Birding Braunie

Let me help you before you answer. I’m sure I’m a birder. For as long as I can remember,  I have owned a pair of bins, a notepad and had a general sense of where I was going, and I was as happy as Larry. (Never met this Larry but I hear he is a rather nice chap) Over time, I noticed a major change happening in the hides of this fine land. Large optics were being ‘adapted’ and some folk had even abandoned these tools of true birding for cameras with large…appendages screwed onto the fronts of them. There was barely room in a hide for the owners of these huge camera combinations let alone a serious birder trying desperately to hear a bird song above the sound of shutters firing at 8fps. And some of the images people were getting were amazing. Shots of Snipe being carried away by a Sparrowhawk and a Herring Gull consuming a Little Auk are a couple that have stuck in my mind. And I remember when I was a boy and got my first camera, the first thing I tried to shoot was a group ...

I’m not complaining but... ...this weekend was the wrong way round and I’m the only one who noticed. This is probably because it only affected me. It began you’ll notice on Saturday – no point there and I took myself off to Northaw Great Wood when really I should have gone for my haircut. I can’t see treecreeper in my local barbers because I’ve looked. These little devils have been a bane for me this year and now in mid November, I hadn’t had a sniff of one. North Great Wood is great for these mouse-like tree scamps and I was determined to see one. I’m sure most riders get their bird in early Jan but they had eluded me to the point of hysteria. Dreyfus meets Clouseau territory I suppose. I arrived at the wood, near Cuffley in Herts at 9am. Nuthatches were calling in the car park but not visible and a few Jays ferries acorns to their burial grounds. I always take the yellow path out of habit and soon saw a couple of Nuthatch in a Hornbeam. Coal Tit, Blue Tit and Great Tit soon f...

With a few spare hours before tripping over to Brentwood for my daughter’s birthday, I could have easily tried to pick up a few more of the ‘easy’ species I’m missing. These include believe it or not, Common Treecreeper, Common Sandpiper or even, a Siskin or a Med Gull. I know it’s pretty pathetic to have these missing by mid November but there you go. So instead of using these few hours selfishly, I used them wisely. In a moment of madness, I signed myself up to be the WeBS counter through the Lee Valley Park for the BTO. My own little area is Nazeing Meads, used primarily by fishermen and sailing enthusiasts and it comprises of four large expanses of water. Nazeing Meads There’s a knack to counting birds. It’s not as simple as just counting each bird while pointing your finger at them. No, they move a lot which is quite inconsiderate of them. After all, the BTO and their surveys are really for their benefit but there’s no telling them I’m afraid. Counting each indi...

Where are we with the weather in this country? It is now November and there hasn’t ben a proper easterly wind for yonks. Every time I go birding, the wind is always blowing hard but in the wrong direction. This weekend’s trip to Suffolk was no exception. In fact although it was rubbish for sea-watching, it was okay on the ‘how dry do you want to be’ scale-o-meter. Another major plus was that the car didn’t break down. I did have a heart-stopping moment on Saturday where the wipers failed to wipe or even move to be precise. And with a forecast of heavy and prolonged showers to hit on Sunday, I can admit that I was a bit worried. Cars are weird. I stopped the car, turned off the engine and then started it again. I had wipers again. No idea what that was all about but I said nice things to it and gave it a bath to show my appreciation. The plan was to get to Lowestoft for the Red-backed Shrike; a long-stayer near Ness Point and at the same time, search for those little Purple Sa...

I don’t really do birding holidays or treks or whatever they’re called because I have to spend my money on a normal holiday. My wife usually has all the ideas and I”m cool with this. If I was ever to buck this trend and blurt out Trinidad & Tobago for instance, she would eye me suspiciously and accuse me of picking a birdwatching hotspot and, well, she’d be on the money. So I leave it to her. It actually doesn’t matter where in the world we go because wherever it is, it will have birds and more to the point, birds I haven’t seen...and if I’m really lucky, birds I haven’t a clue about. New England. Unlucky. It’s good but not exactly South Africa (next year hopefully) I love America though and this wasn’t a bird trek so I couldn’t expect much. More than that, it was a coach tour so I didn’t even have the luxury of slamming on the brakes and running through the undergrowth to spot a fly by. We were going to whale watch so I had a plan there. Screw the whales – but not literally ...