Most enjoyable day at Dungeness & Elmley

Good Friday means Brian is off work, so the three of us are looking at Black Redstart  at Dungeness by 7.am, only the two to start with but I see 4 more later while looking by the lighthouse  garden a great start to the day for us they are not needed for a tick but a great little bird to watch.
The car is parked & it's off to look in the gorse bushes for some of the 18 Firecrest that landed the day before.
We are meet by many Firecrest & Goldcrest all feeding at the bottom of the bushes & as the day gets warmer they start to sit out a bit to give great views, we count over twenty & also get to see some more in the Lighthouse garden along with a good showing of Chiffchaff & at least two continental Coal Tit.
As we head back to the car after a good three hours watching all the small stuff  Brian picks out a
Woodcock as it flies up from just inside the power station fence & flies low along the fence line which enables us to get onto it for a good view & we needed it for a year tick so along with the Firecrest that's two ticks for the day as it turns out that is all we added for the day apart from Brian who walks the beach by the fire station & gets a Wheatear for his troubles.
 A quick drive down to the visitor centre gets us a pair of Smew & a single Great white Egret but with nothing much on the reserve we head off to Elmley.
Not been to keen on Elmley of late but Brian had been there a couple of days ago & was very happy with what was going on there, we only had time to drive the entrance track, but with a fair amount of water about we are looking at a lot of Redshank, Lapwing, many Curlew a single Snipe & then a great find as we see a Jack snipe tucked down in the grass,to think Jimmy & I spent six hours this week looking for one at Rainham, still never mind three in a week is not bad.
Many Marsh Harriers are about & we spend twenty minutes just watching them fly back & fro across the track.
Then a real bonus when we see a Short-eared Owl just sitting on the ground close by the track.
A really nice pleasant day on a warm sunny Good Friday , only two ticks but it was just a really nice day & we are not to far away from home  is another bonus for us.
                                                                           

Chiffchaff

firecrest

again

Goldcrest

Short-eared Owl

again

The great white Egret

Little Egret

Jack Snipe

Chiffchaff again

Rainham gets us Jack Snipe

Jimmy & I set off at 7. 30 am for a quick visit to rainham Marshes to see the Jack Snipe reported from Purfleet hide yesterday.

We scan the scrape from the Thames path as the reserve does not open until 9.30, we see no sign of the target but 3 Pintail & 3 Little Grebe are picked out along with many Redshank & Lapwing.
With no luck we wait for the reserve to open & meet Howard who tells us where the Snipe had been seen for the last few days, it is only a a short walk to the hide & once inside we think it will be an easy tick, 6 hours later after returning from the cafe for a cuppa we finally see 2 from the bench just a few yards down from the visitor centre on the bend.
So worth it in the end & with no walking it's a good tick, we also pick out a Spotted Redshank & at least 10 Common Snipe, 4 Dunlin fly in & land not far away from us.
                                                                 
                                                                         

Jack Snipe

At last our Little Owl shows at Roding Valley

I have been over my local fields a few times looking for the Little Owl that has been around for the last three years, the Parakeets have been flying around the Owl tree & I was worried that they had sent it away.
Then my wife Jean came back from walking our dog this morning & tells Jimmy & I that our neighbour had seen the Owl for the last two days in the usual tree by the play ground.
So without even having a cup of tea & I can tell you that never happens we are looking around the group of trees where the Owl sits.but we see no sign of the Owl, just about to give up & try again later when Jimmy thinks he may have it sitting right up against the trunk in a v shape making it really hard to see, a great spot by Jimmy as I also get on it & we get better views now that we know where it is. So really nice to know it is still about & just over the local field down my road, we have been trying a few different places looking for a Little Owl thinking our local one had done a runner & had dipped so a real bonus this morning.
Jimmy & I dipped on Monday as we went to Shut Heath Woods to look for the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker that Dave had seen over the weekend, we see many Treecreeper the odd Nuthatch a couple of flocks of Goldcrest that was nice to watch, also seen Great-spotted & Green Woodpecker some Redwing

but no sight or sound of the target bird, nice to meet Steve G again & have a talk while we are searching for the Lesser.
                                                                                 
                                                                           

