Biggest Twitch Diary

Fun day at RSPB Conwy

Our book signing at RSPB Conwy on Sunday went very well indeed. Right on the stroke of 10am we had people waiting for books to be signed. Great to meet so many lovely people, all eager to read The Biggest Twitch book. We were just getting into the swing of the signing when news came in from the reserve outside, Wood Sandpiper and 2 Little Stints were showing well. This was too much to bear! We a...

Book Launch Weekend in Wales

This weekend is the official Welsh launch of The Biggest Twitch book and of course, with all the connections, it really had to take place at Conwy RSPB. Tonight we’re getting together with a few special friends to say thank you for all their support in making The Biggest Twitch possible. While Alan is busy working at an optics demo near Coventry, Ruth is chopping up several tonnes of frui...

First Official Book Review

We opened the September edition of Birdwatching Magazine with even more excitement than normal when it arrived on the doormat. We’d been invited to write a piece for the magazine on The Biggest Twitch 2008, this time focusing on our motivation for undertaking the trip and how we organised it all, rather than the particular countries we’d visited. Of course when you send off a piece,...

Birdfair Round Up Saturday and Sunday

Saturday and Sunday merged into a blur of book signings, chatting to friends and visitors to the stand. It was good to catch up with Nick Baker on the Leica stand, where we did a book signing, and Alan and Nick did a prize draw on Sunday to win a day’s birdwatching in North Wales in October with Alan. We did a few book swaps with other authors, swapping our book for The Jewel Hunter by...

Birdfair Round Up Day 2

Today the Birdfair opened to the public, and they came in their droves armed with wellies, umbrellas and sunscreen to cover all eventualities. And those were just the ones we could see –there were also many folk walking around in full camouflage gear. At least, we assumed that’s what they were wearing, all we could see were their faces and carrier bags bursting with brochures! Appa...

Birdfair Round Up Day 1

It comes round so quickly! It did not seem anything like a year since Birdfair 2009, but here we were heading back to Rutland Water for the annual birding festival. In the back of the car was our usual passenger on these occasions – Iain Campbell from Tropical Birding – one of our closest friends and a ball of energy who was bursting with new ideas on how to spread the gospel of birdi...

British Birdwatching Fair

That epic annual event is about to start: the British Birdwatching Fair! From 20th to 22nd August, this event also known as the 'Birdwatchers' Glastonbury'will take place at Rutland Water, Leicestershire. This is a fixed date in our diary, our annual chance to catch up with many of our birding friends from the UK and all over the world. This year it promises to be even busier than usual as, in ...

Shearwater Surprise

An amazing wildlife spectacle has been played out of the west coast of Wales. Tens of thousands of Manx Shearwaters have been massing in a feeding frenzy off the coast at Ynys Las in Ceredigion, north of Aberystwyth, with huge numbers also seen off Bardsey Island at the western end of the Lleyn Peninsula. It has been possible to enjoy amazing views of these seabirds as the flocks feed close insh...

Get your hands on a book!

Our new book all about The Biggest Twitch 2008 suddenly seems more real now that we’ve got our hands on an advance copy.  Even we’re enjoying re-living our adventures as we’re reading about the wonderful places and incredible birds we were fortunate enough to encounter in 2008 – and we know the story already, so we hope that anyone buying a copy will enjoy it even more...

A first for Britain!

The postman was almost mugged this morning as we waiting for him to arrive with the long-awaited advance copy of The Biggest Twitch, the first time we’ve had a sight of our new book.  We tore open the envelope and pulled out not one but two copies.  Great! One each so no fighting over it, and for a long while there was silence as we both pored over the cover, chapters and colour ph...

An unexpected diversion!

Alan was just getting ready to head off down to Cardiff in south Wales to do an optics demo in the Jacob’s store for Leica when the phone rang. The news was very strange indeed, a Purple Gallinule was being reported at Saltney, Flintshire, some 45 miles away. Now this is one of those species that goes by several names and worse there is also an American bird called a Purple Gallinule very di...

An uphill struggle!

Alan and good friend Mike Duckham spent two days in the wilds of mid-Wales surveying the bird population. It was a good two hour drive, very early, to reach the remote valley bottom where they left the car. A family of Stonechats and the local Buzzard watched as they step from the vehicle. Looking around the guys saw what lay ahead of them, a very steep slope. Breakfast would have been a good idea...

Spoonbills breed in Norfolk!

Natural England have just announced the successful breeding of a colony of Spoonbills at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk. Careful monitoring has confirmed that four pairs have fledged a total of six young, with at least two more pairs still feeding their young. This is the fourth successful breeding record of Spoonbill in recent times, but at no time since the early 1700s has more than ...

Pop in for a chat?

Alan will be in Cardiff this Saturday, 31 July, at the Jacob's Digital Photo and Video store at 18 - 19 High Street, CF10 1AX if your in the Welsh capital do pop in and say hello. Have a chat about optics, birds, birding and The Biggest Twitch and reserve your signed copy of the book, due on 10 August. Come along anytime between 10am and 4pm. Jacob's have a huge range of optics and cameras somethi...

Walk and bird

With Ruth working on another edition of her walking books, Birds, Boots and Butties, this time for the Llyn peninsula, we headed out for a birding walk. This walk was at Dinas Dinlle west of Caernarfon, a low lying headland on the west side of the vast shallow Foryd Bay. We parked at Caernarfon Airport, managing to resist the café, and a little perturbed by the noise of helicopter, micro li...

Not long until Birdfair at Rutland!

With a thump the 2010 Birdfair programme arrived on the doormat today. As always a glance through the brochure produced a mouth watering array of every thing birding all at one huge event. We have been visiting Birdfair at Rutland Water for many years and the event never fails to produce a wonderful weekend of non-stop bird talk. This year’s fair takes place Friday 20 to Sunday 22 August at ...

Date for your diary

If your diary’s looking free from 20th to 22nd August this year, make a date to visit the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water.  Called the ‘birdwatcher’s Glastonbury’, this three-day celebration of all things birding is a must-visit event.  It’s fantastically jam-packed with stands of all kinds, offering everything from field guides to optics, from cl...

The Bath Bird Fair

Last Sunday Alan spent a fun day at the Bath Bird Fair held just north of the lovely city at Bath Racecourse. A great venue for an event with plenty of space and parking, the room where the fair was taking place opened out on to a grass paddock, great for view optics. The Leica stand was right by a door so easy for visitors to test out the binoculars and telescopes inside or out. It was great to c...

A quick twitch!

Driving south from Llandudno, North Wales to Bath, Somerset for the Bath Bird Fair taking place on Sunday 18 July, news of a Franklin’s Gull in the midlands had me looking at the map. The Saturday traffic was light, thankfully, and I was making good time so surely a small side twitch would be worth a try? Luckily sat-nav could take me to Chasewater Reservoir in Staffordshire; the water lies ...

Aerial birding

The view from our 4th floor living room window takes some beating.  Look left and we can gaze across the broad sweep of the North Shore of Llandudno towards the Little Orme, and if we set up the scope at the right angle, even do a spot of sea-watching from the sofa.  Straight ahead and we look over the rooftops of the town itself.  Look to the right, and we look out past Deganwy Cas...

Back to RSPB Conwy

Another early morning visit to RSPB Conwy but sadly no sign of the previous days Spoonbill. Plenty of birds about despite the low tide, a flock of 17 Black-tailed Godwits dropped in looking very handsome in the early morning sun-light. A gang of Redshank were roosting on one of the islands and amongst them a single Greenshank. The pair of Great crested Grebes were tending their two young, one youn...

An afternoon twitch

News of a Spoonbill at nearby RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve had us out of the house and dashing down to the reserve. It began to rain as we arrived but not put off we quickly made our way to the Tal-y-fan hide. Ruth quickly picked out a large white lump on one of the islands in the left hand lagoon. Through the binoculars the lump became the Spoonbill! It was doing what Spoonbills do best, roosting wi...

A productive morning

An early morning visit to RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve, not far from home here in Llandudno, North Wales produced some good birding. The morning was damp and breezy and did not look great for birding but once up it seemed crazy not to give it a go. A short drive and the Conwy Estuary adjacent to the reserve was in view. Two Little Egrets fished the rising tide with a Grey Heron. The bushes around the...

The book publication date

The latest news from our publishers, A & C Black, is that the book "The Biggest Twitch" will be out on 10th August, a month later than we had hoped. It has gone to the printers so we hope this latest date will not slip! Very frustrating but not long now, hang in there! It will be great timing for Bird Fair at Rutland Water so we look forward to seeing you there? We also hope that our...

Birdwatcher - The Life of Roger Tory Peterson

Birdwatcher – The Life of Roger Tory Peterson By Elizabeth J RosenthalA review by Alan Davies and Ruth MillerRoger Tory Peterson is a veritable legend, a man who perhaps more than any other has made modern birding what it is today. So great has his influence been over so many birders, that when we were invited to review this biography by Elizabeth Rosenthal, we were excited to have the chanc...

Birding the valley

An early morning visit to the nearby Conwy Valley, just a few miles south of Llandudno, proved very worth while. First stop was a bridge over the Conwy River where it is still tidal. The water was dropping and exposing a narrow strip of mud which was busy with birds. Common Sandpipers were every where! These diminutive waders were rushing around on the wet mud feeding like they had never fed befo...

Puffins with sat-nav!!

Birds on the Farne Islands off Northumberland, England’s biggest breeding colony of Atlantic Puffins, were fitted with ‘sat nav’ devices for the first time last year. Tiny tags were glued onto the feathers of a dozen birds and collected after a few days. The scientists were then able to download data from the global positioning system or GPS device, which works in a similar way ...

It's all go at The Biggest Twitch

With guided bird trips and bird survey work galore at the moment, it really is all go in The Biggest Twitch base camp.  At the moment, we're sharing our local Welsh specialities with David and June, two friends from Texas who've been enjoying our wonderful weather here. Who says it always rains in Wales!  More news of our Welsh birding later.And with our own book, The Biggest Twitch...

Anyone for a birding trip?

We are planning a weekend of great birding in Norfolk and would love you to join us! We know you will have a great time and experience some of the very best summer birding. If you would like more information or to book your place just drop us a line info@thebiggesttwitch.comNorfolk Weekend 18 – 20 June 2010Friday Depart North Wales Comfort break en-route to NorfolkLakenheath Fen RSPB –...

Paxton Pits with Leica and Birdwatching magazine

Paxton Pits Nature Reserve lies just off the A1 north of St Neot’s Cambridgeshire and is a great place for some summer birding. Leica and Birdwatching Magazine teamed up to offer readers of the mag a day out birding at Paxton. Alan and Mark Symes of Leica joined Mike Weedon from Birdwatching for an early morning walk for the readers. Jenny Hodge of Leica met the guys in the reserve car-park ...

Seeing your own words in print

It's always exciting, that moment when you first open the magazine and see the finished article, complete with your own name underneath as the author.  We've been serialised in Birdwatching magazine, and been lucky enough to have written for the American Birding Association's member's magazine, a Finnish book on twitching, and even a magazine in China, though sadly we never did receive a copy...

Upland birding in North Wales

There was no time for jet lag as the alarm went off at 4am on our first morning back in the UK.  We were guiding John who'd come up to North Wales for the weekend from Buckinghamshire, and there was one target bird on all our minds: lekking Black Grouse.  The day dawned bright and clear as we drove up onto the open moorland and jumped out of the car.  As we set up the scopes, we hea...

Close shave for Tropical Birding

With The Biggest Week in American Birding over we had a lie in this morning as the rain came down. After a late breakfast at our regular haunt of Dianna’s, where they bring hot tea with cold milk on the side even before we have sat down! We braved the wet and birded around Magee Marsh, exploring the Bird Centre that we had driven past everyday to reach the boardwalk. A nice building with dis...

A trip south

We left Llandudno at 4.30am and headed for Gwent in south Wales where a Marmora's Warbler was being seen. This is the first ever Marmora's Warbler for Wales and only the fifth ever for the UK, so a must-see bird. The weather was not good with very heavy rain and low cloud. It was not looking good. We arrived at the hillside north of Blaenavon, known as the Blorenge, which rhymes with orange, to fi...

