NT
On the 10th July:
1976
A visit to Frampton, where at the lakes we saw a pair of Ruddy Ducks, 6 Great Crested Grebes, 20+ Lapwing, 8 Green Sandpipers, a Greenshank, a Sparrowhawk, 4 Kingfishers, lots of Swifts and House Martins, a Tawny Owl, a Nuthatch, Marsh Tits, a Treecreeper, 3 Chiffchaffs, 10+ Blackcaps, a Common Tern, Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
Later, by the river we saw 30+ Curlew, Redshank, lots of Shelduck, 6 Common Sandpipers and 4 Greenshanks.
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Tawny Owl.
1977
Waking up in Rothiemurchus Forest was amazing, the first birds we saw were 2 male Scottish Crossbills, a new bird for us, also there were 3 Crested Tits.
Then we drove to the Cairngorm car park and took the chairlift to the top. Walking across the mountain top we saw 9 Ravens, at least 12 Wheatears, 3 male Snow Buntings, a male and an immature Ring Ouzel, 2 males and a female Dotterel, 11 Hooded Crows and a pair of Ptarmigan, another new bird for us.
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Female Ptarmigan.
Dotterel
1980
1997
An overnight drive to Titchwell in Norfolk, it was cold and windy as we walked out to the hide overlooking the tern colony to see a Gull-billed Tern, a new bird for us. Also seen were lots of Little and Common Terns, 2 Sandwich Terns, a Black Tern, 7 immature Little Gulls, c25 Bar-tailed Godwits, Kittiwakes, a Fulmar, lots of Ringed Plovers, a few Dunlin, Redshank and Turnstones, a Greenshank and lots of Oystercatchers.
We watched the Gull-billed Tern for around 3 hours at distances of between 25 to 100 yards, it had very predatory behaviour, frequently lunging at quite well grown Little Tern chicks, we also saw it take a Little Tern's egg being pursued by five or more adult terns. It tried to swallow the egg whole but couldn't manage it, then it tried to break the egg by stabbing at it but that didn't seem to work, then it carried the egg to the water and appeared to wash it, then it gave up and left it. The tern was also seen to chase the Little Terns returning to the colony with fish in their bills and making them drop their prey, much like a skua. On one occasion the tern was seen to take and swallow an egg, which was probably a Ringed Plovers.
Later we drove along the coast to Sheringham where we saw 5 Razorbills, 2 Whimbrels, 3 Bar-tailed Godwits, 9 Curlew, a Knot and 7 Dunlin, around the sewage outlet were about 30 Black-headed Gulls, 10 Kittiwakes and we saw flying in an adult Sabine's Gull which stayed for 35 minutes.
On the way home we visited Handlebury near Cambridge where there was an Icterine Warbler.
On a sound recording trip to the Picos de Europa Mountains in Northwest Spain.