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Birding & Bird Photography from Car, UK (1 Viewer)

CactusD

CactusD

ἀρχός οἰ&#969
Hi all,
Here's a speculative post for some info.

In anticipation of passing our driving tests soonish :)eek!::h?:), my wife and I are hoping people can inspire us with an even greater passion for birding. I'm also a keen bird photographer.

So: what we're after is **specific knowledge about good places to go in the UK where we can get good birds viewed from the car, or where bird photography is good from the car (with use of beanbag etc.), or restricted to the car in those cases where the car can act as a useful hide.**

Obviously having a car will increase our UK birding potential exponentially (with any luck!), but I'm posting this for specific info from anyone that may inspire us through possibilities we as yet know nothing about, beyond the obvious RSPB etc reserves we'll be able to visit properly.

Cheers in advance,
D
:t:
 
Why not just get out of the car and walk-about....much more fun, you see more and it is more of an exercise!.... You are sounding too "american"...... That is not something you want:)
 
Well, we did walk 13 miles to go birding on Saturday, so we're not averse to a short walk or two...
Having a car will increase our options, so I'm trying to investigate the breadth of possibilities that will become available to us.
|=)|
 
lmans66 said:
Why not just get out of the car and walk-about....much more fun, you see more and it is more of an exercise!.... You are sounding too "american"...... That is not something you want:)
Click to expand...

Because in theory at least, you can use the car as a hide and get closer to birds.

I think this thread is an excellent idea and I hope we can collect some useful information here. I'll start the ball rolling with the entrance track to Elmley RSPB, a well known site for photography from the car. Based on my own experience, you might be able to get the following species at this time of year :

Lapwing and Redshank - breed in good numbers in the surrounding grassland and can give very close views from a car.
Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Mediterranean Gull - can be present anywhere but in smaller numbers and much less reliable.
Yellow Wagtail, Skylark and Meadow Pipit - present anywhere along the track but can be quite frustrating to photograph. Quite often they will sit on the track itself.
Little Egret - found in increasing numbers anywhere there is water but can be difficult to get close to.
Red-legged partridge - normally quite reliable in the grassy fields near the beginning of the track.
Grey partridge - found in the rough grassland in the last third or so of the track but much less reliable than Red-legged.
Corn bunting - quite scarce considering the abundance of habitat, can be found singing from the bushes towards the end of the track with a bit of luck.

Reed and Sedge Warbler can also be found but mainly beyond the car park and so have to be photographed on foot.

Reserve entrance tracks seem to offer some good potential. The one at Dungeness looks good too, as does the new one at Lakenheath.

What I'd like to find is a place where it's possible to drive onto a beach and photograph shore birds. I've driven onto the beach at Red Wharf Bay on Anglesey and Morfa Bychan in north Wales (when twitching adult Ivory Gull) but I don't know anywhere in the south-east that's any good for this.
 
... Unless the Collared Dove (or whatever) just happens to be flying alongside you at approx 38 mph..... and then do you wind the window down or not?


CactusD said:
Hi all,
Here's a speculative post for some info.

In anticipation of passing our driving tests soonish :)eek!::h?:), my wife and I are hoping people can inspire us with an even greater passion for birding. I'm also a keen bird photographer. ...........

Obviously having a car will increase our UK birding potential exponentially (with any luck!), but I'm posting this for specific info from anyone that may inspire us through possibilities we as yet know nothing about, beyond the obvious RSPB etc reserves we'll be able to visit properly.

Cheers in advance,
D
:t:
Click to expand...

Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not more cars on the roads..............

(From an environmental aspect, got it in, as it has to be said...). Otherwise, good luck...
 
I usually get some good success with a nice quiet moorland road.This is good for stuff like Skylark,Meadow Pipit,Wheatear etc.If you go first thing in the morning the Birds are quite lethargic and tend to just sit there.I recently took another BF member (Ken1940golf) and he came back with a few firsts including a male Wheatear bathing in a puddle and a pair of Linnet.

Good luck with the tests!
 
There are good places to see Red Grouse from the car in South Yorkshire. In particular, the back roads through the moors near Langsett. I've always had luck on the back lane from Midhopestones to Upper Midhope. (From the A616, take the minor road to Midhopestones, made obvious by a sign enticing you to a pub/restaurant called the Olde Mustard Pot. Then turn right beside the former school, and follow that road over the moors.) You should get lucky; I always have. (Indeed, once when I was driving a red car in the breeding season I got more than lucky! I got a red grouse pecking my hubcaps! )

The site in County Durham that has been published in several books for Black Grouse also allows digiscoping from a car, and is in my experience also 100 per cent reliable for that species, especially in April. This site also allows excellent and 100 per cent reliable (with a little patience) views of dippers from the car; for this species take the minor road which turns off next to the pub; it runs alongside a stream. The area near where a farm track crosses the river over a private concrete bridge is good, so is the area right by the pub.
 
