Winter Sale on Binoculars!

It seems crazy to think it's November tomorrow yet parts of Kent have reached 23° today - officially the hottest Halloween on record. None-the-less, in keeping with this time of year, we have started our 'winter sale' on binoculars. As a small business, we appreciate all the orders we receive as each one really counts, but it's tough to compete against the likes of Amazon. We endeavour to offer exceptional service, coupled with great prices, often same day despatch and next day delivery. Do check us out if you're looking to buy for yourself or, seeing as it's less than 8 weeks away, a Christmas pressie for someone else.

The last week has been quiet for birds - now the clocks have gone back it's getting dark by the time we leave at 5pm. A pair of Kestrels were here yesterday after dark, briefly inspecting the church where they nested this year and previous years. There are many Pied Wagtails about, the Grey is becoming less frequent however. Today's blue skies brought about a few Buzzards, though that is now not an uncommon sight! A group of 4 (not 100% sure about this) Skylarks went over this morning, the photos weren't great and certainly not worth sharing. Late afternoon brought a large flock of Lapwing flying over too. There are still a few Butterflies around, namely Small Tortoiseshells and Red Admirals, a photo of the former below, taken on the 30th October basking in the afternoon sun.

 Don't forget Autumnwatch is on BBC2 at the minute, another great series, certainly worth watching.

Happisburgh, Norfolk

A day trip to visit family in Norfolk wouldn't be complete without a bit of birding - it's hard not to when wherever you go there are good birds to be had! A should-be-5-minute walk to the beach took 25 with all the stopping for photos. A flock of 200 or more Golden Plover in the field, occasionally taking off and landing back in the same spot. More Skylarks than you can shake a stick, not easy to photograph mind you. Only a small skein of Pink footed Geese, unfortunately time was of the essence to we didn't get to go further along the coast. Linnets, Meadow Pipits and Goldfinches in good size groups, lots of Gulls but nothing much else out at sea and a Kestrel hunting on the beach. A lunch time visit to Norwich Cathedral was possibly the highlight of the day as a Peregrine circled above us, landing once or twice on the platform before gracing the blue sky once more. What more could you want? A good few more days I suppose!

First post, last departures!

It's time we started keeping better records of our sightings here, which in turn will help us look back each year and compare when the first summer/winter arrivals turned up, which birds are most frequent at what time of year and of course to share all our sightings/photos with you all.

On Saturday 22nd October we saw a young Swallow hawking in the blue skies, unless we post otherwise this would be our last sighting this year for a Hirundine - the House Martins were in good numbers up until a couple of weeks ago but still up to 10 around earlier this week.

The 22nd also saw our first confirmed Redwing sighting - with other probables earlier in the week. Fieldfares are still absent, though we have Mistle Thrushes most days and an unfortunate Song Thrush fell victim to this female Sparrowhawk.

Temperatures are still above average for October, around 15 degrees during the day. This means the feeders are still relatively quiet, though we have noticed an increase in Goldfinches and Greenfinches feeding on the sunflower hearts in the Nature Area. Long-tailed Tits seem to be appearing more regularly too, a sure sign the winter is drawing near. A sedge/siege of Grey Herons passed over on the 24th.


We expect to be stocking Nikon binoculars soon on top of our current selection of Opticron, Hawke, Viking and RSPB. Check our website regularly for new models and perhaps, if you're lucky, sale prices: www.shop.featherswildbirdcare.co.uk