A SEABIRD ON THE PATCH!!!

Before anybody gets to excited i shall come clean and admit that it was only a Kittiwake! Hardly earth shattering i know but easily the highlight of a very quiet weekend. In light of the amount of seabird shoved up the Severn Estuary perhaps not even that surprising but still a cracking June record and well received by myself and Double D on Saturday morning as it spent 10 mins on the wetlands from 7.30 before heading SE towards the Main lake never to be seen again. This is actually the 3rd record of Kittiwake for the site this year - probably a record year!

Adult Kittiwake.

The best of rest is a pretty thin list with recently fledged Common Tern and an equally new brood of 2-3 Kestrel, although i only managed this photo of Dad...

Mr Tinnunculus.

Aside from this and lots of other common stuff seeming to be getting some young of ( excellent news in light of the weather lately!) the only other notable sighting were a Buzzard E, c300 Swifts and 17 LBBG's

YEAR TICKIN

Sunday it proper pissed it down!! Got to patch early and it started brilliant with a Little Egret battling E then SE into a horrible cold wet breeze  at 5.45am ! Enthused i headed into the weather pretty sure there was more in store. I got really wet and cold and was away by half seven, missing a Greenshank that CP poached while visiting from Scotland!

It later transpired that 3 Little Egret flew N at 9.25, after trying to settle by pole 17. This was relayed to me by IB who only rang to ask where everyone was!! Everyone is either out earlier or in Suffolk or twitching!!

So to Monday. I was out early again on the patch and had very little to show for 3 hrs leg work - late spring is often grim inland!! So i folded and headed of to Blacktofts, quickly arriving to find a small groups of Avocet ticklers unsure which small brown bird to tick . The Marsh Warbler was sporadically singing and and once located showed quite well then really well, though  generally mobile - even managed to get a few Robin strokers onto it with my scope. Once they got used to ignoring the Sedgeys everyone was following the bird by the clicking, whistlisng song - Fantastic stuff! Mate showed me some great photos he got but aint got them yet so this is what i took.....

Most i.d. features are fairly clear on this shot....(if tape is playing behind you)

Called at Wintersett on the way home and sneaked a little year tick in the shape of a smashing adult summer Black Tern. Bit distant on the Top res but after driving round to the SW corner decent views were had.

So a decent 3 days! I did some painting and even tried some colour - sorry!!

It was SLIGHTLY like this!

Another one missing from Pugneys year list!

ROLLER

Made an early start to the day and was on-site by 5.30, immediately scoring the ROLLER. I just love them and was really keen to see this bird despite having previously seen 3 in Britain, including a Yorkshire bird (at South Gare a few years back). This bird was showing really well, hunting from its favoured post and feeding on insects in the surrounding plough. Great flight views and lots for the guys with good camera gear!!

A hunting Barn Owl was a nice bonus here also.

With this 'under the belt' i decided to head north to Flamborough to try find a bit of my own stuff. this did not go so well with no sign of the 'Icky' and 4 hrs of leg work providing no real migrant just padders such as Corn Bunt, Lesser Whitethroat, Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer (i don't see many!) and Red T Diver plus lots of Auks, Kitts, Gannets etc on the sea and cliffs.My early optimism and thoughts of finding a Marsh Warbler or some such finally collapsed so i headed home, still basking in a nice turquoise glow .....