Carsington Bird Club

The Shellbrooke Hotel, Hunstanton, Norfolk

Are you looking to arrange your annual birding holiday, or a birding break?

We would like to offer our dinner, bed and breakfast package. The Shellbrooke Hotel overlooks The Wash, an important site for birds all year round and especially in the cooler months. There are also several RSPB and Norfolk Wildlife Trust sites within easy distance.
 
 
Our packages are for groups of eight or more people who are looking for great accommodation and food in North Norfolk and are ideally
suited to birding breaks and any other society or club outing. For less than eight people we offer special rates for dinner, bed and breakfast. 
 
The packages are available January to May and October to December 2013 for 2 or more nights.
 
A typical 3 night break would comprise:
Day 1:- Arrival, 3 course roast dinner, coffee and homemade biscuits
Day 2:- Breakfast, Spanish tapas night, coffee and homemade biscuits
Day 3:- Breakfast, 3 course steak dinner, coffee and homemade biscuits
Day 4:- Breakfast, departure.
 
After dinner guests are welcome to relax in our comfortable licensed bar, lounge or, weather permitting, on our sea view terrace.
 
Our aim is to make your break as enjoyable as possible, please let us know any special requirements in advance as we are able to cater for special diets such as coeliac and vegetarian. All our food is freshly cooked on the premises by our award winning chef using local
ingredients whenever possible. 
 
Dinner, bed and breakfast: Double or twin room £85 per night (Premier view £90)
Double for single occupancy £65 per night
 
Book for 12 people or more and receive one free place per night.
 
Prices are until 31st March 2013. Bookings made before then will be honoured at these rates.
 
For further details, terms of business and more menu options please call Mark or Jacqui on 01485 532289.
Carsington Bird Club

The Villa Belles – Lake Kerkini, Greece

Lake Kerkini is one of the most important hydro biotopes of Greece, while distinguished for its rich flora and fauna. Many rear and protected by international conventions species of birds, riverside forests, water lilies that float on a surface of thousands of square

meters and a horizon of great beauty from the Mountains Belles and Krousia add to the scenery a tone of unrivalled beauty. More than 300 species of birds, 58 species of mammals, 22 species of reptiles, 12 species of amphibians and 30 species of fish have been recorded in the width area of the Lake. The wetland is protected by the Ramsar Convention, the Greek legislation and the Directive 79/409/EEC and is included to the list of sites of European Networks “Nature 2000”.
 
Our Location
The Villa Belles is situated on the foot of the imposing Mountain Belles and north of the beautiful hydro biotopes Kerkini. For more information visit our web site www.villabelles.gr.
 
For an organized group:
Accommodation:
Single room: 30 euro per night
Double room: 35 euro per night
Triple room: 45 euro per night
Quad room: 55 euro per night
The room price include breakfast.
 
The accommodation is free of charge for the leader of the group.
 
Half board:
Lunch or Dinner 12 euro per person
1 main dish (grilled pork chops or grilled pork pancetta or greek souvlaki or grilled beef homemade hamburger or baked buffalo or
mouzaka or pastitsio, etc), 1 small salad, greek desert (kazan dipi or chanoum burek, etc) and free homemade wine red or white.
 
For individual person:
We would like you to contact us for the kind of the room you want and exactly how many days you would stay in order to give you the best price.
 
Activities in order to live and enjoy the biotype:
Visit the Management Authority of the Lake Kerkini – Tour in Lake Kerkini with boat, canoe, bicycle, 4×4, etc – Bird watching – Photography – Riding either around the lake or in nearby villages – Hiking in international walking paths E4 and E6 – Visit the dam of Lithotopos – Visit buffalo farms.
 
Other activities:
Visit the Hermitage of Saint John Prodromos – the municipal aquarium of Vyroneia – the war fortress of Roupel or Istibey– the Greek
Bulgarian border of Promachona – the medicinal water springs of Sidirokastro or Aggistro – the city of Serres – the Lailias forest – the gorge of Aggiti – the cave of Alistrati – the ancient Amfipoli ….
 
Proprietor – Katirtzoglou Alexandros
 
Carsington Bird Club

Tittesworth – Autumn 2012

Welcome to the 38th quarterly newsletter in the current series.

Weather

JULY: The weather was characterised by low pressure bringing rather cool, cloudy conditions with some heavy rainfall in the first half of the month. There was a much warmer, settled week from the 21st, with the highest local temperature for July at 24ºC on the 24th.

AUGUST: Another month of low pressure brought cloudy conditions and rain showers at times. The rain was very heavy on the 15th. There was a high of 22ºC locally on the 9th, 10th and 14th.

SEPTEMBER: This month was unsettled with cloud and rain. The rain was very heavy on the 12th, 20th and the 25th.  It was the Autumn Equinox on the 21st September.

View this newsletter

Carsington Bird Club Events Member Reports

Frampton Marsh a Hit With CBC Group !

The twelve club members who clambered aboard the coach headed for Frampton Marsh anticipated a good day's birding – and so it turned out, with 57 species logged by the whole group during nearly seven hours at the Lincolnshire RSPB site.

 
Our driver did an excellent job of getting us there inside two hours (and returning us in the same timescale) which maximised our time in the open air – though a few took the opportunity for a quick coffee. An introduction from the assistant warden gave us a good feel for what was around; and he invited us to boost their list, which I suspect we just might have done.
 
Conditions were fair with high clouds for most of the day, but it was breezy and we felt particularly exposed with little vegetation to interrupt the wind's progress across this flat marshland site.
 
There was an excellent array of waders, ducks and geese on the wetland scrapes, including the increasingly widespread Little Egret, various sandpipers, 'shanks' and several smaller waders. There was much discussion and some confusion – even with the help of scopes which were put to liberal use in each of the three hides – as many of the species were changing from summer to winter plumage.
 
Migrants passing through en route to warmer locations to spend the winter included Wheatear and a few final hirundine stragglers, while other waders, ducks and the odd Brent Goose were arriving on their winter quarters. With the tide out, a few distant seals could be seen on the open sand at the edge of the Wash for those who walked the two miles to the mouth of the Witham River.
 
Raptors were few and far between (we had over-optimistically hoped for a Merlin, Hen Harrier or Short-eared Owl), but a few Kestrels were seen and the highlight was a pair of Marsh Harriers.
 
The total 'CBC' cast list, roughly in order of appearance, was as follows: Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Tree Sparrow, Rook, Collared Dove, Mallard, Teal, Little Egret, Greenshank, Lapwing, Little Grebe, Moorhen, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Cormorant, Little Stint, Canada Goose, Pintail, Black-headed Gull, Shelduck, Wigeon, Mute Swan, Redshank, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, House Martin, Greylag Goose, Coot, Tufted Duck, Kestrel, Wood pigeon, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Starling, Reed Bunting, Wheatear, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Curlew, Swallow, Great-crested Grebe, Herring Gull, Brent Goose, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Greater Black-backed Gull, Wood Sandpiper, Carrion Crow, Gadwall, Shoveler, Knot, Snipe, Golden Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, Scaup and Marsh Harrier.
 
Gary Atkins
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