 |
MANCHESTER BIRDING LINKS |
 |
The following web sites are amongst my favourite on the internet, for one reason or another.......
GENERAL BIRDING- UK
BIRDNET- Providers of rare, scarce and local bird information around the UK, via pagers, mobile 'phones or land lines. A reputable, reliable and affordable service, check out their website for details.
SURFBIRDS- Never seen it before, then where have you been? Essential site for British birding and beyond with more than enough for rarity lovers.
BRITISH BIRDS RARITIES COMMITTEE- Essential site for rarity finders and for those who'd like to!
FYLDE BIRD CLUB- A great site, especially for those 'escaping' the county and heading towards this area of the north-west coast.
DEE ESTUARY BIRDS- Essential website for birding this excellent area of coastline which seems to be a popular escape route for Manky birders.
PUNKBIRDER- Lucky chaps who live in Norfolk and don't appear to do much else other than go birding in probably the best birding county in the UK. Now (since the untimely death of Tom McKinney's site) the funniest and most original site on the internet but be careful, it can and does include some really serious birding stuff from which you might learn something, so go easy.
NATURE IN SHETLAND- See what they've got and wish you were there. B@*%&rds!
SENNEN COVE BIRDWATCHING- Covers the extreme south-west Cornwall area and essential for visiting birders with it's excellent coverage of local sightings. Believe it or not, probably my favourite place in all the world (no, it never was Pennington Flash after all)!
BIRDS IRELAND- Some great articles here, including good snippets of identification information.
IRISHBIRDING.COM- Same as above really!
RARE BREEDING BIRDS PANEL- On the surface not much to enthuse over here, but the archived 'Panel Reports' (as published annually in British Birds magazine) make for very interesting reading and are a great source of information.
BILL ASPIN'S BIRD BLOG 2- See what's going on just north of our county and what we just might expect to drop in to ours on Bill's excellent blog, also includes his exploits around the country too. One of the best serious birding blogs around.
MENZIE BIRDING- Stephen Menzie' s excellent birding blog from around the north-west and way beyond.
SEAN GRAY BIRD IMAGES- Sean's site of his excellent bird photos, often encompassing Greater Manchester birds and well worth a look even if not!
BIRDWATCHING IN ST.HELENS- A good source of information for what's about just at the very western border of our county.
UK BIRD OBSERVATORIES
Quiet day? Nothing about? See what all those lucky buggers with a coastline and a bird observatory have got, also a good tool for predicting what we should be looking out for here or alternatively where to escape to tomorrow!
GENERAL BIRDING- WORLD
HONG KONG BIRD WATCHING SOCIETY- Go straight to the photo gallery in the BBS section to drool over some of the best bird photos anywhere on the 'net, including mouth-watering images of plenty of megas you'd be very happy to find anywhere in the Western Palearctic.
OCEAN WANDERERS- Angus Wilson's great site, with loads of material on seabirds, waders and Yankee passerines.
ORIENTAL BIRD IMAGES- Just lots of nice images of oriental birds, many of which are Western Palearctic megas.
STINT FAN- Japanese wader images site but don't worry you don't have to understand Japanese to navigate around the images, they're in English too but prepare to sit back and drool!
SHOREBIRDS IN JAPAN- Similar and atleast just as good as the above site, listen you can't get enough of images this good and if you can then you really need help!
GULL SITES
Not interested in Gulls? What the hell do you do all winter?
RUDY OFFEREINS- Fantastic Gull site with great images and very authorative content, and a nice chap too!
DICK NEWELL- Massive amount of extremely interesting stuff here from a very experienced guy, including much more than just gulls.
MARTIN REID- Mainly US site but plenty to keep you occupied for ages.
STEVE HAMPTON- Similar to Martin Reid's and equally essential.
WEST MIDLAND GULLS- Alan Dean's web site which has some very well presented information from a guy who really knows his stuff.
WEATHER
BBC WEATHER- Essential for pre-planning where to go birding and/or what species of bird you should be looking for.
EUROPE SURFACE PRESSURE CHARTS- Met office site, similar use as the BBC weather site.
XC WEATHER- Good for short range wind predictions, so ideal for where to go seawatching today!
MAGIC SEAWEED- Intended for surfers (hey dude!), busy useful for us westerly wind lovers too.
The following links are all sites that may be of interest to anybody interested in wildlife or the countryside in Greater Manchester
www.manchesterwildlife.com - the wildlife equivalent of Manchester Birding, complete with a sightings/discussion forum. Everything you really need for wildlife in the county!
www.gmwildlife.org.uk - the Greater Manchester Local Records Centre website
www.actionfornature.co.uk - Trafford Nature Conservation Group's site
www.gmbiodiversity.org.uk - The Greater Manchester Biodiversity Action Plan
www.blackredstarts.org - The Black Redstart Biodiversity Action Plan
www.cawos.org - Cheshire and Wirral Ornithological Society's website
BACK TO THE MANCHESTER BIRDING HOMEPAGE