The end of the week

How can a week, even one that's 10 days long, fly by so quickly?  The offical Biggest Week in American Birding is now over, and we think by anyone's standards it has been a huge success.  Thousands of birders have met and enjoyed great views of hundreds of birds - what more could you ask for?  Congratulations to all the organisers and all the people who made it happen.  We had ...

The Biggest Week birding just never stops...

We had today’s first new bird for the trip before we’d even got out of the car park at the boardwalk at Magee Marsh.  A Common Nighthawk was roosting on the branch of a tree overhanging the car park itself, totally oblivious to all the hustle and bustle just feet below it.  The Tropical Birding guides lost no time in setting up a scope so everyone could have a really close-up...

Singing the blues!

We enjoyed amazing views of this gorgeous bird at Welney WWT. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time when he popped up right opposite us in the reed-filled ditch.  Sadly our own camera wasn't close enough to hand to get any photos, but our good friend Paul Hackett was perfectly positioned to get this incredible shot of the bird.  This white spotted Bluethroat was jus...

Kenn and the Kirtland's

The day started on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh first thing. It was immediately obvious that there were many more migrants in today, enjoying the warm sunshine just as much as us: Magnolia, Canada, Yellow, Blackburnian, Palm and Black-throated Blue Warblers, all in just the first few yards of the boardwalk, when our birding was suddenly interrupted.  Adrian Binns tapped us on the shoulder and...

Waders, warblers and weather

Well, we made it past the volcanic ash, and after flying to New York and then to Cleveland we finally made to our destination, Port Clinton on the shore of Lake Erie, but well after dark. So it was very interesting to see where we would be birding in daylight today.  As we left Port Clinton the sky became a very strange mix of black, white and grey swirls, nothing we’d ever seen before,...

Showing off our Welsh birding hotspots

We’ve had our good friends from the Netherlands, Roy and Anja de Haas, staying with us for a few days, and with the weather being amazingly kind to us, we’ve been able to take them out every day to experience some of the best of our Welsh birding.  Roy is a very keen bird photographer, running his own photography agency, www.agami.nl, so he was keen to get some cracking shots of o...

Woodcock Extravaganza

Last night, a very special bird put on a very special performance, to a wrapt audience.  At 8pm, Mark, Head of Research at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, gave a talk on the incredible American Woodcock.  This shy retiring wader is seldom seen by day, but emerges at dusk when there is only 2 candlepower of light in the sky.  At this point the male begins his bizarre sky ...

Packing a week into 10 days!

We're working on a new talk on The Biggest Twitch which we've been invited to give at an event called The Biggest Week in American Birding which runs at Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Ohio from 6th to 16th May.  Those of you who are quick at mental arithmetic will have spotted the obvious flaw - it's 10 days long!  Apparently there are just so many amazing birds to be seen that a w...

Blusterly day on the Great Orme

With a cold northerly wind blowing it didn’t look very encouraging for a walk on the Orme, but with the sun shining we thought we’d brave the winds anyway.  A dog walker on the path just ahead of us made us feel even more disheartened about the prospect of seeing any birds before we’d even started, but we’d made the effort to go out so we weren’t giving up now.&n...

Guiding in the sun

A great day's guiding in sunny North Wales yesterday. An early start, meeting at Conwy RSPB reserve at 6am. It was very cold, a frost, so bird song was a little subdued. However, we soon found the first Reed Warbler of the year singing near the viewing screen off the boardwalk. Nearby a Common Redstart sang but refused to show. A flock of Black-tailed Godwits were in thier brick-red breeding pluma...

Digi-scoping Workshop Part 2

Another sunny day at Pensychnant, another successful Digi-scoping Workshop as once again Paul Hackett showed the group how to get the best from their digi-scoping kit.  It was great to see how their confidence increased as they all became more proficient with their compact cameras and produced some outstanding results.  The birds and other wildlife also provided entertainment at this re...

Great Orme walk and details on Optics Demo

 Another lovely Spring day here in North Wales, if a little cool with a NE breeze. The limestone headland of the Great Orme towers above our house and on mornings like this can't be ignorned! The headland is a great place to search for migrant birds and each visit brings that hope of something a little different.At first it was pretty bird less in the cold of early morning but slowly birds be...

Arrival by Storks

News had come out last night of two White Storks, found by Tony White appropriately enough, near Wylfa Nuclear Power Station on Anglesey yesterday evening. The two birds were apparently showing well, close to the road. Alan was frustrated to be in Scotland giving an optics demo; it’s not often he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he promised to let Ruth know if he heard more ...

Digiscoping in the sunshine

A clear blue sky, warm sunshine, great birds at close range, and Paul Hackett. What more could you ask for to make your digiscoping workshop a great success?!  Today was the first of our two digi-scoping workshops at Pensychnant Nature Conservation Centre.  To start with, Paul took the participants through the theory basics before everyone set up their equipment on the lawn in front of t...

Bongauksen Hurma

When we visited Finland last year to give a talk on The Biggest Twitch, we met up with writer and birder Ari Linna.  Ari was working on a book about twitching, a series of short articles written by primarily Finnish twitchers on what they’d twitched and what it had meant to them.  He asked us if we’d be interested in submitting a short piece on The Biggest Twitch and of cours...

Birds, Boots & Butties on the Lleyn

With Alan away working, Ruth roped in her sister Susan to accompany her on a recce trip down the Lleyn Peninsula.  Their goal was to test-drive a new walk Ruth’s next book.  She’s writing a new addition on the Lleyn for her series of walking books called Birds, Boots and Butties on where to enjoy a good walk, with great views of birds, and a decent café as the reward a...

Cambrians at Pensychnant

It was great to catch up with some old friends last night when we gave a talk on The Biggest Twitch to the Cambrian Ornithological Society.  They were an excellent audience, with plenty of oohing and aahing and laughter in all the right places during our talk.  They had some good questions for us afterwards and the discussions continued over tea.  In fact, they were such a lively bu...

Brilliant birding in the rain!

It’s not often that Ruth is first out of bed to go birding but today was one of those rare occasions! Alan had promised to help her catch up with Lesser Spotted Woodpecker which she’d missed recently while stuck in the office, and Ruth thought we might still be on a roll after our good fortune with the Lesser Kestrel on Sunday.  She was right!  As the light drizzle increased ...

Black Duck sticks around

Thankfully the Black Duck is still on the Conwy Estuary this morning and showing very well, with a good telescope, from the Glan Conwy railway station platform.Glad to say Ruth saw the bird yesterday after work. Rob Sandham and Alan relocated the Black Duck at Glan Conwy around 6pm after it had been flushed by canoeists at 3.30pm and went missing! Ruth just rolled up at 6.05 and stepped from the c...

New heath, good birds!

Alan was working at the RSPB headquarters at The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire doing some staff training for Leica. By another very happy co-incidence another rare bird was at this reserve (see earlier post for Lesser Kestrel story), this time the rarity was a female Two-barred Crossbill. Alan had seen males in the UK previously but never a female and as he was right on site it would seem rude not to...

Right place, right time makes for mega weekend!

Minsmere RSPB reserve is a wonderful site for birding so when asked to spend the weekend there doing an Optics Demo the answer was always going to be yes! It was a very slow drive down on Friday with the roads jammed with traffic so no birding possible. Saturday morning was bright, if cool, and there was just time for a little birding before setting up the demo. The large scrape at Minsmere, just ...

A sound approach to birding

Two days this week Alan has been guiding for a sound recordist working on wildlife programmes for the BBC. The brief was to record bird songs and calls, easy, right? Seeing, or in Alan’s case showing someone a bird is one thing but trying to record the birds call is another. The first problem Pete, the sound man, and Alan encountered was noise pollution. It had never occurred to Alan before ...

Conwy valley to South Stack, Anglesey

Alan met Chris and Mel at the delightful Princes Arms Hotel, Trefriw at 7.30am. It was a lovely morning; you could almost think it was spring. Bird song filled the air as they headed north to Llanbedir-y-cennin. The Hawfinches were not in the mood to show off despite the good weather and flight views only were had. Not far away a Red Kite gave wonderful looks in the sunshine. A quick stop over-loo...

Birding, Victorian-style!

We birders often get a bad press.  We’re accused of being insensitive to our surroundings when we’re in pursuit of a good bird by descending en mass to the area and annoying the locals as we block roads, pavements and paths, and trample willy-nilly on private property in our bid to get a view of the bird.  And we are sometimes accused of being equally insensitive to the bird ...

What colour do you like your warblers?

With only a couple of months to go before we go out to The Biggest Week in American Birding (www.biggestweekinamericanbirding.com) in Ohio in May, we’ve been drooling over the field guides at the amazing array of warblers we can hope to see there.  A real migrant trap as the birds stop and stoke up on fuel before heading further north over the Great Lakes, this place promises a warbler ...

Buntings on the beach

Having spent all morning tied to the computer, we escaped into the sunshine and decided to take a look at Kinmel Bay to see if the Snow Buntings were still around.  Of course when we got out in the car park by the blue bridge over the River Clwyd, the wind was blowing pretty strongly, but we wrapped up and headed out onto the stony beach. Do we try left or right first?  We tried walking ...

Better bird images

Plans are progressing well for our two digi-scoping workshops to be held on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th April.  We’ve teamed up with Paul Hackett, one of the UK’s leading bird digi-scopers to offer a series of workshops to help you discover the best tips and techniques to improve your own digi-scoping. Paul has been at the forefront of the digi-scoping revolution and has pioneer...

Heading north...

Alan hit the road for Scotland, destination Loch Leven RSPB Reserve to do some work for Leica Sports Optics. As he was heading north up the M6 signs proclaimed the town of Kendal, Cumbria and with a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling being seen here recently it seemed rude to drive past. The starling had been reported for a few days but Alan figured that there was a good chance the long staying rarit...

Is spring around the corner?

We drove in sunshine to Pensarn Beach once again to find Steve Culley and Rob Sandham already in place, scanning out to sea.  Someone had reported a Long-tailed Duck off here, amongst the raft of Scoter.  Alan set up the scope and started to scan.  ‘Got it!’ he said.  Sure enough, the sunlight picked out a handsome drake Long-tailed Duck amongst the black duck ridin...

New Visitor Centre coming to College Lake

Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) is planning a great new visitor centre for their flagship reserve at College Lake near Tring. We had given the group a talk about The Biggest Twitch back in December; this was arranged through our great friend Richard Birch. While we were down for the talk Richard arranged a visit to the College Lake reserve and while he and Ruth went for a walk, Alan j...

Four go birding

Alan joined Marc Hughes, Mike Duckham and Rob Sandham, aka “that lad” for a full day birding around local sites. As dawn came over the farmland south of Betws-y-coed an early Red Kite flapped slowly across the frost dusted fields. Into the huge pine forest of Clocaenog and Common Crossbills greeted the team as they stepped from the car. A short uphill walk reached a fantastic view poin...

High Tide at Parkgate

With one of the biggest tides of the year on the Dee Estuary, we headed over to Parkgate to enjoy the spectacle with hundreds of other birders.  As the tide pushed ever closer to the embankment, we were treated to views of thousands of birds.  Waders shifted en masse as their feeding areas became covered in water, wildfowl floated up the estuary on the rising tide, but it was the raptors...

Sneak Preview of the Cover of The Biggest Twitch Book

How do you fancy having a special signed copy of the forthcoming book of our big year, The Biggest Twitch?  We’ve written the story of our exciting adventure as we birded around the world in 2008, aiming to set a new world record for the highest number of bird species recorded in a single calendar year.  We are privileged to have this original cover design by renowned bird artist R...

Kite at Caerhun

Question: where do you go in North Wales to see good birds in sunshine and out of the wind? Answer: Caerhun Churchyard, that’s where.  The birding morning started at Pensarn once again looking for the Surf Scoters. Light conditions were great, and despite the choppy waters, the views of the nine Velvet Scoter amongst the Commons were clear and detailed, but despite extensive scanning, t...

