Sunday 27 May 2012

Goldies are back!

We all went to Lakenheath Fen today, and it was pretty obvious on what we were targeting, the Golden Oriole. We didn't hang around the house too long this morning, so we aimed to get there about 9am. After meeting up with a guided walk that were looking for the Goldies, so we hanged around behind them.

We reached the first viewpoint, and we were treated to a blue flash of a Kingfisher, zitting across the reeds. But oh no, people weren't looking at that, they were looking at 3 territorial Bitterns. This was very odd however, as they were flying high above the reeds in circles together!

After they reached touchdown, and out of sight, we realized that a group of people were looking up into the poplars. I asked the man "were they looking at a Oriole?," but the man said that they heard one about 5 minutes ago, so they were looking for the same bird again. Like we stood on a certain good luck rock, the Oriole sprung into life, bursting full of song, but do you think we could see it? No. While the drama was going on, the Reedbed Warbler species were enjoying themselves singing, away, it seemed that only Grasshopper Warbler were absent, not surprisingly.

We then moved on to another group of people, looking more promising into the Poplars. Reaching there, they said "the Oriole just sat there about 30-50 yards away," and we missed it. It was still singing, (see video), but was very, very difficult to see, with all the green leaves formed. With a couple of brief sightings from other people in the same area, I, personally, couldn't believe my eyes. Bearing in mind that there were about 40 people at this very space, I shouted out "I got it!." Everyone was crowding around as I tried to explain where it was, but frustratingly, they couldn't see it anywhere, but I could? I thought and said, "may I borrow someones scope to show it to all of you. This man let me, and believe it or not, I found it in the scope. It was indeed a male Golden Oriole, sitting motionless in the tree. Incredibly, everyone out of the 40 people saw it, and I was knighted. Such a fantastic lifetime moment for me, and I'm only 12!

When watching this video, turn up the volume to hear the Oriole singing at the start, either on your volume settings, or a remote control.

Other species of birds that were active around the reserve were the Crane family were feeding in the reeds, Reed Buntings, a pair of Garganey, and a brief Grasshopper Warbler flew into the short grass, but remained silent. The only thing we didn't see were Stone-Curlew, which we were hoping to catch at Lakenheath Warren, but anyway, another great day!

TOTAL OF BIRD SPECIES FOR 2012 = 161




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