I'm to hit that target. I'm yet to see Pheasant, Hobby and House Martin all of which I would expect to cross paths with at some point this month on the George but after that I'm looking for some passage birds to help but I think 80 may have been a bit optimistic.