Early morning forest birding

Alan met Martin Jones early and headed south down the Conwy valley in the dark. As dawn broke they had reached the upland conifers of Clocaenog Forest. A short up hill walk, still plenty of snow and ice on the ground, and they left the mist and came out on top of the hill to wonderful clear views, wow! They had come to look for a Great Grey Shrike found here yesterday, a traditional site for this ...

Sunny seawatching

With the sun shining and the temperatures rising to an almost spring-like 9 degrees, we decided to try our luck at Llanfairfechan promenade. As usual, we were fooled by the calm at Llandudno, and arrived to find that there was still a chill wind blowing offshore at Llanfair, but with the tide coming in rapidly, we set up the scope for a scan of the water. There were good numbers of Great Crested ...

Presentation at Conwy RSPB

One lucky couple won a pair of binoculars at Conwy RSPB Reserve by becoming the 5,000 customer to purchase optics at the reserve shop. The reserve asked Alan to pop down and make the presentation and luckily the sun shone for the occasion and it was smiles all round. Alan added to the prize, a pair of RSPB binoculars, with a copy of his co-authored book, The Best Birdwatching Sites in North Wales....

Small Garden Birdwatch

The insistent call of a Coal Tit from just outside the bedroom window was a reminder that it is Big Garden Birdwatch weekend, and that we’d better get watching. So while Alan was out in the cold checking the seas for Surf Scoter, Ruth propped herself up in the window armed with a cup of tea, binoculars and notebook.  Still convalescing from her operation, it was the ideal kind of birdwa...

Back on the beach

Early morning and back to Pensarn beach to try again for the Surf Scoters. No other birders about today, with no sightings yesterday it seemed everyone else had given up. A little less wind than the previous day but still bitter cold on the seafront. New tactic today, view from inside the car, wedge the tripod against the door and a much steadier image was possible rather than standing out in the ...

Cold on the beach!

With two drake Surf Scoters seen just along the coast at Pensarn yesterday there was only one place to be at dawn today. As the light came up it was soon obvious that thousands of Common Scoter were offshore and reasonably close inshore. The problem was that a strong north wind was turning the sea into a heaving mass of waves and troughs which swallowed the birds. This same wind was bitter cold an...

Early and late

With a lot going on it was a case of squeezing in birding where possible. An early start saw Alan and Mike Duckham on Anglesey. A Green-winged Teal had been seen on Llyn Padrig near Aberffraw. This little watched lake lies on the far side of a field so viewing is bit distant. Plenty of Teal were out on the water but no Green-winged. Then they noticed more Teal amongst the near edge vegetation. Ala...

Beach birding

We headed east along the north Wales coast, first stop was Kinmel Bay but a quick look failed to produce the Snow Buntings. A Peregrine was sat on the sands looking menacing. A redhead Goosander and a Red-breasted Merganser were both on the adjacent River Clwyd. Further east we reached the main site for our morning birding, Gronant beach where a Shore Lark had been seen. We parked at Presthaven C...

Into deepest mid-Wales...

The day began well with a Peregrine tearing across the sky as we enjoyed an early morning cup of tea over-looking Llandudno. Moments later the Peregrine came back, much slower, labouring with the weight of a feral pigeon in its talons. At least five Fulmars flapped stiffly back and forwards to the cliffs above the house. Time to get moving. We picked up Mike Duckham and headed south on the twistin...

Bonaparte's Gull twitch

After missing the Bonaparte's Gull on Friday morning it was back on Saturday for another go. On Friday the bird had been seen briefly at Traeth Dulas, where as on Thursday it had been seen at nearby Traeth Lligwy, so where to go? We opted for Traeth Dulas and met a small group of birders not seeing much. Reg Thorpe decided to try Lligwy as plenty of people were at Dulas. A Peregrine and a Kin...

Local birds in the snow

It snowed in Llandudno today! We have pretty much missed out on all the snow here, despite all around being white. But today the snow settled in the streets here and looked like it was going to be a heavy fall. Ruth had a meeting in St Asaph to the east and did not fancy driving in heavy snow so Alan drove her to the seminar and then went birding in the snow. Luckily the snow soon eased to a light...

A wonderful weekend in Holland

We left Llandudno very early on Friday morning and had a rather unpleasant drive to Manchester Airport. Ice and snow were grim, the windscreen kept icing over so we had to stop and scrape it clear. Then as we neared Manchester we hit freezing fog! Finally we reached the airport and dashed to the check-in desk and just made the flight in time. Touching down in Amsterdam it was a very cold scene wit...

Bad snow stops play

We’d decided to go for the Black Kite at Gigrin Farm in deepest darkest mid-Wales, which was perhaps a bit optimistic given the weather forecast.  But when we looked out the window in Llandudno with not a snowflake to be seen we thought it worth a try, so we picked up Mike Duckham from Glan Conwy and headed off.  Rather than drive up over the mountains though, we decided to play sa...

Big Day in North Wales 2 January

Pre-dawn Alan met our friends Owen and Glynis for a full days birding in North Wales. Sadly Ruth was not well so could not join in. By dawn the three were stood at Shotwick Boating Lake in Flintshire just south of the Dee Estuary. One of the first birds was a Stock Dove, one of the target birds here so good start. The lake held plenty of wildfowl but despite a good search no sign of the two Scaup ...

Grim weather, few birds!

A bitter cold windy wet day but we ventured out to try and see some birds. The north shore at Llandudno was windswept and grim and worse still no sign of the previous days five Twite. We moved to Penrhyn Bay in case the Twite had returned to their feeding area on the sea defences but no sign here either. Rock Pipit and a gang of Linnet was all.At Rhos Point we had great views of six roosting Purpl...

Out in the sunshine locally

We went down to Conwy RSPB this morning, and joined the other visitors to the reserve as we slithered along the surprisingly slippery paths.  There were plenty of Lapwing on the islands, Gadwall and Shoveller showed on the lagoons and Snipe roosted on the edge of the reeds.We tried again to set up a photo of the tame Robin coming down to feed on a walking boot as a cover photo for Ruth's next...

Where men are men...

... and sheep can't believe their eyes!  Conditions weren't great as we stopped at Foryd Bay and scanned the shoreline, but still there were birds.  72 Pale-bellied Brent Geese were joined by 26 Dark-bellied Brents.  Clouds of waders swirled about: Golden Plover, Lapwing, Knot, Dunlin and Bar-tailed Godwits.  Little Egrets fed in the shallow creeks. Next we moved on to nearby D...

Boxing Day Buntings!

The sky was clear as the sun came up this morning, so after yesterday's excesses of turkey and Christmas pudding, we were glad to head out early to see what birds were about.  We walked east along the beach at Kinmel Bay but sadly not a bird was in sight.  We walked as far as the River Clwyd but still no sign of the wintering Snow Buntings.  It looked like we were out of luck. ...

Birding the North Wales coast

A full day guiding along the North Wales is always fun and yesterday was no exception. Dawn at Rhos Point west of Colwyn Bay was grey and cold but plenty of birds were here. As the tide pushed in the waders were driven nearer and nearer the prom and the views of Oystercatchers, Redshanks and Turnstones were great. After a short search we found the target bird here, Purple Sandpipers roosting on bo...

Birding on Anglesey

We headed out into the sunshine for some Anglesey birding.  First stop was Beddmanarch Bay, where the tide was well out.  That meant plenty of exposed mudflat and plenty of waders to scan through.  With the sunlight on our backs, good light and for once, no wind, it was a real pleasure to be out birding.  No rarities, but plenty of good wader action with hundreds of Dunlin, 60+...

Back yard birding

A walk from home out into our extended back yard, the Great Orme at Llandudno. It was a lovely morning with bright sunshine and flat calm. The sort of day you stand and actually watch birds, enjoying the pleasure of good views of common species. The wooded area was buzzing with plenty of life, Treecreeper, Coal Tit and Goldcrest all fed within a few meters of the path. Out on to the grazed hillsid...

Geese in the sunshine!

A visit to Foryd Bay west of Caernarfon today - as always plenty of birds at this large, shallow estuary.  On arrival at the mouth of the bay a Great Northern Diver was wrestling with a large crab.  The diver eventually won out and swallowed the crab minus its claws. A lengthy period of preening and wing flapping followed, perhaps the crab was giving it indigestion? It was lovely to watc...

Talking birds

December the ninth 2009 is a special day for Alan as it is twenty years to the day that he, and Ted Abraham and John Gregory, started Birdline North West. This telephone information service for birders covers North Wales and North-West England from western Gwynedd right round to northern Cumbria. The pre-recorded message is updated many times each day as bird news comes in. The information covers ...

Memories of India 2008

This time last year we were having a wonderful time in Northern India with Peter Lobo8th December 2008. Myzornis makes the day! Out into the chilly pre-dawn again to try more altitude birding.  Not quite so high this time, just a mere 10,000 feet.  Birding was fairly slow but the views of the snow-capped Himalayas all around us were simply stunning.  No doubting the bird of the day:...

Memories of India 2008

Fire-tailed Myzornis, photo by Peter LoboThis time last year we were birding in Northern India and having a wonderful time with Peter Lobo.8th December 2008. Myzornis makes the day! Out into the chilly pre-dawn again to try more altitude birding.  Not quite so high this time, just a mere 10,000 feet.  Birding was fairly slow but the views of the snow-capped Himalayas all around us were s...

A taste of the East

Work had kept us pretty much in the North Wales area so we'd not been able to do much twitching.  But since we were already in the southeast to give a talk on The Biggest Twitch, we of course took the opportunity  to catch up with the very long-staying Brown Shrike at Staines Moor.  Trusting that it wouldn't have decided to disappear on the very day we finally had a chance to see it...

Birthday Boys!

1st December is the birthday of both Alan and our good birding friend from Anglesey, Steve Culley, so it seemed only right and proper to all go birding again this morning.  We met at Conwy RSPB and piled into Steve’s car.  Our destination was Caerhun churchyard and our target bird was Hawfinch.  Driving over the Tal-y-cafn bridge, Steve suggested we stop to look for Common San...

South of the border

Yesterday, the Biggest Twitchers headed down south to Cambridgeshire. This was close to Ruth’s old stomping ground in the days when she worked at the RSPB’s Head Office in Sandy, and it seemed strange to see the familiar place names on the roadsigns as we drove along the A14 in lashing rain.  Not good conditions for birding though this wasn’t really on the agenda.  Alan...

Close encounter of the badger kind!

We took a short drive in the dark to a friend's house.  We were met by Sue at the door who invited us in to sit in her living room overlooking the back garden.  Sue had prepared a feast of brown bread with peanut butter, sunflower hearts and peanuts, spread just a few inches away from her patio window.  We took up our positions in comfy armchairs, complete with a cup of tea, turned ...

The Biggest Twitch meets the BBC

Thank you to the members of the BBC, the Bucks Bird Club that is, who gave us such a warm welcome on a chilly Thursday night in Wendover.  A good turnout packed the memorial hall and they were a great audience, enjoying the stories and images, and asking plenty of good questions afterwards.  Many thanks to Chairperson, Rosie, and of course to our good friends Richard and Julie Birch who ...

A fishy tail!

Before the first ray of sun came up, Alan headed out into the dark, leaving the old trout, Ruth, at home having a lie-in.  He met up with cameraman Steve Phillips, aiming to net some footage of salmon leaping.  They arrived at the site, floundered their way across wet fields to the edge of a gorge.  The descent into the gorge was as slippery as an eel but they arrived safely at the ...

Birding in the snow

Looking back at our photos of Finland, Estonia and Norway last year, and loading some of our favourites onto our wall on Facebook (see Alan Davies), had us reminiscing on some of our best days and best birds in this region.  Here's what we were up to on 8th June 2008:Up onto the high moors above Ujotski to look for Long-tailed Skuas.  We were immediately lucky as a pair showed off right ...

Literal translation!

 No, we haven't just done a crash course in Finnish, here's the article translated literally by Google Toolbar Translator.  Hope you get the idea anyway! Alan Davies and Ruth Miller saw Siberian Jay in Ireland in 2008 during their The Biggest Twitch trip aroud the World http://www.thebiggesttwitch.com/ Brittibongarit gave a presentation at the meeting maailmanvuodenpinnaennätyk...

