Welcome to Sam White’s Birding Blog:
Hello, my name’s Sam White. I am 20 years old and studying BSc Biology at the University of Southampton. This blog is, or will be, about my birding trips around Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire. More often than not I am accompanied by Dan and Robbie, two other Hampshire birders who I met on my course. Above: Sam, Robbie, Dan with binoculars.
My Equipment:
Binoculars are a standard piece of kit for any birder. Mine are nothing fantastic, a pair of Nikon Sporter IIs 8×36, but the student budget hasn’t allowed me to buy a pair of Swarovski ELs. A telescope is also preferred for any keen birder, however again I have had to make do with borrowing Dan’s when needed, and spent the remainder of my cash on a camera. And if your bird is in a ‘less desirable’ neighbourhood, the tripod looks pretty intimidating…
All of the photos on this blog (unless otherwise stated) come from my Canon EOS 40D. I currently have two lenses, the 40D kit lens (17-85mm, IS, USM, etc.) and my pride and joy: Canon EF 300mm f/4.0 L. I have Aperture for Macintosh and Adobe Photoshop CS3, which I use to edit (generally just crop and white balance) my photographs. I have a Flickr account too: click here to see more of my photographs.
I hope you like my work, and I am always open to criticism or (preferably) praise! So please feel free to leave me a comment, it would be very much appreciated even if you are not from the area.
Becoming a Birder:
Before coming to university I had a keen interest in all living things, particularly insects, but I didn’t know of any birders where I came from (south Wiltshire - where are all the birders?!) and therefore I didn’t know anything about it. Second year came round pretty quickly, the 24/7 drinking and general student lifestyle of the first year had come to an end, and a friend and coursemate of mine was starting to get back into birding…
In the next couple of months, Dan (the original birder of the present trio, whose blog can be found at dansbirdingblog.blogspot.com), Robbie (another friend and coursemate, sometimes referred to as ‘The Bear’) and I discovered what an excellent county Hampshire was for birding. The very helpful HOS List (a Yahoo! group, started by the Hampshire Ornithological Society, www.hos.org.uk) helped us start out in Hampshire, providing us with what seemed to be unbelievably rare birds within about 20 miles of Southampton. We found out where to see Crossbills, Hawfinches, Short Eared Owls, and even rarities such as the White Tailed Eagle near Andover!
Whilst what I have said above makes us sound like a bunch of twitchers, we have strict policies on this. Rarely will we travel much more than half an hour to where we are going birding, and (partly due to money restraints on fuel money!) if we do go a fair distance we will spend a whole day there. As second year progressed, we got more and more enthusiastic with birding, and would go for 2 or 3 full days each week.
I am now in my third and final year at university. Birding is still a big part of my life, even though I have a shedload more work to do. We are going out at least once a week still, and since getting my camera I have had more opportunities to start a blog about birding and bird photography.
Favourite Spots:
In Hampshire Pennington and Keyhaven Marshes is probably my favourite (although probably the most intense and exhausting) birding destination, followed by Titchfield Haven (the ham and cheese ploughmans is amazing after a morning’s birding!) generally the New Forest (Shatterford/Beaulieu Road car parks for Crossbill, but the surrounding heathland is excellent for Hen Harrier, Great Grey Shrike, etc.).
In Dorset, simply, Portland. How can you beat a day’s birding, followed by a few beers and a steak and ale pie at the Pulpit Inn, and going back to the observatory to sleep before a 5am start - probably the best birding times we have had! The Portland Bird Observatory website (with sightings, maps, information, etc.) can be found at www.portlandbirdobs.org.uk.
Wiltshire does not have any coastline, and the south particularly is very quiet, seemingly for both birds and birders! Only relatively common species are numerous here, my favourites of which are Kingfisher, Yellowhammer and Chiffchaff. Feel free to contact me if you are in this area, I would like to know where other birders go here and what can be found.
Favourite Bird:
Firecrest. If you were to hear some birders, you would think that these birds were swarming all over the country. Swarms of Firecrests that would prevent you going down to the off license for some more student booze - this is not true! I must say I’ve only seen about 3 of these in my short, yet very intensive, birding career. They are stunning birds, but smaller than a wren, and in my opinion very scarce!
Current Britain Life List: 207 species.
All credit for Wordpress theme used on this site goes to Paul Bennett (his site can be found by clicking here). All photography on this website is Copyright © Samuel White unless otherwise stated. Please e-mail me if you wish to purchase or use any of my work, this is a legal requirement - sam@birdportfolio.co.uk.