Neil Gray's birds and other wildlife
Atlasville, 24 Nov 2011 I finished off our trip to the UK with a final day visit to the London Wetland Centre. My photography on this, my 5th visit to the Wetland Centre, was largely restricted to the captive species, although I did manage shots of the resident Long-tailed Tit, Eurasian Wigeon and Eurasian Coot, …
Atlasville, 24 Nov 2011 My wife and I are just back from a 2-week trip visiting family in the UK. As always, I managed to set aside some time for birding while in London, with visits to both RSPB Minsmere near Saxmundham in Suffolk and RSPB Dungeness near Lydd in Kent. While visiting my father in …
Sutton, 01 Jan 2011 Unusually for me, I have so far only had one birding day during the 2 weeks my wife and I are spending with the family in the UK. So, after finishing off 2010 with that trip to the RSPB reserve at Dungeness, I decided to start off the New Year with …
Sutton, 29 Dec 2010 My final birding day of the year yesterday was at RSPB Dungeness near Lydd in Kent. This was my 4th visit to this reserve. A heavy sky and poor light did not bode well for too many photographs, yet the day turned out to be quite a memorable one. While the Firth, …
Atlasville, 09 Jun 2010 Just back from our trip to London for our granddaughter’s 1st birthday. I managed to get in a few birding trips either side of the big day as well as having the camera handy on family walks in some of the (relatively) local parks. The venues included the London Wetland Centre …
Sutton, 04 Jan 2010 Having spent 2 weeks in Sutton for a family Christmas, on my last full day in the UK before returning to Guinea I decided that whatever the weather I would spend as much time as possible at the London Wetland Centre. The day dawned with the temperature a frigid -7°C. I …
Sutton, 28 Jun 2009 The remainder of my birding this trip was undertaken during family days out – the family have got used to me suddenly stopping to take bird photos. Three areas accounted for most of these sightings, Weardale in County Durham around Stanhope, Rookhope, Westgate and South Hanging Wells, Leeds Castle near Maidstone …
Sutton, 28 Jun 2009 The final dedicated birding day today was a drive to RSPB Dungeness near Lydd in Kent. Dungeness lies in an area of old coastal gravel bars between which lie many natural ponds and pools. Commercial gravel extraction over the years has also created several large artificial ponds. The reserve, like Minsmere …
Sutton, 28 Jun 2009 Part of this UK trip was to go to Durham with our daughter, son-in-law and 3-week-old grand-daughter to introduce my father to his first great-grandchild. To this end we had booked a cottage for a few days in upper Weardale, but true to form I made the most of where we …
Sutton, 21 Jun 2009 My next birding excursion out of London today was a drive to RSPB Minsmere, near Saxmundham in Suffolk. Minsmere has many different landscapes with a mix of heathland, woodland, reedbeds, dunes and beach. The reserve sits in the shadow of the adjacent Sizewell nuclear power station. The list of birds seen, which …