Birding in the forest

We were glad we did pack warm clothing as we headed out at first light the next morning for a walk in the forest of a national park just outside Helsinki.  Under clear skies, temperatures had dropped during the night and the ground was frozen hard.  Antero and Annika led us on a walk through mature pine forests along a mixture of tracks, footpaths and slippery boardwalks.  At first,...

Fun in Finland

We took a short trip to Finland this weekend to give a talk to Bongariliitto, the group of hardcore Finnish twitchers.  We were met at the airport on Friday evening by Pertti Uusivuori. One of his many roles is with Birdlife International and as he took us and Antero out for a delicious dinner at the Fishmarket restaurant in central Helsinki, he entertained us with tales of his birding around...

Memories of India 2008

19th November 2008. Today we birded at a little lower altitude and gave the Cheer Pheasant site a miss. At dawn we were over looking some small fields with brambles – not the most impressive of sites but as the light came so did the birds. First up was a Dusky Warbler just feet away feeding in roadside bushes. Next a cracking Black-throated Accentor hopping about in a field while an Olive-ba...

Last year we hit 4,000 species on this day!

17th November 2008. The day began in fine style with a pair of Collared Scops Owls roosting in a tree just yards from the breakfast table! We said goodbye to Tiger Camp, a lovely place and ideal birding base for Corbett, and began the long drive up to Nainital, a Himalayan Hill Station. We birded as we drove of course and picked up great birds such as Maroon Oriole, Golden-fronted Leafbird and Cre...

Finland here we come!

Great news the Finnair pilots strike is over so we are going to Finland this weekend to give a talk on The Biggest Twitch. We are hoping to see a few birds as well of course. Our last winter trip to Finland was very memorable as we went to see a very special bird, an Azure Tit! This mega rare bird was coming to a feeding station deep in a forest and we stood in deep snow in minus 19, bitter cold. ...

Bad weather good birds

Despite the wild weather here in North Wales some good were seen today. At the mouth of the Dee Estuary 2 Shore Larks are still at the Point of Ayr where upto six Snow Buntings and 4 Twite. We hope they stay and winter here.Closer to home still 2 Black Redstarts are at Llandudno on the west shore, feeding around the site of a demolished hotel. The views were not great today in the high winds but a...

Diary dates

On Wednesday 18 November we are giving a talk in Ormskirk, Lancashire. The talk is to the West Lancashire Wildlife group at 7.15pm. None members are very welcome £2.50 payable on the door. If you are in the area do come along and hear all about our adventures last year.We will be at the RSPB Conwy Christmas Fair on Sunday 29 November where we will be chatting to visitors about The Biggest Tw...

All sold out!

Our new 2010 calendars proved a real hit with the members of the University of London Convocation Liverpool group to whom we gave a talk today.  We were invited to talk about The Biggest Twitch at The Grange on The Wirral at the annual lunch of this group, which has a variety of activities throughout the year.After being entertained to a tasty 3-course lunch, it was our turn to entertain...

A day for remembering

In the middle of a busy life, it can be hard to take out a few minutes to remember. But at 11 minutes past 11 this morning, we downed tools and stopped for two minutes in silence to remember the ultimate sacrifice that others have made for us, so that we can be free to live in peace and free to travel.This time last year at Taman Negara in Malaysia it was even harder to take the time to pause as w...

Searching for black reds

With an influx of Black Redstarts into the area we headed up the Great Orme just behind our house in the hope finding our own. We could have just popped over to the Little Orme at Penrhyn Bay where five birds were being seen and enjoyed by many birders. No, we wanted our own bird. We set off as one heavy rain band moved through and took the path along the base of the cliffs towards Llandudno west ...

Late migrants

Another trip down the Lleyn Peninsula and out to Uwchmynydd headland beyond Aberdaron. The weather forecast had been poor and for once they were pretty much right, wet and windy. It has to be said that the rain soon stopped but the gale force wind kept blowing. Not surprisingly the hoped for visible migration did not happen, most birds had more sense than to fly in the gale. Amazingly a handful of...

The blues for Alan

The day was spent working on the book, “The Biggest Twitch”, and it is great to report that the writing is done and we are now refining the words and editing, slow job but enjoyable. We hope to get the first draft down to our publishers soon. Then we will see what they make of it! Professional editors may have very different ideas to ours? Alan was also kept busy updating both Birdlin...

Halloween party night!

After a very dull Saturday spent mostly hunched over the computer typing we were ready for some entertainment. Luckily our friends Neil and Roxy had just the thing, a Halloween party! It is a tradition at their house that 31st October is party night and these two really know how to party. The house had been transformed into a horror movie set with cobwebs, pumpkins, spiders, and all manner of Hall...

One year on!

It is hard to believe that is one year ago since we broke the world record, where has time gone? It has certainly flown by. To mark the anniversary here is a repeat of our diary entry for the world record breaking day 31 October 2008 and a picture of a Bluebonnet parrot the species that broke the record, bird number 3,663 for 2008.New World Record!Out at 3.30am to drive to an area of mallee - arid...

Right place, wrong time!

Alan is having a bit of a bad week, missing some very good birds here in North Wales. On Monday he headed west to Aberdaron and Uwchmynydd Headland over looking Bardsey Island. The plan was to look for migrant birds. Arriving just after dawn he met up with Mike Duckham, Andy Clarke, Rhys Jones and Marc Hughes out at Uwchmynydd. Surely these crack birders could find a rarity between them? The morni...

A good bird at last!

An early morning call from Peter Alderson had Alan dashing up the Great Orme, here at Llandudno. Ruth was only dashing to work sadly. Alan arrived at the cemetery, a good place for migrants with some sheltered bushes, and could see Peter looking intently. Quickly going over, he was not quick enough, in the time it had taken to walk the fifty meters or so the Firecrest had vanished. Oh no not anoth...

Twitchers enjoying a new bird

Here is a picture of the Twitchers enjoying the Eastern Crowned Warbler at South Shields. Picture by John Roberts who was lucky enough to see this mega bird yesterday. Ruth's talk, on Birds, Boots and Butties, went went well at the Conwy Feast if to a rather select audience. It was not an easy venue for a talk with a lot of noise in the back ground and a light filled marque. Ruth di...

A new bird for Britain!

Great excitement amongst the British twitching word at the moment with the discovery of a new species for the UK, an Eastern Crowned Warbler! This tiny bird all the way from the far east, usually to be found in Korea or Japan at this time of year, was found in a disused quarry near South Shields, County Durham. First seen late afternoon on the 22 October and luckily for the twitchers still showing...

Something for the weekend?

We are giving two talks this coming weekend at the Conwy Feast event, which surprise, surprise is taking place in Conwy. This annual event celebrates food and the joy of eating so we should really enjoy ourselves. Much of the action takes place on the lovely quayside with views of the medieval Conwy Castle and the adjacent Conwy Estuary. Our talks take place in the “Book Tent” at mid-d...

Sweden picture and more...

Here is another pic from our trip to the Island of Oland, Sweden. It was very cold at the Bird Observatory, near the point, early morning and we and all the other birders were frozen! So, when the café opened there was a rush for hot drinks and birding was forgotten, all be it temporarily!A walk on the Great Orme, Llandudno just behind our house this morning produced a few migrants. At dawn...

Braving the wind at Falsterbo

Temperatures had plummeted during the night and we awoke to a thick frost on the ground and a bitter north-easterly wind.  But undeterred we headed out with Lars to Falsterbo, not far from Malmo, to witness more migration.Huge numbers of Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws were heading out high towards Denmark.  Amongst them were smaller numbers of Rooks and Stock Doves.  At first it seemed t...

Last birds at the Point

It was our last morning on Oland so of course we had to pay a final visit to the bird observatory at Ottenby.  Once again, Goldcrests and Robins were all over the place even before we'd driven out as far as the point - is there a limitless supply of these birds on migration? But then we came to an emergency stop as Alan spotted a newcomer amongst the pack of Dark-bellied Brent Geese: one Blac...

More migration and party night!

We spent the day birding around Oland. Yesterday was Barnacle Goose day, today was Common Eider, and boy were they common! A count from the point produced a staggering 10,000 passing per hour! The Eider were passing in huge long lines low and very fast, an impressive migration. Also passing were Long tailed Ducks, Velvet Scoter and Black throated Diver. As the day went on a swarm of Goldcrests and...

Mega migration

Just a quick update from Oland in Sweden, where we're being kindly hosted by our friend Lars Rydgren and the Swedish 300 Club.  Our morning began with up close and personal views of a juvenile Sabine's Gull, quickly followed by equally crippling views of a juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpiper.  We marvelled at the aerial dexterity of a White-tailed Eagle taking a Mallard in mid-air right bef...

Birding in the west...

We headed west down the Llyn peninsula with the usual high hopes of finding something good in this far flung corner of North Wales. This under-watched area, lies close to Bardsey Island which regularly pulls in wonderful birds and we have always believed that at least some goodies must miss the island and make land-fall on the adjacent mainland. Over the years we, and a small number of other North...

Ouseing with birds!

Alan was again on the road this week and his travels took him east over to the Cambridge/Suffolk border. Work done for the day there was still enough day light for some birding. With news of a flock of Glossy Ibis on the nearby Ouse Washes there was never any doubt where to head for. Navigating the narrow fenland lanes he arrived at Sutton Gault, a tiny hamlet at the southern end of the Ouse Washe...

Fitting in a Lapland

Ruth hasn't had so much time to go birding lately what with office work and book writing filling most of her time.  But all work and no play makes Jill just as dull as Jack, so on her days working at home, she has tried to fit in an early morning brisk walk up the Great Orme, the national park that is our back garden, before settling down to computer work. It's a good exercise routine involvi...

Gloss taken off the day!

With news of a Glossy Ibis showing well just twenty miles away at Aber Ogwen Alan was dying to get there. Just one problem the news of this exciting rarity was not circulated until way after dark. Local birders, and us, were gutted! After several fly-over and briefly seen birds in North Wales recently it was very frustrating to know that at last a Glossy Ibis had been showing off right in front of...

A touch of culture

With Ruth’s friend Debbie staying for the weekend we decided to head down to Portmeirion for some culture. This very strange mock Italian village lies just south of Porthmadog on the Dwyryd Estuary. We took the scenic route from Llandudno, through Snowdonia; the weather was perfect with clear blue sky and glorious sunshine. The mountains looked stunning and Debbie’s was thrilled by the...

Birding in the dark!

An early start was called for to attempt to see the Baird’s Sandpiper on Anglesey. This vagrant from North America had been found at Traeth Dulas on the east coast of Anglesey on the 4th September. With Alan away that day and snowed under with updating Birdline on the 5th it was the 6th before a chance to go and look for this rare wader came along. The alarm went off at 5am and a quick cup ...

Birding without bins!

It was a very busy day for Alan keeping both Birdline North West and Birdline Wales up to date. The winds had combined to blow in a whole host of good birds across the regions. Seabirds such as Sabine’s Gulls, Long-tailed Skuas, Balearic and Sooty Shearwaters were all being phoned in from all around the huge coast line that stretches from south Wales to Cumbria. No sooner had one of the pre-...

North Norfolk birding

Having waved good-bye to Keith and Iain at Oakham railway station very early on Monday morning it was time to see some birds. Rob and Dick from the ABA were staying on in the UK for a few days to boost their lists and pick our brains about Bird Fair and all things birding. We had arranged to meet at Peterborough Railway Station where they were to drop off their hire-car and we would pick them up....

At the Birdfair

It’s amazing how much you can pack into three days at the British Birdwatching Fair.  It was non-stop working and socialising from dawn until the wee small hours.  Sleep was an optional extra which we somehow missed out on, isn’t Red Bull wonderful, or an even better new discovery for us, a low-cal high-octane brew called Kick.  Iain Campbell from Tropical Birding manage...

Windy north Norfolk

We birded the north Norfolk coast from Snettisham RSPB reserve on The Wash in the east as far west as Cley-next-the-sea. Despite a very strong south-west wind, which did nothing to bring migrants or seabirds to the coast, we enjoyed a great few days. We stayed at Titchwell village were right on the door step for the wonderful Titchwell RSPB reserve and made several visits here. A huge amount of vi...

