Thursday 27 December 2012

Birding in Bath

I was birding in Bath today, and once again proved The Urban Birder's point - There are birds in cities. A species total  of 19 was good. An over-wintering Blackcap was thrilling to find. Most of these birds were common birds however armed with a new pair of binoculars (Hawke FrontierED 8x43) I was keen try them on anything and was able to see the detail of the birds. For an hour and fifteen minutes of casual birding while my sister and Granny shopped in the sales 19 species was more than what I hoped for. I was mainly birding around the Royal Victoria Park near the Royal Cresent and wandered down to the river for around half an hour. This gave more woodland birds and some waterbirds because of lakes and also urbanised Gulls.

My Granny said to me after that in the 1950s when she was at University there that she had never seen a single Gull there, so this is a very recent occurrence. Although we should be scornful of them as they are showing a clear intelligence to evolve around human life, other Sea Birds to do this are cormorants. They are very successful and 'us birders' are rewarded for their intelligence as we get close up views and can study behaviour and plumage to great detail.

I would recommend Bath to anyone, or cities in general as they have a lot to offer 'birdwise'!

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