local guiding ;-)

It was nice to see a pal from Cumbria up for the day so I took Carl around some of the local haunts to gain a few year ticks and some nice site ticks too.
So started the day of at North Cove for Little owl but flippin dipped, not a good start but at least we Got the Cattle Egret which was more important. The bird wasn't in view when we arrived so we walked along the river bank when I spotted what looked like the egret flying the opposite side of the river towards the cows. Once at the cows it was clear that it was the bird as it was now feeding around the cattle. Bingo!

 

We moved onto Minsmere where we had a good ratch around watching Bitterns, Marsh Harriers plenty of Waders such as Avocets and bird of the day so far a 1st Winter Caspian Gull. We then visited a heath and managed song views of Woodlark but no Dartford.

One of Carls target bird was Black Redstart we were going to visit Shingle street but I gave Sizewell a try first and it was great to find 2 Female type birds inside the compound and pretty much straight away too.

 

Seeing as we had a selection of egrets Carl wanted to see if we could add the Great White egret to the year and day list, I knew the Hen Reedbed bird was still present although more elusive now as It was favouring the river Blyth but we had to try. We checked all the hides and it wasn't looking good. We decided to start heading back when it was great to see the Great White Egret in flight on the opposite side of the river, what a bonus and a big relief, our luck hadn't quite run out.
We finished the day on my patch which was great as we managed another great bird and one Carl was really pleased to see and hear the amazing Firecrest in Corton woods and infact we had 2 birds.
A really great day.

Yesterday on patch a few drumming Woodpeckers and a couple of Treecreepers.