Georgia - May 2026 - Day 1 - Arrival, birding around Tbilisi, and Jandari Lake

The Snowcocks arrived in Tbilisi at around 5am. I suprised myself by getting more sleep than I thought I would, but it was a brutal flight on a short-haul aircraft with seats that are wafer thin and barely recline. Convenient flight times, you don't waste any time, but an unpleasant experience to say the least. The other Snowcocks hadn't fared as well as I had. Scattered around the plane, James had been smothered by an extremely large passenger that took more than their fair share of seating arrangements, Bob had kept himself and whoever was next to him awake by talking to them all night as his is way, and Tony had virtually no sleep either that I can recall.

Rob however was fresh as a daisy having had a good night's kip in the close by Ibis Hotel. As we waited half-dead on the pavement outside arrivals he bounded up looking very chipper indeed and led us back to the hotel where we dumped our stuff in his car and went for breakfast. Here Rob handed out our glossy printed checklists, issued us with branded caps and T shirts, and discussed dietary requirements and allergies. Not really. Although it was a running joke throughout the trip and he is genuinely excellent at organising stuff, Rob wasn't actually an official guide. He is just our mate and we were going on a birding trip together. That he had planned for us....

Anyway, we had some coffee and discussed the day ahead whilst excitedly adding House Sparrow to our first eBird checklist. We were going to start at Ponichala Forest reserve outside the city, and then make our way to the Svanetti Tower and Kumisi Reservoir. In the afternoon we would head east towards Jandari Lake which borders Azerbaijan. I was particularly excited about this as I was hoping to be able to get a new eBird country from across the divide. Despite the fact that Georgia itself was new....

Soviet era concrete wreckage was everywhere. Independence was in 1991.

Breakfast over and it was time to go. Members of the team who had eaten a slice of khachapuri were helped to their feet and carried to the car. Before we even made it that far we noted Red-backed Shrike and Hoopoe in the car park! First stop Ponichala Reserve, a forested area just outside of Tbilisi that also has some reedbeds and small lakes as an introduction to Georgian birding. Woodpeckers everywhere, Rollers and Bee-eaters, Golden Orioles and Honey Buzzards moving west overhead. Through the woods and to the reedbed our first Pygmy Cormorants, Black-crowned Night Heron, Cuckoo, Marsh Warbler and Great Reed Warbler, and double figures of Nightingale singing from cover. As introductions go this was pretty good but it was to get better and better.

Svanetti Tower

Slightly further west down an unpaved track and we stopped at Svanetti Tower on te way to Kumisi Reservoir Here there were breeding Rock Sparrow, Spanish Sparrow and Isabelline Wheatear, and on every wire there seemed to be a Roller or a Lesser Grey Shrike. White Stork in the field and Corn Buntings singing all along the way. At Kumisi we mainly birded from just beyond the railway bridge as this is a good vantage point. We had a pale morph Booted Eagle here, Osprey over the lake, and a kettle of Vultures had both Black and Griffon. Armenian Gull, Gull-billed Tern and White-winged Black Tern were over the lake, and our first Levant Sparrowhawk went over. Even more Shrikes, even more Crested Larks and Bee-eaters, Raven, Hoopoe and a pair of Black Stork. Wowsers, this was going to be some trip!

Crester Lark

Isabelline Wheatear

Lesser Grey Shrike

As we left the area at around midday we stopped at a small flash to add some waders to the trip list - Black-winged Stilt, Little Ringed Plover, over 20 Wood Sandpiper, Ruff and Temminck's Stint, with close to 50 Cattle Egret and various hirundines over the water. 

Now we were headed east towards Jandari Lake. Rob stopped at an unassuming bend on the road - he'd been here a couple of days previously and found Penduline Tit and Eastern Olivaceous Warbler here. Sure enough both were still present, our list was going great guns. Further on, at the lake itself, quit busy with fishermen and families on a Sunday afternoon, we had a huge group of distant Terns, likely WWBT, a group of 20 Glossy Ibis, 40+ Wood Sandpiper, Little Tern, loads of Pygmy Cormorant and a couple of Caspian Gull as well as Armenian. There were Rooks everywhere, including on the opposite side of the lake....in Azerbaijan. On they went! Mission accomplished! Around here we also had the first of many Black-headed Bunting, quite stunning birds.

Penduline Tit

Being a Shepherd is still a career in Georgia

By now it was mid afternoon. We headed away from the lake to take the track to the north that led to David Gareji Monastery. This is another top birding area on all itinerarys to this area. The road takes you into the hills above, and at some stages you are right on the Azerbaijain border, as evidenced by the regular patrols and watchtowers. Here we added Calandra Lark, Tawny Pipit, Short-toed Lark and Long-legged Buzzard in beautiful scenery, rolling hills and colourful geological deposits.

Gareji Dunes

We just had time to bird the gorge below the monastery before dusk, adding Eastern Orphean Warbler on the track down, more Lesser Grey Shrike, Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin, several Black-headed Bunting and a pair of Pied Wheater. It was quite windy however, and we couldn't find many of the Warblers we had been looking for. Retracing our steps we climbed out of the gorge and headed to the neaby village of Udabno where were staying for the night, we would return early in the morning for another go. We had a couple of celebratory beers and some delicious kebabs as we looked out across the Steppe. What a start!

