I bird within a 5 mile radius of my home in Queensbury getting more satisfaction from turning birds up locally than travelling to see known birds at known sights, although plenty of my 50 birding years have been spend doing just that .
I look upon Fly Flatts as the pick of the crop having watched it from 12 years old and to this day the area has barely changed.
In 1990 I started afresh with my bird records as looking at earlier records as a lad its hard to pick out the believable from the unbelievable .
The records I have now are from 1990 so I know that I can safely trust them to be right, or to the best of my knowledge anyway and any cud av bins are left out, even if I,m 90 % sure.
From April 1990 I have personally recorded 110 species from Fly Flatts which has been hard going to say there is no shelter for birds or birder in the area , no sandy shoreline, just peat, which several waders and most gulls dislike and only 2 small trees which seem the same now as 50 years ago.
The weather is atrocious on 8 out of 10 visits and you can nearly always depend on strong westerlies or worst of all the dreaded fog which hangs over the moor there when most other places are clear.
To me, all these weather conditions can work as an advantage keeping the general public away and on my early morning visits I rarely see another soul.
On mornings with conditions as the photo shows its the most beautiful place on earth with not a sound other than the call of the Curlew as well as Red Grouse, Golden Plover and Snipe. This is one of the things money can,t buy.
Listed are a few of the less common birds that have turned up or overflown here in the last 26 years.
Gt Northern Diver Whooper Swans Shelducks Scaup Long Tailed Duck Goshawk
Male and female Hen Harrier on migration Grey Plover Knot Sanderling Greenshank
Bar Tailed Godwit Green Sandpiper Turnstone Yellow Legged Herring gull Common Tern
Shorelark Tree Pipit Grasshopper Warbler Twite, flock up to 38, Snow Bunting and several other less rare birds.
One of the most amazing sightings that I,ll always remember was HC and myself stood on the banking checking autumn visible migration when the least expected bird for that area flew in. A Willow Warbler flew straight at us landing on the tripod where it perched for a few minutes before moving off leaving Howard and me stood with are mouths open.
A strange thing happened in Queensbury at 1330 hrs today, the fog cleared leaving a clear sky but by 1715 hrs it had returned.
BS