Birding in England in September

Here are a few:

https://www.nwt.org.uk/wildlife/how-identify
https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/birds
https://www.ywt.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/birds
https://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/birds
https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/discover/around-sussex/wetlands/wetland-species/birds

You can find more by just googling "birds in _______" in case there are other areas you're looking for.

Sign up for eBird and download the regional packs. It will give you all the checklists and show you the birding hotspots and the birds reported at the hotspot over the last 7 or 30 days and also show you the submitted checklists

Besides downloading eBird you should also download Merlin which helps in bird identification

Check out >https://www.rspb.org.uk

I am a birder from Kent.

I find that ebird.org is often less up to date than rarebirdalert.co.uk or birdguides.com. All of these cover rarities.

If you just want to know where to bird watch in certain areas, use rspb.org.uk or Google the various wildlife or wetland trusts in the counties that you are visiting.

In Northumberland, the coast all around Holy Island and Embleton Bay is good for waders.

In Kent and Sussex, I head to Oare Marshes near Faversham, Rye Harbour, RSPB Dungeness, Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve and RSPB Cliffs Pools.

I have Collins Bird Guide downloaded on my iPad for bird identification.

Jennifer great posts like yours is the reason we all use this forum. It is very helpful.

Thanks for the previous responses.

I'll be in the Bath / Bristol area in May or June. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for, beyond the eBird hotspots?

Thanks.

@Charlie, a few years ago I watched nesting Peregrine Falcons in Bath. Fortunately some guys were set up with a spotting scope on the path along the Avon and talked with us about the Peregrines. We had our binoculars along with us but it was great to look at them thru the scope.

https://stjohnsrcbath.org.uk/avada_portfolio/falcons/

https://twitter.com/bathperegrines?lang=en

This is a link to googlemaps for the approximate position where we could see the steeple of St John the Evangelist RC church and the Peregrine nest.

https://goo.gl/maps/R5N724US9oM7bCzm9

Shelley, I see you are going in the Fall? I'm going in May to some of those locations and also hope to see some birds but I suspect they will have changed a bit by your trip as some of them will have started migration. I'm taking a tour with former RS tour guide Mark Seymour and one day we go out to Farne Islands to see Puffins. Mark's FB page, Touring Britain has some photos of puffins and diving Gannets.

I also have the Collins Bird Guide on my iPad Mini which is helpful for ID.

I also have Merlin and I load up the bird packs for the locations I'm going to visit then delete them afterward. I also do searches on e-bird so it's good to know from Jennifer they are not always up-to-date.

Thank you all for your responses. I will look up suggestions of websites. Thank Jennifier for your detailed advice. We will definitely head down by the water to see what's hanging around while at Holy Island.

Pam- We did see the Puffins here in Canada on a trip to the East Coast and they are so cute to watch. I'm hoing that they will still be around but we are not making the trip to Farnes Islands. That's the area to go they say.

I just love looking. Taking some pics and then identify later. I have several books at home here but England will be a new area to explore.

Oh, I wanted to add something. Just last summer my brother and I started using the Merlin app's Sound ID. I'm not sure why we'd not tried it before but it was a new experience for us. We used it quite a bit hiking around here and were able to learn new bird sounds and then were able to do a lot of birding by ear along one of our regular trails.

So...last Fall in the Dolomites in Italy I used it on our hiking day and yea! It was very helpful in IDing bird sounds there as well. I was so thrilled!

If you don't usually use Merlin, I'd suggest you start with it at home and then it will be less fiddly when you are on vacation. You do NOT need data on to do sound ID although I usually need data to do the Bird or Photo ID. I've had good luck with the Photo ID. I've taken some lousy pictures with my iPhone of birds in bushes, lol and they've accurately ID'd them. Even a rather scruffy female Western Tanager buried in a bush, haha.

I do suggest you have a power bank with you. The sound ID uses quite a bit of juice as you'll want to let the recorder run for several minutes if you've got a lot of chirping going on.

Merlin is a free app produced by the Cornell University Ornithology Lab. Honestly, if I ever win big on the lottery they are going to get a big donation from me!

We were in Scotland in May with my sister and her husband a few years ago, and went up to Bridge of Orchy to walk some sections of the West Highland Way. In the afternoon, we heard a cuckoo calling, and my sister said “what is that? It sounds like a cuckoo clock!” She never knew it that a cuckoo was a real bird.

HF Holidays offers birding weekends in Northumberland. Might be worth a look.

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/special-interest/activity-breaks/bird-watching-holidays

Between Bristol & Gloucester is the >https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/slimbridge/

Slimbridge isn’t for serious birders. The birds are fed and whilst some are wild, it’s more like a bird zoo. Useful for getting close for identification though.

Collins Bird Guides also has bird sounds.

"In the afternoon, we heard a cuckoo calling, and my sister said “what is that? It sounds like a cuckoo clock!” She never knew it that a cuckoo was a real bird."

That's hilarious, Lola! I was walking on the beach at Honfleur a few years ago and as I headed back I walked closer to the brush along the edge. I heard a cuckoo and yes, my first thought was who the heck would bring a clock out here to the beach? The beach was pretty deserted and then the penny dropped that it was actually a cuckoo. I knew they were real birds but had not heard one in the wild before. Still make me laugh at my reaction!

Yeah, European cuckoos can be a surprise for American birders, since our native cuckoo species don't sound like clocks.