Georgia - May 2026 - Logistics and Itinerary

Eastern Georgia, 17th - 21st May 2026

A Team Wanstead tour, our first since Poland in 2018 and long overdue. Me, Bob, Tony, James and Rob. Georgia as in the Caucasus, not Atlanta Georgia. We had been talking about this on and off for a good long while, mostly focused on an autumn raptor-watching trip to Batumi as this is place that Rob has been to many times, even leading [genuine] tours on occasion. When we learned that he was planning a three week spring visit to cement his place in Georgian eBird folklore we decided it would be only right that we come too. We couldn't manage three weeks, but we successfully inserted ourselves into the middle of his trip. RockJumper eat your heart out, those old-timers have nothing on us! To his credit he took it very well, rising to the occasion even. He swapped his cheapo car from the first part of his trip for a much-needed 4x4, picking us up from the airport after our exhausting flight and taking us straight for breakfast. He planned the whole itinerary, booked all the accomodation, ordered everything, organised to meet his mate Alex from Birding Caucasus in the mountains to help with the tricky species, did all the driving, and took us to all of the good sites in the east of the country for birds he had previously scoped out. And to think we didn't even give him a tip....

It was a superb trip that was supremely well-organised. What a country, the scenery is magnificent. It is the furthest east in Europe (well, Europe-ish) that I had ever been and the quality of the habitat and the birding is quite sensational. It is essentially Eastern Europe but on steroids, which I guess being in the Russian sphere of influence is entirely logical. In just five days we somehow managed to fit in the Greater Caucasus to the north of Tbilisi as well as birding sites on the Azerbaijan border to the south east. The top target for all of us was of course Caucasian Snowcock, but each of us had a list of varying length of species that we needed. I'd birded Central Turkey before but nonetheless there were around ten things that I'd not seen

Logistics

• A five day trip in mid May with Team Wanstead The Snowcocks organised by Shelduck Nature Tours.

• Flights: Direct flight from London Heathrow to Tbilisi with British Airways, a thoroughly miserable experience but quite convenient in so far as it left late in the evening and flew through the night on the outbound. The inbound flight left at 7am and landed at 10am. This is a five+ hour flight on a short-haul aircraft, I was able to bag the exit row but nonetheless this is not fun in any way.

• Car Hire: The tour leader rented a Toyota Landcruiser 4x4 which we all contributed to. In Georgia you need a 4x4 just for the pot holes.....
• Driving: Very few roads in Georgia should be thought of as actual roads. The road up to Stepantsminda in particular was in abominable condition, and Georgian driving is cavalier at best. The combination of a permanently deteriorated surface and a maniacal desire to overtake no matter what means that driving here is an acquired taste. Luckily Rob did it all.
• Weather: We really lucked out where it mattered most which was in the mountains. The day before we arrived it had been wet and cold with poor visibility. The following day we spent looking for Snowcock was perfect, and in fact the previous poor weather assisted with some of the birds that had clearly descended. In the Steppe to the east the weather was glorious.
• Accommodation: Basic but spot on accomodation everywhere we went, good value and the food was excellent.
• Food: A real eye opener, I might go back for the food alone. Fantastic vegetables and salads, and some wonderful specialities. I can skip the Khachapuri (heavy cheese-laded bread that renders one immobile for a period of time) but the Khinkali dumplings were a thing of beauty. 
• Optics: I took my scope as well as a camera. Having two scopes between five was really benficial.

• Literature: eBird! And Rob!

Day 1 – After landing at 5am we had breakfast at an airport hotel, picking up Hoopoe and Red-backed Shrike in the car park. We then birded Ponichala on the outskirts of Tbilisi before heading to Kumisi Reservoir and then east to Jandari Lake and the Azerbaijan border. Overnight near David Gareji Monastery. 

Day 2 – Started at the Monastery for Green Warbler and Menetries's Warbler before a long drive east to the Taribana Badlands and stunning Steppe habitats along tracks south of Dedoplistskaro towards Dalis Mta Reservoir and the Chachuna Managed Reserve. Overnight at Khornabuji. 

Day 3 – An early start locally at Kochebi Kake then back for breakdast. A quick stop at Eagle Gorge on the outskirts of town before a long drive back and around Tbilisi and north to Stepantsminda via Zhinvali Reservoir, Gudauri and the Jvari Pass. This is the road to Russia. Just enough time to get in some birding before dusk, with some wonderfully close views of White-winged Redstart. Overnight at a superb guesthouse at Stepantsminda that does not advertise...

Day 4 – All day in the mountains, starting at the base Mt Kuro for Snowcock and then taking in Gergeti Church and the Chkheri River trail, Pansheti Pool and Buckthorn habitat, and the evocatively-named Stepantsminda Rubbish Creek, a popular fly-tipping area. Lots of crap, lots of birds! Loads of birding sites around here, more than you can realistically cover in a day. Night two at the guesthouse.

Day 5 – We spent part of the morning revisiting sites around Stepantsminda and then birded the mountain pass on the way back down to Tbilisi. Thrush Nightingale and Wheatears in the snow, and migrant Honey Buzzards and Bee-eaters overhead. Afternoon giving Kumisi a more thorough look before a final walk at Ponichala. Overnight at the Tbilisi Airport Ibis before the early morning flight back to London.

