Le Camargue

African Sacred Ibis

A holiday to the south of France this past week gave us just one day of bird watching and we opted for the Parc Ornithologique just outside Avignon and recommended to us by local friends.

The inner estuary is a haven for flamingos and we saw plenty of those along with several types of heron nesting on small islands.  Smaller birds were harder to spot but we identified a Cetti's Warbler among all the sparrows.

And lastly, just before leaving while sitting at the cafe overlooking the water we spotted an African Sacred Ibis.

Shawnna

Kettlewell to Arncliffe

We repeated our walk from earlier in the year up over Old Cote Moor and back from Kettlewell.  It was a glorious sunny day and busy on the paths but we managed to see 3 new birds for our UK list, Skylark, Meadow Pipit and Common Sandpiper.

Shawnna

Little Grebe

Spring Day at Staveley

Sedge Warbler

It's been a few weeks since we've been able to get out bird watching, just too many other chores getting in the way! 

But a few weeks back we did spend a morning at Thorpe Perrow Arboretum where we spotted a Little Grebe on the ornamental pond.

Today though we went back to our local reserve and encountered a whole new range of bird song.  The water birds weren't plentiful but we were treated to 2 warblers, Sedge and Willow alomg with the Lesser Whitethroat and the Blackcap.  There were also Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins all flitting over the water for insects, making it easier to spot the differences in flight.

Shawnna

Spotted locally...

The weather has been keeping us mostly indoors that last few weeks, so our bird spotting days have been low key with local walks and watching our bird feeders.

We added Fieldfare to our list a few weeks ago when driving up our road we saw a small flock overhead in the trees.

Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush were visiting the feeders during the worst of the weather, fabulously at the same time so it was easy to spot the difference!

And today's walk at Fountains Abbey resulted in 3 new birds for us bringing our tally to 88 birds each. Spotted were a Goosander, Sparrowhawk and Redwing.  We also saw several Gold Crest and Great Tits along with about a million Crows.


Shawnna