Third dip in a row trip to Landguard

Not sure where to head off to today, Yellow-browed Warblers are reported at a lot of places at the moment, so we pick out Landguard as a likely place to see one as one was reported yesterday,also we think the wind is going to be just right to bring something in off the sea.
We get both wrong as the wind is very slight & we see no sign of any Y-b Warbler, we spend a good three hours walking the site, it's a nice morning so it's no hardship to to be here enjoying the walk about.  Looking out to sea produces nothing of any note, we set about finding the target bird for the day.
Plenty of Wheatear & Linnets also many Meadow Pipits about. Two Lesser Whitethroat & one Whitethroat also seen.
Three Golden Plover give us a good view as they walk about on the sand, all very nice but we need to find our target bird now as the year ticks have dried up over the last three weeks, but as I said earlier it is not to be again today.
We hear that one has been reported at Thropeness, so off we go in search of it, but not really knowing where to look it turn out to be another dip.
Never mind there is always next time & we have had a nice morning birding.
                                                                                             

Lesser Whitethroat

                                                                                           

One off the Golden Plovers

Dipped again at Lynford Two-barred Crossbill

Jimmy gets a half day off work, so with no reports on the Lesser Shirke, we head to Lynford for another try for the Two-barred Crossbill that we have missed out on twice before.
It's 80 miles away from home , when we arrive at the Arboretum about 20 birders are already here so we think maybe they are already on the birds, but after asking we get a negative answer.
It's around 1 o'clock now, I get talking to a couple from Essex who have been here since before 8 o'clock & have not had any sighting of the target bird.
It's a beautiful afternoon so we hang around till 5 o'clock, plenty off Crossbill fly in & out of the trees one being a nice colour male, also many Siskin plus a Treecreeper that was nice.
It's another dip for us, we will give it another go later, maybe at the weekend if nothing else shows up that we need for a tick.,

More photos from the Wildlife Centre.British animals.

Polecat

Otter

Badger

Tawny Owl

Eagle Owl

Barn Owl

Otter

Snowy Owl

Bad dip in Hampshire, no Brown Shrike.

Polecat

We have a choice do we go with Brian for the Brown Shrike, or head  up to see the Lesser Shrike & maybe head to Lynford for one more look for the Two-barred Crossbill.
We decide to stick together & go for the Brown Shrike, it takes two hours & we arrive at 8 o'clock & soon meet up with some old faces, as it turns out that is all we see in the three hours that we spend here.
With nowhere near of interest to us Brian comes up with the idea to head to the British wildlife centre to get some close up photos of the animals that are there.
None of us have been here before,but we soon find out that we have made a good choice.
The first thing we see are the Red Squirrels, they have a lot of space to move about in even running up our legs & looking in our bags, we spend a long time with them.
Next it's the Stoats & Weasels we can get very close to these for some nice photos.
Then it's the turn of the polecats to show off to us,right next to them is the Badgers that show well.
Now round the next corner its the Otter pool, you can never see enough of these wonderful creatures,we spend a long time watching them play & feed.
The Pine martins are next up really great to see these running around at great speed all over the place.
Scottish wildcats are next on the list, they look very tame, but I am told that they are really nasty & give a really nasty bite if handled in the wrong way.
A display by five of the Owls brings the visit to an end, we see Snowy Owl,Eagle Owl,Barn Owl, Tawny & Long-eared owl, all very nice to watch.

Badger

Otter

Scottish Wildcat

So a really nice day after all, we dipped on the main target but this more than made up for the miss, I would tell anybody looking for a good day out to give this ago.

Weasel

Big bonus with friendly Red-backed Shrike.

We head to Landguard as we think the wind will be north  easterly & we might see some stuff passing through past the naze, when we arrive we have got the wind wrong, it turns out to be in the other direction.
We still spend a fair amount  of time here without seeing to much, just a few Wheatears,plenty of Linnets & some Greenfinches.
So we head off looking for somewhere that had something of interest to us, we end up at Abberton.
Once again not to much about just one Green sandpiper,some Ruff, eight Little Egrets,plus three Hobbies over the back of the water & two Common Buzzards also fly high,On the way back to Essex we decide to see if the Red-backed Shrike has hung about.
We arrive at the site & walk the paths not sure where to start looking for the bird, when we see four people a bit further down the path, so we head down to them, as we get close they signal to us to be quite as the bird is sitting up no more than a few feet away from them.
We get onto the Shrike for the best views any of us had ever had, a real beauty & it stays on the bush for some good photos, we have never been this close to a Shrike before,a really friendly bird this one.

Red-backed Shrike

Influx in my Garden over 60 birds in the space of a few minutes.

Looking out my garden on Sunday morning when a few birds start to land on one of the bird baths, then in the space of 10 minutes over 20 Blue Tits,10 Great Tits, 1 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Coal Tit, 2 Dunnock, 2 Robins, 1 Blackcap, 1 Chaffinch, a few Starlings & a sprinkling of Sparrows, all come in to drink, I call Jimmy to come & watch all the activity going on, also 2 Goldcrest were seen a little earlier in my fir tree.

I do get a fair amount of bird activity in my garden but I have never seen this amount at one time, also the feeders were mainly empty, they seem to have come into the garden to have a drink & a good old bath, I have two big water baths & four smaller pots just for drinking.

So this morning I went out to buy some food for them in the hope that they will keep coming back for us get some nice views of them in the future,just sitting by the window watching them gives you a really nice feeling & a really good way to start the day.