All the fun of the Fair!

Tomorrow we’re off to the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water for three days of birds, fun, meeting friends and networking, Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd August.  Everything and anything related to birds and birding will be there:  bird art, optics sales, bird books, outdoor clothing and bird tours around the world, guided walks, talks by wildlife experts.  We’ve bee...

A55 vs the Manu Road

This time this year, we are seeing far too much of the A55, the 4-lane highway that links home in North Wales to the motorway network covering the rest of the UK.  It’s a good way to get to other birding sites, but there’s not much birding along the way.  You might see an old Nissan Bluebird, maybe overtake a Reliant Robin, and if it’s the weekend of Llandudno’s c...

Sad news from South Africa

We were very sad to hear from our friend Keith at Tropical Birding who told us of the very untimely death of Ben de Boer of Kurisa Moya Nature Lodge in the northern Limpopo Province, South Africa. Ben and his wife Lisa had helped us during The Biggest Twitch and it was almost a year ago on 4th September 2008 that we enjoyed their wonderful hospitality.  We had enjoyed a wonderful morning&rsqu...

Complete Sell out!

Ruth was asked if she’d like to do a book signing of her new books called Birds, Boots and Butties at Conwy RSPB’s Summer Fair on Saturday.  We don’t need much persuading to visit this fantastic Reserve, and so Saturday afternoon saw us both sitting behind a table piled high with books:  both editions of Ruth’s books covering Conwy/Eastern Snowdonia and Anglesey, ...

Seeing the wood

Apologies for the lack of updates recently but the truth is we have not had a lot to write about! 2009 is certainly very different from 2008.Best birds recently have been two Wood Sandpipers, lovely subtle waders. The first was a good find at Frodsham Marsh in Cheshire. Arriving early for a meeting in Chester only one thing to do to fill the time, no not shopping in the city, but birding. A Black-...

How time flies!

Who’d have thought it was a whole year ago that we were birding in Brazil, at REGUA in the Atlantic Rainforest on the east coast of the country to be precise.  It was an outstanding place to bird, definitely one of THE highlights of the year.  One of the most beautiful parts of the amazing reserve was the man-made wetland created relatively recently, but so well established that it...

Published author

No, not the book of The Biggest Twitch yet, though we’re still cracking on with that and have been discussing front cover designs with our publisher, so watch this space.But ‘Birds, Boots and Butties’ has arrived!  This is a series of books that Ruth has written on the best places in North Wales to go for a walk, watch birds and enjoy a great cup of tea.  The first two ...

Tern comes to town!

With Ruth down in Oxford seeing her mum Alan made a very early start on Saturday morning. He headed west in the vain hope he could relocate the Royal Tern which had not been seen since Monday, some chance! Starting at Llanfairfechan he worked the coast west to Bangor but of course there was no sign of the Royal Tern, no surprise. Lots of Little Egrets were a feature of the morning with birds at a...

Out for a duck!

An excited phone call from our friend Glyn Roberts told us that a drake Garganey was showing well at RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve just down the road. Ruth was in full flow writing up our adventures in Ethiopia for the book so did not want to be disturbed. Alan was very happy to escape and head down to the reserve. Joining Glyn at the Tal-y-fan hide over-looking the lagoons the Garganey was soon seen....

Couldn't spot Spotty!

Last night we had just gone to bed and it was one of those moments when we really did not want Alan’s mobile to ring, but it did. We tried to ignore it but it rang again. Oh well, better answer, might be important. Well it was! Our friend Simon had just heard news of a Spotted Sandpiper on Anglesey! With only a handful of records ever in Wales and one previously in North Wales this would be ...

One that got away!

Here is a photo of the Bonaparte's Gull seen all to breifly at Traeth Dulas, Anglesey on Sunday. Found by Chris Jones early afternoon but only local birder Martin Jones got there before it flew off after a quick wash and brush up. Surely still in the area?

Model birders

This morning saw us both out in the field again, this time in the historic and beautiful churchyard of the 13th Century Caerhun Church overlooking the Conwy River.  We set up the scope and had a scan of the river.  We scoped through the large number of roosting gulls but a thorough search revealed only Great and Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls, although Goosander was a bonus....

Bucket and spade birding

A lovely day and we headed for South Stack RSPB Reserve on Anglesey. Jo, Emily and Becky were all keen to see Puffins and with the weather good, hopes were high. Arriving at the reserve it was a perfect day, warm, sunny and calm. A short walk down to the cliff top soon had us staring at the bustling seabird colony. Thousands of Common Guillemots were crammed on the ledges and plenty of Razorbills ...

A different style of birding

With our friend Jo Thomas, of Wild About India, staying with us here in North Wales we had to adapt our birding a little. With Jo came her twin nine year old daughters, Becky and Emily. The girls are full of beans and very lively always looking for the next thing to do. It was obvious from the start these two nine year olds were going to test our ability to keep them entertained. We took on the ch...

The Biggest Twitch meets the 300 Club: Saturday 23rd May

We went back to the Bird Observatory at Ottenby again in the morning, though there were not so many birds around due to the calm, clear weather.  The first bird we encountered was the roosting Nightjar, which this time we were able to photograph.  Small flocks of Barnacle and Brent Geese were flying over, and the obligatory Lesser Whitethroats were still flitting through the handful of t...

Early morning fall: Friday 22nd May

A 4am start saw us heading down with Stefan, another top Swedish birder and long-time friend of Lars and Ingrid, to the bird observatory in great anticipation to see what the overnight rain had brought in.  We were not disappointed.  Immediately on our arrival, we were amazed to see warblers literally falling out of the sky.  Every bush contained a gang of Lesser Whitethroats. ...

Paradise in Sweden? Sunday 24th May

With our flight back to the UK scheduled for the late afternoon, we just had time for a brief birding stop on Oland before heading back to the mainland.  Lars and Ingrid took us to a very special location, this time on the east coast of Oland, and home to Christian, the birder with the highest Swedish list.  And we could see why, since half of them must have turned up in just his garden....

Taking a spin to see a Phalarope: Thursday 21st May

On Thursday morning we drove the short distance to Grasgrads hamn, a small fishing port on the east coast of Oland.  Here we saw a breeding plumaged Grey Phalarope but the views were distant and the bird unobligingly hid behind a rock for much of the time, so we planned to return later in the day when the light, and hopefully the behaviour of the bird, would be better.  We then explored ...

Great gulls and more...

Alan met Dave at RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve and quickly added new species for their two day trip. A lovely Grey Plover, moulting into its breeding plumage fed out on the mudflats and a Common Gull bathed on the lagoon. Onto the A55 and they headed west for Anglesey. The day was overcast, calm and no rain! Though it had been torrential overnight. First stop on the island was the fields north of Mena...

Great local birds

Early morning at Conwy RSPB reserve and the fine adult Spoonbill, which arrived yesterday afternoon, was still present. This great bird complete with funky crest, yellow under-bill and bill tip was stood amongst a group of local Herring Gulls. It certainly looked very out of place! Occasionally it fed in the shallow waters sweeping its open bill from side to side then grabbing prey, persumably sma...

A nice find....

Alan made a quick visit to RSPB Conwy after dropping Ruth off at work. With limited time he hurried down to the new screen along the boardwalk, pausing briefly to look at a very showy Reed Warbler belting out its song. On the lagoon Lapwings were feeding up close and personal just meters from the screen, lovely. A gang of twelve Dunlin fed hurriedly almost up to their neat black bellies in the wat...

North Wales Birding

On Tuesday we picked up five clients from Celtic Bird Tours www.celticbirdtours.com for a birding holiday here in North Wales.  We are having great fun showing them the wonderful birds and scenery on our doorstep.  So far, we have visited the woodlands of the Conwy valley, wild mountain passes, coastal lagoon, towering sea cliffs and freshwater lakes.  Just a few of the highlights s...

Home from Texas

Now we’re back home in North Wales, we would like to say a massive thank you to Tamie and Brenda and all at the ABA for inviting us to participate in the American Birding Association Convention in Corpus Christi, and  for all their amazing work in organising such a great event.We had the best ever time meeting so many friendly and enthusiastic birders and have come away having made many...

One good tern deserves another...

Today we were guiding again, this time in a different area to the east of Corpus Christi.  Our slightly earlier start meant it was still pretty dark as we scanned the shoreline at Packery Channel Park.  That didn't stop us kick-starting the day with Long-billed Curlew and Marbled Godwit on the sandbank, while Short-billed Dowitcher and Spotted Sandpiper were right on the beach in front o...

Biggest Twitch Lifer!

We had another free day from guiding so with our good friend Dane and his lovely girlfriend Libby we went back to the tiny Blucher Park down the road from the hotel to try our luck.  By now, seeing Northern Waterthrush and Magnolia Warbler seems almost commonplace, while Long-billed Thrashers did their stuff amongst the leaves, a well-hidden Ovenbird eventually revealed himself to us.  ...

Birding in the teeth of a gale

We were back on guiding duty again taking another group of ABA Birders out to the fantastic sites around the Port Aransas area.  The only trouble was the wind. It was blowing so hard at Indian Point Park that we could barely stand upright never mind hold bins and scopes steady.  We had to resort to angling the bus as a windbreak and shelter behind that.  Of course the birds themselv...

Port Aransas

Last night we gave a presentation on The Biggest Twitch to the ABA convention.  A packed audience of some 250 people listened and laughed as we took them through our big year at a lively pace, and they've been kind enough to tell us since how much they enjoyed our talk. However, no lie-in this morning to revel in the glory as we were up at 5am to lead a field trip of some 30 birders out to th...

Car less birding

With the Audi having its MOT today Alan was left on foot. As the garage is in Glan Conwy it is only a short walk to the RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve. The weather was pretty grim with drizzle and a cool breeze but still plenty of birds to see. Three Chiffchaffs hammered out their simple songs by the railway line and a Common Buzzard flapped heavily past through the damp air. On the lagoons a pair of G...

First Swallow

This morning Alan and Ken headed east for the River Clwyd, south of Rhyl. It was a very high tide and the whole of the saltmarsh was flooded. This high water pushed a huge flock of gulls on to the fields just west of the river. Careful scanning located a first-winter Mediterranean Gull, nice black mask and dropping black bill. Common Snipe and Rock Pipits were also pushed out of cover and showed a...

Black and white day

Black and white day Alan and Ken again headed out to try and get some more photos for Ken’s book. The weather was awful early on so a slow start to the day. Heading west they were soon on Anglesey and checking the gulls at the rubbish tip north of Menai Bridge. They were quickly onto a cracking second winter Glaucous Gull. This huge gull dwarfed the Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gull...

Birding with wind!

Our friend Ken Behrens, an American, now living in South Africa arrived last night, you may remember him from last years diary. Ken birded with us in Ethiopia, Zambia and Malawi and had a big hand in us seeing so many birds in these amazing countries. Ruth had picked Ken up from Manchester Airport and now it was my turn to look after him today. Looking out across Llandudno it was grey and windy no...

Walking in sunshine

With another lovely spring day and Ruth working from home, so hogging the computer Alan just had to go out birding, tough life. A walk around the RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve always produces lots of birds and the prospect of some migrants in the warm sun. Arriving in the car park Alan was met by three chaps keen to show him some bird photos they taken and the next fifteen minutes was taken up looking...

A quick trip to the beach

Early morning saw Alan down on the beach at Penrhyn Bay, just east of our home in Llandudno. Two male Snow Buntings had been seen here the previous day so good a chance to miss, sadly Ruth had to head off for work, not fair. It was a lovely early spring morning, calm with warm sunshine ideal. Down on the pebble beach it was undisturbed, good news, this beach is heavily used by dog walkers. A movem...

Blucher Park

Blucher Park is a tiny oasis of green in downtown Corpus Christi.  As we had a free day, for a change we went birding.  Battling against the wind on the seafront, it was good to turn inland for a couple of blocks and reach this pocket-sized patch of heaven.  Not much to look at, a tiny stream, some scrub, a few tall Liveoaks, and some grass.  But given its position just off the...

