Greetings everyone
I was interested to see that my post was so old. Since then we have moved to the UK and are currently living in Dundee, Scotland (and have been for the past 5.5 years) while I study. We use the RSPB book we received when joining and also have a smaller RSPB(?) book in the car that lives in the side pocket of my door.
We have visited most of the Lochs, RSPB and Scottish Wildlife Trust sites, and several birding spots further south. To be honest we are disappointed in the variety of birds and we can only put this down to rampant agriculture/farming. Even the so-called National Parks are full of sheep or cattle. I do think it is unfair to compare numbers with South Africa where there are naturally more birds because of the climate (10 species of Kingfisher, for example), but I would love to see more pressure on the farming community to create viable wooded corridors across the country (for all wildlife) and to see a lot more rewilding.
Anyway, thanks for all your responses. A quick comment about bird books in South Africa. Sasol & Roberts are essential (you can also get a two-volume Roberts about A2 size that probably also comes with a hernia repair kit) and if you're going into Kruger Park then there are two excellent speciality bird books for that area (one by Ian Whyte, excellent, and another good one, also Sasol, by Warwick Tarboton).
We hope to have many more birding years in the UK/British Isles and look forward to visiting many more sites in this lovely country.
Take care
Douglas