14th February Female Scaup still present on South Lake and showing very well. Best of the rest: drake Goldeneye and ad Mediterranean Gull - both on South Lake (George Green). 9th February The Scaup and Goldeneye are still around, together with 2 Mediterranean Gulls....
Caspian Gull, Shooting and a Remarkable Pochard
24th January Longham has a decent gull list, but has never really hosted anything rare - especially compared to Blashford Lakes only 12km away with recent records of Franklin's, Ring-billed and Glaucous Gulls. Today, however, George Green broke that duck by...
Early January 2015
6th January The Scaup was still present today (Ian Lewis). Otherwise it is quiet birdwise, with small numbers of all the usual wildfowl. A visiting birder saw the year's first Bullfinch, the Stonechat remains and there was a Chiffchaff among one of the local...
Happy New Year
1st January 2015 I had a decent start to the year today with 55 species in two walks. There are plenty of birds around, with all the usual wildfowl - Gadwall, Wigeon, Teal, Pochard and Shoveler -plus plenty of Little Egrets and Grey Herons making use of the low water...
November and December 2014
29th December A circuit of both lakes produced 45 Cormorants (23 on the large island and 22 on the pylons and wires), 45 Teal, 15 Wigeon, 6 Shovelers, 4 Pochard, 5 Little Grebe, 4 Great Crested Grebe and 11 House Sparrows (Trevor Wilkinson). 24th December Owing to the...
October 2014 at Longham Lakes
There is not a rarity in the world that would have made October 2014 a happy month for Longham Lakes birding. For on 15th one of the site's most avid watchers, Chris Parnell, passed away after a long illness; he was only 46 and leaves behind a wife and two young...
Longham Lakes, September 2014
30th September Ringing this morning produced 36 new birds and 3 re-traps. I had 10 Blackcaps today, including a re-trap of an adult female first ringed in early May. New totals were Chiffchaff 17, Robin 5 and one each of Blue Tit, Great Tit, Reed Bunting and...
Longham Lakes Summer 2014
28th August Ringing this morning: 15 new birds and 3 re-traps. Blackcaps responded well with 5 caught. I re-trapped Chiffchaff was first ringed on 5 May, re-trapped twice more up to 9th June but not again until today. He is still hanging around then. 27th August...
Wildlife and Travel Blog
THE PERFECT SWARM Bat-catching on an English autumn night There are many joys to mammal-watching, but one is undoubtedly a tendency to do peculiar things. Take visiting a cave on a September dusk and placing long nets outside it, and then waiting, chatting in the...
A Second for Longham
23rd June 2014 Strange record of a Turnstone at Longham Lakes today, in full summer plumage. Presumably it's a failed breeder that has gone all the way up to the Arctic, tried its best and returned again. Its loss is our gain, a true rarity here. A rubbish record...