Birding the Lone Star State

We've escaped the office and computer and travelled out to Texas for the American Birding Association Convention at Corpus Christi.  We spent the first few days at High Island near Houston, where we joined our friends from Tropical Birding. As ever the migration spectacle was excellent and we enjoyed great views of warblers such as Golden-winged, Bay-breasted, Black-throated Green and Magnoli...

Into the pine forest of Clocaenog

With reports of a Great Grey Shrike being seen fairly regularly in the Clocaenog Forest about thirty miles south-west of us we headed out to see if we could find this scarce winter visitor. It was a fine morning as we headed down the Conwy Valley and past Betws-y-coed and on down to Cerigydridion. Here we left the main road and into the vast conifer plantations of the Clocaenog Forest. We parked a...

Back to the beach

Another visit to Penrhyn Bay beach to soak up more views of the two male Snow Buntings. Both birds showed off in the warm sunshine, one even singing, the birds are feeding on seed put down by local birders and are very confiding. An unexpected record here was a Yellowhammer flying west overhead calling, can not remember the last local one of these we saw. Off shore Kittiwakes and Razorbills were f...

Spring gets closer!

The first Wheatear of the year in Wales was found today, seen on Ramsey Island off the Pembrokeshire coast, a great sign that spring is coming. We have also heard a few reports of Sand Martins coming in so keep a look out for more migrants every day. We are planning a days birding on the Dee Estuary on Friday so hope to have some good birds to write about soon! Work on the book is slow but steady ...

Birding in the rain!

When two old friends got in touch with Alan plans were soon in place to come up to North Wales and do some birding. Alan and Doug had first meet way back in 1979 when Alan was wardening Peregrine Falcons for the RSPB in mid-Wales and Doug came along as a volunteer. The two sort of kept in touch off and on every since, with not seeing each other in 2008 it was time for a catch up. Eddie a good mate...

School part two

Ruth presents the Ysgol Cynfran nest-box to Robbie at RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve after visit to the school, see Tne Biggest Twitch goes to school entry below for full story.

The Biggest Twitch goes to school

One of many correspondents during The Biggest Twitch was a very keen young birdwatcher from North Wales, Kaitlan Davies, no relation to Alan! Not only has Kaitlan got an amazing knowledge of birds but she is determined to doing something to help conserve them. As a regular visitor to her local reserve, RSPB Conwy, Kaitlan heard about many threats to our birdlife but it was the plight of Albatrosse...

A two church morning

With Ruth safely dropped off at work Alan sneaked off for a quick hour or two of birding. Where to go? As always we are very lucky and spoilt for choice so many good birding sites nearby. A report of some 8,000 Common Scoter just along the coast at Llandulas sounded interesting surely a chance of a vagrant Surf Scoter amongst them? But the sea was pretty choppy so no chance of finding a rarity in...

Talks, gulls and London

We have both given talks on The Biggest Twitch recently, Alan to Ysgol ( that’s School ) Criag-y-don in Llandudno and Ruth to the Women’s Institute at Rowen in the Conwy Valley. The school children were very excited at meeting a World Record holder and many wanted autographs, first time we have had this! At the end, and sometimes during, the presentation the kids asked questions about...

A Glorious Day!

It was one of those perfect winter days, still, cold, clear and sunny. The sky was just so blue and the mountains of Snowdonia were stark against it, plastered in thick snow, the sea was flat calm and the same blue as the sky. One draw back of having such a stunning view from the window it hardly lures you to type! But with Ruth at work at Blah d Blah, the company that designed our website Alan w...

Back on familiar ground!

Today we returned to RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve to record a piece for HTV Wales news about The Biggest Twitch. We Ian Lang from HTV in the coffee shop over looking the lagoon which was thronged with birds. The tide was high and had pushed many waders and wildfowl off the adjacent Conwy Estuary on to the reserve. Most obvious were a crowd of 140 Redshank busily feeding in the shallow waters of the ...

Small Garden, Big Birdwatch

We live in a third floor flat so we don’t really have a garden in the true sense of the word. But we do have a communal back yard that we can overlook from one of our living room windows. At first glance it certainly does not look like a wildlife haven. A concrete square with brick walls on three sides, but it does have a good growth of ivy which has a sycamore tree growing through it. These...

Back to North Wales

Early morning we were back at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and the weather conditions were much kinder, still bitterly cold but now calm. We headed for the west lake and carefully checked through all the Pochard and Tufted Duck, but no, the Lesser Scaup still wasn’t here. Still a much nicer experience today and we enjoyed watching both Great-crested and Little Grebes along with all the wildf...

Dipping down south!

We left Llandudno early morning and headed for Cardiff in South Wales. It was dark and raining not ideal conditions for driving and did little for our hopes of good birds. Soon after dawn, the rain had almost stopped, a Red Kite soared over the road, what a fantastic bird. That was to be the only bird of note during the journey as the rain returned with a vengeance. We arrived in Cardiff early so...

This time last year.....

This time last year…. Hard to believe that a year has passed since we stayed at Tandayapa Bird Lodge in northern Ecuador as part of The Biggest Twitch 2008.  Exactly this time last year, 22nd January, we were sitting on the terrace at Tandayapa, binoculars in one hand, cup of tea in the other, and notching up 17 new species for our year list in less than an hour. Perhaps the most comfo...

Blood and guts on the school field!

Our home town of Llandudno here in North Wales is pretty good for birds, we have sea on two sides of us, limestone cliffs towering above the town and fields on the east side. As you can imagine all this habitat provides homes for many birds, the grass fields are good feeding for waders such as Curlews and Oystercatchers that fly in from the adjacent beaches. The cliffs are home to Fulmars and Rav...

another picture from Ecuador....

The spectacular Antisana Volcano with its snow capped summit reaching through the clouds, complete with huge glaciers, quite a back drop for your birding!

and another....

This charasmatic colourful creature is a Red-headed Barbet snapped feeding on a fruiting tree near Antisana, on the lower slopes.

Memories of Ecuador 2008

The rain beating against the window today reminded us of our time in Ecuador in January last year. We experienced some unseasonable rains and got a good soaking on more than one occasion. Our diary for last year shows how we struggled to see some amazing birds. You would not want to be a Seedsnipe… It was another pre-dawn start and the 5am alarm call was most unwelcome.  However we we...

Bad weather, good birds!

A wild spell of weather here in Wales is producing some good birds and best of all Grey Phalaropes. These diminutive waders spend the winter far out at sea where bob like corks on the high-seas. But even these hardy sea fearers are occasionally driven in-shore by prolonged gales. Grey Phalaropes are often very confiding adding an extra attractiveness; they will swim around just yards from an obse...

Not another hoax?!

After the Steller’s Eider fiasco I was very worried when our friend Iolo Williams rang to say that he had been emailed a picture of an unusual bird taken on Anglesey last week. Now Iolo has a reputation as a bit of a lad, in the nicest way, and it was with some trepidation that I said yes send it over! Was it to be another hoax bird or something worse knowing Iolo!! But I need not have worr...

Typing and more typing!

Everyone asks how is writing the book of The Biggest Twitch coming along? Well it is not writing it is typing, I think I would prefer writing but that would only put off the typing. If I write something, long hand as we called in it in the good old days that is using a pen and paper not a keyboard the words often flow better. It is easier to keep going as little red lines do not appear under each...

Arctic Frustration!

Last Friday, you may remember, we drove down to Cardiff for a meeting and with the weekend streching ahead of us had considered continuing south down to Cornwall to look for the long staying Snowy Owl near St. Ives, a vagrant from the high Arctic. But during the week there had been two negative reports from the site, no sign of the owl, so of course we did not make the long drive. You can imagine ...

Thanks again mum!

After a year of spending nearly every day together in 2008, Ruth has escaped down to Oxford to visit her mum. We owe a huge thank you to Ruth's mum as she came to the rescue of The Biggest Twitch back in August. We were in Peru, behind our hoped for total, a new player had just emerged on the world year list scene and most importantly we were broke!! Things were not looking at all good. It was wit...

Getting started at last!

Well after nearly a week back in North Wales and finding all sorts of things to stop us starting we have finally put fingers to keyboard and begun writing the epic story of The Biggest Twitch. Now the trick is to keep going and have the book out as early as possible while people still remember us! It has been great fun for us looking at the notebooks for those last few days of 2007 when we set off...

Plans for The Biggest Twitch website

We have been looking back at the photos from southern Ecuador, some pretty nice ones, and some extremely good ones taken by our friend Nick Athanas, from Tropical Birding. Our web designers at Blah d Blah have been thinking of ways to revamp the site and we are keen to have photo galleries to show case more than one photo at a time. So watch this space for lots of pics. We hope to be able to ...

Exciting opportunities for The Biggest Twitch!

We’re very pleased to say that we’re finding ourselves in demand – just as well as we’ve blown every penny we had (and more!) on last year’s adventure.  No fewer than three international companies have contacted us about the possibility of guiding bird tours in Europe this year.  This is something that we had considered as we travelled and thought we may wel...

Choughed to be back!

Our fifteen minutes of fame was extended a little today. A photographer from The Daily Mail arrived in Llandudno to take some shots of us for an article due to be published on Saturday ( 10th ). Kevin the snapper was a very nice guy and wanted a wild location for the pics. The wonderful thing about living here in Llandudno is that the Great Orme, an enormous limestone headland is right above the ...

A day at the seaside

With the chance a Steller’s Eider might be floating off the North Wales coast, only one place to be today, Morfa Nefyn. We picked up Mike Duckham and Robert Hughes and headed west beyond Caernarfon to reach the cliff top car-park overlooking the sweeping bay. Not another birder to be seen, that suited us fine, we wanted the glory of relocating this mega bird. The view from the cliff top was ...

Edinburgh this Saturday, come and say hello!

Alan will be in Edinburgh this Saturday, 24 July, at the Jacobs Digital Photo and Video Store on Shandwick Place, West End EH2 4RG. Do pop in and say hello and chat about optics, birds, The Biggest Twitch and all things birding. Pre-order your first edition of our book The Biggest Twitch, due 10 August. A full range of Leica Optics will be on display along with all the Jacobs products so will be a...

Making a splash at the Bath Birdfair!

This Sunday 18th July sees the Bath Birdfair being held at Bath Racecourse, just north of the City at Lansdown 6 miles south of J18 on the M4.  It runs from 10am to 5pm.  Come along and have a chat with Alan who will be manning the Leica Stand in the Trainers and Owners Bar!  Your chance to try out all the latest Leica optics including their new superb scopes, and of course hav...

Wild Wales in your living room!

Great news the BBC are repeating Wild Wales series with Iolo Williams, starting this evening at 6pm, thats Sunday 11 July, and if you miss it here there is another chance at 7pm on Monday again on BBC2. Some wonderful images of great wildlife in wonderful parts of Wales. Come and join us and discover Wild Wales for yourself - info@thebiggesttwitch.com

A Hobby, more than just an idle pastime

A Hobby hawking for insects over Lakenheath RSPB reserve, one of the top sites for this species in the UK. We enjoyed wonderful views of at least two birds feeding over the river, often at eye level in wonderful sunshine. The birds showed off their aerial expertise by catching insects and feeding on the wing, transferring their prey from talons to bill as we marvelled at their dexterity! Hope you ...

Date for publication!

Our publishers tell us our book "The Biggest Twitch" will be out on 10 July 2010! So if you have not ordered your copy yet now is the time, dont miss out on a signed copy of a first edition. To reserve your copy just drop us an email on info@thebiggesttwitch.com and we will contact you as soon as we have copies ready to sign and post out to you. Our birding weekend to Norfolk is fully bo...

The Biggest Week in American Birding on TV

TV Channel WTOL interviewed Kenn Kaufman about The Biggest Week in American Birding at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, where we've been birding this week.  Check it out with this link: http://www.wtol.com/global/Category.asp?C=151146&clipId=&topVideoCatNo=14996&topVideoCatNoB=129734&topVideoCatNoC=129730&topVideoCatNoD=129733&topVideoCatNoE=106878&clipId=4779...

