2 year ticks & Turtle Dove on a nice morning at Titchwell

A 4.30 start gets us to Titchwell by 6. 30 am, the car parks were all empty & that gives us a chance to have the Turtle Dove all to ourselves.
The bird is spotted within minutes of arrival first of all it is seen high up but then flies down to feed on the gravel of the car park to give the closest view I have ever had of a Turtle Dove so a great start to our day.
Walking up to the hides with nobody about we soon pick out a couple of year ticks when a Spotted Redshank lands not to far away on the scrape, later on we are told by a recorder fellow that the bird had been coming back here from Holland for many years now.
Then 3 Little Gulls are seen to give Brian & I another tick, also seen Black & Bar-tailed Godwits, Knot, Ruff, many Avocet plus chicks, Little Tern, Marsh Harrier & 6 Spoonbill have flown in from Holkham, Common Tern & a few Med Gulls & some Bearded Tits round off a nice morning.

The Turtle Dove

Elegant Tern for lifer at Church Norton W Sussex.

Despite Brian having a bad back & not looking like he would make it today, the thought of missing out on a lifer was to much for him to take, so we meet up & head to Pagham Harbour in the hope that the Elegant Tern had hung about for another day.
We arrive at 7 am & get lucky when we get parked at the church & that is only a very short walk to join the 30 or so birders already looking across to  the Tern colony.
They soon get us onto the Tern as it flies along the fence line & then back again to land out of sight in the long grass.
This is the pattern for the next hour until it flies a bit closer to us & lands but only showing it's head but that gives us great views of it's beak.
It then takes off & flies across the front of the now much larger crowd & heads out of sight over the beach & for the next two hours it never came back.
So with a nice lifer in the bag it's off home leaving a very large crowd waiting for it's return.


                                                         

Part of the large crowd 300 or more over a few hours.

Brian's record shot

Honey Buzzard Acres Down New Forest.

Meeting up at 5.30 with Brian we make a very late decision on route to head off to the New Forest in search of Honey Buzzard.
Arriving at Acres Down around 8 o'clock we park up & join two other birders over looking the valley, there had been no sighting of the Buzzard but one of the fellows tells us that he had great views of one yesterday,so we set up the scopes & wait.
A couple of Goshawks show & a couple of Common Buzzard keep us interested, then around 10 o'clock with at least 20 people here now the cry goes up Honey Buzzard coming towards us & it was a dark colour & not the one they had yesterday,the only trouble was all three of us couldn't spot it & it had gone out of sight behind the trees.
Felt a bit miffed about that as you don't know if that is the only sight there is going to be today.
But all of a sudden we all get on the lighter one as it comes out of the clouds & we get a long view of it as it flies lower & we think it is on the way towards us when a single Goshawk decides to attack it & that goes on for quite a few minutes to give us all great scope views of both birds but it eventually sends the Buzzard away & it never returned while we were here. But we do see a low flying Peregrine which was nice.
A walk around the woods gets us a view of a Wood Warbler & a year tick when we see 2 male & a female Redstart.
 So a good decision to come here a long drive but you don't see Honey Buzzard & Goshawk that often so well worth the drive.

Corncrake at Avecote pools Warks.

Up & out at 3.15 am to head up the M1 to Avecote Pools Warks, junction 11 to 12 was shut at Dunstable so we had a 40 minute horrible detour following large lorries through the town meaning that we never arrived till around 6 am, just 3 birders were already standing at the gate at the corner of Polesworth Road & Linden Lane, the bird had been heard a few times over the last hour that they had been here.
It only took 5 minutes before we hear the Corncrake calling to give Jimmy & myself a lifer tick but unfortunately after staying 3 hours we never got to see the bird,it was calling on & off frequently but we could never quite pin down where it's call was coming from, the birders that were here spread around the field & each one of us thought the bird was just in front of them each time it called.
A bit disappointed not to have seen it but still nice to be here to hear it.
We head off to get a year tick with the Osprey at Rutland Waters.
On route we pop into Kelham Bridge in the hope of getting a Willow Tit year tick, once in the hide we discover that the feeders are empty apart from one that had fat balls in & some birds were coming into feed but we never get to see or hear any Willow Tits .
We meet up with one of the fellows that puts out the food & he tells us that he had taken a few of the feeders down a couple of weeks ago & it was a cheaper option to use the fat balls as they do not get any funding & the birds were finding natural food & so the feeders are being cleaned ready for when they are needed, good on him I say not easy to keep on using your own money & time over a long period of time & although we only get to go there once a year for the Willow Tits we always seem to meet up with him.
On now to tick the Osprey's at Rutland Waters, we  park up in the lay-by on the A6003 at Manton Bay to get ourselves great scope views of the Male & female with a couple of chicks that were visible in the nest.A long drive for me & only 2 ticks but one a lifer & you can never get enough of watching Osprey's so well pleased.

Such a long way off for my camera but a record shot.The male Osprey