Wildlife watching recommendations for a trip

[Indecisivelurcher]

Hello nature lovers of Mumsnet! My sister and I have started to take one/two night trips once a year to do something wildlifey. So far we've been to the rewilded farm in Knepp and we've been to see puffins in Pembrokeshire. We don't know what to do next though! We would welcome suggestions!

Habitat loss is a big factor in bird populations struggling. Birds use feeders, when there aren’t the insects they eat, due to use of pesticides on farm land. We had a family of bull finches for years. Some new houses were built on agricultural land - we’ve not had a bull finch for years. We guess they lived on that land.

Some finches, especially green finches and gold finches have been impacted by a disease, which occurs in part due to dirty bird feeders. We used to get loads of green finches and 90 gold finches at a time. We are lucky to see a green finch now, and only get a few gold finches. (We wash our feeders regularly).

Feeders can affect the structure of wild bird populations, because birds, who use feeders get a boost to their health and sub optimal birds survive the winter, who may otherwise have died. They can expand their population at the expense of a non feeder species.

Feeders can attract birds of prey - we get sparrow hawks doing a sweep of our garden regularly. We have even had a peregrine a few times.

The corvids used to attack birds of prey, like buzzards round here, long before we saw our first red kite.

We are fairly near where red kites were bred - as the crow flies. I think it’s a problem to have so many. We are near woodland. There is farmland but some birds are increasing and others decreasing. I doubt pesticides are much of an issue. Over population of red kites doesn’t help.

I meant rooks earlier! Auto correct malfunction.

Pesticides and general changes in farming practice, less marginal habitats, less crop rotation, set aside. Let's hope some of the new farming schemes do what they are intended in terms of contributing to nature recovery.

Seals in Norfolk.
You can take a seal watching ferry to see the Blakeney Point seals from Morston
Or walk along walkways in the dunes at Horsey Gap to see the Grey Seal pups Nov-Dec
You can combine this with a walk round the marshes at Blakeney, Cley, Salthouse and see a wealth of birdlife: egrets, curlew, lapwings, marsh harriers etc.

Check when peak season is for the gannets on Bass Rock off North Berwick- it’s a fantastic spectacle. And you might also see guillemots and maybe a seal.

Red kites were driven to effective extinction, without the breeding and reintroduction projects they would be extinct in this country. They are also mainly scavengers (do sometimes take small prey, but would be competitive with buzzards but not much else). If you have some scientific evidence for your statements I’d love to see it?

You can do a land rover safari to see the deer rut on Exmoor. Or Gigrin Farm in Wales, the red kite feeding station.

I bought the weekend edition of the i today and thought of this thread because there's a 2 page feature called "The 15 best wildlife spectacles". The suggestions are all UK based and it gives a number of locations for each one.

If anyone's interested, the paper will be on sale tomorrow because it's a weekend edition rather than a Saturday paper.

See:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/issues-facing-birds

especially the paragraph “Why are UK birds declining”

If you live around red kites you would know they don’t just scavenge. Old wives tale in this day and age due to the huge numbers of them. There’s too many and most people think that. It’s not going to change but they are not predated. They are predators. Buzzards are increasing too. They are everywhere now.

I know Scotland is far from you but I'm autumn you can stay at Caerlaverock WWT in Dumfries and Galloway and get up at dawn to watch the geese rise into the sky. It is incredible. They also have badgers feeding on the patio at night

I don't feel the wildlife topic and a holiday ideas post is the place for an anti-bird of prey discussion. Maybe start your own post? And read about the effect of DDT on eggshells before you do - specifically accumulation of DDT in raptors. I feel your knowledge is quite a few decades out of date. Us nature conservation people are a pretty science based bunch and as @Keepingthingsinteresting said, please do shares some evidence/studies to support your statements.

Meanwhile - OP there are a few red kite feeding stations, mostly in Wales, not far from you.

I have done. Have you?

I live in the countryside, see red kites very frequently and volunteer for wildlife conservation charities focusing on raptors. What are your creds? Are you a farmer/farming family by any chance. In my experience whilst many farmers re incredibly committed to biodiversity and wildlife for some that only goes so far as serving their own interests.

I don’t think this is the thread for you.

@CalzoneOnLegs can you suggest a nice area to stay in Poole, in order to access Brownsea island? I've also seen an article this week about spoonbill in Poole harbour!