A pic of the Bonaparte's Gull

Steve Culley was back at Traeth Lligwy beach on Anglesey this afternoon. The Bonaparte's Gull came in at 3.15pm so the light was ok and luckily the bird came ashore and showed pretty well on the beach. On Saturday when we were there the bird stayed on the sea. Nice pic Ste!

Back to the larks

With a flock of Wood Larks just down the road had to go back for another look. After a short wait a Wood Lark flew in landed in the stubble field. It was only when this bird landed we noticed the rest of the flock creeping mouse like through the dead vegetation, really hard to pick out! Luckily the birds moved closer into a more open patch of stubble where views were much better, but still impossi...

Mega bird found in mid-Wales

Amazing news from mid-Wales a Black Kite has been seen at Gigrin Farm Red Kite feeding station at Rhyader in Powys. The bird was photographed and shows a bird of the eastern race known as "Black-eared Kite" a bird like this wintered in Norfolk a few years ago. Lets hope it stays around!

Happy New Year!!

A very Happy New Year to all and may 2010 be filled with wonderful birds! It will be weird to think that The Biggest Twitch was over a year ago! Where did 2009 go? We are determined to do more birding in 2010 so watch this space for news if our birding adventures.Very best wishes to all Alan and Ruth

Local birding!

With most of the UK covered in snow and ice here in Llandudno it is pretty mild and even sunny! So good chance to see some local birds. Fulmars are back on the cliffs above the house and calling loudly, a Peregrine swept over the roof tops scattering pigeons and Jackdaws. Further east 5 Twite were showing very well at Penrhyn Bay on the seawall opposite the golf club. At Rhos Point a gang of 15 Pu...

What are you doing Thursday evening?

On Thursday night we are giving a talk in Wendover, Buckinghamshire if your in the area do come along. The talk starts at 7.45pm and is held in the Wendover Memorial Hall, Wharf Road, Wendover, HP22 6HF. Small charge on the door for non-members, come and hear about The Biggest Twitch and enjoy some great pictures of birds, wildlife and wild places.

A damp fair

Today we went to the RSPB Conwy Christmas Fair in the hope of selling some books, site/walking guides and The Biggest Twitch calendars for 2010. Sadly the weather was just awful and the hoped for crowds, not surprisingly, stayed at home. We stayed nearly all day but very little trade was done. Two Black-tailed Godwits just visible through sheets of rain was the bird highlight.Dont forget we are gi...

Mentioned in the Finnish press

Our talk in Helsinki, Finland made the Finnish press, check out this linkhttp://www.lintukuva.fi/tomu/0947.phpWe had a great time and hope we can return soon.

Biggest Twitch Calendars for 2010

New and exclusive! Get your copy now!We've been working with Paul Bowden at blah d blah design today on producing Biggest Twitch calendars for 2010, featuring 13 full colour pictures from last year's adventures.  We've just produced a limited edition run, so if you'd like one you'd better be quick.  Email us on info@thebiggesttwitch.com for full details on how to get your hands on one.

Sunny Twite

With the sun shining, a blue sky and no wind, and a report of four Twite just down the road at Penrhyn Bay, it was time for a break. A few minutes' drive and then a hop over the sea wall and there were the Twite feeding on seed heads right by the concrete sea-defences. These pretty little finches were fairly confiding but were spooked by a gang of yobs hurling rocks at a sign warning of the danger...

Pictures from Sweden number 3

This is the scene each morning at the lighthouse, next to the bird observatory, lines of birders all looking out to sea. Thousands of birds are passing south, geese, ducks, waders, raptors, cranes, gulls and of course always the chance of a rarity amongst them!

Pictures from Sweden - Number 2

Here's the Great Grey Shrike which entertained us at Oland as it swooped down on a vole, impaled it on a thorn, and then ripped it apart to eat with obvious relish.  Having finished its meal, the Shrike then cleaned its bill, perched up on top of this bush, and sang - it's not often you get to hear its hoarse trilling song.

Pictures from Sweden - Number 1

Here is the lovely juvenile Sabine's Gull that we were lucky enough to see at Oland, a very rare bird here and delighted the local birders and us!

A Royal view

Here is a picture of the Royal Tern, what a mega bird! Taken at Abersoch harbour where it was seen by Rhys Jones, who took the pic, Simon-hugheston Roberts and Chris Jones. The bird was found by Dave Lamacraft while he was surfing at nearby Porth Ceiriad, surely the first time a mega bird found from a surf board?

Arrival in Sweden: Wednesday 20th May

We flew from Manchester to Copenhagen and took the train across the bridge to the first station in Sweden where we were met by Ingrid.  Lars Rydgren and Ingrid were to be our generous hosts for the next few days as we’d kindly been invited over to Sweden to talk to the Swedish 300 Club, a group comprising the country’s top birders.  If you fancy a test of your Swedish, log on...

We meet the Willettes!

The photo shows The Biggest Twitch with the Willettes a band a of crazy ABA member birders that we ran into in Corpus Christi at the ABA convention. These girls, from Washington and California, certainly know how to have fun birding and enlivened one of our field trips with their enthusiastic company! Great to meet them all and we look forward to our next meeting.

News flash!

This evening The Biggest Twitch was featured on ITV Regional News.  As well as interviews with us both and beautiful footage of RSPB Conwy, the piece also included a few clips of video footage we'd taken ourselves in Ecuador and Ethiopia which brought back great memories.  If you'd like to see the footage, click on www.itvlocal.com/wales/news/ - and after the inevitable advert before the...

This time last year...

As promised here are some images from this time last year when we were birding flat out in Ecuador with our friends from Tropical Birding. This guy was certainly one of our very favourite birds in Ecuador, Toucans are always good and this one in particular was just great! A cloud-forest specialist with a limited distribution in the Choco region, an area with a high concentration of endemics. If yo...

Waxwings on the move

Keep your eyes peeled for one of Britain's most beautiful and charismatic species, the Waxwing.  Good numbers have made their way across the North Sea from Scandinavia and are munching their way through Britain's berry crop.  Small numbers have already reached North Wales with a flock of 13 this morning in Connor's Quay, Flintshire and we're sure there will be more to follow.  Hope ...

Eat chocolate, help birds, does it get any better?

A new range of chocolate has been launched by the RSPB (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and buying it, and then eating it, you can help birds and enjoy great chocolate! Seeing the new colourful bars on sale at RSPB Conwy we just had to buy some. Three flavours are available – milk, orange milk and dark – so far we have only tried the milk, though all three are in the fri...

Birding Ethiopia, a book review

Birding Ethiopia By Ken Behrens, Keith Barnes and Christian Boix Published by Lynx EdicionsBook Review by Ruth Miller and Alan Davies Why would a birder want to visit Ethiopia? We have all seen the television news pictures of a famine-torn land. Surely this is no birding destination? How wrong is this idea. Ethiopia is a vibrant, exciting, bird-rich country with a list of some 850 species and a su...

Birding with the Texan two

23 June 2010 An early start saw us heading south from Llandudno. We had not gone far when we stopped to admire two Little Egrets in the first light of dawn. David and June are from Texas and this was their first birding trip in Europe so new species were going to come thick and fast! A family party of Goosander seen from a bridge had us stopping again before heading up in to the rolling hills. We ...

Norfolk: Residents and Rarities. 18-20 June 2010

Friday 18 June We left North Wales at 8am and headed east for Norfolk. As we made good time the huge sun-roof of the vehicle was put to good use as first Hobby and then Red Kite were added to the quickly growing trip list.Our first stop was in Cambridgeshire at Berry Fen. A new site for us, it took a few minutes to find, but no one minded as we picked up Turtle Dove and Green Woodpecker before we ...

Final proofs of book done!

Heading for the Post Office to send off the final edited proofs of our book The Biggest Twitch to the publisher. Cant wait to see the finished the product. It has been great fun re-reading our adventures and re-living the amazing birding year we had in 2008. This weekend we are heading for a long weekend birding in Norfolk. Looking forward to wonderful birds and great fun. If you would like to joi...

Get very mad about this and take action!

We watch in horror at what is unfolding: an entire eco-system is being destroyed before our eyeshttp://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/27/expert_ecological_impact_of_spill_couldCheck out the above link and read below about the staggering disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, BP a British company is  responsible for this appauling mess!The following is from the American Birding Associations website...

Mud, mud, glorious mud!

Our day started back on the fabulous boardwalk at Magee Marsh, and once again we were gobsmacked by the riot of warblers we enjoyed.  Today the weather was a little warmer and the wind wasn’t blowing quite so hard, so maybe that’s why the warblers were just so confiding.  When you think how tough it can sometimes be to get a good look at a warbler back in the UK, we find it j...

Eye-level Warblers

Glad to say we survived the tornado warning by following the locals’ technique of seeking refuge in the bar!  The next morning we went down to the Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO) at Magee Marsh, where birding filled pretty much all our day.  We stopped off at the BSBO centre where we met up with some very special friends.  Kenn Kaufman, who we’d first met at the ABA ...

All going tits up?!

Being up a mountain miles away with little phone reception is not the best place to be when you get news of a mega bird at your local reserve.  Nor for that matter is being stuck in your office while your car’s being repaired at the garage, but that’s what we both faced today when the news came out that a Bearded Tit (Reedling) had been seen at RSPB Conwy.  Alan and Rob Sandh...

Early Warning System

There’s one good thing about being surrounded by so many Herring Gulls in Llandudno: they act as a very efficient early warning system for any interesting raptors flying into the area.  The local Buzzards get a mild response with a few dozen gulls alarm calling and the odd one dive-bombing the unfortunate raptor.  Peregrines diving into the town to grab a feral pigeon are usually t...

Black gold!

With Ruth up early and heading for work over near Chester Alan thought he might as well make the most of the early start and sort out a hire car for the weekends work. The hire car depot is at Llandudno Junction and it did not take long to sort out the car. Now it is only a few minutes drive from here to Conwy RSPB reserve so it seemed a good idea just to have a quick look before heading home to d...

Guiding along the North Wales coast

Alan met Gavin at Pensarn beach near Abergele at 7.30am and they almost immediatelty saw a gang of nine Twite, great start. These buzzing finches with curry-powder stained bibs dropped down only a few yards away for a feed on seed put down by Alan. With the light still dull over the sea they decided to move a little way along the coast to Kinmel Bay and searched for the Snow Buntings, sadly no sig...

Guiding along the North Wales coast

Alan picked up Mike Duckham and they headed east to Pensarn beach where they met four other birders from mid-Wales and the Midlands who were ready to see some great birds. Well it did not take long, even before the four guys were out of their cars Alan and Mike had a flock of Twite lined up in their scopes for the others to enjoy. These dinky finches were feeding on the seawall and showing very w...

A very Happy Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas from The Biggest Twitch hope all your dreams come true! Love from Alan and Ruth

Magic Malaysia 2008

 Looking out of the window onto a very wet Llandudno, Wales, this morning our thoughts once again turned to where we were last year, we had just left Malaysia heading for India. Here is our diary entry recalling the amazing birding we enjoyed with our friend Keith Barnes from Tropical Birding.Magic Malaysia November 2008 The world record was broken and we left Australia on a very satisfa...

Birthday birding treat

John Ward works at RSPB Conwy and recently celebrated his birthday. Why are you being told this, you ask? Well, his fellow staff members thought it would be nice to buy John a present. What to get the man who has most things? Then a plan was hatched, how about a day’s birding? Everyone agreed, just the gift. Alan was contacted and the day arranged. John and Alan met up at RSPB Conwy at 7am a...

Seeing double!

With some great birds being seen over the weekend Alan decided to head out on Monday to try and catch up with some of them. Picking up Mike Duckham at the unearthly hour of 5.30am they headed for Anglesey. A Bonaparte’s Gull, a vagrant from North America, had been seen on Sunday at Traeth Dulas. Despite the fact this small delicate gull had only been seen very briefly the previous day they s...

A great day for the Reds!

Last week it was Ruth’s birthday.  She was working all day and Alan was away too so not really a day to remember. With the weekend here it was decided to try and make it up to Ruth so she had choice of a destination for a day out on Sunday. Ruth chose to disregard one of the busiest weekends of the autumn for bird migration and chose squirrels! Not any old squirrels but wild red squirre...

