Blackcap

[Sprout]

ogwen, i see we live not a million miles away from you
we have a pair of black caps who regularly visit our garden, the female is the more frequent visitor. it's not that long ago i would have just assumed they were odd looking sparrows, same with dunnocks. the more we learn, the more we want to learn.
today we've been for a walk along burton marshes to the harp at neston, and then a visit to the rspb place at burton (which we've only recently found out existed), where we walked to the hide and saw some great ducks and waders, not to mention all the canada geese. and this time we DID remember to take the binoculars!!!!

[ogwen]

Originally Posted by Sprout

ogwen, i see we live not a million miles away from you
we have a pair of black caps who regularly visit our garden, the female is the more frequent visitor. it's not that long ago i would have just assumed they were odd looking sparrows, same with dunnocks. the more we learn, the more we want to learn.
today we've been for a walk along burton marshes to the harp at neston, and then a visit to the rspb place at burton (which we've only recently found out existed), where we walked to the hide and saw some great ducks and waders, not to mention all the canada geese. and this time we DID remember to take the binoculars!!!!

Nice to read all of your experiences of viewing blackcaps

Hiya Sprout, never been to the rspb reserve at burton is it good? Should go along the front at parkgate, usually get to see herons, little egrets and a few kestrels, and a few more except i cant remember.

[Sprout]

we were at parkgate last friday and saw a heron about 3 metres from the sandstone wall, people were walking past completely oblivious to it, more intent on eating their ice creams!!
we only heard about the burton rspb site last week. the rspb were having an event at west kirby, trying to get people to join, and we stopped to chat. we went to burton marshes on sunday, had a walk along towards shotton steelworks and then called in at the rspb place. it's not well signposted, in fact today there was no sign at all. there's very few facilities, just a bit of an office, but when you walk to the hide it's totally magnificent. we saw teal ducks, cormorants, red shanks, shovelers, and probably a whole lot more too - if we'd known what we were looking at! well worth a visit, we were really surprised at just how big the whole rspb wetland area is. and they're extending it too, work's due to start in the summer for a new visitor centre and two more hides, along with lots of pathways. you really need to go and see it

[ogwen]

Yeah sprout, its amazing how many people are oblivious to the wildlife under their noses there lol, most do judt go for the ice cream.

It sounds pretty good at burton, and getting better. Do you need to be a member of the rspb to get into the reserve? Ive heard the one at conwy is quite good too, thats a wetland area and ive seen bits of it, though it is a bit of a long way to go lol.

[Sprout]

you don't have to be a member, it'll cost you £3 if you're not. we've only just joined the rspb and got our membership cards in the post this morning. i've heard conwy is good too, we're having a 'holiday week' next week and it's down on our list of places to go.
something we saw in the reeds at burton marshes was a bearded tit, such a lovely little bird, can't believe how excited we were to see it. ain't bird spotting great?