Last years photo

Shut heath Goldcrest

Redwing

The Little Owl

Cranes + Bittern at Lakenheath

Meeting up with Brian at 6 am See's us head up to Lakenheath in search of the Cranes, on the way we stop off at Lackford Lakes to try for the Jack Snipe reported on Friday.
It has been seen from the first hide so no long walk,but after an hour all we pick out is a few Common Snipe, a single Kingfisher but no sign of the Jack Snipe.
So off to Lakenheath, the car park is empty on arrival, after a talk to the warden we are advised to walk the lower route as the top one was very boggy. I must say I find David in the visitor centre one of the most helpful an informative people that we come across on our trips around the reserves.
At Fen hide we have to wait a fair time before two Cranes fly over our heads & a few minutes later they fly back again but this time we see four of them, two of the Cranes come back over our heads again & the other two fly off to the right of us, what a great sight to watch such large birds fly by. Jimmy & I get a year tick when a Bittern flies past us.
Many Marsh Harrier's are seen plus one Buzzard & a Cetti's Warbler sit out in the open to give a short but clear view.
A quick look on the way home for a reported Lesser-spotted Woodpecker ends in failure but we are entertained by a couple of Grey Wagtails.

Two of the Cranes

AT Lackford Lakes

Also at Lackford

Hoopoe at last plus Little-ringed Plover

Jimmy & I set off to tick the long staying Hoopoe that is in Staffs at Hinksford G P,armed with a map from Brian who had seen the bird a couple of weeks ago.
Leaving at 5am we arrive on site at 7. 30 am after a 140 mile drive, I take a couple of wrong turns but not to bad, at first it looks bad as the target had not been reported at all yesterday & the place was very boggy with a lot of water about after yesterdays heavy rainfall.
After scanning the area for what felt like an hour Jimmy finds the bird on the ground at the bottom of the hill.
We spend the next hour with the bird & have it all to our self as well so loads of photos taken as we get very close to it & it just feeds without worrying about us being there.
We are only 4 miles away from Dudley cemetery so we go & pay our respects to one of the finest footballers that I had the pleasure to see play & was taken away from us far to early in the Munich air crash of 1958 at the age of 21, Duncan Edwards was already a great player & would have gone on to captain England and become one of the greatest players ever.
All very sad but really glad to have done it & to also pay a visit to the church of St Francis to see the stained glass window commemorating his short life.
Back to birding now as we head to Sandwell Valley rspb, just north of West Bromwich our first visit here &  we love the reserve.
As we get outside the visitor centre Jimmy picks up a tick when he gets see not 1 but 8 Bullfinch, thank god for that it's  been driving him mad & Brian has been taking the micky a bit.

In the hide that is only a short walk away we see 2 male Goosander  a pair of Goldeneye along with Oystercatcher, some Grey Wagtails & a bonus when we are put onto a very early Little-ringed Plover for a year tick for both of us.

Hoopoe

One of the Bullfinch

                                                                                

                                                                             

Lapland Bunting & Snow Bunting in Norfolk

Setting of early the boys & I head to Norfolk & arrive at Blakeney Quay around 7 o'clock, we walk up to the sea wall & head to the NT gate, Jake & 4 of his uni mates were already on site & they had walked back from further up the sea wall so we think this must be the place to wait for the Lapland Bunting to show & it's not long before a small flock of them drop down to feed on the path in front of us. They fly back & forth to give great views, we spend a good hour with them, this is the first time I have seen Lapland Bunting on the ground & this close to them only having seen them fly over head & calling before today, so really nice to see a much better looking bird than I had thought it was.We also get to see Twite, Meadow Pipit, many Reed Bunting & a single Stonechat & Skylark while here.
Cley is next on the list & we walk up the track at the east end & we leave Jimmy sitting in the new shelter half way up to the beach, he already had Snow Bunting this year so has Brian but he walks the long walk down the beach to maybe get a photo or two of the Bunting.
On the way we find a dead Porpoise that had been washed up onto the beach, not nice to see that.
The Snow Bunting are found after a 15 minute walk & Brian gets some good photos & I get a nice year tick.
A quick look for the Red-necked Grebe at Brancaster Staithe proves fruitless so I remain the only one of the trio not to tick it yet this year.
Before heading home on a very cold day we look in at Hunstanton cliffs & get a year tick as we look at a few Fulmar flying about above the beach. This was a nice day spent in Norfolk, freezing cold but we missed any rain that came down .

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Lapland Bunting

Lapland Bunting