Tweets:

Having just returned from a 3-week trip in England and Wales, I thought I'd
share my good fortune. The primary purpose of the trip was to meet my many
relatives throughout Great Britain, so birding became secondary. A few days
before leaving the U.S. I received the Sept. issue of ABA's Winging It and saw
an E-mail address for Best of British. After exchanging a couple of messages,
it was left that I'd call if I could go birding while in London. So on a
Sunday at 9:00 a.m. Steven Swaby and Tim ? picked me up at the B&B and we had
a wonderful day of birding that ended about 7 p.m. It turns out that this was
the first time Steven had advertised in Winging It; I was the first to
respond to the E-mail and the first client as a result of the ad.

The three of us went to the area of Kent which included Redhorn Mead Nature
Preserve, Northword Hill RSPB Nature Reserve, English Nat'l Nature Reserve,
the Thames estuary, the swale, and the Isle of Sheppey. We saw and/or heard
about 70 bird species on a cool, sometimes drizzly and windy day. Steven
carries a pager that is linked to reports of important bird sightings. We
didn't chase (twitch) these species, as none were in our area. Steven Swaby
is an editor at the Museum of Natural History in London and Tim is editor of
Birdwatch magazine. E-mail: stes at nhm.ac.uk.

A few days later, one of my relatives, also a birder, took me to Rutland Water
Nature Preserve, Leicestershire, one of the most important wildfowl
sanctuaries in Great Britain. I believe it's about 24 miles around Rutland
Water. There are 14 hides (blinds). We had only a few hours on a very windy
day to bird, but I did see several new species.

The field guide that I carried was "Pocket Guide to the Birds of Britain and
North-West Europe", Chris Kightley, Steve Madge, Dave Nurney. I really like
the size and layout. In most cases, a full page is given to a single species.

My trip list includes 44 new species out of 83. Some of the species are:

Montagu's Harrier (very rare, less than 10 breeding pairs)
Eurasian Kestrel
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Common Shelduck
Common Pochard
Common Eider
Little Egret
Gray Heron
Black-tailed Godwit
Curlew Sandpiper
Common Redshank
Common Greenshank
Ruff
Eurasian Oystercatcher
European Golden-Plover
Common Ringed Plover
Northern Lapwing
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Sabine's Gull
Sandwich Tern
Stock Pigeon
Common Wood-Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Turtle Dove
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Eurasian Green Woodpecker
Eurasian Jay
Eurasian Jackdaw
Rook
Carrion Crow
European Robin
Northern Wheatear
Long-tailed Tit
Chiffchaff
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Sky Lark
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
White Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Meadow Pipit
Dunnock
Chaffinch
European Greenfinch
European Goldfinch
Eurasian Linnet
Eurasian Bullfinch
Corn Bunting


Happy Birding! Note: British birders are not called Twitchers. One is
twitching only when you're chasing a specific species. Otherwise, you are a
birder who is birding.

Joyce Meyer
Woodinville, WA
MEYER2J at aol.com