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!

Two types of Red-necks!

On Sunday I was at Minsmere volunteering to help Springwatch run along smoothly! This will only be a brief post, so here are some shots of the male Red-necked Phalarope from the East Scrape. It kept its distant, so is a record phone-scoped shot. There were also a couple of Med Gulls about, 4 Little Gulls, Little, Common and Sandwich Tern, a rather late drake Pintail, Kittiwakes and the usual bits and bobs!

Then, yestersay afternoon/evening, Dad offered to take me to Livermere to see the full summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe. It was a fine looking bird, but very dozy to say the least. Like the Phalarope, it kept its distance, so the pics are pretty pointless even for a record!

Happy Birding!

The Love of Patching!

For the last couple of weeks, birding has been focused on the patch, so that my patch total for the year has the greatest chance of increasing as much as possible.

The first Little-ringed Plovers came in on the 6th April, with 3 present up to a week ago...

The first Swallow was also on the 6th, with the first 2 singing Blackcaps on the 7th. The first Willow Warbler was in at Wildwood on the 10th too. The first Nightingales were singing on the 15th along with the first Whitethroat and House Martins...

The first Sand Martins were feeding on the 19th, with Garden Warblers and the first possible 'Greenland' Wheatear was present on the 21st...

The first singing Lesser Whitethroat was present at Wildwood on the 22nd, and the first calling Tawny Owl, Hobby, Greenshank and Redshank on the 24th.

Redshank record shot

Then, a very productive 'tour' around the patch with David Walsh produced Sedge Warbler (scarce on patch), Cuckoo, Reed Warbler and Swift on he 26th. 

On the 29th April, my luck was in as I found a cracking Yellow Wagtail. All the following shots are phone-scoped.

A good record was a Red Kite over Brewery Farm, Earl Stonham the Saturday just gone, and first my returning Spotted Flycatcher came back to the usual wood by my school on yesterday.

Bird of the month so far though was undoubtedly today, as I was walking out from school, a pair of Sandwich Terns passed over flying north! That's an incredible record for the patch, and takes my total to 103 species. That is already 3 more than my total last year!

Happy Birding (and patching)!

Work Experience at The BTO!

Over the last couple of weeks, with no school due to Easter, I have been able to get out a lot to do some birding. The first week of the holidays (last week), I was really looking forward to doing work experience at the BTO, similar to what Evie Miller did earlier in the year - see her blog here. 

Day 1

I started on the Tuesday, where I was set tasks by my 'boss', Paul Stancliffe. He was a great guy to be around, and would love to spend more time with him out in the field. After my tour and health and safety check, I was set to complete the BTO's Bird of the Month report for April, where I chose to do the Long-eared Owl, a favourite of mine and bird of concern for many in terms of the breeding and winter distribution of it in the UK. I was keeping an eye on the pager just in case something turned up though....

After getting half way through this, it was lunch break, and Dawn Balmer and Sarah Harris, both great people of the BTO, invited me to come 'Gulling' with them to Livermere Pig Fields, obviously Iceland Gull being high up on my hit list.

After lots of searching, we had no luck, until we got to the last flock by the road, where I picked out a near adult gull that looked to have white wing tips, but it was covered by another Gull. Then, they all got up, and you could see that the Gull was a stonking 3rd calender year Iceland Gull, a lifer for me!

Back at the Office, I continued with my bird of the month, until my first day of work experience was over, and it was the end of my shift. A brilliant first day and I was eagerly waiting for the next!

Day 2

The second day of my work experience was more office based, doing a lot more media work than the previous day. This I thought was very beneficial, as in a real world of work, this is most likely what you do for the day.

I started with finishing my Bird of the month report, then proof reading a BTO membership leaflet. I done a range of other tasks that were office based before lunch break, where I went out onto the local Nunnery Lakes reserve with Sarah and Neil. The only thing of note was a Stone Curlew, which I thought about taking to my patch, which would have been very beneficial to others besides me ;)

In the afternoon, I worked in the Nest Recording Scheme and Ringing Unit, where I was identifying nests for their database. I must admit, after about 300 nests, it turned into sleeping material, but it was good fun anyhow!

After similar tasks in the afternoon, the day soon came to an end, with the next day approaching.....

Day 3

It was an early start to my final day of work experience at the BTO, as I was out ringing on the BTO's local reserve "Nunnery Lakes." I was being taken out by Lee Barber and Justin Walker, both great people, and we started ringing at 7am. I was able to ring up to 4 Brambling and 3 Lesser Redpoll, as it was great to actual get some proper training!

After the ringing session, it was back to the office at 9am on the dot! I finished writing a press release for the Garden Birdwatch team on the Dunnocks of Buckinghamshire before Paul arrived. After finishing this, I completed more media work, before the real deal of the day arrived! IOLO WILLIAMS!!!!!

Myself, Ieuan and Paul all had a good chat with him about bits and bobs that are happening in the nature world at that present time before we went for a walk with him on the reserve.

Iolo was here for a welsh interview with Ieuan, so as it was in Welsh, Paul and I had the foggiest as to what they were saying, so we just went a bit further ahead to the bridge out of their way to do some birding. 

