Last Thursday [10th November 2011] saw the first of this winters birdwatching cruises on the Rivers Tamar and Lynher. Luckily the met office had got it wrong and instead of the forecast heavy rain it turned out to be a mild and sunny day with little wind and good visibility. As usual we headed upstream from Saltash, soon finding the first Avocets, unfortunately a bit distant near the confluence with the Tavy. Plenty of Grey Herons and Little Egrets were […]

We’ve had our first sighting in Spain! L:AH1 was the first bird I ringed on 13th June last year. It was seen on Carreiro Beach, San Xenxo, Pontevedra, NW Spain on 26th October 2011, over 938 km from Looe Island, where it was ringed. Unfortunately it had suffered an injury to its throat which caused its tongue to poke through.

Over a million birds have now been slaughtered in Cyprus this autumn. Help stop this appauling waste of life by signing the petition on the BirdLife Cyprus website. http://www.birdlifecyprus.org Boycott all Cypriot goods now and don’t visit Cyprus till they do something about this horrific practice!

We have now finalised the birdwatching cruises on the River Tamar this winter. We are only running three this year so demand is expected to be high so book early to ensure you have a place. There are already plenty of waders around, many visible from the new footpath accessed from Wacker Quay and very soon the Spoonbills and Avocets will be back. The best way to see all these is from a boat. The Birdwatching Cruise page (top right) […]

Less than a month since leaving our shores Tore has reached her probable wintering area in West Africa. She cut across Mauritania and into the Gambia but has edged just a wee bit north from Guinea Bissau,  and is now in Senegal, appearing to follow & explore a river system. She is close to Marassoum, on the Soungrougrou River, her last fix 3pm yesterday, 9th October, was in an area of  riverbank-side woodland called Foret de Diognere.

The latest news is that Tore has made it to Africa! From her previous last reported point, she has travelled down through Extremadura, into Portugal on 23the September at 9pm, down through the Algarve to the coast near Faro, before heading out to sea, at night, making landfall on the Moroccan coast at c.7am at Larache. She then kept going, passing Souk-el-Arba-du-Rharb, then west of Meknes, overnighted just south of Tadla, passing Ouarzazate at 2pm on 25th September, her latest fix […]

Did you know that….. 429,137 birds   ……have already been illegally killed by trappers in Cyprus so far this autumn? THIS NUMBER represents the BirdLife Cyprus estimate for how many birds have been illegally killed using mist nets and limesticks between September 1st and September 21st 2011. This death toll, which will be updated weekly during the autumn trapping season, is based on systematic monitoring of trapping activity in the field. Although only an estimate, it shows the extent of the problem out […]

After a three week stay on the Lynher/Tamar estuary Tore, the Loch Garten bred Osprey, continued her southward journey on the 18th September. She was at Wacker at 8am, headed over Millbrook and Maker around 9am and crossed the Channel into northern France, coming ashore near Saint Brienc, west of St Malo. She continued SE during the day and roosted near Nantes. On the 19th she continued  to the Gironde estuary near Bordeaux before changing to a SW bearing, cutting […]

The first sighting away from St Georges Island of one of this years Great Black back chicks was reported yesterday by Paul Veron in Guernsey. He also saw one of last years birds L:AJ8  on Perelle Beach, Guernsey, where it had been seen last October and January. Where has it spent the summer? We have now had several sightings from the Channel Islands and I saw one of his Lesser Black backs on St Georges Island on 5 August so […]

Spoonbills have returned and bred for a second year at Holkham National Nature Reserve (NNR), eight pairs fledging 14 young. Last year saw the first breeding of Spoonbills in the UK for more than 300 years when six pairs successfully bred. Spoonbills at Holkham (Natural England). The breeding Spoonbills are part of group of around 40 adult and immature birds summering along the north Norfolk coast. These birds move between feeding sites on north Norfolk coast nature reserves and the […]