
On the 5th July:
1975
Another trip to Nafford Island in Worcestershire seeing 2 Marsh Warblers, 2 Sedge Warblers, 2 Turtle Doves and a Tree Sparrow.
1980
A weekend in the Lake District, visiting Haweswater, from the Mardale Head Car Park at the southern end of the lake we saw a Raven, 31 Greylag Geese, 134 Canada Geese, a female Goosander with a juvenile, 3 Redpolls, 2 Yellowhammers and 2 Common Sandpipers with a juvenile. We walked up the valley from the car park seeing 5 Willow Warblers, 13 Wheatears and 2 Spotted Flycatchers. At the top of the valley was a RSPB observation post from where we could see the pair of Golden Eagles also an immature bird, in this area there were 4 Ring Ouzels, 2 Yellow Wagtails, a Merlin, a Kestrel and a pair of Peregrines.
1995
The start of a 4 day trip to record Gannets on Bass Rock for a BBC 'Wildlife on One' film on British seabirds, accompanied by Pete Frazer. On the drive north we stopped at Scotsman's Flash near Manchester, where there was a singing River Warbler.
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River Warbler singing at Scotsman's Flash, song rises and falls as the bird turns its head.
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From there we drove to Greatham Creek on Teesside, where we had good views of a Great Spotted Cuckoo. Later, we continued north to overnight in North Berwick.
2018
A visit to Slimbridge where I watched a juvenile Cuckoo being fed by a pair of Reed Warblers in the trees over-hanging the Holden Walkway. Also seen were 8 Green Sandpipers, a Ruff, c150 Black-tailed Godwits, Avocets, Redshanks and a Great Crested Grebe with 2 chicks on it's back.




Green Sandpiper