Thanks for the help with moorlands; I have the book in question and had forgotten about Black Grouse which is a target for us (by bad luck we managed to miss a few that flew past our hotel in Sweden last year), so that'll be a priority, I should think.
Anything more on seawatching/seaside locations (this is where we hope to make the most progress in the UK, probably)? I'll check the book, but local knowledge is great to get.
Cheers again
 
Hi Dave,
Clive has already mentioned the access track at Elmley, Isle of Sheppey, which is one of my suggestions. I would also go on to say that the beach area down at Leysdown at the fast east of Sheppey is also good for sitting in the car during not so summery weather; at a variety of points all within a mile along the sea wall I've photographed at close proximity Purple Sandpiper, Sanderling, Snow Bunting, and Curlew, as well as the very obliging Turnstones and the odd Redshank or Grey Plover that perch on the groynes. Throw some chips out of the car window and you'll get fab (Common/black-headed) gull flight shots :)
Also, 45mins away at Oare Marshes (Kent Wildlife Trust reserve) near Faversham, there is a "pull in" on the access road where you can position your car next to a flood which in July/August will provide VERY CLOSE (I0 meters!!) views of most of the common waders plus, annually, Little Stint, Wood, Green and Curlew Sandpiper, up to 1000 Black-tailed Godwits and 500 Golden Plover along with quite a few Ruff, Snipe, Ringed Plover and Dunlin. Also Garganey and Yellow Wagtail, with many species of raptor too if you stick your head out of the window and look up :)

Seriously though, I don't know anywhere that offers such outstanding views and makes a trip here at anytime rewarding.

Good luck with your tests (I'm actually a driving instructor but I'll limit my advice to the birding locations!)

Cheers,

Kev
 
Last edited:
Thanks Kev, fantastic info :t:

My wife has her test next month, I'm a bit further off... :eek!: |!|
 
Kielder Forest drive, from Kielder village to Blakehopeburnhaugh. Took loads of shots out of the window everything form deer to birds of prey, the road is quite bumpy but if you take it slow its fine.
 
Kev23 said:
Also, 45mins away at Oare Marshes (Kent Wildlife Trust reserve) near Faversham, there is a "pull in" on the access road where you can position your car next to a flood which in July/August will provide VERY CLOSE (I0 meters!!) views of most of the common waders plus, annually, Little Stint, Wood, Green and Curlew Sandpiper, up to 1000 Black-tailed Godwits and 500 Golden Plover along with quite a few Ruff, Snipe, Ringed Plover and Dunlin. Also Garganey and Yellow Wagtail, with many species of raptor too if you stick your head out of the window and look up :)
Click to expand...

I was unconvinced by Oare on the one visit I've made there so far. Good site, but the birds just didn't seem that close to me. OK for Little Egret and other similarly sized birds but not for small waders I thought. Do you mean the East Flood or is there another bit I'm missing? That said, I did go on a weekend afternoon and it was quite busy, so probably wasn't the best time.
 
Hundreds of locations along the Lancashire coast from Liverpool/ Formby into Cumbria... let us know if you're coming...

Formby, north Southport, River Ribble estuary... Preston Docks!, Freckleton Marsh, Warton Marsh, Fairhaven, Starr Gate, Cleveleys, Rossall, Knott End, Pilling, Glasson, Cockerham, Lune estuary, RSPB at Marshside (Southport), RSPB Leigthon Moss(north Lancaster), sure there are others! Park or Walk!

http://www.fyldebirdclub.org/bwsites.htm

But whatever you don't go drive down the prom in Blackpool...or go slowly, very slowly 13 speed cameras! I've found even the car engine produces camera shake, or is that just me!
 
Exmouth can be good for car-based birding - park in car park by side of estuary, Brent Geese and waders very close, etc. Mind you, been a decade since I've been there now, might be a multi-story car park now :)
 
Very many thanks for all the kind suggestions! Plenty to look forward to...
|8)|
 
Clive Watson said:
I was unconvinced by Oare on the one visit I've made there so far. Good site, but the birds just didn't seem that close to me. OK for Little Egret and other similarly sized birds but not for small waders I thought. Do you mean the East Flood or is there another bit I'm missing? That said, I did go on a weekend afternoon and it was quite busy, so probably wasn't the best time.
Click to expand...

Hi Clive,
Yes, did mean the East Flood (West flood being ok for the odd longer legged waders but the main roosts are to be found opposite), curious as to when you went? During the late summer time, the whole flood is so full of birds that island space is limited; as a result the birds roost and also feed on and around the islands and mud right by the road. I have visited also at the weekend, when quite frankly it couldn't be any busier, but the birds seem impervious to our presence. I had Blackwits, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper and then Little Stint, Ringed Plover and Ruff (see photos) almost as close as they could get.
The water levels recently have been quite high there so not as many waders are to be found at high tide, but this time of year (as i'm sure you know) won't produce the numbers that Autumn passage will.
Give it another shot later in the summer, many birders i've spoken to there say that the birds (and numbers) i've mentioned are annual.

Cheers,
Kev
 

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