Bird Watching locations...

[Kirk1]

DS1 wants to go bird watching for his birthday. We live between Crewe and Stoke-on-Trent, any recommendations? We seem to be in a dry spot for RSPB reserves which was my first thought. His birthday is in October, so perhaps half term time, or any weekend in October would be reasonable.

Thanks in advance

Check out your local wildlife trust website - they will have lists of reserves and what youcan expect to see at different times of the year. Have you hot some good binocs?

There is an RSPB place close to Leek where you can see pied flycatchers in nice woodland walks-they may have already migrated by end of Oct though. You could also try Blithfield Reservoir or Carsington Water over in Derbyshire has nice hides and walks and a good visitor centre

Place nr Leek is called Coombes Valley

latest sightings at Carsington

Snice, thanks for that! I've lived in this area 15 years. Now and I still can't get my head around local geography... (DH will know where you mean)

We don't have any decent binoculars, since the ones DH found on freecycle seem to be impossible to properly focus (probably why they were on freecycle...)

Suggestions for lightweight and relatively bins cheap gratefully received!

Arg, my typing today... Obviously I meant relatively cheap binoculars

will ask DH for you-he is the expert

He says 'look on ebay for Zeiss 8 x 30 jenoptem ' < means nothing to me>

'you should be able to get them for less than £50. Don't get 10 x 50 they'll be too heavy'

We have small compact bins for the dc but they both prefer using our bigger 10 x 50 ones - sorry to disagree! - and find them much easier to use. At some rspb reserves you can hire bins.