Polar Bear - Svarlbard

Our no 1 target, along with everybody else on the trip was polar bear. After 4 days I had had a very brief distant glimpse. Julia didn't even see that. I was beginning to worry it wasn't going to happen.

Whenever we went ashore, guides would go out first to check the area to make sure there were no polar bears in sight. Once happy they would set up a perimeter of look outs all armed with flares and rifles. They were taking safety very seriously.  

We were just about to board our rib to go to shore to get up close to walruses when we were told that the ground already out on land we being evacuated as a polar bear had approached and somehow got inside the cordon. A flare was fired but the bear didn't seen worried by that, so everyone hurriedly had to get back in the ribs and back to the boat. 

We headed to the top deck and had great scope views as the bear ambled along the shore. The walruses didn't seem too worried by it and the bear didn't seem particularly interested in them. 

As the bear seemed settled and happy it was decided we could take a rib out and get close up views from the sea. We watched the bear on and off from the boat for around an hour as it slowly headed away along the shore. What an experience!

Svarlbard Arctic 30/06 - 10/07/24

 Our latest adventure to us about as  far north as you can go, into the land of the midnight sun. We flew to Tromso, in northern Norway, via Helsinki, where we stayed overnight before boarding the SH Diana (Swan Hellenic). 

The boat had a maximum guest capacity of 192 and our trip had 150. We were placed into groups in so trips off boat could be scheduled/rota'd. We were in the blue humpbacks. 

It was 2 days cruising north until we reached Svarlbard. On route we had white beaked dolphins and a few distant whales, most probably minke. Birds included fulmar, kittiwake, puffin, brunnich's guillemot, black guillemot and pomarine skua.

#hardlife

Woodchat Shrike, Rainham Marshes RSPB (May 24)

Everybody loves a shrike, and I had never seen a Woodchat in London. This one showed very well and really nice to see locally. 

Little Crake, Linford Lakes, Bucks (Nov 23)

Another long awaited tick, Little Crake, again not too far away. The bird had been giving people the run around, only viewable from a small hide, which as packed with twitchers. On positive news I picked up TB (@Cowboybirder) and we were on site early afternoon. Being November, it would only be light until 4pm.  It was freezing cold and after 2.5 hours there had been no sign, but we'd agreed to stay until dark. 

There was an old fella sitting next to us, he said he'd been there 5 hours, not see it and decided to leave. Literally 5 minutes after he left, there it was right in front of the hide! We watched it for 5 minutes or so until it disappeared into the reeds. Another successful mega twitch! 

  

Solitary Sandpiper - Stodmarsh RSPB , Kent (Oct 23)

A much wanted bird and less than 1.5 hours away. Got it at the 2nd attempt, with Steve Bacon, after missing it by 5 minutes the previous day.  

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Scotland weekender - April 24

A quick (too quick really) break to Scotland with the lads; Lee, TB, Hawky and myself. We flew from Stanstead to Edinburgh, first flight on Fri 26th April, 2 nights in Aviemore, then last flight home on Sun 28th. 

Lee had never birded Scotland before so were after the specialities, inc: Golden Eagle, White Tailed Eagle, Crested Tit, Black Grouse, Red Grouse, Ptarmigan and Capercaillie, plus some other bits. We knew Caper would be very hard due to roaming restrictions due to breeding/lekking season and Ptarmigan we were relying on low level snow which unfortunately wasn't there and we decided it would take too much of our time looking for them.    

All bird photos below courtesy of TB.     

Up up and away

Red Grouse 

Ring Ouzel - pair seen at Cairngorm ski centre

Bullfinch - one of 4 - the highlight of an unproductive day spent driving to the west coast

 

The crew

Loch Garten - Osprey on the nest seen, plus red squirrel, redstart of note

Findhorn Valley, we visited 3 times, each of is stringing Golden Eagles on occasions until finally on the last day we had two, the later showing pretty well

 

Findhorn Valley - Dipper eventually gave itself up, plus singing Wheatear

In hindsight an extra night would have been better and we could have given Ptarmigan a proper go. We failed to get Capercallie, Ptarmigan, White Tailed Eagle and Black Guillemot, all ticks Lee needed. We luckily (thanks to Hawky) bagged a Crested Tit last knockings at Nethy Bridge by the feeders. The Black Grouse lek on the first evening was great and unexpected, assuming it need an early morning visit. Good views of summer plumage Black Throated Diver, Great Northern Diver and Slav Grebe were had. 

We had a good laugh, and a few beers. The hotel at Coylumbridge was a great base and would defo recommend it. Will probably do it again one day, maybe a bit earlier in the year when there's more snow.