5 Sea ticks + probable Stejneger's Stonechat.

The three of us head off early to Cley,it's a clear run & we are up on the beach around 7 where we find the car park packed & loads of scopes looking out over a very rough sea & strong wind making very good conditions for us to see a few sea ticks.
A long line of birders stretched along the beach trying to find any sort of shelter from the wind.
We found an old tractor to shield behind & soon the birds started to pass by.First up we see a flock of 4 Eider followed by a Little Auk  so a good start with 2 year ticks.
Then the highlight of the day when a Pomarine  Skua flies along the beach right in front of us for a great view for everybody.
This is followed by a flock of Scoter with two Velvet Scoter with them, we also needed them for a tick.
Only one more tick while on the beach when a distant Great Skua is picked up by Jimmy & he gets us onto that.
The sea is getting calmer now & the flow of birds is slow so it's off to look for the probable Stejneger's Stonechat at Salthouse. A Glaucous Gull is seen before we leave the beach.
with the car parked it's a short walk to where the Stonechat has been seen & we are onto it within minutes,a bit far off at first but came a lot closer as we watched along with a small group of people all hoping for a positive I D.of the bird.

The Stonechat

hopefully a Stejneger's

Sparrow Hawk in my garden again.

I took the decision not to go to Cornwall with Brian & Jimmy at the weekend for the Catbird & spent all day regretting that decision not helped by regular updates from the pair about what a great view they were getting of another lifer, what an idiot am I.Really pleased that they saw it after going such a long way over 650 miles round trip would have been horrible driving home if they had dipped.

Just sitting having a cuppa this morning when Jean says whats that big bird on the lawn, looking up a nice Sparrowhawk was having a Pigeon breakfast.
So camera out & got a few shots off before it took off with prey leaving behind a mass of feathers for me to clear up.

The Sparrowhawk

Tasty

The Mess

Rustic Bunting( Lifer) at Wanstead Flats

A panicking Jimmy came flying down the stairs he had just seen that there was a rare Rustic Bunting only 20 minutes away on the flats that had been found by Nick once again.
A quick call to see if Brian could get off work for a while to join us as it's a lifer for all three of us.
The car park in Centre Road was closed so we head round to Capel Road & park near to the pub.
It's a long walk up to East Copse & as we came into the clearing we could see a large group & they looked very interested with all scopes trained on one spot, when we join them it's bingo as we see the Bunting feeding in front of some burnt out trees on the ploughed up field near Long wood.
We get long superb views for near an hour.
Brian arrived but the bird had flown & he had to wait for over an hour before it came back to give him a lifer as well.
Thanks to Nick once again & really nice to see loads of local birders plus many from further afield.

Some of the group including Jimmy & Brian

The Rustic Bunting

Sunday at Minsmere

We roll up at Minsmere at first light & are soon seeing some Brambling a single Bullfinch plus Greenfinch as we walk up towards the beach.
On the way we spot 4 Red Deer in the channel drinking plus a couple of Water Rail that was nice.
The morning was rain free & warm, we had done our homework weather wise & it proved  to be a great decision.
As we look over the reed beds we could hear many Bearded Tits but never saw many despite there being no wind not many were sitting up.
A walk along the shore gets us loads of Linnets & Meadow Pipits,nothing to much on the scrape the highlight being a Spotted Redshank. & down by the sluice a couple of Dartford Warblers are calling & flying about, we are told by a Warden that they had breed here this year, we have never seen them here before, we always get them up on the heath.
A short stay in the South hide looking over Girder Pool for the Ferruginous Duck proves to be in vain as it never came out of the reeds until after we left & came out on bird guides.
So not much about & no year ticks but at least we found the sun.
The Konik ponies came close as we walked back to the car.
P S Forgot we did pick up a year tick when we heard two Yellow-browed Warblers.

Bearded Tits

Water Rail

The Konik Ponies

First light looking out at sea

Spotted Crake Wilstone Herts

A simple trip to Wilstone Reservoir See's us romp up around first light looking for the Spotted Crake

 that has been around since early September.
We spot the bird after 10 minutes in the second reed bed just by cemetery corner ,It comes out of the reeds & walks about with the Moorhens giving us great views of the bird as it goes up & down the mud in front of the reeds.

First light looking over the Reservoir

So a nice easy tick & back home before ten o'clock.

Spotted Crake

Grey Phalarope & Beluga Whale.

Jimmy & I needed to get out to do some birding so we decide to head to Bough beech in Sevenoaks Kent as a Grey Pharalope has been about for a few days, so as we need one for a tick we think we have a fair chance of seeing this one.
We set off around 6 am & arrive at a very misty Bough beech before 7 am.A scan of the large pool gets us no luck & it's over half an hour before a local birder turns up & tells us to look at a smaller pool down the road & bingo on the pool on it's own is our year tick
I don't think we would have found the bird without the fellows help as we never knew there was a smaller pool down the road so good on him.
Last Thursday my wife Jean wanted to head to Gravesend to see if we could see the Beluga Whale that had appeared in the Thames estuary some days earlier.so Jimmy comes with us as you don't get to see one of these & it's a once in a life time for us.
We park by the pub as told to do & walk over a mile along the river till we meet up with a group of around 100 people all hoping to get a look at the whale.
Didn't have to wait long before the whale swam down towards the barges & then went back up the river & repeated the same pattern every 5 minutes or so.
In all we got over twenty sighting of the whale.Let's hope it find it's way back to the sea in good health.

The Phalarope

Benny the Beluga Whale

Heron at Sevonoaks N R

Buff-breasted Sandpiper ( Lifer ) at Scotney. + real close up of a Bittern.

The three of us meet up & head to Dungeness arriving around 7.30 am, on a bright clear morning we take a drive down Galloway's, disappointingly not a lot about,just flocks of Meadow Pipit,the odd Stonechat but not much sitting up to get a nice photo off.
We pop into the reserve entrance to watch the Tree Sparrows & spot 6 Cattle Egrets over in the back field,later in the day on the way home we see 6 more at Elmley.
Popping over the road to Arc we get lucky when a Bittern lands in front of Hanson hide & walks about in full view for 10 minutes.The best & most prolonged view I have ever had of a Bittern.
Great white Egrets are showing very well all over the pool both standing & in flight,a common sight now.
The reason we came to Dunge to day is to try to find the Buff-breasted Sandpiper that would be a lifer for Jimmy & I. It's coming up to 12 0'clock now & there has been no report of the bird but we head to Scotney to try to find it.
With the car parked we walk down past the farm over the bridge & take the long walk down to the double gates.
On the way people were coming back having given up on finding the bird & it's not looking good for us.
After 20 minutes of scanning the area there is hardly any sign of a bird at all.
Then as Brian gives another scan he spots a flap of a wing & bingo we have another lifer, it's a very long way off so no photos but fairly good scope views. So a really cracking day & home in time to see us bring home the Ryder cup happy days.

Meadow Pipit at Gallaways

Just one of the Cattle Egret