Tuesday, August 30, 2005

What I missed!

The last two weeks in August should be a good time to get some nice birds added to my list, right? Wrong! No birds of real note turned up in my first week, that I spent pootling about the house doing a few odd jobs. I did manage to catch up with an Osprey at the Birdfair at Rutland Water though. The second week was spent on the Isle of Wight, and naturally enough this is when the birds appeared. On the very day I left! Tim managed to catch up with a Spotted Crake, a Kentish Plover and a Wryneck, but most cruel of all was a Wilson's Phalarope at Farlington Marshes in Portsmouth. So near, yet so far! And to cap it all a Red-necked Grebe turned up for a day at Kenfig NNR while I was busy driving home. I did manage to brush-up on my tern identification skills however, enjoying great views of both Common and Sandwich Terns fishing along the beach at Shanklin all week.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I missed the RN Grebe as well. Iwas sampling beer in Poole and Weymouth, and enjoying vintage diesel locos on the return journey....(class 31's if anyone cares, photos available!)

Anonymous said...

You do realise that most of the birds that you saw on your pelagic yesterday were outside British coastal waters, and they don't count for your British list?!!!