It depends what you are looking for. We stayed in a Premier Inn near Poole Harbour, so we could visit the local wildlife reserves. It was ok for us.

Saw red squirrels in Netherlands last week when were in Centerparcs
We went to see the Seals at Horsey Gap ladt christmas.
If you are interested in Wildlife photography then i would recommend a day with Steve Hedges

https://www.stevehedgesphotography.co.uk/

@BlueandWhitePorcelain
Hi, as blue and white says there are premier inns/travel lodges @BlueandWhitePorcelain did you stay at the Holes Bay ?
the travel lodge on holes bay road has a table table restaurant attached too. It’s not walking distance to the quay but a short car journey.
There is a ‘posh’ hotel actually on the quay too

Holes Bay premier Inn

https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/dorset/poole/poole-centre-holes-bay.html?cid=KNC_G_Hotel:UKC_User:UKC_Lang:EN_Cat:BRD-DestinationT3%7CSouthWestEngland&adgroupID=175430015431&keyword=premier%20inn%20poole&matchtype=p&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22055909177&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8K21h93-jwMVe5ZQBh0P0RWpEAAYASAAEgJCVfD_BwE&BRAND=PI

Travel Lodge (on same road as above)
https://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/602/Poole-hotel

both of these are on the dual carriageway into Poole - if it was me I’d choose the Holes Bay.

there are lots of b & b’s around too and possibly some accommodation in the old town pubs. Are you travelling by car ?

@Indecisivelurcher
The ‘posh’ hotel on the quay is the Poole Thistle and there is also pub with accommodation right on the quay at The Antelope which is a Greene King pub.

@CalzoneOnLegs - yes, we stayed at the Holes Bay one. I could visualise it, but couldn’t remember its name. We drove to some of the restaurants on the quay. There was a multi story car park, a few minutes walk behind the quay.

Seals with pups at Donna Nook are amazing! Peak time is late Nov/early Dec every year.

Anglesey is good for red squirrels - multiple sites where there’s a reasonable chance of seeing them. Plas Newydd (National Trust) do regular guided red squirrel walks at certain times of the year (sorry, don’t know exactly when). From there, it’s not far to Snowdonia National Park for remnants of the Celtic rainforest.

For spoonbills, RSPB Frampton Marsh is a highly reliable site. Last time I was there I saw 20! It’s an amazing reserve, but only makes for “a nice weekend” if you’re happy to keep going back to the reserve, as there’s not an awful lot else to do in that area.

Depending on the time of year, the reserve has Whooper Swans, huge flocks of golden plover & lapwing (and all the birds of prey that predate them…), big flocks of geese, bearded tits, starling murmurations. It’s the type of place where you don’t have to be into your lesser spotted whatevers to see something interesting.

We saw a turtle dove at Frampton Marsh.

Welney is good in winter for Whooper swans and Bewick swans. Best to get there for the swans feeding time. One was clearly brighter than the others! Instead of scrabbling around in the water for the feed, it just followed the man with the wheelbarrow and ate out of it! There’s tree sparrows on the feeders outside the cafe. We also saw four barn owls one time, in the nearby fields as we left!

@Indecisivelurcher i have just remembered, reading the post about swans, if you do come to Poole by car, about a 50 minute drive there is the swannery at Abbotsbury too. And RSPB Radipole Lake is nearby near Weymouth.

@BlueandWhitePorcelain I’ve never had a visit to Frampton where I didn’t see something amazing - either because it’s rare (lesser yellowlegs, spoonbills, glossy ibis, stilts etc) or because the sheer volume of birds creates something spectacular (golden plovers murmuring, hundreds of field fares in the hedgerows, massive flocks of finches working their way around the fields).

It takes me about 5 hours to get there, but it’s worth it every time 😊

Sorry….late reply as I have only just found the wildlife page.

We did one of the wildlife cruises in Poole harbour this year (4 hours in the harbour) and would highly recommend it, we got to see Osprey feeding as well as seeing a lot of water birds/waders (we went at the end of summer), later in the year you can see spoonbills and other over wintering birds. You could tie it in with a trip to Brownsie or Arne. There are also white tailed eagles in the harbour too.

We have been all over the uk to various nature reserves. We have been to the IOW, Anglesey and Scotland looking for red squirrels and still haven’t seen them. Brownsie island is possibly one of the best places to see them.

We live on the Somerset Dorset border and I think we have some of the best nature reserves and some of the best wildlife.