I can't yet face it

I've got one single eBird record from Wanstead in June. Working from home I noted a Red Kite flying over on the 13th. I did not otherwise trouble the patch. This is normal. At the end of the month I travelled to Brazil for a simply phenomenal trip in the Amazon rainforest near Manaus. I'll get to it. I got back about a week and a half ago and have not yet been able to get out on the patch. It would just depress me. In the Amazon I saw 350+ birds in a week. Many of them were sparkling and electric, bright greens, oranges, reds and blues. In Wanstead......

It's hot, consequently I've spent a great deal of time in the garden when I've not been working. Yesterday this slack attitude paid off when a Hobby flew over the house. A local year tick no less, one that I had not bothered to go and seek out. And now I don't have to. I am wondering what remains as at this rate I'll barely hit 100 and that assumes I get all of the regular autumn migrants that I didn't pick up in spring.

Waders, that's what I need. I need to sacrifice sleep and sit out on the balcony and hope I hear a Green Sandpiper (or better) going over. Is it worth it? Of course it isn't. I increasingly need my sleep, I am an eight hours a night kind of guy. Ideally more if I can squeeze it in. But I may end up with an embarrassingly low year list if this continues. 91 is the current total, the lowest in recent times is 106 and I have to go back to 2008 before I am on anything lower than 100. Time will tell, but at the moment I am below where I was when I staggered to 106 which does not exactly bode well. It is just so boring here, I really envy those people who month in month out continue to gain immense enjoyment from their patch. That's not me, or at least not at the moment. I may yet get there again, in the meantime I suspect those who still do have not been seduced by Brazil and similar locations.

I didn't come on here to write about any of this. Well, maybe the Hobby. I mainly came on to say that after a morning at work and an afternoon helping out a local institution, I came home and smashed out not one but two tax returns. Both! In a single evening. These have been bugging me for ages, until about 6pm this evening today's blog title would have applied to these as well as to patch birding, but shortly after this something kicked in. Something I continue to have little understanding of, but a switch was flicked and I just sat here for a few hours and smashed it out, including the dreaded FBAR which takes ages as you have to state the highest daily balance in any bank account you own, you jointly own, or you have signatory authority over. You can imagine what a royal pita that is but it is now done and I am feeling very good about it. So good that here is a picture of Georgia! Up next!

Gergeti Trinity Church, Stepantsminda.

The furnace

Enjoying the heat? It is at times like this that I would really like to live on the coast, that thought of a mild sea breeze. The house I live in is designed to retain heat in the winter. In summer it sucks in heat, we made sure of this by building a conservatory on the south side. To make doubly certain that it would resemble a furnace on Venus we also did a loft conversion that has glass doors all the way along it. Great. In winter it is delightful. Most recently, in June and July 2026, the temperature has reached 35 degrees indoors, dropping to around 31 degrees as we head for another fitful nights sleep. The only solution is to have the windows and doors open to create some kind of through draught. This works only slightly, an evening temperature of 31 might decline to 26 by the morning. And by morning I mean 4am in the morning, as this is when it gets light and wakes us up. It makes little difference, truncated sleep is at least sleep.

For the first time in my life I find myself wondering if installing air-conditioning this coming winter might not be a worthwhile investment. Obviously it adds to the overall problem but I suspect we're beyond that. It's pretty unbearable in London and we don't have a country pad to escape to. I'd love a Donnafugata.

On the plus side, public transport aside the weather during the daytime is fine, I don't have a particular problem with it. My plants love it, the cycads, aloes and agaves are going great guns. A dasylirion is flowering, the spike about three metres tall so far. I enjoy the early morning watering routine before I go to work. But it is the weekends that are particulaly lovely, I have a garden which has both full sun for succulents and shaded areas for ferns and so on. And people. The garden furniture is in use constantly, the Rosé is in full flow, the brick-built BBQ - now in it's 21st year of operation - continues to get a lot of use, we really foretold the future when we had that put in. 

You will be surprised to hear that I recently went on holiday. When I left we were in the grips of the second heat wave. Lots of things broke down as it was too hot. Trains gave up, in fact it wasn't even possible to get to the terminal I was flying from and I had to take a bus. In Brazil it was hotter still and everything worked just fine. It calmed down a bit when I was away, and then on the day that I came back cranked up again. The start of next week continues to be pretty warm by all accounts, and it is only towards the end of next week that it finally breaks and we get a bit of relief. Dramatic belief I expect. Those nights are pretty exciting too, and for different reasons result in a lack of sleep. This is what we should expect every summer.

I am still building up to writing up Georgia from May. The fact that I now have the Brazilian Amazon stacked up behind is adding to the pressure but I am not caving in just yet. It is there, just below the surface, but there are other things I don't want to do that are also vying for attention. Tax returns, cleaning out cupboards, that kind of thing. Which will win?

