Well I haven't written a blog post in a long time so I think it would be good to catch everyone up. Since my last blog post I haven't been very busy on the twitching side other than a double dip of a Black Kite and a American Golden Plover. My only other proper twitch was to see the Rose-coloured Starling in Norfolk which we had nice views of. Obviously I have been keeping myself busy with the end of my school term only a week or two ago. When I eventually got my summer holidays I was to relieved to write anything on my blog. A few walks around my local patch during the term also as usual produced nothing much other than a large number of Small Tortuseshells, aswell as a trip to Ivinghoe beacon with my dad produced my first ever Dark Green Fritillary.
Two weeks ago me and my family headed of to Wales to have a nice holiday obviously I wasn't expecting much but Redstarts, Pied Flycatchers and Wood Warblers. Me and my brother had to go down by train and when we went past the reserve which had wales nesting pair of Osprey me and my brother almost suffered from a heart attack. When we arrived at the house it was nice to find a Common Redstart nest just next to our holiday home. We later also caught up with some Wood Warblers and short after a Spotted Flycatcher a bird which alluded me the year before. After speaking to a Rob Roy on my facebook he told me about a place to Red Grouse another bird which I needed on my life list. A few days after recieving the information I managed to get a lift with my dad unfortunately we didn't see anything apart from a difficult Juv. Whinchat and a few adults. On another day whilst my parents were shopping I was left in the car with my brother. When we were waiting we were lucky enough to see a pair of Hawfinches fly past and a different individual which landed in a tree near by. Unfortunately the second part of our trip to Somerset was not as good with two trips to Ham Wall and not seeing anything other than some Ruff and Blackwits and the local area not being exactly the best place to see wildlife other than Red-legged Partridge. But the worst part of the holiday was when we decided to head over to Chew Valley Lake in hope of seeing some rare or scarce duck all that was seen was a nice Yellow-legged Gull (my first) but it was definitely not worth the price had to pay. When we arrived back to the car we found the window smashed and all of my photography equipment worth about £1,500 was all gone. Well as you can imagine I went into a state of blind rage and sorrow. I am now still waiting to see if the insurance company will cover me. But I learnt a lesson and I would like to share it with my blog readers: DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING VALUABLE IN YOUR CAR OR IT MAY NOT BE THERE WHEN YOU GET BACK!!! Thanks for reading.
