Great day at Abberton on Friday followed by a day in East Anglia on Saturday.

What a great day we had at Abberton Reservoirs on Friday, a Green winged Teal had been seen over the last few days so that was the main reason for the visit.

We do find the Teal but it took us a few hours to pin it down but a nice looking bird so well worth braving the cold & rain to look for it.

The Ring neck Duck also proved hard to find but that was found at Layer Bretton Causeway just before setting off for home,a Kingfisher gives us another tick.

My first Rook of the year was seen & a real shock when we see a single Swallow flying up & down the edge of the Reservoir frantically seeking food.

Many Goosander are seen along with Red head Smew & a nice male Greater  Scaup, & all really good year ticks.
Up by Billets farm our first Stonechat of the year is ticked along with Skylark.
Round to the church we get a real bonus when both the Black-throated Diver & Green wing Teal are seen also a flock of Corn Buntings & a Male & female Merlin show. So despite a gloomy rainy sort of day a nice year tick total.
On Saturday we set out with a plan & set off for the East Anglia heading first to Buckenham Marshes
In Norfolk where we tick the Taiga bean Geese that had not moved away from where we saw them before xmas.
Next stop is Ludham, a large flock of Golden Plover are seen as we arrive followed from a distance
by both Bewick & Whooper Swans.Onto Acle where we find a large number of Common Cranes.
So  off to a good start. Eccles-on Sea next for the Desert Wheatear.With the car parked it's a fair walk along the beach before we arrive to join a group who had the bird pinned down on the sea wall.
A real good tick I think we have only seen 3 before today.
After spending some time with the Wheatear it's a long drive to the next site Hollesley for another look at the Siberian Stonechat that we saw before the new year.
Just outside the car park a Peregrine Falcon sits not far away perched in a tree, the place is alive with
Tundra Bean,White Fronted,Pink Footed, Brent,Greylag,just everywhere you looked was Geese.
Once again it's a long walk for these old legs, but the rewards are great when the Siberian Stonechat
is spotted on arrival.
Kittiwake & Common Guillemot also ticked while here.
We finish a very good day of birding at 5 locations when we spot a Short-eared Owl to round the trip off. 116 bird ticks in 3 birding trips feels like a good return for the effort put in .

The Siberian Stonechat

again

The Desert Wheatear

Again

Whooper & Bewicks Swans at Ludham

Off we go again.not a bad start for 2020

The day we look forward to, as we set off on a new birding year. This year we decide to head off to Norfolk as we seem to see more birds there than Kent.
It's a 5 am start & we arrive just after 8 am at Sedgeford  to find only one other birder there.
It's a short walk down to some dung heaps where we only have to wait 10 minutes before the best tick of the day is seen when the Alasan blue head Eastern yellow Wagtail shows well while here Fieldfare & a few easy ticks are seen.,we are joined by a lot more birders before we leave to set off on a day to see as many birds as we can.
So a good start to the  year. we pop into Brancaster Staithe on the way to Holkham it gives us a few ticks Brent Geese,Oystercatcher,Black & Bar tailed Godwits, Gadwall,Wigeon,Redshank,Dunlin & Turnstone.
On to Holkham to find it packed out with no parking spaces & people just everywhere enjoying a new year walk,this place is so popular.
A walk down to the roped off area where we soon spot the Shore larks & a large flock of Snow Buntings are seen. A quick look out to sea gets us Red-breasted Merganser,Red-throated Diver,Long tailed Duck,Goldeneye,& just hundreds of Scoters with a few Velvet there as well.
An easy tick at Wells when the Rough-legged Buzzard is seen on a tree in front of a couple of sheds.
At Burnham it's White fronted Geese & Cattle Egret.
Passing through Docking a Ringtail Hen harrier shows along with a couple of Redkites on the ground for a cracking view of them.
Choseley next where we get a couple of Tundra Bean Geese along with a large flock of Pinkfoot.
Now we pop into Titchwell,it's a bit of a let down as the water levels on the pools was very high so not much bird life about there.
A walk up to the beach gets us a nice Slav Grebe on the sea & on the way to the beach a Spotted Redshank gives us a tick.
Just enough time to pop into Thornham  for a flock of Twite & then we head on to Hunstanton for the last tick of the day when a few Fulmar fly along the cliff top.
Not a bad start to the new year with 90 year ticks.

The Eastern yellow Wagtail at Sedgeford 

A couple of a few Grey Partridge we saw.

Black-throated Thrush at Whipsnade ( lifer )

With no news of the Whipsnade Thrush on Thursday we thought we had lost our chance of a good lifer not far from home.
With all the election stuff on the television on Friday we never took a lot of notice of bird news until later in the day when we saw that the bird had been seen on & off all day, it's now to late to go, so we decide to just get up & go on Saturday morning in the hope that it had stayed around.
As we pull into the car park lots of birding pals are heading towards the Zoo entrance.

