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This typifies Campfield Marsh on a late April afternoon - sun coming in at a low angle under storm clouds. A wonderful colour combination: dark grey April skies and blazing gorse. Male Great Spotted Woodpecker seems to be hording a small delicacy in hole in the tree trunk. He is already in pristine...

Campfield Marsh. Now we come to the 3rd part of the Blog, having dealt with accommodation issues. We can start to describe the main features of the area which is after all what you will be coming to enjoy, be it Spring, Summer or Winter. In the case of birders, winter in the Solway area is of particular...

Newly arrived male Siskin - 30 3 13 We have to admit that over the past several weeks we have been near to hibernating. Those awful Siberian winds have been battering across the Pennines, sweeping the snowfields of the western slopes and withering the benign Solway Basin. Even the two tides per day...

Across the Meadow Pools towards the snow clad Lakeland Fells - 20 3 13 10th March. Small flocks of Curlew are regularly appearing on the tideline. Watched this Kestrel hunting along the wetlands in front of the hide. It kept dropping down amongst the rushes but rapidly re-emerged...

Barnacles beating against the blizzard early morning, here at Campfield. Unusually, we are getting our fair share of winter. Snow has been blizzarding since early this morning and has continued unabated as we write at 3.45 pm. Wind chill factor feels like the Arctic. Even Sellafield, just round...

Today, I was in pensive mood after yesterday's events. It was a day for garden birds. Yesterday, I'd speculated about the identity of parties of small birds moving along the saltmarsh. But, whilst into my third cup of coffee, I had a minor triumph: a small party came swanning down the saltmarsh...

Typical senario here over the last few weeks: sunshine and snow clouds! Shelduck are starting to put in an appearance on the mudflats - 22nd February SongThrush and Great Spotted Woodpecker are becoming regular visitors to the Hamlet gardens - 22nd February. Song Thrush with a liking...

The following images suggest some of the additional things your sharp eyes could see on a visit to the Campfield Marsh Reserve - from mid July to late August. BIRDS House Sparrow in a crevice of the barn wall near the car park . A juvenile Woodpecker possibly using the farm bird feeders...

This Spring and early Summer have been a real mixed bag - especially this last week! One minute, glorious sunshine and the next torrential rain and bitter winds. One hardly knows what to do! Have turned into a softie really - should have taken it easier on the cupcakes, blue icing and party sized Eton...

Two Woodcock - part of a large number visiting Campfield during the cold spell at the beginning of the year. The gregarious and colourful Wigeon that make the winter reserve so pleasurable. Whoopers, our glorious winter visitors. One of the Lonning’s Sedge Warblers declares his...

Oh dear! it’s got round to August again. The birds down the Lonning have generally fallen silent, busy raising and feeding their young - but if one walks along quickly and quietly, you can run across small parties of young in the hedges waiting to be fed by their industrious parents: Willow Warblers...

A photo diary - early March 2011 A calm early March day on the estuary 1st March An influx of finches to the area was noted today Female Brambling Lesser Redpoll and Siskin (both males) feeding on nearby garden niger seed 2nd March Goldfinch in splendid Spring plumage...

The Magpie family in the garden have been giving us trouble lately - two parents, two young. They have had the absolute run of the place this last two weeks Always on the birdtable and even on the nut and fat hangers… super acrobats, these, but getting too big for their boots, by far. Magpies...