Just thought I would touch base again after having an ankle operation and not been able to get out birding for a few months -and also trying to sort this new laptop out trying to edit my images........ what a nightmare, espeicially when your technophobic like me!! The few images below were taken at Groby Pool only a few miles from where I live, so quite handy when I finally got weight bearing. I did get to a few football matches with thanks to my two mates John and Dave. I am getting more mobile as the months progress and getting out and about more so hopefully when I get my head around this new technology, I will be able to post a few more images on the blog.
Col Greens Blog
Birding & Wildlife adventures
Wednesday 10 July 2024
Post Op
Wednesday 4 October 2023
Cruise to the Balearics
Back in August 2023 Sue and I embarked on a cruise from Tilbury Docks in Essex, sailing to Portugal, Spain and the Balearic Isles in the Mediterranean Sea. We set sail on the evening of 12th of August, returning to Tilbury on the 26th; we were going to be visiting 5 ports, so there was going to be a lot of relaxing sea days. Our first 3 days would be at sea as we travelled to Portugal for Porto, going through the western approaches towards the Bay of Biscay. Great, Cory's and Manx Shearwater were noted along with Fulmar and Gannet. I've been across Biscay a few times but this time I was really disappointed with the amount of cetaceans we were encountering - or the lack of them! We were seeing plenty of Common Dolphin and Striped Dolphin, but no large Whales and also not that many sea birds either.
Med GullMed Gull
Breaching Minke Whale
Monday 29 May 2023
Whoops!! from 2022
Just sorting through a few images and forgot about these from last year. First was a Nightjar found on 5th September at Cossington Meadows - a fairly local reserve to where I live; the bird was found by a local dogwalker who takes an interest in the wildlife.
Nightjar
Nightjar
Second was on 26th September last year, when a Common Nighthawk was found at Wantage in Oxfordshire. After a phone call to a birding buddy Chris Hubbard, the pair of us set off and 90 minutes later, we were viewing said bird along with about 100 others!
Common Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
How I missed posting on this I'll never know!!
We returned from Shetland in early October, when a good mate (John Judge) found a Blackburnian Warbler on Bryher which is one of The Scilly Isles - at a place called Popplestone Fields. It was a week before we could arrange a daytrip to The Scilly Isles but on 17th October, we made the trip over to see this stunning American vagrant.
Blackburnian Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
As always - thanks for stopping by; now I'm sorting through a few images again, I'll hopefully be doing another post soon
Tuesday 14 February 2023
Shetland 2022
Well, it's only been three months from when we went on our yearly pilgrimage to the Shetland Islands so I think I've been quite quick with this post .........not!! Same mottley crew as last year in the guise of Dave Gray, Andy Smith and me... We decided to tery driving to Aberdeen and taking our own (Dave's) car across on the ferry - which worked out very well for us - sailing on 30th Sept on the MV Hjaltland arriving in Lerwick the next morning. I would like to say I had a good nights sleep - but I'd be lying thanks to my two cabin buddies who could win prizes for snoring!! Never again ! - I shall be having my own cabin next time ......
We stayed at a lovely cottage called The Glebe, Garderhouse - again on the west side of the mainland which was our home for the next 10 days.
Hilswick was our first port of call, for a Great Grey Shrike subspecies Homeyeri (probably will be a potential split in the future so it was an 'insurance tick') On the way out, Arctic Redpoll was reported (Hornemanni) which had been elusive but eventually showed well and we had views down to a few feet away.
As always, thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy looking at my images from Shetland 2022
I have a few images from recent twitches and local stuff which I hope to post shortly but until then, take care.