We were hoping for an Otter in the river but no sign. Then, a distinctive cronking call passed overhead, revealing a pair of bloody RAVENS!!!! We couldn't believe it! They flew through the canopy just over our heads chasing a pigeon and then through NW. That was both Pauls and my first Ravens for Norfolk, East Anglia to that matter!

After the interview, we discussed the Ravens, as Iolo and Ieuan heard them too, and that they could have got them calling in the background of the interview. Then, I had to ask Iolo for a picture with me - you've just got to with people as great as that!

After this, we went for an extended lunch break at Lakenheath Fen with Ieuan and Paul after we had to say "hwyl fawr" (welsh for goodbye lol) to Iolo. We only had time to go to the Washland viewpoint, and here we had 2 flight views of Water Pipit, but no hirundines. We hoped for one of the Great White Egrets or maybe even a Garganey too but no sign of either of them. 

Back in the office for my last shift, I finished my last piece of media work before it was time to leave.

I would just like to thank the BTO, Ieuan and Paul for being absolutely brillaint and really making me feel at home. I even got Mike Toms book of Owls signed by him and all the people I worked ith while at the BTO. Fantastic!!

Sorry its on the tilt!

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!

Scotland - The Final Days (4, 5 and 6)

On the Wednesday of our birding trip in Scotland, we went to the Moray Firth area, to try and see some of the lifers (for us) that had been lingering up there. First stop was Dingwall, where we had a look for the Ring-billed Gull. No sign of that, so we carried on along the coast.

Next stop, Alturlie Point, where there were a flock of about 150 Scaup. A bit distant for photographs, but you got great views through a scope.

We then went to Nairn harbour, where we had some distant Long-tailed Ducks, along with Knot and Turnstone but not much else. Then on to Culbin Woods, where a 2 hour walk provided us with only 1 Crested Tit and not the hoped for Scottish Crossbill. At this stage it was about 14 degrees, so I was just down to my T-shirt!!! 

Next stop was Hopeman, where an Iceland Gull had been in the pig fields. But, with the luck how it was on that day, we didn't see it, so we moved on to our last stop at Lossiemouth, where we hoped to see a Green-winged Teal that had been there. Again, no sign of that - however, there was a nice Goldeneye which gave a lovely photographing oppurtunity in the fading light.

There was a large gull flock, which we couldn't be bothered to scan! Turned out we were idiots, and there was an Iceland Gull in there! Doh! Never mind....

Day 5

On Thursday morning, we headed back to Loch Garten, as the previous day we had seen someone hand feeding the birds - a regular activity at Loch Garten. So on that morning, I decided to give it a try. To bring a long story short (after 49 out of 50 peanuts were finally eaten over 2 hours!), I didn't get the hoped for Crested Tits on my hand. However, I did get one that hoped on my foot! The only species that grabbed all of them peanuts were some cracking Coal Tits. It was a great experience!

There was also lots of common woodland species, a Great-spotted Woodpeckers and of course Crested Tits present. I was relieved that the Woodpecker didn't land on my hand - would have been a painfull experience...

We then moved away and towards the Cairngorms through a village called Boat of Garten. We had a cracking Red Deer by the side of the road...

We had noticed that there was a flooded field by the side of the road that had a few gulls on it. I had a quick scan through, but nothing of note. I then scanned the gulls that were flying around. I picked up a Herring Gull, then a Black-headed gull, and then a .................... GLAUCOUS GULL! I followed it and sure it enough it came to land on the flooded field. A great self found bird for us amateurs! It was a bit distant for the camera, but here are some record shots before it flew off.

It was then time for us to meet our guide Stuart again in the Cairngorm Mountains car park. We set out as a snow shower stopped, and already we could hear and see Red Grouse.

After quite a hike up the mountain, we saw our first Ptarmigan. It wasn't the best view, as it flew distantly over some rocks, but it was a sighting. As we moved up the mountain Cairn Gorm a bit further, I then spotted one sitting on the snow about 75 yards away. We moved up to it, and it showed incredibly well! What birds! In total, we saw 11 birds. 2 Raven were also seen...

We also got a Mountain Hare too...

After a successful hike up the mountains in some shocking weather, we were rewarded with some lovely Snow Buntings by our car - about 20 I think - love 'em!

Day 6

Friday morning, we were being taken out by the RSPB Capercaillie manager to look for - well, you guessed it - Capercaillies. He took us round a long walk through a part of a Forest, but after examining a lot of their poo - we didn't see any birds. Something good from the walk however had to be in the form of a Scottish Crossbill, singing from a tree top.

In the afternoon, we went to the Findhorn Valley, for the last part of our trip. We had been told that there was a White-tailed Eagle up there, so we thought we would go and have a look. When we arrived in the car park, a Peregrine passed through, and a couple of Ravens were about. Then, the White-tailed Eagle took to the sky, being mobbed by Ravens, before drifting back along the road and out of sight.

A bit of patience rewarded us with good views of Golden Eagle, even if the picture doesn't do it justice, and a pair of Goosander on the river.

Well, that concludes our birding trip in Scotland, and what a trip it was! Some incredible birds seen, and would love to come back again at some stage - whether I will is another matter....

Thanks for reading and Happy Birding!