Guernsey

In April last year I went to Jersey just to see what it was like. Very nice as it happens. That was just a day trip, an early start, a wander around, and then an afternoon flight back. This year, last month in fact, I went to Guersey for the same reason. I was there for approximately the same amount of time but the flight times required an overnight stay which pushed up the cost a bit, and whereas on Jersey I had walked everywhere as I had no luggage, this time I did need to bring a bit more stuff and so hired a car. And this time my travelling buddy Mick came along as well. He pops up on here all the time as, like me, he thinks travel is great and so is almost always up for a trip. Far more fun than mooching around in London. We have been all over the place over the years, to virtually all continents. South Africa, The Gambia and Senegal, Brazil, Mexico, Hawaii, contintental America, the Middle East, Thailand and of course all over Europe including lots of islands. Guernsey was a first for both of us.

We arrived just after lunch and picked up the car. We paid a nominal amount for fuel up front, barely any of which we used as the island is so tiny, were told that junctions were whoever got there first and that there were no parking charges anywhere on the island. Perfect. Let's go birding.

First stop La Clare Mare on the west side, where there is a hide overlooking a small reed-fringed pool. It was a nice way to get a feel for the kind of birding we would experience, with a handful of Mallard, some Stock Dove, lots of hirundines and a few other bits and pieces. Nothing rare or exciting, no large numbers of anything, but Guernsey isn't about that and we knew before we came that we were unlikely to come away with a massive tally. It was all very pleasant in early May, felt very green and verdant, and indeed everywhere we went there were lovely gardens and frankly enormous greenhouses, greenhouses that put mine here in London to shame. They can also grow Araucaria heterophylla outside (the Norfolk Island Pine) which made me insanely jealous. I suppose it won't be many years until I can too...

We had a look at the coast, the tide was out and there was a huge expanse of rocky shore. Waders were thin on the ground, just a few Oystercatchers and six Whimbrel. We drove up to Pleinmont to gain some height and have a look at the sea. I don't think either of us had been expected to see Manx Shearwater from here, but there was a reasonbly sized flock feeding with Gulls some distance out - good that I had brought my scope. We also picked up some Gannet and a single Fulmar. Linnet and a single Whitethroat were in the Gorse, and the cliffs had a large Herring Gull colony.

Some locals we met directed us to Rue Des Bergers NR, another small pool. Here we picked up a few more passerines, including Cetti's Warbler, a Greylag Goose, Moorhen and Coot, but we were beginning to understand that we were not going to be seeing a ton of birds everywhere we went and that it would instead be a series of nice rambles in the sunshine picking up singles here and there.

We turned to eBird for assistance. What had been seen recently? This took us to Le Grand Pré NR, a miniscule reserve where a full circuit took under five minutes! Various good things had been seen here over the past few days but they had all departed. We added Great Tit and a Dunnock I think!

Out on the coast at L'Ancresse we explored another series of bunkers and bits of old concrete. In addition to greenhouses Guernsey seems very keen on bunkers, the result of rapid fortifications by Germany when the islands were occupied during the Second World War. Many of these still exist today. One of them had a Wheatear perched on all these years later. Probably Wheatears perched on these in the 1940s as well. Our first Stonechats were seen here, the habitat looked absolutely perfect for them to be fair, and Whitethroats and Linnets were also here.

At Vale Pond we looked for Cattle Egret without luck, but joy of joys two Barnacle Geese were present. Ahem. We put them on the list with a question mark and the eBird police have not yet been in touch...

At last knockings we went back the where we had started, Clare Mare NR, this time finding a Snipe that had no doubt been there the whole time but only ventured out in the evening. After this we also went back to Pleinmont for the sunset where the Manx Shearwater were still present in the bay and a Marsh Harrier quartered the fields. What with all this birding we arrived in St Peter Port so late that we missed all food options and dinner was a pack of crisps, half a bag of peanuts and a pint. Nice. Hopefully breakfast would be better.

Les Hanois Lighthouse

The next day...

Up early to bird St Saviour Reservoir before said breakfast. This was great, with Firecrest and Short-toed Treecreeper in the mature trees on the western side of the dam. By now and getting a feel for Guernsey birding we were just playing the numbers game, how many species could be get before we had to leave. When we got back to the hotel a couple of hours later there was a Firecrest singing outside it....

After breakfast we followed a lead to some extreme island rarities, Blue Tit and Long-tailed Tit at La Mare nature trail. This is a small woodland nestled between houses and a school, and a short walk netted them both! We were on fire! At nearby Fort Hommet we found Meadow Pipit alongside Wheatear and Stonechat, again favouring WW2 era fortifications. Back at La Clare Mare we found a Sparrowhawk, and scoping out towards L'Ereé Headland found a Peregrine on a rock spire. If you think I am hurrying, I am. We had a flight to catch! 

And so at lunchtime on Sunday we departed having seen a magnificent 61 species. This is comparable to my Jersey list of 53 species. Ie not many. But it was as much about exploring a new place as birding. They're funny places, both remind me strongly of a posh Isle of Wight, but with French names. But they're miles away from being French from what I could see, it was all about pubs, fish and chips, cobbles, neat gardens. Then again the landscape reminded me (unsurprisingly) of Normandy and Brittany, huge expansive beaches, rocky shores, rolling hills sloping up from the shore. Nice place, might go again in winter.

Off to Wales with my colouring pencils

You may or may not have read that my last twitching attempt was a complete disaster. I did not know it at the time but I also managed to pick up a speeding ticket from the Norfolk and Suffolk Constabulary whilst I was at it, which given how little I drive these days and how much frankly bonkers driving I see (and hear, from the A12-North Circular racetrack late at night) felt highly unfair. There was no arguing with it though, I did the awareness course offered and moved on, and barring a couple of trips to the dump I have done no driving in the UK since. No driving licence points, but a few Schadenfreude points...

