Little Bittern at Lakenheath and another day at Minsmere!

On Wednesday, Dad and I headed for Lakenheath to hopefully connect with the Little Bittern. The plan was to arrive at 9:30, see the bird within an hour, then head off to North Norfolk for Dotterel. Sadly, 3 hours later, at 12:30, there was still no flight views, but the bird was constantly calling all day...

Turn the volume up loud to hear it 'croaking'

We began to wonder if all our patience was for nothing, but at 14:20, a clutter in the reeds and the amazing Little Bittern took off and done a brief 5 second flight! This was followed by another flight view about 30 seconds afterwards, but we weren't ready, so this was the best shot we managed - that's what you get for resting!

There were plenty of Cuckoos about with Hobbies and an obliging Common Tern too...

Here are Tim Oakes' fabulous pictures of the Little Bittern. At least someone was ready...

As it was now about 14:30, we thought it was too late to go anywhere, so we stayed for the rest of the afternoon, where the bird didn't show any more, but still, a cracking lifer for me!

The following day, Thursday, I had another day at Minsmere volunteering to guide on the reserve. In the morning, I was with "Spineless Sy, " the two spined stickleback just before Island Mere, and to my surprise, it was actually quite entertaining to watch them. 

I then swapped, and I went into Island Mere for the rest of the morning. We connected with the Great White Egret in 2 flight views, with Bitterns, Bearded Tits and all the other usual birds present. 3 Little Gulls were flying out the back with the Black-headed Gulls.

The Scrape in the afternoon produced more of the same, with 1 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Turnstone being the only birds of note for this time of year.

I was gutted though to have missed a fishing Osprey at Island Mere, as by accident I turned off the reserve radio! Doh!

Did get some nice Bearded Tits though, with Hobbies about as well...

Happy Birding!

Little Crake Again

Dad took me to see the Little Crake again at Minsmere last night, so that we could get better views of it, as the light is poor in the mornings but better in the evenings. As soon as we got in the hide, the Crake was showing well. We only managed 1 OK picture of the Crake, but I did manage a better video. I also went to see the Great White Egret from Island Mere, just so I could tick it on the year list!

Happy Birding!

Dad's Week of Birding plus Another Great Day!

First I'll start with Dad's birding days on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, because I'm at school and Mums at work, Dad went on his own to The Strand. He went to look for either the Long-tailed Duck or the Velvet Scoter. He couldn't locate the Long-tailed Duck, but after a bit of searching at Freston at the Stoke Sailing Club, he found the female Velvet Scoter...

Digiscoped Velvet Scoter at Freston

On Tuesday, he visited Lackford Lakes. He saw Goosander, Goldeneye, Snipe, Goldcrest and Bullfinch. Here are some of his pics, all digiscoped...

Drake Goldeneye

One of about 4 Snipe

And some Goosanders

Moving on, yesterday (Sunday 23rd), we went to visit The Strand, and Alton Water. We first went to the Strand, to look for the two scarce Ducks that Dad came down here to see. Well, as soon as we pulled up, people with scopes and binoculars were looking at the Velvet Scoter, incredible.....

Dad's Digiscoped Shot

My poor effort!

Here are some other birds that were about...

Greylag's with Wigeon in the background

Mute Swans

We then went to Freston and I spotted this amongst the boats....

A female Long-tailed Duck. Incredible!

We then moved on to Alton Water, and already getting 2 new yearlies, (Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Duck), we were hoping to see the Great White Egret! Well, here's what we got....

Great White Egret at The Wonder

What we done was we parked in the Wonder car park, and went down the track that has the big map at the front, and followed it down until we got into a little clearing in the trees and viewed from 20 yards or so. It was brilliant. We also saw a drake Goosander fly over Lemons Hill Bridge, 2 Kingfisher, about 20 Little Egret, a Redpoll, a Goldcrest and plenty of Tufted Ducks. It was a great days Birding.

Thanks for reading and have a very Merry Christmas!