Pectoral Sandpiper at Minsmere +Bitterns+ Little Stint

Brians back from his holiday in norfolk, so we meet up on sunday to travel the 100 miles to Minsmere in Suffolk. the target birds are Pectoral Sandpiper & a Montagu's Harrier has been reported flying over the south levels. On the way into the reserve we see 100s of Partridges running all over the road, I have never seen this many before, what a sight to see, also mixed in with them are loads of Pheasants.
We settle down in the hide over looking the south levels, but after a couple of hours we get no sign of the Harrier, there are 2 Marsh Harriers sitting in the bushes & 2 flying in front of the hide we get great views of them, one comes & sits on a Branch in the middle of the scrape, then we see a Bittern fly round the back of the scrape a nice long view of it.
Next in is a great view of a Kingfisher, it sits in the middle of the next scrape for a good few minutes, before flying off  but still giving great views.
Jimmy & I leave the hide before Brian which is not normal, we head for Island Mere hide, this is a really nice big hide & anybody who gets to sit in this hide will enjoy the experience, not to much about out of the normal, but there is a Sparrow Hawk just sitting on a branch in the middle of the scrape, it sits for a few mins before flying to another branch also in the scrape.
Brian has now caught up with us, he is also impressed with this lovely hide, we don't stay long as we need to go after the target birds.            
                                                   
We set off on a long walk down to the new Konik Pool,this is quite a long walk, but it turns out to be well worth the walk,
We see plenty of Snipe, also Red & Greenshank, 4 Ruff , a Little Egret flies in, 15 or so Spotted Redshank are seen, but no sign of the target bird, we spend a long time here but no luck , just before we go a nice Little Stint pops in  which was nice,  we head back the way we came now, when a fellow birder we had been talking to starts to wave to us, we head up the path to the next scrape & tells us the Pec had just flown in, it takes us a minute or so to get on to the bird, but then bingo we all get great views of it.


One of the Konik Ponies

 Also 2 Garganey are spotted here.             

Time to go now, the walk back is made easier by watching the lovely Konik Ponies which are roaning free along the side of the path, also we see Beaded Tits & hear Cettis Warbler as we head up to the beach for one last look for the Montagu;s.
No luck which is a shame as Brian has not got any year tick today & this is the reason he came here today.
Jimmy & I only got 1 year tick which was the Pectoral Sandpiper. Brian already had this, overall this was a really nice trip loads of Birds to see & a good laugh or two.




View from Minsmere beach

 As I am writing this blog on monday Brian has been back to go to Boyton where the Montagu's Harrier was spotted yesterday.
And this time he got to see it, I would like to have seen it as well, but I am really happy Brian has seen it today, he put's in a lot of work so Jimmy & I get  to see so much so it is nice to see him get his just rewards.