Dotterel at Therfield Herts

An afternoon trip up the A10 after Jimmy had seen that some Dotterel's had been reported as being seen in a large bare field between Reed End & Therfield in Hertfordshire, it's about 35 miles away & we see all kinds of weather on the way sun, rain, hail & when we arrive & walk down to the corner of the field it's so cold.
Someone had put a grid reference on bird guides & that was a great help to us as the sat nav was finding it hard to get near the right place.
We turn up Mill Lane & drive to the end & park up, it's a short walk through a gap in the hedge that opened up onto a large rutted field, we see a couple of birders in the far corner of the field & along with two brothers we head down to them,really glad that they had the birds in sight & we are onto them for distant but great scope views of 2 Males & 2 really great looking female Dotterel.
By now we are a group of 8 people standing in freezing cold weather.
We see 4 Grey Partridge & flocks of Yellow Hammer. So a nice little easy trip for a good year tick.



                                                     

Way off shot of 2 of the Dotterel

Savi's Warbler + 3 year ticks

Starting out a bit later than usual we are not helped by the closure of the A12 between Chelmsford & Colchester so we have to use the M11 then cross the A14 putting at least another half hour on the trip.
Once we arrive at Minsmere it's straight down to Island Mere Hide where we hear the Savi's reeling away many times over the next hour to give us all a good year tick.
The reed beds are alive with Bearded Tits plus Sedge, Cetti's & Reed Warbler the Reed gives us a  year tick.
Booming Bitterns are calling out but no sighting today, not that we went looking for them.
Round by the Adder trail we watch Common Whitethroat, more Cetti's & Chiffchaff popping from tree to tree. While standing here 3 Spoonbill fly over head but don't land,a Sprawk & a single Buzzard fly past & we get some good displays from many Marsh Harriers.
A walk around the whole of Minsmere reserve only gets us foot acre so we set off to Boyton Marsh to look for the Wood Sandpiper that has been reported.
A walk up to the Estuary wall where we meet a lone local birder who gets us onto a couple of Common Cranes that he had been waiting for them to come he's way.
He tells us that we are in the wrong place to see the Sandpiper & kindly directs us to Hollesley Marshes not to far away round by the prison.
At the viewing platform we have to wait for 20 minutes before the Wood Sandpiper drops onto a small Island not to far from us on the scrape.
 Also we get to see another 3 Whimbrel as they drop into the field at the side of us, we had seen 8 while at Boyton to get us the fourth tick of the day. Being out all day means we missed watching the Arsenal at Wembley & had to listen to it on the radio as we drive home, how hard was that & where did that performance come from.
                                                 
                                                                               

Savi's Warbler

Whimbrel

Wood Sandpiper

Nightingale & Grasshopper Warbler at Lea Valley

Just Jimmy & I take a quick trip over Fishers Green looking for Whitethroat & Nightingale & maybe Grasshopper Warbler.
We park up & take the path towards the sub station, as we get to the start by the gate we hear a very short burst of song of a Nightingale, it's only a couple of notes but it tells us that it's here.
A walk  round to the  scrub in search of any new arrivals gets us a reeling Grasshopper
Warbler, we hear it on & off over the next 10 minutes but never got to see any sign of it.unfortunately there is nothing else seen over the short time we are here.
With hardly anything moving about we head back to the car & when we reach the gate the Nightingale is singing away for a much longer burst of song, such a lovely song to listen to. We always look forward to hearing the first Nightingale over here, given another week there will be a lot more about so we will be back to hopefully see some & hear a lot more singing.
So another couple of ticks for the year & only 20 minutes from home.



                                                               

Nightingale ( last years photo )

Ring Ouzels East Mersea.

Once again we meet up with Brian at 5am not knowing where to go.We decide on Landguard because it's not to far & a Black Redstart has been seen most days over the last week & we seem to be finding it hard to find one having dipped a few times at Dungeness & Landguard over the last few weeks.
On arrival it is a lot colder than we anticipated, wrapped up against the wind we walk the grass & see at least 20 Wheatear walking about, a few Ringed Plover show & we manage to pick out a single Little ringed Plover for a year tick.
After walking & searching for a fair while we see no sign of the Redstart & we make the decision to go to Mersea Island where two Ring Ouzels have been reported again today.
Once on the Island we drive down East Mersea Rd till we reach the Golf house & head to the sea wall & walk along to the second Paddock.
A small group tell us that the Ouzels have been about but had flown into the trees at the back of the field, it's half an hour before they return, we then spend the next 3 hours watching them come & go into the Paddock.
Our first Yellow Wagtail & Swallow give us another two year ticks while here.
Before heading home we pay a quick visit to Abberton but apart from seeing another Little ringed Plover not to much about. Off home now with four ticks in the bag.


                                                           

Yellow Wagtail

Mersea Island Ouzel

Stone Curlew +1st Cuckoo+ Woodlark

Not to sure where to go when we set off, all we know is we don't want to go to far.

Sudbury to look for the White Stork is decided on. We find the paddock on Joe's road Sackers Green & spend an hour searching but we don't see any sign of the bird, so it's off to see if we can find any Stone Curlew at Cavenham Heath & we know we will get a year tick as we always find Woodlark there.

It takes only five minutes to spot two Stone Curlew out in the open to get great scope views of this funny bird.

As I said a few Woodlark are seen on both sides of the track a year tick for Jimmy & I.

On parking up we walk over the heath & find loads of Willow Warbler plus a few Stonechat & more Woodlark.

Then as we walk about in the sunshine we hear our first Cuckoo of the year & then get to see the bird not far away from us sitting in a tree always nice to see.

Santon Downham next up in search of Lesser- spotted Woodpecker, we hear a couple calling from both sides of the river but get no sighting of the bird but I do get a tick when a flock of Redpoll fly over. Nice to see Steve Grimwade & his party while here.

                                                             

Cuckoo

Woodlark

Grey Partridge

Cuckoo

Black-winged Stilt at Vange Marsh RSPB

Having missed last weeks Stilts at Bowers & Vange Jimmy & I are pleased to see that 4 Black-Winged Stilts are reported at Vange this morning & we head off straight away.
It's only around 30 miles from home & we get a nice clear run so we are soon looking at another year tick when we pick them out within minutes of arrival.
There are 4 birds here but we only picked out 2 of them as the other two are round the bend we are told by some other birders.
Jimmy also picks out 2 Common Snipe & a Jack Snipe not needed for a tick but always nice to see one bobbing away. So a nice start to the weekend for us a real bonus.

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Six ticks & good day at Dungeness.

On the way to Dungeness by 5am See's us set off in fine weather but as we cross the bridge & head into Kent it gets a bit foggy & it hangs around till around 8 am, so we delay going up to the beach & drive around & pick out our first Wheatear of the year & a pair of Raven give us another year tick by the moat but we get no sign of any Black Redstart.
With the sun now burning of the fog it's up to the beach where we soon pick out a few Sandwich Tern & Brian gets us on a single Common Tern a real good spot that one among the hundreds of Gulls over the patch.Many Porpoise show with the sea being so calm it was easy to spot them as they broke surface.
A drive to New Diggings gets jimmy & I a year tick when we spot a pair of Black-necked Grebe.A single Great-white Egret is spotted before we head down to the visitor centre stopping on the way to get another look at the long staying Ring-necked Duck in the pool by the farm, on the drive down we hear our first Sedge Warbler & then see one flutter up for a sighting we hear more as the day goes on.
A quick look over the dipping pool gets us another look at the Long-eared Owl before it's off to Elmley to finish off the day.      
                                             

Long-eared Owl

The Ring-necked duck