The bird, a Black-winged Kite, resurfaced a few weeks later, and has been hanging around at more or less the same place ever since, months at this point. I have not felt motivated to give it another go. Is my twitching career over? Well...

A Western Reef Heron has been in Wales for a couple of weeks. This is an African bird - Egretta gularis gularis - I've seen it in the Gambia, as well as its cousin - Egretta gularis schistacea - in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Initially I ignored it, I mean I knew it was rare but it was just in the periphery. It came sharply into focus when my son saw it! Like all my kids he likes birds more than he lets on but he isn't a twitcher whatsoever. He just happened to be passing Caernarfon on his way to a music festival, and having seen a segment on BBC Wales about twitchers flocking etc had decided it would be rude not to. Two other guys in the car now have a UK list of one, a Western Reef Heron. Nice. 

The following weekend I did nothing, as usual. Pottered around the greenhouse, did some weeding and watering, cleaned up the front garden so it looks slightly less shit, that sort of thing. Another week at work, woe is me, and with this weekend approaching and the Heron being reported every half an hour I decided something had to be done and put out feelers to the local birders. Busy. Wren Wildlife Weekend. A Wedding.  Eating out in London. In Switzerland. Was one of them washing their hair, I can't remember? So another weekend bumming about Wanstead then, fair enough. It's 525 miles and nearly ten hours in the car, what a thankless day that would be on my own. I mean, I have done that on occasion, most recently in 2023 when for reasons that still escape me I got in the car and drove to St Govan's in Pembrokeshire for a Magnolia Warbler that somehow during the journey subdivided itself into a Canada Warbler as well. That was slightly further in fact, but as each year passes the dread of those types of day seems to increase. 

On Friday evening Rob got in touch? Was I still going? Well, no, I mean maybe, why? Well his plans had changed a bit and now this was his chance. Should we do it? Should we? I looked at Mrs L across the garden table and the glasses of Rosé. We had made plans to sort out the cupboard under the stairs, a job we have been putting off since about 1857. Should I postpone that yet again and go out for the day instead? Wouldn't she miss me I enquired? She virtually thrust the car keys into my hands. Similar conversations were happening in Ilford. Should Rob abandon marital bliss for the day and bugger of twitching? By way of reply Mrs S had dashed into the kitchen and started preparing a packed lunch for both of us! Mrs L and Mrs S would get on well I think, a common understanding. So we were going then. Pick up 5am.

It was a long drive, enlivened by learning that the Heron had flown off somewhere at 8pm the previous evening and not yet been refound. We thought about stopping and waiting but ploughed on when I discovered that we would be driving through Shropshire and Cheshire and that just a single Woodpigeon would allow me to colour in these areas on the eBird map that I am so obsessed with. Fortunately the Heron was refound, and so at not too far beyond 9am we were rolling into the car park at RSPB Conwy. Affirmative nods from returning birders, the target was still just around the corner feeding on the estuary with Little Egrets and Herons. 

Conwy

We missed it by five minutes, it had flown off over the causeway to the beach. Half of the birders there had not noticed and were still scanning... We returned to the car and scooted over to the beach. The massive beach. We followed the shoreline a fair chunk of way around and into the mouth of the estuary from where the Heron was now being reported from in front of the marina mid-channel. No sign. To cut a long story short we walked two and half miles and at the furthest point from where we had left the car found out that the Heron was now back in exactly the same place we had started. Yay! This time it had the decency to stay put and so after a good two hours of runaround we finally set eyes on. Feeding actively with Little Egrets it was a good few inches down in size but despite its smaller stature pushed the larger birds away on occasion. Plenty of food in the Estuary, it fed constantly, getting up and flying to a new spot before flying back and seeing off a Little Egret on the prime spot before  starting again. 

A distant phone scope shot. Despite the Western Reef Heron looking bigger here, I am convinced that it was smaller.

The sense of wonder and relief that accompanies all successful rare bird twitches began to sink in. Tucking into a packed lunch fit for a king we congratulated ourselves on mission accomplished, and that depite a long walk along the estuary for no reason that it had all worked out. We now had the rest of the day to pootle around. I got my colouring pencils out.

The coast of North Wales in interesting in that it is not very far from one end to the other yet east to west takes in Flintshire, Denbighshire, Conwy where we now stood, Gwynedd and Anglesey. I'd been here before as in my youth I'd climbed Snowdon with Mrs L, starting from Warrington the same day, but as far as eBird was concerned the saying "Here be dragons" could not be more appropriate. Rob was game, he is an eBird map afficionado. And anyway I had the car keys. 

