Birding in Kings Langley booklet

Recently I have been working on a booklet about birding in Kings Langley. Its almost finished and will hopefully be on sale on my blog soon.
Click on the link below for a preview.
Birding in Kings Langley

Cassiobury Park

I went for a walk today to Cassiobury Park and saw Green Woodpecker, 8 Mistle Thrush, 30+ Staring and some Black-headed Gulls.

Woods and garden(28/8/12)

Today the woods brought up little but my garden had a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a flock of Goldfinches.

Titchwell Marshes and other places (27/8/12)

Me and my brother had a lift today to Titchwell Marshes by Chris Sharp.Titchwell Marshes turned out to be a very good trip. One of the first birds which we saw turned out to be a Grey Partridge as I have never made the effort to find one this was a lifer. Later on along the same road we stumbled upon a Red-legged Partridge. When we arrived we went along next to the mud flats to the channel. There were a lot of waders to be seen including 19 Spoonbill, a lot of Ruffs, a lot of Dunlins, a lot of Avocets, a lot of Golden Plovers and Bar anwd Black-tailed Godwits. After looking around the mud flats we moved on to the sea. We stayed at the sea for a while and saw a good amount of birds which were Sanderling, Bar and Black-tailed Godwit, Turnstones, Grey Plovers, Great Black-backed Gull, Sandwich Terns, Common Scoter, 3 Eiders and a OSPREY which was flying over the channel heading towards us. After the sea watching we headed back and saw some Spotted Redshank.

Ruffs of which there were at least 30+

After Titchwell Marshes we headed off to a good area for Tree Pipits unfortunately we didn't see one but we had a Hobby fly over.

zilch, zilch and zilch again

Another walk around the local patch in Kings Langley brought nothing despite the excellent dung piles were I was hoping to see Wheatear but Starlings, Carrion Crows, Pied Wagtails, Woodpigeons and the odd Greenfinch were all that poped up.

Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight is a very under watched place it has the possibility to pop up some good stuff so I would recommend it for a birding trip. Unfortunately I didn't see any rare migrants but that was because I went at the wrong time of year. I did see a DARTFORD WARBLER (life tick), a BLACK REDSTART (also a life tick (although its appalling that I haven't seen one yet in britain)) and a lot of Wheatears. I most likely missed a lot of stuff because the habitat was perfect for all different migrants.

Germany

Germany like the Isle of Sheppey turned up more then I expected. On the first day we went out we went to a woods which was near by were we saw Treecreepers, Nuthatches, MIDDLE SPOTTED WOODPECKER, CRESTED TITS and even a  SHORT-TOED TREECREEPER. The next surprise on the trip was a walk to bachholz which is a church in the village on the way we passed field and my brother managed to find 2 RED- BACKED SHRIKES and after I found another one which made it three one of which was a male. Later on the walk I also heard a prob. Cirl Bunting. Later on in the week I went with my brother to the altenburg hutte which was perfect for migrating raptors and storks by the end we saw 1 BLACK STORK. By the end of the week me and my brother set off with our bikes to a nature reserve. It was the first place we had seen that week which had water on mud for waders. We did see a Wood Sandpiper but more importantly we saw a OSPREY flying almost next to the hide.

Black Redstart which there were plenty of

Pale Morph Buzzard

And now I'm off to the Isle of Wight.

Isle of Sheppey

Isle of Sheppey turned out to be a good trip for birding especially taking into account that it was summer. I even managed to get a few pictures. The highlights of the trip were Whimbrel, Barn Owl which flew right infront of me, Little owl, Turtle Dove and a few Med Gulls.

 Landscape at the Swale

Stone on the Beach

Med Gull flying away

Find the 3 Med Gulls

Hare infront of gull flock

Common Darter