Weekend Trips

On occasion Blackburn Bird Club hold weekend trips to locations further afield. This gives members an opportunity to see birds that it's not possible to see closer to home, such as Black Grouse or wild Barnacle Geese. As these trips typically involve an overnight stay this not only gives more birding time, but also more time for socialising with other birdwatchers. The Club has run many of these sorts of trips in the past, but in recent years we have run 2 weekend trips. Details of these two trips can be found below. If you are interested in coming on a weekend trip please check the Field Walks programme to see if we currently have any scheduled. Members only for weekend trips.

A flock of Barnacle Geese in flight at WWT Caerlaverock by Jonathan Fry.

Caerlaverock WWT November 2016

From Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd November 2016 9 Club members travelled up to Scotland for the away trip to WWT Caerlaverock and the surrounding area to see wild Barnacle Geese and Red Kites. We stayed at the Farmhouse on the reserve at Caerlaverock WWT. This was amazing, as every morning you woke to the sight and sound of thousands of Barnacle Geese on the reserve right next to where you were staying! They winter on the Solway every winter.

On our first day we saw Whooper Swans, as well as many other species of wildfowl. We even managed to find the American Green Winged Teal among the Teal and of course watched the thousands of Barnacle Geese, was a wonderful sight!

The farmhouse where the group stayed, by Jonathan Fry.

Whooper Swan at Caerlaverock by Jonathan Fry.

American Green Winged Teal at Caerlaverock, middle of picture on bank with a vertical white stripe on the side of the breast, by Jonathan Fry.

Male Wigeon at Caerlaverock by Jonathan Fry.

On our second day we travelled north to Ken-Dee Marshes where we saw 50 Greenland White Fronted Geese that winter there, this was all the more special because we only normally see a few on the Lancashire mosses! On our way to the reserve we saw no less than 40 Red Kites!

Barnacle Geese in the fields at Caerlaverock by Jonathan Fry.

We went onto Bellymack Farm at Laurieston where we saw even more Red Kites, around 90! This farm feeds the Red Kites so we had the good pleasure of seeing them swoop down for the meat right in front of us!

We returned to the Farmhouse to see hundreds of Barnacle Geese fly off to roost against the setting sun. During the evening we saw a Badger come to feed on the peanuts put out by the centre staff outside the conservatory! On our final day we remained on the reserve where we saw yet more Barnacle Geese and a female Merlin. We saw 64 species over the 3 days.

Some of the flock of Greenland White Fronted Geese at Ken-Dee Marshes. There were also a number of Greylag Geese with these birds, it's possible that these birds were actually wild migratory birds and not part of the feral population most of us are used to. By Brian Taylor.

Red Kite at Bellymack Farm by Jonathan Fry.

The group watching the Red Kites.

Red Kites assembling in the trees, by Brian Taylor.

Red Kites feeding video, by Jonathan Fry.

Barnacle Geese against the setting sun, by Jonathan Fry.

Badger outside the conservatory, we had to remain very quiet, hard when you are excited to see a badger! By Jonathan Fry.

Barnacle Geese at sunrise by Brian Taylor.

World's End, North Wales March 2015

Over the weekend of the 14th and 15th of March 2015 6 Club members travelled down to World's End in North Wales to see the Black Grouse lek. On our way down we stopped off at Moore Nature Reserve at Warrington where we saw a Glaucous Gull. We stayed at the Travel Lodge in Wrexham and got up early the next morning to be at the Black Grouse lek site for 6am. When we found the lek site we saw around 20 male Black Grouse lekking next to the road, they argued, squawked and fighted for some time before flying off. An awesome sight!

We then moved onto the nearby Clocaenog Forest where we managed to see 2 female Crossbills, we stopped off at Llanbedr-y-cennin near Llanwrst where we saw a single Hawfinch, Buzzards and several Red Kites. We also had the great privilege of a Golden Eagle fly over our heads! We stopped briefly at RSPB Conwy to look for Firecrest, but to no avail. We finished our day before heading home by travelling to Pensarn on the coast to see the wintering Iceland Gull which showed very close! We saw 75 species over the weekend.