The best pub for birding ? (1 Viewer)

[senatore]

The best pub for a birder to visit for me is the Carriers Arms in the village of Watlington in the Chilterns (not far from J 6 on the M40).

The reason is you can sit down in the pub gardens and have continuous and often very close views of Red Kites as the drift over your head and this happens all the year.

I was there yesterday lunchtime and took loads of shots.What cracking birds they are.

The pub is a freehouse and serves several real ales.

Here is a shot of one as it cruised over my head.

Do you know of any good birding pubs ?

Max

 

[Firebird5]

Not far from there is The Anglers Retreat in Startop's End, just outside Tring. It's right next to the Tring Reservoirs complex, which I used to bird regularly before I moved north and is where I learned to identify all the basic British species. It's a great location for waterfowl, waders, raptors and songbirds!

There's also The Spade Oak right next to Little Marlow Gravel Pit.

 

[Farnboro John]

The Mermaid at the base of the quay on St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly gives you a head start running for inter-island boats, but I suspect the Sumburgh Hotel has a bigger garden list. The Dun Cow at Salthouse is another good spot and the Three Swallows in Cley has nice village birds and has been a stop off for White-crowned Sparrow and Laughing Gull. Then there's The Pulpit at Portland Bill....

As a birder and mammal watcher one of my very favourite pubs for wildlife is The Abbey Inn at Buckfastleigh. From its terrace overlooking the River Dart one can often see Dippers as well as common woodland species, occasional Goosanders and commoner wildfowl. But its chief attraction is the dusk emergence of Greater Horseshoe Bats viewable with pint in hand: Soprano Pips and Daubenton's Bats are also present: and Otters occasionally grace the river.

I could probably go on, but its someone else's turn.

Cheers!

John

 

[Phil Andrews]

Crown & Anchor?

 

[Mono]

Fat Lamb has its own nature reserve http://www.fatlamb.co.uk/nature-reserve/

 

[Mike Crawley]

The Turk's Head
The Mermaid
The Bishop and Wolf
plus the other pubs on Scilly

.... good pubs in a better than average birding locale...


Edit for spellong

 

[Nohatch]

Not exactly a British pub but....the Hummingbird Gallery in Monteverde (Costa Rica). Having a coffee on the veranda with more than a dozen different species of hummer buzzing around is just magical.

The New Forest pubs round ours are just too busy with dog walkers and families (including mine mind...)

 

[mike_gss]

The Abingdon Arms in Beckley just south of RSPB Otmoor. The extensive beer garden is about 20-30 meters above, and overlooks virtually the whole of Otmoor and middle England. The food is good as is the beer (Brakspear).

Like in the OP's post, the Red Kites just cruise around overhead waiting for you to drop a chip (or preferably a steak).

Here's one from a recent visit.

 

[senatore]

Cheers all some nice birding pubs I might well have a look at.

Max

 

[Allen S. Moore]

Have a look at this thread, too:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=40845

 

[Merlin]

I agree with you Nohatch, I was there recently doing just as you described.

best regards

Merlin

 

[pete wragg]

Crown & Anchor?

B B B B B B B B B B

 

[Murmur]

The Stein Inn in, errrr, Stein on Skye is a decent pub with decent beer and a fantastic location.

It also has a pair of breeding white-tailed eagles within a mile or so (you have to try hard not to see white-tails round there), breeding golden eagles and peregrines, several pairs of corncrakes in the fields on the edge of the village (well, if the noises were any indication, as the buggers stayed resolutely hidden).

And, even better, it is just by the Loch Bay fish restaurant, which is excellent!

 

[Jhanlon]

Crown & Anchor & Turk's Head both spring to mind though already mentioned.

Or who remembers the Coot & Corncrake? I presume it's fictitious, but I gather the birding tales were second to none!