An early morning trip up the M1 to see the Night Heron at Thornton Reservoir, Leics. The bird was roosting on the other side of the reservoir so the pictures are not too good.
Author Archives: pnbrown13blog
Caldey Island
Caldey Island is owned and run by the Reformed Order of Cistercian monks, who live a simple life farming the island. There are regular boat trips from Tenby. I like visiting Islands and I have to say I had never heard of this Island before. When we arrived there was a monk welcoming people to the Island.
Welsh Lighthouses
Pictures of a few lighthouses we visited on our recent trip to Wales.
South Stack
31/7/2013 We started the day by visiting South Stack where we saw the resident Chough. Two adults and a juvenile where feeding in a horse field across the road from the RSPB visitor centre. We also visited and had the tour of the South Stack lighthouse. It rained for most of the rest of the day so we travelled down to Pembrokeshire stopping briefly at Ynys-hir RSPB where the BBC nature programme Springwatch was based. We stayed the night at the Trewern Arms in Nevern.
Anglesey 30/7/2013
Having stayed the night in Llandudno we started today with a trip up the Great Orme. We then went to Anglesey and drove around the Isle. We visited Trwyn Du and Point Lynas lighthouses and also saw the offshore lightouse on The Skerries. We stayed the night in Holyhead.
Caspian Tern
29/7/2013 – On the way to North Wales we stopped off at Rudyard Lake in Cheshire for the Caspian Tern that has been there for the last few days. Although initially it did not seem to be present when we arrived, it flew back in within 5 minutes and although it was quite distant I still got a few record shots.
The Shard
The Rolling Stones
I went to see the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park on Saturday. My brother had got us tickets for the event, thanks Tony. We had previously seen them in 1982 at Wembley Stadium. At the time I did not expect to see them again as I thought they were pretty old then. It is quite amazing to see them 31 years later, still going and still good. We had a good day in London first and consumed too much real ale.
and some video:- http://youtu.be/6kA9jOlAaT8
and some Jake Bugg video:- http://youtu.be/0AGDDFj47bM
Chasing the Tern
Travelled up to Cresswell Pond Northumberland where the Bridled Tern had been seen the day before. Spent a few hours there in hope but no luck. Lovely day and lovely beach with views over Druridge Bay and as far as Coquet Island. There were lots of seabirds on view in the bay including many Puffin and an Arctic Skua. We then decided to go further north to Amble for some fish and chips. No sooner had we got there and there was a pager message that the Bridled Tern was now at Saltholme RSPB on the outskirts of Middlesbrough 62 miles further south. We set off for Middlesbrough straight away but it was no surprise that when we arrived it had already flown off. We waited a couple of hours but it did not return. Later that night it was relocated 4 miles south of Amble!!. We did see a Roseate Tern at Saltholme RSPB. We then went to Whitby Lighthouse and then stayed the night near Scarborough. On Sunday I went to Wykeham Forest Raptor Viewpoint where I did NOT see any Honey Buzzards although I did see a Goshawk that was perched in a tree across the valley for about half an hour.
**MEGA** Pacific Swift
15/06/2013 Trimley Marshes SWT. As soon as I saw the Mega Alert on my pager I knew I had to at least try and get to see this bird as I had missed the Cley bird in 1993. I knew the journey would take at least 2 hours and then there was a three mile walk to where the bird was being seen. I did not expect it to still be there when we arrived. In fact when we were about 15 miles away we received news that it had flown off south over the River Orwell. We continued the journey and luckily it came back and we saw it. We also saw the Trooping of the Colour flypast as we were travelling up the A 12.
Brunsblog 