We carefully picked an eBird hotspot in each preserved county, or principal area or whatever they are and off we went. First of all a nice little reserve near Aber to sort out Gwynedd, and then to the wonderful Cors Ddyga RSPB in Angelsey where we walked a full circuit and so now this county is my top one is Wales by virtue of a single checklist with 43 birds on it. Having missed out Denbighshire in our single-minded need to get to Conwy as soon as possible we stopped by the river at St Asaph for Grey Wagtail and a much deserved ice-cream, and then as luck would have it our route to home via Venus Pool NR in Shropshire took us through both Flintshire and Wrexham. Some scanning as we traversed the A55 and A483 pulled out the desired Jackdaws and so on, and so by the time I arrived home I had not only increased my UK list by one, I had also birded (of sorts) eight new eBird areas. A bit gutting that I didn't notice we were so close to "Halton" on the west side of the Mersey and which appears on my map as blank, but I am glad that I did not pursue it as it turns out it is some kind of eBird geoboundary gremlin which means it both exists and does not exist simultaneously. I have seen American Wigeon on the Wirral at Heswall Fields, and recorded it there, but all the data has been claimed by Merseyside which seems very shady. Who is the eBird reviewer for "Halton"? Tough gig that one.

Cors Ddyga RSPB. Lovely.

Venus Pool NR was one of those hidden little gems that you would never find by yourself, but is one of Rob's prior stomping grounds. It was an excellent little break about a third of the way home and upped my Shropshire list from five on the Newport bypass earlier that day to a whopping 38... I got home just before 11pm, a long day by my standards and a very long time behind the wheel but this morning, and with the bird not present, I am very glad I went. A grand day out!

Lazio - April 2026 - Trip List

Other than for a break for lunch on Saturday as we were so tired we birded pretty intensively. Once it became clear that getting decent photos of the sort we liked wasn't really on the cards we switched focus to seeing as many species as we could. The amount of effort I went to to find a Robin for instance.....it had been so long and I had been trying so hard I essentially forgot what one sounded like and when, finally, there was a Robin my brain refused to believe it. 

We were stymied at what seemed like every point by fences, closed reserves and blocking vegetation. It was as if there was a sustained campaign of wanting to prevent access and viewing, I just don't understand it. It makes the RSPB and other organisations here look wonderful frankly.

Despite the challenges we ended on 112 species, at this point more than in any other area of Italy I've been to, albeit that those trips have been either family holidays or very wine-centric. And the birds were good - things like Hoopoe, Nightingale, Bee-eater and Alpine Swift, tons of Corn Buntings and Whinchat, Shearwaters and Pratincoles. Maybe it is simply because it is different, and in a UK birder's mind things like this are rare and to be cherished, and so hen in Europe the cup runneth over.

What is for certain is that I want to go back to Italy, and I am already plotting how and when that might happen. On the other hand another opportunity to fall behind, but I am feeling more positive about where I am at. I have three more to get through before I am fully caught up - a weekend in Guernsey, a week in Burgundy, and then a monumentally good birding trip to Georgia - as in Caucasus Georgia not Atlanta Georgia.

Lazio - April 2026 - North of Rome - Marsh, salt pans and woodland

At 7.30 the next morning Mick and I found ourselves at the Torre Flavia, a tiny area of marshland adjacent to the town of Ladispoli and literally a two minute drive from our hotel. It was another beautiful day in central Italy. The layout of this place was a little confusing - from the air it looked like a decent series of pools, and it may well have been, but there was no way to see into about 80% of them. There seemed to be a path into the centre of the reserve but it was locked. The tactic it seemed was to hang around the edges and hope that something moved, and so in addition to doing a full circuit of the perimeter this is what we did. 

Teal

Garganey

The full circuit takes no more than about fifteen minutes really, but we got very lucky indeed with a Quail in off the sea, straight over the top of us and into the reserve, and as we were looking for where the path went a Stone Curlew exploded from some cover just over the ropes and flew up the beach before dropping in. Mick also saw a Bittern emerge from the reeds, fly a short loop, and drop back in before I could even react! In addition to these good birds we found three Garganey on a pool we actually could see, a Glossy Ibis, a single Flamingo, a few Stilt, a couple of Ruff and a Little Ringed Plover, and off the beach as well as commuting flocks of Yelkouan Shearwater there were also smaller numbers of Scopoli's Shearwater. I won't list every species we sawy, but a two hour session here netted 50 species which for such a small area, most of which we couldn't see, was really very good. At some point my glasses fell off my head, never ideal, but I lucked out and found them in the sand on the beach where we had been scanning for seabirds.

Sacred Ibis

Our next stop was about an hour away, the Saline di Tarquinia to the north. Another confusing site, we did not realise that the vast majority of it was closed, and only discovered this at the furthest point from the car, at which point we had to turn around and walk all the way back and attempt to approach from the other side which was only partially successful. There is only one option at the moment and that is to walk north to south along the paved track with the salt pans to your left, and scan through the fence when you are able. Mid morning on a hot day the light and haze were awful, but we added some Avocet, Grey Plover, Whimbrel, Little Tern, Common Tern, Slender-billed Gull and a couple of Spoonbill. At the decaying and fenced off central buildings we heard Turtle Dove purring, heard our first and possibly only Chiffchaff, and then on the walk back some Bee-eaters flew over. We heard them before we saw them and were alert enough to realise and look up. Overall we actually saw very little and what we did see was a long way away!

