Short visit to England - June 2010 (1 Viewer)

I had to be in London recently for my brother's wedding, so we sneaked in a little bit of extra time to do some birding and other wildlife viewing.

I have prepared a trip report with a fair amount of photos and posted it to my site (Feel free to ignore the touristy-type photos if you prefer, but there are also a number of bird photos linked from the full trip list). If you are interested in seeing it, please go to www.hardaker.co.za and then click on the "my trips" link in the left margin. Hope you don't find it too boring...

Kind regards
Trevor

An excellent report Trevor with some quality photos. I’m glad you eventually connected with Dipper. I would have been gutted if you’d gone back home without one – Hilla Green is the most reliable site I know.

I’m just happy my icecream gen was more reliable!

Great report Trevor. Some excellent photos in there!

Great report Trevor, I think sometimes us Brits forget what a fantastic country we have.

Glad to hear you had such a great time. The Spoonbill made excellent reading.

Thanks for everyone who took an interest in reading the report and the comments posted here - much appreciated!

Now that my brother is living permanently in the UK, I am sure we will visit again sometime in the not too distant future and will hopefully have more time available on the next visit to target some of those things that we missed this time.

@Mike - no worries about the Dipper. On my various travels, I have grown used to dipping birds at guaranteed sites, so this was certainly not the first time it happened. I'm just glad we connected with it elsewhere. And, yes, the ice cream gen was very welcome too! I actually thought about you the other day. We were out herping for a couple of hours a little way north of where I live. After not finding a single reptile in England while we were there, a stint of about 2 hours here at home netted us about 40 individual reptiles consisting of 5 snake species, several lizards and geckos and a tortoise. Go to the "my blogs" section on my website if you are interested in seeing some photos of what we found (click on the one for the West Coast National Park).

Kind regards
Trevor

Great report Trevor

did you miss buzzard off your list? its our commonest bird of prey

Trevor Hardaker said:

I actually thought about you the other day. We were out herping for a couple of hours a little way north of where I live. After not finding a single reptile in England while we were there, a stint of about 2 hours here at home netted us about 40 individual reptiles consisting of 5 snake species, several lizards and geckos and a tortoise. Go to the "my blogs" section on my website if you are interested in seeing some photos of what we found (click on the one for the West Coast National Park).

Kind regards
Trevor

Click to expand...

Just seen your blog and now I'm really jealous! I was born in the wrong country when it comes to herps! Next time you visit your brother I’m going to put my neck on the line and guarantee you some reptiles and amphibians*.

*so long as you don't visit in the middle of our winter.

@Amarillo - No, I didn't miss Buzzard off our list. We had one distant bird while we were driving (and had no place to pull off!!) which was probably a Buzzard based on the size and shape, but I just couldn't get enough on it to be absolutely sure. Everybody that I have spoken to seemed surprised that we didn't see one, but I can promise you that we definitely didn't. I see hundreds of them, if not thousands, every year in our summer around where I live. Granted, these are all ssp. vulpinus, considered by some as a separate species, Steppe Buzzard, but the overall size and shape of the bird is the same. We also have several other species of Buteo buzzards around here, so I am fairly acustomed to these birds and would have recognised one if we had seen it. Most of those same people who were surprised at us missing Buzzard were equally surprised how we had battled to see Red Fox, particularly in Essex, where they are supposedly dirt common. I suppose that is just the way birding goes...

@Mike - I like your optimism and will certainly take you up on the offer of a few herps when I am next there! And, when you eventually visit us, I will try not to give you too much of a "herp-overload" in the first few hours...

Enjoyed your read mate - you did well, it took me ages to see birds like Corn Bunting, Cetti's Warbler, Bearded Tit, Dipper, Spoonbill, Spotted Redshank, Red Grouse, Puffin, Red Kite, and my favourate bird 'male' Hen Harrier !

Of course it can be made easier by good planning, and some birds are easier than others depending on where you live in the uk, but you did very well.