British Birding Association

Just finalising details of this year’s March Israel trip. If we book within the next week, the tour price will be £481 each, fully inclusive of flights, car hire, etc.

Additional to this will be accommodation charges (last year £75 per week in Eilat - 2 sharing), food, any reserve access charges, airport parking, taxis

This will be a FULL Israel tour, taking in Mount Hermon and Hula reserve in the north, the Long-billed Pipit sites, Dead Sea coast, Eilat area and the Negev Desert

About 200 species should be seen, including most specialities, some wintering birds, masses of migrants, seabirds, waders (please ask if specific species required)

Tags: twitcher, bird finder, bird books

This is the UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert for Monday 4th February 2008, issued at 2200 hours and produced with reference to Rare Bird Alert Pagers www.rarebirdalert.com and by gleaning information from the Regional Birdlines, Birdguides.com, individual websites, local email groups and individual observers.

The GLOSSY IBIS first seen near Moggs Eye on 31st January was relocated today in the Highland Cattle enclosure near Howden’s Pullover (North Lincolnshire). The bird was showing well feeding in the wet grass in the SE corner of the enclosure about 30 yards in from the dunes.

DETAILED VIEWING INSTRUCTIONS

Tags: birding information, birding, bird tours

To Read The Full Issue Right Click and Save As to Download

Issue 2 - 2008

This is the UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert for Wednesday 30th January 2008, utilising information gleaned from the Regional Birdlines, local email groups and websites, www.Birdguides.com and Rare Bird Alert pagers (www.rarebirdalert.com). All Irish rare bird news is by kind courtesy of John Coveney and BINS

In North Norfolk, the adult WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW remains in gardens in Cley-next-the-Sea village, showing well intermittently throughout the day. Well over 5,000 birders have now seen this North American waif, with over £4,000 raised for the local church restoration fund.

Tags: birding guide, birding reports, twitcher

A WALLCREEPER - one of the most stunning species in the World and my favourite bird of all time - is wintering in Northern France, just across the channel near Boulogne. It is fairly easy to see and gives excellent views, and can be visited by ferry for less than £20 per person (with 4 sharing in a car).

DIRECTIONS

To get to the site follow the Calais-Boulogne road and take the junction signed ”Wimereax Sud”. Head towards the sea and at the roundabout at the end of the road turn right. Park after about 200 yards at the obvious gate and path. Follow the path down to the beach through the ruins of what looks like an old WW2 fort.

Tags: birding tours, birding information, birding reports

This is the UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert for Friday 25th January 2008, issued at 1800 hours and published in close association with the Regional Birdlines, and utilising information gleaned from Rare Bird Alert Pagers (for enquiries, contact 01603 456700, or consult www.rarebirdalert.com), Birdguides, local email groups and individual observers.

Throughout all of January the star attraction has been the adult WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW in Cley village (North Norfolk), still showing well today. It frequents the seed-strewn driveway leading up to the houses just north of the Three Swallows public house (almost opposite the phone box) at the extreme south end of the village. Park sensibly on the village green and respect the privacy of the residents. Over £3,500 has been raised for the restoration of the church; all donations gratefully received on site.

Tags: twitching, bird guide, birding guide

To Read The Full Issue Right Click and Save As to Download Issue 39

This is the UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert for Friday 7th December 2007, issued at 2200 hours, and published in association with Rare Bird Alert Pagers, and utilising valuable information gleaned from the Regional Birdlines, Birdguides, websites, local email groups and individual observers. All Irish rare bird news is by kind courtesy of John Coveney and BINS.

Tags: birding information, birds, bird guide

The three most recent volumes of the HIGHLAND BIRD REPORT have just arrived on my desk, including the 2005 edition which has just been published. With a superb juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper adorning the front cover (provided by Dave Pullan), this really is an impressive bird report. It is a sumptuous edition at 248 pages long, much more than in many county reports published for English counties. Following 13 pages detailing the weather in Highland Region in 2005, we then move on to the Dave Butterfield provided year end review, highlighting the 231 species recorded in Sutherland, Ross-shire and Inverness-shire during that year.

Tags: scarce birds, bird finder, scarce birds

An AMERICAN MOURNING DOVE is present for perhaps its fourth day on North Uist (Outer Hebrides), favouring a farm track about half a mile WSW of Clachan a Luib just SW of Loch na Faoileige at Carnack (at NF 803 635). Brian Rabbitts identified the bird early afternoon and it remains present and showing well until dusk.

It represents the third record for Britain following one trapped and ringed at the Calf of Man Bird Observatory (Isle of Man) on 31st October 1989 (found dead next day and now preserved in the Manx Museum) (British Birds 86: 496; 89: 157-161; 509, plates 69-71; Birding World 3: 64; Ibis 135: 220) and a first-winter at Carinish, North Uist (Outer Hebrides) from 13th-15th November 1999 (British Birds 93: 539; plate 40; Birding World 12: 453.

Tags: bird finder, birding holidays, bird guide

Less than ten months after the end of the year, the 2006 Fair Isle Bird Observatory Report landed on my desk this week - one of only a few 2006 bird reports thus far published. Once again, it is a bumper edition, at 160 pages long. A total of 204 species were recorded on the ‘Magic Isle’ in 2006 including one addition - North American Black Duck, whilst other highlights included Eurasian Scops Owl and Blyth’s Pipit. As ever, the daily log recorded the numbers and dates of all migrants, continuing the island’s invaluable 60 year database. The Fair Isle seabirds had a much better year than of late, with a record population of Great Skuas as well as more than 800 pairs of Arctic Terns.

Tags: bird reports, rare birds, scarce birds

This is the UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert for Tuesday 30th October 2007, issued at 2100 hours, and published in association with Rare Bird Alert Pagers (www.rarebirdalert.co.uk) and utilising information gleaned from Regional Birdlines, Birdguides, local email groups and individual birders.

On the Isles of Scilly, the WILSON’S SNIPE (first photographed on 3rd October) remains on Lower Moors Pool, St Mary’s, with a first-winter LAUGHING GULL over Hugh Town and in The Roads at dusk. A Richard’s Pipit was seen on St Mary’s Airfield, with several Yellow-browed Warblers scattered about the islands and the juvenile Eurasian Spoonbill still on Tresco Great Pool. On St Agnes, there was no sign of the first-winter male ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK today at Grinlington Farm and environs nor of the DUSKY WARBLER present since Friday.

Tags: twitching, birding holidays, scarce birds