Black-browed Albatross at Bempton cliffs. ( what a beauty )

A mad idea from Brian to leave home at 12 o'clock and drive 4 hours up to Bempton Cliffs for a lifer is agreed by Jimmy and myself.   As mad as it is you don't get to see an Albatross every week, and it is always a pleasure to visit this fantastic reserve.  We arrive just after 4 am to find the car parks almost full, there must be over 300 birders already lining the cliffs, so full of hope that the bird is still around and that people could get us onto it straight away is a pipe dream as we are told the bird had not been seen leaving the roost site on the cliff and people had been on site since 3 am and there was no sign of it anywhere.

The weather is horrible, cold, windy, drizzly & no bird not a great start to the day.

It gets to 7 am and the mood is not good all around the now very large twitch, then those fantastic words are heard when a birder shouts  "there it is" everybody is now on the move to get to see it.

My first sight of it is as it flies around with the Gannets and then heads straight towards us, what a great sight, it was a lot harder to pick out than we thought it would be as it blended in with the Gannets until we get to see the black wings & the head size in better light.  

Over the next few hours, we get some great views of the Albatross as it flies up and down the cliffs and then lands on the cliff face to give us wonderful scope views.

As you would expect the place is now buzzing and we see a few people that we know and a few faces that we bump into at twitches like this to make this a great decision to come all this way, just the long drive home now but well worth it to see this fantastic lifer.

Black-browed Albatross

Roller in Suffolk.

 As usual, Brian had been to see the Roller on Wednesday, Jimmy & myself were hoping the bird would hang about till we could get there.

Thursday was a no-go for us but after seeing the bird was still about on Friday we are keen to go, a text from Brian tells us that he is keen to see the bird again so he will drive us.

A bonus again for us is when Robert can come with us as he needs it for a lifer.

It's a late start around 10 o'clock but it's only an hour before we are parking luckily we find a sport in a grass lay-by on the A1101 a very dangerous road for bird watching.

All we have to do is cross the road & we are onto the Roller as it sits on a distance fence post.

 It then gives us a wonderful display as it flies up & down the fence line, every few minutes it would land high on a bush before dropping to the ground & it came back up with a massive worm in its beak.

The closest view of the morning is when the Roller flies up onto the wires & poeses for the cameras that had gathered. What a cracking looking bird & only an hour from home & to have Robert with us to get him a lifer is a great bonus for us all.

Beautiful.

The first view we had of the Roller.

 

Another 

Bee Eaters at Breydon Water Norfolk.

A late call from Brian gets us heading off to Norfolk for the Bee-eaters at Breydon Water. It's a 2-hour drive to Great Yarmouth before we park & at Gapton hall we are off towards the allotments. We had been told on the way down the track that the birds had gone missing. Unperturbed we head on & meet up with some fellow birders & it was one-off them that put us onto a single Bee-eater in the distance, so we have a year tick but want more.  It's back in the car & head back to the rugby club car park & once parked we are off down to the farm & that was a great decision as we get stunning views of 9 beautiful Bee-eaters.   It was the only tick of the day but what a great one.

4 of the 9 birds seen.

  

Another 2,  beautiful

  

A few days out birding

Spurn and Bempton Cliffs 

Our first trip was up to Kilnsea for a lifer in the Eastern subalpine Warbler. It took us a little over 4 hours and as we drove along the road to park at Spurn we got great views of a Purple Heron as it flies over our car and lands just behind us, we find a place to pull over and pick it out again as it is chased off by a Grey Heron and lands at a distance, so a nice year tick to start the day. We park up and head straight out to the point in search of the Warbler. It is a long walk along the beach and then head out to the point, people walking back tell us that there is no sign of the bird but we walk on.  A couple of hours later along with most of the other birders we give up and head back having dipped on the lifer again. We pick up a couple of year ticks on the way back but a real disappointment. We decide to head off to a favorite reserve of ours about 40 miles away, Bempton cliffs.

On arrival, we find the place is packed with people and as usual birds. We pick up a year tick within minutes as we see many Tree Sparrows flying around the bushes by the car park.

