Nine members of the group enjoyed the delights of Swanscombe this weekend. With windy weather forecast it was always going to be a challenge to get good views of the birds, but we managed a creditable selection of birds and plants from this excellent wildlife site. Before we set off some had seen kestrel, […]
Eleven of the group met at this Essex Wildlife Trust reserve on the River Colne. After several windy days we were met beautiful sunny day with an almost cloudless sky. This reserve has a mix of habitats including woodland, scrub, marsh and a relatively new intertidal area where the river wall was breached to allow […]
The group met up at Thursley common on Sunday, which was the best day of the week weather wise. Thursley common National Nature Reserve is the largest and most important heathland area in Surrey. It has a mosaic of open dry heathland, peat bogs, ponds, and pine and deciduous woodlands. As such it holds a […]
After the thunder storms of Saturday night it was a relief to wake up to much brighter weather on Sunday morning. Ten members of the group arrived with eager anticipation of migrants with nightingale and turtle dove high on the list. The site of Conyer is an old brick works and I was […]
Ten members of the Group met at this relatively new site which we have only visited once before. Created on the site of Mucking Landfill Site, there are still memories of the history of the site, with domed grass and flower meadows, created from the capped landfill and metal cranes which were used to offload […]
Several suggestions were made for the title of this trip report, including ‘Feeding Frenzy’ – but I don’t think you want to read about our picnic lunches! Perhaps more appropriate is a round-up of a wonderful day out at Oare, enjoying a wide variety of wildlife and attended by over 20 members of the group. […]
It is never easy to leave a comfortable bed at 4 o’clock in the morning to go on a dawn chorus walk, but myself and nine others stealed ourselves and were rewarded with a memorable start to the day. This year’s dawn chorus took place 3 weeks later in the season than that from last […]
The old favourite strikes again. Today we realised that all the media speculation about autumn being on its way was probably right, as huge numbers of black-tailed godwit were already gathering in post-breeding flocks. Many juvenile birds were found including pied wagtail, shelduck, lapwing, coot (over 100), reed bunting, little grebe, starling, mute swan, greylag […]