After the Zoo fee is payed we head down to the pig enclosure & another lifer is ticked within minutes.The Black-throated Thrush is first seen in a well stocked berry bush & then drops down into the pig pen for a few minutes before flying off over the cafe calling as it went before landing on top of a large tree with a  bare branch at the top of it giving great scope views before flying a long way out of sight.
It's a grey old day & now for the next hour the rain gets heavy, so the crowd head for cover.
Brian breaks cover as the rain starts to ease off & head off over a foot bridge & gives us a call to inform us that he had relocated the bird,Jimmy & I pass on the information to the now large group of birders some had not seen the bird yet so a mad chase is on as they all scramble over the bridge & are all rewarded as Brian still has the bird in view. It's in a distant berry bush but  did drop down to drink
from a distant puddle for a short time before going out of sight not to be seen again for the time we stayed here.We spend a couple of hours  watching the Zoo animals before heading off for home after a nice twitch with many birding  friends.

The Black-throated Thrush

Just a few of the zoo animals as we walked around

White Rhino

Wolverine

A Red Panda

Brian's 300th year tick at last.plus 3 ticks for me.

It was a long time coming but we were both with Brian to congratulate him on ticking he's first 300 year ticks today.
The bird was a Siberian Stonechat that we went to Hollesley Marshes to find. We drive down by the prison & park in the reserve car park,it's a wet muddy walk that takes us 20 minutes or so before we spot the target bird flitting about in the reeds not far away from us & we get great views as was fitting for a milestone bird.
It's off to Waxham for the Red-breasted Flycatcher but on arrival we meet a fellow birder who tells us the bird had not been seen at all today & he & fellow birders had been searching for a few hours without any sign. we decide not to waste any time looking as we had already dipped on the way at Winterton  where we thought it would be rude not to have a look for the  Eagle Owl as we are so close we didn't find it but had to have a look.
On to Buckenham now after a tip off as where to look for the Taiga Bean Geese.
The car is parked by the railway crossing & we find the Taiga Geese a long way away just after we cross the crossing, 3 Geese are seen in the far corner of the field along the railway line.
A two tick day turns into three when on the way home in the Brecks we finally get to see a male Golden Pheasant after we had looked a few times before & failed to see any.
So a really good day getting 3 year ticks for both Jimmy & I & a big day for Brian with his 300 up.

The 300th Bird

The Siberian Stonechat

Glossy Ibis at Thornham.

After a horrible drive that took us nearly 3 hours with road closures & rain, we arrive at Thornham in Norfolk  in search of the Ibis reported yesterday.
It only takes us 5 minutes after we leave the car park before we find the target bird for a year tick for all three of us.
The Glossy Ibis is feeding not to far away but it is a a shame that the weather is nasty & the light is bad but it's another good year tick.
We head off towards Holkham in search of the flock of Pink footed Geese in the hope that the Lesser-white fronted Goose was still with them.
On the way we stop off for another look at the Rough-legged Buzzard that we saw last week.
We pull up to find Graham & Geoff already have the Buzzard in view so no work needed as we scope the bird in a distant tree.
The next 3 hours are spent searching for the White-front. A large flock of Pink foot are seen & followed by us but although we saw them land we can't get near enough to scope them.
A Black-throated Diver is reported in the channel by the car park at Wells so it's off to have a look, but when we get there we find it's a Red-throated diver but still nice to see up close.
So a funny sort of day with all of us just getting the one year tick leaving Brian one short of the 300 year ticks that will be the first for him.

Little Bittern & only 20 minutes from home.

What a really lucky tick. A text from Brian around 2 o'clock See's us picking him up & flying up the A10 to Amwell  for the Little Bittern that had been reported a couple of times on bird news.
We arrive without hitting any traffic & head for the view point, only 2 birders here but they point us in the right direction.It's a longer walk then we anticipated but not to long & we are soon standing with a small group & put onto the Bittern the other side of the river sitting in a tree above a large concrete block.
We get a great view as it sat in the tree,but we soon realise how lucky we have been when after 5 minutes the bird drops down from the tree & then flies up & away out of view not to return for the next hour that we stayed looking for it.
The only down side of the trip was really bad traffic coming away from Amwell & then only a mile from home in Buckhurst hill it takes us over an hour to reach my house because the traffic lights had gone on the blink.
But a small price to pay for another really good year tick. Year total now up to ( 276 ).

The Amwell Little  Bittern

The Little Bittern

Isabelline Wheatear. at Cley.

We have a limited time to visit Cley in Norfolk today,with Brian needing to be home by lunch time.
So we arrive at Arnold's marsh around first light in search of the Isabelline Wheatear.
Only a few birders about on a really cold windy morning,it takes us a good hour of searching before the target bird shows.
At first it is seen sitting on a fence post but not for long as it flies off to sit on the ridge over looking the sea.
Great scope views as it sits out in good light,then it's off again & does the same pattern over the next hour that we watch it.
As we found the Wheatear fairly quickly we have enough time to head to Wells to get really great flight views of a Rough - legged Buzzard, we don't need this for a tick but always worth giving up some time to watch these fabulous birds.
So a short visit but a really enjoyable one.

Isabelline Wheatear

Rough - legged Buzzard