Returning to the car and driving a big loop south around the lagoons we approached the Saline from the southern coast from the area known as San Giorgio. This is a decent hotspot in its own right, but we were not able to dig out much in the heat of the day. Of note were a field full of Whinchat, a Whitethroat, lots of Corn Bunting, and on the lagoon we finally reached only to discover that views were severely restricted yet again we picked up a Black-necked Grebe and another Caspian Tern. We declined to walk any further. Anyway, if you visit the Saline the best bet would seem to be to take the path between the beach and the salt pans from where I think you would get much clearer views and be able to see a lot more.

The Saline di Tarquinia. We took the blue route, which was barred where you can see the buildings. As you can see you lose sight the water about half way along and in fact never see it again, which we did not expect. We then went all the way back and approached from the south along the beach before giving up. What we ought to have done is taken the red route. So now you know.

It was time to start heading back towards Rome. We had a few sites earmarked, one we couldn't find, and the second was surrounded by a fence with a big padlock on the gate and we couldn't get in. This seems to be the story of bird reserved in Italy. Closed. We finally found a site we could access called the Oasi Castel di Guido, a woodland area, and did a big loop that took an hour or so. Eastern Subalpine Warbler were quite common here, and we also finally found our first and only Robin, hurrah! Short-toed Eagle was overhead and just as we reached the car a single Alpine Swift cruised over among the Commons. 

Back near Rome we just had time to make it to the Centro Habitat Mediterrraneo in Ostia, braving increasingly heavy traffic to reach this wetland site. Closed. The opening hours are from 10am to 1pm, and like most of these sites it is completely fenced off and there is virtually no way to see in. Seriously Italy, what is going on? Most reserves were locked, and the one nearest your capital city is open for just three hours a day on five days of the week, and thsoe hours are esentially the worst ones for birding. Pretty pathetic. We saw a Redstart from the car on the way back. 

So that was it. 112 species, pretty decent. Lots of nice birds, good food, lovely weather. Ideal weekend. Trip list to follow. 

Lazio - April 2026 - South of Rome - Coastal Lagoons

The Tyrrhenian Sea

We had arrived at about 1am, and found the hotel key left outside for us exactly as arranged. What I had not arranged was a double bed in the room the key unlocked... At 1am you just have to roll with these things and we were so tired I don't think either of us noticed the other. It may just have been the added incentive we needed to get up especially early however, and as such we were birding outside the hotel - the Miramare, Lido di Latina - well before 7am. We walked to the edge of the Lago di Fogliano where we kicked off with a Redshank and a Greenshank, and keen as mustard we continued to strain every sense to try and start building a little list. Lazio ticks came thick and fast, with Mute Swan, a Moorhen and several Cetti's Warbler in the same area, Hooded Crow, Barn Swallow, Italian Sparrow and Serin back at the hotel, and just before we went in for breakfast we noticed a large flock of birds flying south on the horizon. With the scope in the hotel room a quick grab shot was taken and we were suprised to see we had been looking at Yelkouan Shearwater, the only small species here in any number.

Restored with some coffee we drove the short distance to the north-east corner of the lagoon and started birding the track west. A handful of fishermen were here, and a photographer sat under a tree hoping a Sacred Ibis would come within range on a small flash set back from the lagoon. This was a great little walk, less than a mile there and back, and we added birds at every step. In the same pool as the Ibis were five Wood Sandpiper, and four Common Sandpiper were feeding along the edge of the main lake. Green Woodpecker called, so did Cuckoo and Hoopoe, and there were at least four Nightingale singing from cover. Past the small pools the view opened up to a nice meadow, and on the fences were Crested Lark and Whinchat, with Zitting Cisticola pipping from long grass, and a single Corn Bunting in a hedge. In contrast the water didn't actually have a lot on it - the only ducks on the lagoon were a small flock of Wigeon, a single Teal, a couple of Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, the same Swans we had seen from the other side, and then a couple of Cormorant. The scope also pulled in Little Egret, Cattle Egret and Spoonbill on the far side - very glad we brought this as the lagoon was much bigger than I had thought.

Meadows behind the lagoon

Further south at the Pantani di Cicerchia we found a defunct hide facing the bay, and although loads of waders had been recently reported at this hotspot we could only find the same species we had already seen. Whiskered Tern was new, as was Kingfisher, but best of all were a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the mature trees behind the hide. 

We carried on birding the east side of the lagoon where access allowed, and at around midday found ourselves at the very southern end of the third lake down (Lago di Caprolace) at the Pantani dell'Inferno. This was also allegedly excellent for waders and we were disappointed to find only a single Common Sandpiper, though we did manage Squacco Heron and Great White Egret along the western edge. Behind the causeway here is what looks like a nice marsh, but there does not seem like any easy way to actually view it. We were able to see a small slice from the tops of the dunes along the coast, in this way adding Pochard, Ferruginous Duck, Coot and Marsh Harrier, but all in all it was a bit frustrating. Sardinian Warblers called from the dunes, and there was a Chaffinch in the woodland by the road.

Needing a plan we stopped off by a small bridge over the Rio Martino on the edge of the Lago di Caprolace, scoping Shoveler, Black-headed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, three Gull-billed Tern and, on the far side, a small flock of Greater Flamingo, all asleep. A bonus Wheatear, presumably a passage bird, was perched in a tree here, and Swallows fed low to the ground.

