Tiergarten and Medals - Berlin Goshawks, March 2025

 

A fine, fine week in sun-soaked, blue-skied Berlin, where Rich and I have been worshipping the Kings and Queens of Tiergarten, the huge wooded park here in the city centre. It's not all been about Goshawks - more on the other stuff later - but, well, it mostly has....

   

Rich is guiding Yorkshire Coast Nature clients out here over the coming days (and in all likelihood, so will I this time next year), and so we arrived a few days ago on a combined recon mission (successful) / much-needed jolly (also successful).

   

Of the former, we were keen to pin down territories and active nests (not strictly the same, as there are usually several 'alternative' nests within each territory).

 

Happily this wasn't a problem, and searching the extensive, labrythine networks of interconnecting footpaths and tracks, looking for those impressively built structures in the Vs of taller trees, listening for those excited ka-ka-ka-ka-kas, or registering alarm calls from songbirds and corvids was a highly enjoyable way to spend sunny days in a beautiful city park.

We found four active territories in Tiergarten alone, as well as activity for multiple other birds, and we didn't even cover the whole park.... an incredible density of breeding pairs, literally bang in the middle of one of Europe's largest cities. 

 

All videos digiscoped with a crappy old Samsung hand-held against a Zeiss Harpia 85 'scope.

More Goshawk thrills to follow...... 

Guiding at Tophill Low, March 2025

 

This last week has been replenishingly birdy, much of which involved four very enjoyable days guiding at Tophill Low, in the Hull Valley in East Yorkshire.

Cattle Egret

Tophill is a wonderful reserve - two reservoirs, mature mixed woodland, marshes, lakes, scrub and more - all easily walkable from the car park, which is conveniently in the centre of the site (allowing for an ideal game of two halves for a guiding day); not only that, it's quiet, superbly managed, and has multiple comfortable hides at every juncture.

Lapwings

Amazingly it's taken us this long to sort out bespoke guiding days there (better late than never!), and I was very much looking forward to these days - a maximum of six clients per team, and blessed with beautiful weather throughout.

  

With such a fantastic mix of habitats in such close proximity, the birding is always quality - at pretty much any time of year, too - and so it was throughout my tours. Highlights were many - Scaup, Smew, Red-crested Pochards, Marsh Tits, Kingfishers, White-fronted Goose, Cetti's Warblers, Tawny and Barn Owls......

 

 ..... gangs of displaying Goldeneyes, super-close, nest-building Marsh Harriers, Cattle, Great and Little Egrets, Red Kites, newly-arrived Chiffchaffs, about-to-leave Redwings, great views of myriad commoner species....

Red-crested Pochards (above), Tawny Owl (below)

A really excellent, exciting new addition to our birding tour calendar, and I'm already looking at where I can fit in more days here later in the year - watch this space, and check the Yorkshire Coast Nature website here.

North Cave Wetlands, 6th March '25

(Please click on images to enlarge - Blogger seems to be over-compressing them on the main page...)

Ruddy Shelduck with its Common cousins 

A very enjoyable early(ish) session at North Cave Wetlands this morning, in beautifully sunny, clear-skied conditions. It's a reserve I've not frequented with any regularity before, but now it's very much within striking distance - 45 minutes from home, and pretty much on the way to work if I'm surveying on the Humber - it's likely to get a lot more attention.

Greater Scaup

And if this morning is any indication, then that's just how it should be: great views of Scaup, Ruddy Shelduck, Avocets fresh-in, 22 Whoopers low and north, and plenty more; with the already extensive wetland habitats getting better and better (and plenty of friendly locals - good to see everyone!), my intention is to make much more of an effort here over the spring when time and opprtunity allows.

15 of 22 Whoopers north

Song Thrush giving it full throttle

Brimstone butterfly - not from North Cave, but from New Holland (on the Lincs side of the Humber) shortly after. 

Sanderlings, 2nd March '25

A rare day off with the Mrs, and rarer still, the sun was shining - and so to the coast, and a place we know quite well....

A lovely walk to the end of the Brigg and back, with lots of birds to enjoy: Purps, Eiders, Scoters, feeding frenzies of Gannets and auks, the wintering Red-necked Grebe, and these undeniably wondrous bundles of joy - Sanderlings, at their most wonderfully tame and entertaining.

School of Birding, February '25 - Class Five dismissed!

Just back home to York after a wonderful ten days in Scotland, a week of which was dedicated to our fifth School of Birding, based at the Grant Arms Hotel, Grantown-on-Spey, Highland.

As regular readers of these pages will know, our Schools have been running since November '23, and happily they're booked up well in advance - our only limitation is time, and we're fitting in as many as we possibly can (watch this space for new dates and links to our new website, up and running very soon); you'll also know that Simon and I genuinely love delivering them, no more the case than for our wonderful Class Five.

A perfect storm of almost entirely sunny, calm, crisp conditions, high quality birding, and the best team you could possibly wish for conspired to make it a memorable one, in all the right ways.

It's a pretty full-on experience, and it requires dedication to get the most out of it - but the idea is, as soon as you arrive (we run free pick ups and drop-offs from the railway / bus stations and the airport), you don't have to worry about anything else: everything (lectures, guiding, transport, full board, etc) is included and planned out, allowing for an immersive learning experience and a stress-free week for our team.

