Dipper City!

On Saturday, it was another visit to Thetford and Lynford Arboretum yesterday (Saturday), but this time with Mum. We thought we'd bring Mum along is because she loves the Dipper, so for her to miss out on the Black-bellied Dipper would be a shame. I exaggerated on the video note, taking 4 excellent videos of the Dipper. I have put the 2 best ones after the pictures, that all have us have contributed on. Here are Mums.....

And here are Dad's......

And here are mine.....

We then went to Lynford Arboretum, this being attempt 2 of trying to get the Hawfinch. We started by parking in the Lynford Water car park, and walking through the arboretum. We past the little stone area were the feed is, and we saw Nuthatch, Marsh, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, plus a Sparrowhawk. We got round to the Paddock, and guys with scopes were looking towards a tree top were 2 Hawfinch sat. There were distant, but here's one of them.

We then walked to the gate to Lynford Hall, and found 4 very greedy Squirrels on the stumps.

We then went down the path that goes alongside the river, and caught a large flock of Siskins and Redpoll feeding....

Then there were a very tame Mute Swan...

We ended the day with a Marsh Tit posing for the camera....

Thetford Area

Today we went round Thetford Area to see if we could see the Black-bellied Dipper at Thetford, and maybe a Hawfinch at Lynford Arboretum. After a bit of trouble trying to find the place, we got to the car park eventually. We saw a bloke with a massive camera lense pull up too, so we decided to follow him because we thought that he was looking for the Dipper too. We followed him over 2 footbridges, and then we saw it. We (Dad and I) couldn't believe how close it was......

Here are some digiscoped pics that Dad took....

I did take a video, but I took this from the first time we saw it on the day, and it was closer later on, but I didn't think of doing another video, so I'm a bit annoyed at myself, but here it is. It's a bit difficult to pick out, but it's there.

Other birds about in the area included about 200 Siskin's flying about, a Muntjac, a Goldcrest and a delightful Jay. 

We then moved on to Lynford Arboretum. We didn't get any Hawfinch's, but this is what we did get......

Swans and ducks. There was a Little Grebe there too but not photographed

Several Marsh Tits

And several Nuthatches

We got both Firecrest and Goldcrest, plus a Bullfinch. We moved on to Santon Downham, where we got even more Bullfinch...

That was it for that day, but yesterday - Saturday - We went down Rendall Lane, near Saxham Street in Stowupland to see the massive Skylark flock in the fields (for more details on how to get there, see "Daily Sightings" page). It was incredible.....

We did the Big Garden Birdwatch yesterday - all sighitngs on "Daily Sightings" page, but highlights included 8 Long-tailed Tits, plus a Goldfinch. Frustratingly, fly over birds don't count, because we could have had Fieldfare, Collard Dove, Black-headed and the resident Common Gull all added onto the list. 

Talking of Common Gull, we had 2 birds flying around the back garden together this morning, so that was nice to see. We were going to go out birding yesterday, but in the end we didn't. We were going to see the the Slavonian Grebe at Whitlingham, and the Great White Egret at Wymondham. There you go! Happy Birding!