At around 2pm, exhausted from so much birding, we stopped for lunch in the village of Borgo Grappa. And I mean a proper lunch with a glass of white wine and some proper local food. House Martin were above the village, and some Parakeets turned out to be Monk Parakeets - I knew they didn't sound right! Clam pasta and some Calamari fritti were simply excellent sat outside in this busy local restaurant, Europeans just do this kind of thing so much better.

Never mind the birds, look at this!

From about mid-afternoon, once we had managed to pull ourselves away from the table, we birded and area of farmland where dairy Buffalo are reared - the Bufalara. Here the wallowing pools had pulled in Snipe, Ruff and more Wood Sandpiper, and large numbers of Cattle Egret were everywhere. Looking south, back towards the lake, we realised that we could see Collared Pratincole over the fields, or perhaps the lake itself, and there were also Tree Sparrow and Yellow Wagtail along the rough track here - perfectly driveable, in fact it shows as a road on the map!

These were all over the dunes and I thought they were probably quite special so I avoided treading on them. Turns out it's an invasive species from Africa called Carpobrotus edulis, the Sour Fig.

Mick scans the empty sea

We tried the Inferno again late in the afternoon, hoping that there might have been some change-over, and birds previously feeding elsewhere may have dropped in. This kind of paid off with four Black-winged Stilt and a flyover Caspian Tern, but it wasn't until gone 6pm that things really picked up with the Stilts rising to over 20, a Little Ringed Plover showing up, some brief Whimbrel and a flock of Mediterranean Gull headed out to the shore, presumably having been feeding inland. A pair of Audouin's Gull flew up the lagoon, as did a single Greylag Goose, potentially a bit of a rarity.  Between stints here we went back the coast, literally about a minute way, and picked up more Shearwaters, Yellow-legged Gull, and three Sandwich Tern.

Black-winged Stilts

Mallard

As the light began to fade we worked our way up the coastal side of the Lago di Caprolace, finding a single Red Knot on the tideline, the only bird present, and finally in the north-eastern corner we discovered where all the waders had been hiding from us, with more Stilts, Avocet, Grey Plover, Redshank, close to 60 Ruff, and the same small flock of Collared Pratincole we had seen earlier. The final new bird of the day was a drake Pintail at about 8pm about half way up the Lago di Fogliano, almost back where we had started. We had racked up 91 species in this small area around the two lakes. And the eBird Police have yet to contact us!

We felt we had exhausted this area, and consulting the map decided to spend day two on the other side of Rome where there some more decent looking eBird pins and some slightly different habitat, including some woodland as we had still not found a Robin! Although it was already late we booked a hotel in Ladispoli, just over an hour away. It was also called Hotel Miramare and also tried to give us a double bed despite having booked a twin room - they must be trying to tell us something! We avoided it this time however, and after a quick dinner in town hit the hay for some much needed rest. Same again tomorrow!

Lazio - April 2026 - Logistics and Itinerary

Lazio, 18th - 19th April 2026

In need of a break as we don't go on enough holidays, Mick and I booked a weekend in Lazio, an area of Italy I had not previously spent a great deal of time in. We flew to Rome, hired a car, and birded a variety of sites near the coast both north and south of the city. We probably went no further than a couple of hours in either direction, Tarquinia in the north and nearly to Punta Rossa to the south. What could we see? Tons.

I cannot recommend weekend trips highly enough. Often quite inexpensive, and no holidays required, with so little time you really set out to make the most of it, every location a new opportunity to add further sightings. Birding becomes your life, your raison d'etre, the sole aim. I like a nice sit down as much as the next person, but on a birding trip measured in hours....

Logistics

• A regular weekend in April, leaving late Friday night after work and maxing out until Sunday evening.

• Flights: Direct flight from London Heathrow to Rome. Slightly awkward flight times, arriving late and thus not getting to the hotel until 1am, but the beauty of this is that you get up on Saturday with the whole day ahead of you.

• Car Hire: Bundled with the flight, cost very little.
• Weather: Lovely. Not too hot, not too cold, blue skies and sun. Why do I suffer living in the UK?
• Accommodation: Two cheap hotels right on the coast. Had to share a bed on the first night as the desk was closed and there was no one to complain to. We survived. The second night they tried it again, but this time we could resist.
• Food: Lovely. So much food at home is just an embarrassment.
• Optics: I took my scope as well as a camera - the latter got virtually no use but it was great having the scope.

Day 0 – Friday evening flight from Heathrow landed in Rome at a little before midnight. I just about had the energy to drive south about an hour, arriving around 1am. I had previously arranged with hotel for them to leave a key out for me which we found without problem. Shattering, but we would be right next to the coastal lagoons the next morning.

Day 1 – South of Rome. Started just outside the hotel, birding one corner of the Lago di Fogliano, and then spent most of the morning exploring various other bits of this lake. Early afternoon at the Lago di Caprolace, followed by a leisurely lunch. Afternoon at La Bufalara, a series of meadows and pastures at the northern end of this lake, and the rest of the day exploring the general area before heading up and past Rome to Ladispoli.

Day 2 – North of Rome. Started at the Palida di Torre Flavia, and then up to the Saline di Tarquinia. All morning here as it is quite a lengthy walk. A few abortive stops at sites where there was no access before finishing the day at the Oasi Lipu Castel di Guido. A final birding site at Ostia near the airport was also closed! Early evening flight back to London.