Lakenheath comes up trumps.Fudge Duck & Cranes.

Arriving just after 7 am at Lakenheath RSPB, we are soon onto a male Garganey as we look out from the Washland viewpoint so a nice early year tick.
A walk along the path down to Joist hide gives us tick number 2 for the day when we see a couple of Whooper Swan in amongst a lot of Mute Swans, we see at least another two on the walk down.
A local birder named Steve is sitting on his own in the hide when we arrive & he gets us onto the Fudge Duck that has been here a few days, it is seen just behind the hide & we get very lucky with a very quick view of the duck before it disappears out of sight.
We return to the hide & see 5 Marsh Harriers & a couple of Buzzards, then another tick flies in from the left when we see a pair of Common Crane, we get a great view as they fly over the back & as they land we get to see the great wing span a great sight to see.
On the walk back we pop into the new hide but apart from a Snipe & another Marsh Harrier nothing doing today. We hear at least 2 Bittern booming but not to loud & we never got to see any on this trip.
As we drink a cuppa by the visitor centre watching the many variety of Tits & plenty of Reed Bunting coming to the feeding station a fellow walks in with a dead Barn Owl very sad to see .
The same fellow tells us that a Great-white Egret was showing by the bridge just up the road on the Norfolk side, a quick drive & we are looking over the bridge at the Egret.
A quick stop for some photos & then we head to Santon Downham , the aim is to look for a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker but as we get near to the sight we see a group of birders & we decide to stop to see if they have seen any thing of interest,as we get near to them the cry goes up Goshawk, we all get a nice view of it before it soars behind the trees & out of sight, what a bonus.
A Great-grey Shrike is also seen while here, none of us need the Shrike for a tick but always nice to see one.
On the way home we pop into the Brecks & pick out a single Stone Curlew for the last tick of the day. the weather was on the whole pretty good a bit up & down  but no rain so a good day with plenty of year ticks for all three of us.

Fudge Duck

One of the Whooper Swans

Great-white Egret