Looking over the cliffs from the viewing platform gets us another tick as a couple of Puffins are resting on the rocks. The place is alive with Guillemots, Razorbills. Fulmars, Kittiwakes, and of course the wonderful sight of the many Gannets that they have there.

Jimmy and I get a bonus when a Barn Owl shows when it comes out of a nesting box that they have there, Barn Owl in a normal year is one of the first birds we see as we start our year list but not being able to travel for most of the year anything seen now is a bonus.

On the long trip home we stop off at Rutland Water and tick a pair of Ospreys as they feed the chicks that were visible to us.

Baldock, Hertfordshire and The Brecks

A few days later we are off very early in the morning to Baldock to tick a calling Quail, it took a good hour before we get to hear the bird but another good year tick. 

We had already planned that evening to travel to the Brecks, leaving home around 8 o'clock we arrived in the forest just after 9pm a bonus for us is that Robert another of my sons has come with us. After around an hour, we start to hear the first call of Tawny Owl for a year tick and then a few Woodcock fly around for another tick, then it's the turn of Nightjars to start calling then some wing clapping, soon followed by several good sightings of a couple of birds in flight as they fly over our heads. Another good visit here as we leave around 11o'clock with Robert having picked up 2 life ticks.

Dungeness and Oare Marshes

Next up we head off to our first visit of the year to Dungeness that in its self is unbelievable as it's a place we go to on a regular basis It's a misty old morning when we arrive around 7 o'clock, a look for the long-staying Glossy Ibis is our starting point and it is seen very easy as it feeds but not great views as we have to pick it out through the mist. As the sun starts to burn the mist off we find ourselves on the path heading down to the reserve with a few other birders in the hope of finding the reported Collared Pratincole. It's not looking good for us despite being told that it had been seen very late the night before. Then we get lucky when a warden drives up and tells us he has just seen two birds 100 yards along the track. We all rush down there and pick out 2 flying around the field, over the next two hours we have great views of the two birds, and unbelievably they are joined by a third bird. a real good year tick a cracking bird. A quick trip up to the beach is a waste of time as it is still so misty we could not see much beyond the beach but Jimmy and I get a bonus when a Sandwich Tern flies along the beach line for another tick.

One of the Collared Pratincoles at Dungeness

With not much to hang about for we head off home but pop into Oare marshes as we nearly always do. We scan over the trees for Turtle Dove but without any luck but that changes when a local birder turns up and gets us on one right over the back at a long distance away but good scope views. He also tells us that a male Eider could be seen without having to walk too far, so just after going up the ramp and walking a short distance, we can see the Eider in the scope.

Ham Wall

Brian had got a life tick a River Warbler last week at Ham Wall in Somerset when we could not go with him as Jimmy had issues with his covid jab. The bird has hung around all week and Brian offered to drive us there in the hope it was still there, it is a long old trip so really appreciated him doing that for us. As we near the reserve it comes on the pager that the Warbler was still present, it's not a long walk before we join around maybe 50 birders already there and the bird could be heard reeling way before we reach them.  Another lifer for us both as the bird is sitting no more than a few feet away from us and over the next two hours it only moves a few meters away from that spot, what a great tick,  Bittern's are heard on and off all the time spent here and we get to see 2 as they fly over for another year tick.

 

To break the journey home we call into Thursley Common and it is now a very hot day so we don't intend to walk too far. Within five minutes we are seeing Dartford Warbler as they are in good numbers here. We look for Tree Pipit next but as we won't be walking far none are seen. Next up the search is on for Redstart and after a walk longer than we wanted we see a male high up in the the tree. It had taken us a while to find the Redstart so time to head home but just before we reach the car a male Redstart is spotted sat on a low branch to give a good view and a Woodlark was seen walking about just under it. So a great few days with one lifer and a good few year ticks catching up on what we have not been able to do for so long due to covid.

Brian and Jimmy at the River Warbler Twitch

Lifer River Warbler

The River Warbler again.