The last couple of weeks.....

Since the delights of the Bee-eaters at Theberton, there have still been some really successful trips in the last few weeks. For starters, the patch has provided me with 6 big fat year ticks, including 5 lifers:

• HONEY BUZZARD
• Common Crossbill
• BLACK-TAILED GODWIT
• NUTHATCH
• COMMON SANDPIPER
• OSPREY

The Honey Buzzard was actually way back on June 28th (well, not that far back really), with it going over my own house with the local pair of Common Buzzards doing their best to see it off. This also allowed me to compare the 2 species really well, and enjoy this 116th bird for my patch life list!

Similar to the Honey Buzzard, the Common Crossbills were also over my house, with 2 over on the evening of July 14th. The next bird was Common Sandpiper, another lifer. Over the past week or so now, I have seen about 6 birds on the patch, an increasing visitor in July/August...

The next bird to go on the list was Nuthatch, where we had tried 3 times for this elusive bird in Shrubland Wood this year and failed. Well, on July 23rd, we finally saw one, calling and moving around the wood with a tit flock. Odd company I know, but its on the list! A Red Kite was also present here too. 

When I realised I'd missed a flock of 17 Black-tailed Godwits on the patch, I was pretty miffed! But, I was notified on July 26th that there was one present, so in the pouring rain we went, and was rewarded!

The 5th lifer of the week was seen this morning, where we had an Osprey over Needham Market town centre! Incredible views but unfortunately no photos. It was seen yesterday morning down Pipps Ford, flying west at 9:30. This morning, it done exactly the same, but we picked it up at 10am on its way west! We're going to try again tomorrow morning.

-----------------------------------------------------

A couple of weeks ago, we went to twitch the Black-necked Grebe at Livermere, which is still there today, and although it was distant, we saw it, along with amazing views of a Barn Owl too. I took a video of both the species as I didn't have my camera lol!

------------------------------------------------------

Last Thursday, we met up with David Walsh, and headed for a days birding on the Suffolk Coast. Minsmere was reasonably quiet with no Albatross being a real shock, but we did have Little Gulls, Spotted Redshank and Ruff...

Then, an afternoons Gulling with Brian Small at Walberswick taught me how to id young Yellow-legged Gulls, and we found a Caspian Gull to join in the fun!

Adult YLG

3cy YLG

2cy YLG

Caspian Gull

Happy Birding!

Breckland Produces - Again!

On Sunday, Dad took me out to the Brecks again, to try and pin down some of the specialities, and also some early spring migrants. We started off at Great Livermere Lake, where a scan around picked up an slightly unusual gull sitting on one of the bars. My initial thought was Caspian, and lots of people said Caspian, but I'm no expert on finding and identifying scarce gull species. Here it is...

Further scanning around the lake produced 2 Mediterranean Gull, a late Pink-footed Goose and a lone Barnacle Goose which were the highlights...

We then went to look in the pig fields north of the lake to try and find an Iceland Gull which was seen the previous day. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it, but there was still hundreds of gulls that were not searched. 

We moved on north to Santon Downham, to try and look for a hopeful Lesser-spotted Woodpecker. After a lot of searching, we couldn't nail it down, but we did get several Nuthatch, Grey Wagtail, Brambling, Chiffchaff and Lesser Redpoll. The star of the visit had to be a cracking Firecrest however...

We then got a call from our good birding friend David to say that he had a pair of Wheatear and 4 Stone Curlew at Cavenham Heath, so that's where we headed next. After scanning around, we picked up one cracking male Wheatear, 8 Stone Curlews and a singing male Stonechat. I do love the brecks!!!

Happy Birding!