Friday 21 October 2011

Long time no blog!

Hi everyone

Life has been very hectic over the last few months, catching up with friends and family and having a well earned holiday - consequently, no blogs.

So, what has been happening at Start Birding since my last post in July? Well, as mentioned in my earlier post, I visited the annual British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland water over the weekend of the 19th to 21st August. It was great to see birding friends and acquaintancies and, as usual, I enjoyed the extensive list of talks, exhibits and events. The reserve gets bigger and better each year and the whole experience is getting more and more difficult to fit into one weekend. If you've not been before then I really recommend a visit.

Straight after the Bird Fair, I travelled up to Scotland to visit friends and my favourite birding spots. Birding highlights were seeing common, velvet, surf and black scoter all in one spot, east of Aberdeen; osprey fishing in a nearby activity centre and beautiful black-throated divers in the Highlands.

Indoor and outdoor classes started again in September. So far we have had a trip on the Yorkshire Belle to see skuas and shearwaters; visited the new RSPB reserve at Saltholme and the Teesside Centre and learned about nuthatches and thrushes. Over September and October, two new birdwatchers have joined me for one-to-one tuition sessions.

One of these sessions was booked by a family member as a birthday present which got me thinking that it is coming up to Christmas soon. If you are thinking of something to buy for a friend or family member then why not give them a voucher for a birdwatching trip? Vouchers can be purchased from as little as £10 depending the length of the trip you want to pay for. Contact me for details or visit my web page at http://www.startbirding.co.uk/ .