Star tern!

Ruth walked in the front door after a busy day at work to be greeted by her bins and a fleece.  “You’ll need these!” said Alan.  “There’s a mega bird down at Abersoch on the Lleyn Peninsula and Marc is picking us up in a few minutes!”  Sure enough, Marc Hughes drew up as he spoke and we sped off down the lanes to the Lleyn.  A mega bird ...

Unexpected visitor

Our friend Jackie McClellan is staying with us for a few days. Jackie is from the USA though we first in Ecuador at the American Birding Conference in 2007. We met up again last year during The Biggest Twitch in Australia. We were all on the Tropical Birding tour and had a great time. When we heard Jackie would be over in Paris this June we invited her to take the short flight over for a visit. A...

Do not believe the forecast!

Thursday and Friday were booked up for guided birding here in North Wales. On Tuesday we watched the weather forecast in grim silence. The whole of North Wales was under blue rain clouds and the presenter was telling of over an inch of rain on Thursday and Friday. Floods were mentioned and strong winds were likely! Great, how are we going to find birds in that? Well we nearly did not have to. Not...

North Wales Tour full report

We have just finished guiding a tour in North Wales for Celtic Bird Tours, we had a great time despite the gale force winds! As you can see below we saw some wonderful birds....5TH May Our tour began early afternoon at the Swallow Falls Hotel, Betws-y-coed. Raymond, Peter, Judith, Don and Heather meet with Alan and Ruth. We took a short drive north to a lovely area of deciduous woodland near...

Local patch birding

Three visits to RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve in the last few days as an escape from the computer. The first visit produced a lovely find of a pair of Avocets seen from the Tal-y-fan hide. We now wait and see if these two will stay and breed, of course we don’t know if we have a pair yet. But they were still present this afternoon often visible from the coffee shop. Two Lesser Whitethroats have ...

High tech birding

A text message from Rob Sandham mid-morning asked if Alan, Ruth sadly otherwise engaged, fancied a trip to the Wirral to look for a Red-rumped Swallow seen earlier that day. He thought about it. Then came a text message from Martin Jones asking the same thing. Ok let’s ok for it! Quick email to Rob but unfortunately he could not get away until 1pm, but in the mean time had made arrangements ...

Quick visit to RSPB Conwy

Easter Weekend and little time for getting out birding sadly. Ruth has a friend staying so the girls have been busy shopping, cinema, walks and more shopping. Alan has been tied to the telephone updating both Birdline Wales and North West. With a good arrival of migrant’s birds in the sunny weather it has been keeping him very busy. This morning with the sky clear and looking like another g...

A blustery day!

A full day of guiding began at RSPB Conwy where a Peregrine soared high over the reserve and a few Swallows and Sand Martins flew north over the car park. Four of us headed west to Aber Ogwen North Wales Wildlife Trust Reserve. The wind was strong and heavy showers rattled through. Despite the far from perfect weather plenty of birds to see from the first hide. Chiffchaffs sang loudly and four Lit...

Birding the local patch

With Ken gone it is back to “normal” birding, no more hanging off cliffs trying to photograph seabirds. An early morning visit to RSPB Conwy Nature Reserve this morning and a real shock with the temperature. In Llandudno it was nicely sheltered and seemed pretty mild. Down at the Conwy Estuary it was a different world with an icy east wind making it very cold. But at least it was clear...

A hot day!

In Llandudno it dawned grey and over cast. It was Kens last birding day in North Wales. It did not look good for getting one last set of seabirds in flight shots in the poor light. Still he and Alan gave it a go and after a fairly leisurely breakfast they set off west for Anglesey. Time for a quick detour to the entrance gate of Conwy RSPB and they were just in time to see five Avocets fly off hig...

Up with the lark, or should that be grouse!

5am and the alarm was going off. It had seemed such a good idea last night to go for Black Grouse this morning. Now it seemed like a bad idea, the bed was warm and comfy. Still Ken had said he really wanted to see Black Grouse so off we went. Once up it was a good idea again, it was calm and dry, and we were soon heading south. As light came we were near the site and paused briefly to admire a Dip...

Five go birding!

Today Alan, Ruth and Ken met up with Owen and Glynis Roberts who are over in the UK for a few days from their home in Cyprus. Owen and Glynis are old friends and you may remember they helped us out during The Biggest Twitch when we stayed with them twice, in March and again in May. We all met up in Beaumaris and piled in to Owen’s car for a day of birding on Anglesey. We did not have far to ...

Good day for raptors!

Alan and Ken were out early and headed west, the strong biting wind was not great for hopes of photography but they were determined to give it their best shot. At Foryd Bay the juvenile Glaucous Gull was quickly located sheltering behind a bank at the south end of the bay. A huge flock of 242 Brent Geese were feeding on the saltmarsh on the rising tide, most were Pale-bellied birds but at least ei...

A great day out!

On Sunday Alan had a full day guiding three birders across North Wales. Alan met Ralph, Niall and Tony at the RSPB Conwy reserve car-park at 8am and they were soon seeing birds. A quick look from the first hide on the reserve gave a great selection of birds. A flock of Black-tailed Godwits were roosting in the shallow water and wildfowl included Gadwall, Teal, Goldeneye and of course loads of Cana...

A pre-breakfast twitch

Alan was wide awake very early this morning so crept out of bed and fired up the computer. Quite sad really, a lovely morning was dawning but he was keen to get some book done after a blank day yesterday. Surely he should have been out birding? Hammering away at the keyboard good progress was being made, must do this more often. It was all going so well, then the mobile came to life, early for a c...

A visit to the Dee Estuary

Doug and Eddie had mentioned when they were birding with us recently that they had planned a trip to the Dee Estuary on Friday the 13th March and invited us to join them. With the weather forecast predicting some early spring weather we headed east to join them. We met at Denhall Lane, below Burton village, a great view point overlooking the inner Dee Marshes. Doug and Eddie were already in situ a...

Birding in the snow!

Day two of birding with Doug and Eddie and we were a bit taken aback by a heavy snow shower in Llandudno early morning. Within minutes it was white, we do not have snow in Llandudno. Undaunted we set off in to the blizzard and headed for the A55 expressway which we hoped would take us to Anglesey. At the junction with the A55 we were met with a stationary row of brake lights stretching away as far...

Going west for birds

We headed west from Llandudno along the North Wales coast and through the grey drizzle to Caernarfon. First stop was the Age Concern building, no we are not in need of help just yet, but the small car park here gives good views over the River Seiont. Just south of the imposing Caernarfon Castle this stretch of river attracts gulls to wash and preen. With the tide fairly high numbers were pretty lo...

Once Bittern....

A bright weekend morning meant that we could both go out birding together so we headed off first thing to Anglesey, hoping for some good birds.  Our luck birding together hasn’t been great since we’ve back in the UK, did we use it all up last year?!  Separately we’ve enjoyed some great birds: Alan had a good birding day catching up with local specialities while Ruth was...

A tale of two Pipits!

Our great friend Iain Campbell has been over this week staying with us in Llandudno. You may remember from last year that Iain is co-owner of Tropical Birding (www.tropicalbirding.com) and helped us enormously with The Biggest Twitch. It was great to see Iain and catch up with the latest news, he is now working for Leica Optics and was in the UK for a meeting. We had time for some very casual bird...

Nature black in bill and claw

It was a Black Redstart that had us originally out and birding on the West Shore of Llandudno in the early morning.  The previous evening, someone had reported one in a spot that regularly throws up a Black Redstart around this time of year.  It’s a great location, where the limestone bluff of the Great Orme drops off dramatically into the sea and the mouth of the Conwy Estuary.&nb...

Making the most of meetings!

Alan is doing some research work for the RSPB and as a result has been having meetings with various staff around Wales. Today took him to the Bangor Office and it was great to catch up with friends not seen since 2007! A packet of chocolate biscuits helped make Natalie Thomas’s day.  Nat is a star and just about runs the Bangor office and always has a beaming smile! The meeting was with...

Albatrosses need our help!

 One of the many highlights of The Biggest Twitch was the day we spent on the high seas off Cape Town amongst the thousands of seabirds! Ok Alan was sick as usual but it still stands out as one of the days of 2008, to see Albatrosses so close you could almost touch them was an incredible experience and one that everyone should have the chance to see. Sadly if conservation action is not taken ...

Flipping phalaropes!

Marc, Rob, Chris and Alan (Ruth still at her mums) made their way south down to Cricceth on the shore of Cardigan Bay. We timed it just right; we pulled up on the promenade just as it was getting light. Well we thought our timing was good, and purely from a time point view it was perfect, the weather was not right! Where was the howling gale that had battered the coast yesterday? The sea was a li...

The Biggest Twitch in the news

First thing this morning we were out and about again, but this time not to follow a bird but to buy a newspaper. After a long telephone interview and a photo shoot, we’d been led to believe we’d be featured in today’s Daily Mail. Sadly nothing on us, though a long piece on ‘the menace of seagulls in our towns’. A bit of internet searching however threw up an ar...

Exciting opportunities for The Biggest Twitch

We’re very pleased to say that we’re finding ourselves in demand – just as well as we’ve blown every penny we had (and more!) on last year’s adventure. No fewer than three international companies have contacted us about the possibility of guiding bird tours in Europe this year. This is something that we had considered as we travelled and thought we may well do o...

Choughed to be back

Our fifteen minutes of fame was extended a little today. A photographer from The Daily Mail arrived in Llandudno to take some shots of us for an article due to be published on Saturday ( 10th ). Kevin the snapper was a very nice guy and wanted a wild location for the pics. The wonderful thing about living here in Llandudno is that the Great Orme, an enormous limestone headland is right above t...

A day at the seaside

With the chance a Steller’s Eider might be floating off the North Wales coast, only one place to be today, Morfa Nefyn. We picked up Mike Duckham and Robert Hughes and headed west beyond Caernarfon to reach the cliff top car-park overlooking the sweeping bay. Not another birder to be seen, that suited us fine, we wanted the glory of relocating this mega bird. The view from the cliff top ...

Diary

Tune in tomorrow at 9.30am to the Jamie and Louise show on BBC Radio Wales to hear us being interviewed about The Biggest Twitch. Our new book all about The Biggest Twitch 2008 suddenly seems more real now that we’ve got our hands on an advance copy. Even we’re enjoying re-living our adventures as we’re reading about the wonderful places and incredible birds we were fortun...

On your radio

Tune in tomorrow at 9.30am to the Jamie and Louise show on BBC Radio Wales to hear us being interviewed about The Biggest Twitch.

Get your hands on a book!

Our new book all about The Biggest Twitch 2008 suddenly seems more real now that we’ve got our hands on an advance copy. Even we’re enjoying re-living our adventures as we’re reading about the wonderful places and incredible birds we were fortunate enough to encounter in 2008 – and we know the story already, so we hope that anyone buying a copy will enjoy it even more.

If you are interested in our book, there are 4 easy ways to get your personalised signed copy:

1. Send us an email at info@thebiggesttwitch.com with details of your delivery address and any dedication you’d like us to write. 2. Send a message to Alan Davies on Facebook with this information 3. Visit our new online shop on our website which is due to go live next week. It’ll be the same address www.thebiggesttwitch.com but will be even better with more information about what we’re up to, and a simple online shop which will allow you to order the book and make payment by either credit or debit card, wherever you are in the world! 4. Visit us at the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water from 20th to 22nd August. We’ll be on the Tropical Birding stand in Marquee 4.

And how much will it cost to have your own specially signed first edition copy of The Biggest Twitch? The book retails at £12.99 and if you’d like us to post it to you, the total cost including postage & packing is:

UK £16 Europe £17 Rest of the World £20

You can pay by cheque (payable to The Biggest Twitch Ltd) and send it to us at 12 Ormeside Court, 19 Church Walks, Llandudno LL30 2HG. Or alternatively pay online by debit or credit card via our online shop, no matter where you are in the world. How easy is that! As soon as we receive payment, we’ll put your copy in the post.

And don’t forget if you are coming to the Birdfair, we’re giving a talk in the Events Marquee on Friday 20th at 1pm. So do come along and say hello!