And what a team we had. An essential element of our Schools is the collective - the camaraderie, the mutual support and pulling together, helping each other become better birders, enjoying a lot of great birding (and laughs) along the way. Lasting friendships and firm ties are often made, a very satisfying after-effect and a great way to continue the learning process after the week itself.

Of the highlights this time around? Where to start? Let's just say, we got everything we hoped for, and more.....

Back up in April for Class Six - if you're on it, I'll see you there!

Thanks to the team members for some of the photos!

Review of the Year, 2024 - part four

Crested Tit, Anagach Woods, November 

October began - where else this autumn?! - in the Kilnsea / Spurn area, Rich and I guiding a large visiting group for several days, incorporating not just the aformentioned sites but also the excellent new flood alleviation habitats a little further up the Northern bank of the Humber at Welwick / Weeton. Conditions were pretty challenging, but the birding was quality - including a gorgeous juvenile Pallid Harrier that followed us around and consistently showed up at close range....

.... and not forgetting two quality Phylloscs - Pale-legged Leaf and Arctic Warbler - bookending the guiding.

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler - nonchalantly twitched by Rich and I on our way to guiding at Spurn....

... and a Spurn Arctic Warbler - impossibly tame! 

The forecast for the following 24 hours promised overnight easterlies and rain, and then sunshine - too much to resist, and so it was straight back to the coast for first light on 3rd, and a glorious session at Filey, which included stumbling upon not one but two Pallas's Warblers;

One of two Pallas's Warblers that welcomed me back to Filey on 3rd Oct. Unbeatable 

the following day, and brother Yoav and I had a blinding session at Old Fall, Flamborough, similarly bathed in sunshine and surrounded by quality birds. A cracking two days, worth checking out here. 

Olive-backed Pipit, Flamborough 

Guiding dominated much of the month, at Flamborough / Bempton for several days, then Spurn for a week, then Flamborough / Bempton for a few more days, then Spurn for the last week of the month (with any spare days surveying - a full-on month even by recent standards).

Pink-footed Geese arriving in off the sea at Flamborough lighthouse 

The quality birding continued unabounded, with the Flamborough days providing such gems as Daurian Shrike, Olive-backed Pipit, Red-flanked Bluetail, movements of thrushes, finches and Whooper Swans, Yellow-browed Warblers, Merlins and much more, and culminated, wonderfully, with a close-in Humpback Whale feeding underneath us at Bempton... 

Humpback - a surprise bonus on one of my Birding Discovery Days at Bempton in October!

Daurian (Isabelline) Shrike @Bempton_Cliffs yesterday, performing beautifully for my @YCNature group. If it stuck around ling enough for one of my tours, I promised to go and say hello - so we did. A beautiful bird with an appetite for Goldcrests! 🍽 pic.twitter.com/C9zRl4EYe6

— Mark James Pearson (@Markthebirder) October 7, 2024

Red-flanked Bluetail, Bempton 

Spurn, meanwhile, was everything you'd want it to be in October, with too many special moments to mention here; so much migration quality and quantity over the two weeks, with floods of incoming songbirds, lots of late autumn continental classics (Long- and Short-eared Owls, Woodcocks, Hawfinches etc), a wonderful variety and volume of wildfowl and waders, and plenty of scarcities sprinkled throughout.

Bearded Tit - a scarce but regular autumn migrant at Spurn

Vismig Jay gunning down the Spurn peninsula 

What a place - and in 2024, I was fortunate to spend six working weeks (guiding over 130 lovely clients) there, each very different, and each rich and varied. Already looking forward to the spring....  

Redwing - one of many thousands arriving at Spurn 

Early November was spent intermittently birding on the coast (of course - it was that time of year); back in the suburbs of York, meanwhile, a Great Egret decided to make our neighbourhood home for a while, even landing on our roof on one occasion!

Two and half weeks (from the 9th) in Scotland followed, consisting of a fortnight based at The Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown-on-Spey, bookended by overnighters in Eyemouth. Week one was as Guest Speaker / Guide, with plenty of time to enjoy lots of relaxed birding and much-needed downtime (including plenty of long, lovely trail runs in Anagach Forest), and week two was our fourth School of Birding.

Red-breasted Merganser (above) and Eiders (below) on the Moray coast 

Quite the contrast between the two weeks, and not just in intensity - the first was unseasonably mild and pleasant (and full of birds, naturally!), while the second was snowy, sub-zero and generally Arctic.... which was (mostly) a blessing - despite tricky driving conditions, and extra efforts to make sure everyone was warm enough, the already beautiful landscapes were at their absolute picture postcard premium.

A huge pleasure to deliver, of course, and another class of ten 'graduated' with a much greater skillset and hopefully bucketloads of birding inspiration. More here. The aforementioned Eyemouth stopovers were enjoyable (as always), with a Little Auk themed seawatch on the way back down to England:

One of 24 Little Auks on an early Eyemouth seawatch 

Back home for late November, and some relaxed coastal birding to round off the season; a forgettable December (for various reasons, which don't belong in a birding bulletin!) notwithstanding, a busy, bird-filled, wonderfully rich and varied 2024, for which I'm very grateful. 

Lapland Bunting, Filey, December