Lynford Arboretum dip,on Two- bar Crossbill ,Steam trains pass the time away.

A two hour drive to Titchwell is broken up  with a look in at Lynford for the two-barred Crossbill.
When we arrive a couple of birders are looking at the Larch trees right by where we parked the car so no walking to do here we hope.
After a little time we see at least 15 Crossbills in the first tree most are female & juveniles but just one is a nice colourful male, they fly on & off the tree so we get good views of them, but Alas no sign of any two barred  amongst them.But a year tick for me with the Crossbills.
We hang about for some time & get to talk to some people that we bump into from time to time which was nice, but we give up here & head to Kelling where there has been another sighting of a two-barred.
When we get there it is quite packed with birders with the same aim as our self to see the Two-barred, we give it over two hours of our time but all we got was some Butterflies & two steam trains puffing away as they past us. somebody posted that they had seen the target at about 10, 17 am but with well over 50 birders all watching at that time at this spot & nobody else got a hint of a sight I think not.
So now it's off to Cley to look for a Wood Sandpiper & Curlew Sandpiper seen at Pat's pool.
After scanning the scrape we see no sign of the birds at all, plenty of Bl-t Godwits, Knot, plus Common & Green Sandpipers plus loads of Avocets.
With no luck looking for the targets we head off to Titchwell & head to Parrinder hide, before we get to the hide two Curlew Sandpipers are picked out by Brian, so year tick number two for the day for me & a year tick for Jimmy as well.
We see 17 Spoonbills plus a few Spotted Redshank also loads of Dunlin & Godwits plus two Little- ringed Plovers but no sign of a wood Sandpiper I need one for a tick so I will have to look somewhere else later on this week, they seem to be reported all over the place so I hope it will not be to hard to find one.
Over all a funny day, with a lot of time spent in the car going to search for a lifer for Jimmy & myself, & then just trying for a couple of year ticks, still we don't dip very often so that is the nature of the game,

No birds but the trains helped to pass the time looking for them.

Small Skipper

Small Blue

Grass snake & moths local fields

Grass snake

why not it was there

Six-spot Burnet



Old lady


A nice walk over my local nature reserve in the Roding valley on a sunny afternoon, there were many Butterflies about that were very active, but none of them wanted to settle for a photo, so I looked around & found the Grass snake & the months..
I never went over to have a look at the Little Owls today.

A trip to an undisclosed site to see a Ruddy Duck on Sunday

After a quick trip over my local field to keep an eye on the Little Owls, I shoot off to see a Ruddy Duck as I need one for a year tick.
When I arrive at the place I spot the Ruddy Duck right away, so a quick photo & a little while watching it then it's back home to watch the Golf & cricket, come on England.

Ruddy Duck. Please don't shoot me

Love

Day at Titchwell after Black Scoter

Early start for the 2 hour trip to Titchwell, we arrive at 8 o'clock the weather is not looking to good a little bit of rain & not to bright.
We head up to the hides to wait for the slight rain to stop, while in the hide I get another year tick when we spot 6 Spoonbill, a couple of young being feed are in the group.
Spotted Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit,plenty of Ruff about in various colour, also common Sandpiper,1 Green Sandpiper, some Oyster catchers, many many Avocets all over the scrape.

In amongst the Dunlin we spot 1 little Stint, that is quite easy to spot when they all fly up & land again the size is the give away.
Also seen a juvenile L-R-Plover, we spend a good 3 hours looking out over the scrape, it is packed with birds all morning, the weather is not going to get any better it seems, so we head up to the beach to look for the Black Scoter  that has been reported yesterday, talking to people here it seems to be a doubt if it is as reported, but we give it a go just in case it turns out to be right.
After about an hour there is no sign of it, only 1 Common Scoter is seen,so if it turns out to be a  Black Scoter when its seen we missed it.
A few Sandling & Oyster catchers plus some Bar-tailed Godwits but not much about on a grey day at the coast.                                                                          

Spoonbill

Juvenile L R Plover

A friend in the car park

update on the little Owl

Back over my local field again this morning to see if the baby Owls could be seen.
It's just 8 o'clock & as soon as I get over there I see the Little Owl sitting out on a branch, I get some good photos of the bird, then I scan the trees for any sign of  the babies, not to long to wait before I pick out 2 little ones flapping about in the tree.
I take a photo of one but it has its back to me, its nice to know that the Owls have breed again this year.

one of the babies

I only saw 2 babies today but Brian had already been over here today & Jean meet him over by the Owls & he said he had seen 4 birds.
Also seen 5 Green Woodpeckers feeding on the ground with some Magpies, plus 2 more calling from over the other side of the ditch.
Just 1 Ring-necked Parakeet, I hope they don't scare the Owls away like they did last year.

Little Owl  

Pectoral Sandpiper at Rainham marsh

Back from seeing the Little Owl I make a phone call to see if Brian wants to come over to Rainham for the Pectoral Sandpiper, it's been reported already today, 30 minutes later all three of us are walking down the path to Averly pool, when we arrive many faces that we know are already here.
Everybody was onto  the bird so it was easy for us to get onto the bird without any trouble, it's on the move so we get really good views of it, this is a year tick for us, not been out for a couple of weeks now so nice to get the list on the move again.
The bird is a long way off so no photo this time, I do get a photo of a Marsh Frog as we walk back to the car.

Marsh Frog

Little Owl comes back.

My wife came back from the field after walking the dog at 8 o'clock this morning, she tells me the Owl was back over our local field at Roding valley fields.
It has not been seen since last year, when it sat on the roof across the road from me all day & nested in the tree just behind the houses.
The Parakeets took over the tree & we thought that was the last we would see of the Owl, so a right bonus to have it back again.
We go over to see if we can find it, it's moved a couple of hundred yards down the field by the children's playground, we see droppings & hear what we think are baby Owls in the big tree by the swings.
Then we see the Owl sitting out enjoying the warm morning sun really nice to see it back to be our local star again for another year, will go back for the next few days keeping an eye open for any of the babies that may be out of the nest soon.