The Manchester Birder

After a few years of threatening in a gently relaxed way that I would get into butterflies it's the summer of 2026 that tipped me into a more serious quest to see some butterflies beyond what come to the buddleia on my front garden.  Like many people I can identify the obvious and common species, the Red Admirals, Orange-tips (males!), the Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells.  I can pick out a Brimstone and I've seen my share of Clouded Yellows while birding.  I can recognise Ringlet, but until this summer I wasn't aware of seeing any hairstreaks (except Green, which have a couple of days every year where they fairly boil out of the banks of a ditch up on the moors within my 10km circle and are hard to miss).  I had no clue about fritillaries, or heaths, or browns, and I couldn't have told you the difference between Large and Small White, or Common, Small and Holly Blue.  I didn't even know that some of these butterflies existed.   It's rare to go into a...

June and early July were contrasting times for me in terms of birding.  I have stayed local almost all of that time, but my one twitch was a big  twitch. I walked a lot in June.  I don't usually - the horse flies and mosquitoes have a deep desire to sample my blood, and my immune system does not enjoy their attention.  I tend to only go birding near the coast during these months, focusing on tern colonies and enjoying the breeze rather than being eaten alive.  This month I couldn't do that really, with only a visit to Seaforth to squint with migraine-inducing focus through the fence while trying (successfully - well done Lee) to find Roseate Terns with Lee.  While we were at Seaforth, he told me about a conversation he had had with two birders on Anglesey recently, and how he was struck by the gentle joyfulness of one of these women who was incredibly knowledgeable and generous with her time and expertise.  He felt that her whole approach to wildlife w...

Western Reef Heron, said the message on my phone.  I was, to put it mildly, surprised.  I had logged out of social media, blog, listing software and websites and BirdGuides a month earlier, putting birding WhatsApps on mute, and withdrawing into my own company for a little while.  So when several people of my acquaintance wanted me to know there was a first for Britain 80 miles from home their messages built up until not even I could ignore the deluge. Western Reef Heron, said BirdGuides when I logged back in.  Three exclamation marks to tell me it was a serious rarity.  Seen in Caernarfon, a favourite place of mine full of friendly people, good birders, great scenery and the potential for close encounters with wildlife.  I pondered. My withdrawal wasn't a mistake, or a whim, or a tantrum.  I needed a break.  Was I ready to rejoin the hobby?  Was I ready to socialise more broadly?  Was I refreshed enough to want to go birding - not just ...

Working from home is littered with potential distractions and temptations, and all three of these birds in the last week have been species that have caused disruption in that I have either started late, finished early, or woken up late as a result of staying out to find them! Osprey as a species feels like it has hit a critical mass in recent years, with colonisation occurring in lots of southern England, the midlands, as well as Northumberland, parts of Wales, south Cumbria, and of course the Scottish traditional strongholds. The number of non-breeding birds that seem to have lingered in Lancashire over the last couple of summers is good news, and especially seeing birds coming back to the same stretches of the Ribble means there is potential for breeding on the plethora of reservoirs and lakes to be found in east Lancashire, north Manchester and even where I am in the flat plains of west Manchester and north Cheshire.  Reports of an Osprey lingering at Pennington Flash across a w...