Minsmere

Thought i'd have a day around the reserve at Minsmere today, what a place, waders galore.  I won't go into a mass of detail cos it will just bore you and to be honest I can't be arsed to write it. ;-)

So in brief first wildlife of the day was a Stoat with prey, then a Southern Hawker (I think) outside the visitor centre. Click on images to view em larger

 

Onto the main reserve and I started at North Hide with 5 Green Sandpipers, along the sea wall a Green Woodpecker feeding young, then at East Hide where there were an incredible 44 Little Gulls in various plumages, also an amazing 27 Spotted Redshanks again in various plumages, a few Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling,  Black-tailed Godwit including a color ringed bird and some more Green Sandpipers.

 

 

 

 

From the next hide 7 Greenshank and another color ringed bird. Further along the sea wall a Northern Wheatear. The long walk to the new wader scrapes looked quiet on my arrival but soon hotted up with 3 Wood Sandpiper, 4 Green Sandpiper and a Hobby. The best butterfly was a Painted Lady and dragonfly Black-tailed Skimmer.

On the way back the Swallows were showing well.

On the pool behind South Hide I picked up another Wood Sandpiper and then another 4 flew over but whether these were new birds or same as before i'll never know.

I then headed back to the visitor centre for some lunch and then headed for the Island mere hide where I had some cracking views of numerous Bittern and another or the same Hobby. Finally 4 Whimbrel and 2 Bar-tailed Godwit flew over. Home by 3 what  a great day had.

 

 

Time for a beer.

Well this morning had a walk from home around Corton, the beach and the woods picking up 2 Med gulls, 3 Common Sandpipers as well as a Sandwich Tern. In the woods were a family of Green Woodpeckers a few Warblers, Tree creeper and loads of Butterflies.

After tea I nipped to Carlton Marshes which proved even better today, I had a chance to do a nice circular picking up Marsh Harrier with a gammy leg a Hobby Woohoo, and great selection of waders with 3 Greenshank, 2 Green Sandpiper, 3 fly over Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits and a nice Ruff. 15 Little Egret on site today and a color ringed Lapwing. Gulls included a Juvenile Med gull 3rd of the day and 2 cracking Barn Owls. Butterflies included this Comma, Dragonflies loads of Emperor?, Brown Hawker and shed loads of Black-tailed Skimmers.

 

My New Home

Well I'm home, well my new home Suffolk. Arrived today, red hot it is so I got unpacked had a drink and some Snap then went out to Carlton Marsh's, I didn't have a clue about where or what this place was so it was a matter of driving around till I found the place and then walking around till I found the birds. Find the birds I did a cracking little spot but I was on the wrong side I could see birders on the opposite side and they were much closer to the birds. That's for tomorrow though, and now I no. Anyway birds of interest to me were the 10 Little Egrets, Greenshank, Redshank, Common Sandpiper and a year tick in the form of 3 Green Sandpipers. My first Chinese Water deer here too. A few Grey Herons flew over noisily and a Stonechat was nice along with 2 Kestrels. A Weasel Ran across the track with a mouse What a really nice start.

Cant believe how quiet it is here too, far from the noisy road I lived next to.

 

 Little egret

Little Egret

Green Sandpiper

Common and Green Sandpiper

 

Bonaparte's Gull

Well seeing as this was going to be my last day out with Keith, we decided to head south into Lancashire for the Adult Bonaparte's Gull. We didn't leave till after lunch but we were soon on site and watching the gull, only trouble was it was a long way off so views weren't great but ok. 13 Med Gulls of various ages were evident too.
Eventually the Bonaparte's Gull disappeared out to see so we left for home.
I didn't get any shots as it was just a dot really.

Not Long now

Well just a week to go before I move to Corton in Suffolk for a month at least, ill be there to take on some Interviews and if all fails to find a job, Rach will join me very soon hopefully.

At Soddy Gap a Common Sandpiper moving through. Ive updated the species list for Soddy for the very last time... http://www.freewebs.com/blackbird33/soddygapsiteguide.htm

Soddy

First time in a long time I've visited Soddy, not much happening, Little Ringed plover put in an appearance Oyks with there young, plenty of Damselfly's around and 4 Spotted Chasers (x4).
Sedge Warblers, Willow Warblers, Whitethroats etc. etc..
Best thing of the day were 2 Moles fighting above ground just wasn't quick enough with the camera this time...

Bridled Tern part 2

Well after yesterdays very disappointing  DIP of the Bridled Tern on the Farnes, today the bird turned up at Cresswell ponds briefly but Keith and I were in the car ready to go, that was till it bugged off back high out to sea.. Damn Damn Damn... well in a sulk I said right that's it I'm not bothering.
An hour later the bird was back at Cresswell so OK OK we must give it a chance, with a bit of a  persuasive help from a call from a mate, cheers Mark ;-)
So driving at a reasonable speed we arrived on site to no news but people running towards the beach had to be a good sign, so parked up and did some running ourselves. Bingo the bird was feeding out to sea with a couple of Little Gulls and feeding by chasing the Common Terns and robbing them of there catch. What a great bird and bigger than I imagined. We watched this bird for a good 20 minutes before it flew off towards East Chevington. We waited a while to see if it would come back so did a seawatch picking up 60+ Manxies, and 2 Arctic Skuas.
The Tern wasn't coming back so we headed up to East Chevington and scanned the islands with loads of Terns present INCLUDING the Bridled Tern BINGO wow from here we had more distant but very nice views of the bird as again it hassled the other Terns and finally sat on the ground. It flew off back out to sea so we headed home much more content.
Couple of distant shots, didn't show as well as it did on the Farnes unfortunately.
What a relief!!! click pics to view full size.

 

MEGGA DIP

Keith and I made the last minuite decision to go visit the Inner Farnes for the very rare Bridled Tern
We waited all morning for the bird to show up on the rocks as it had done all week. Nothing at all. So 12 oclock comes and the wardens chuck everyone off the island so they could have there dinner, why they didn't just stagger there dinner between um we will never no. So everyone left the island and 40 minutes latter an X WARDEN apparently saw the bird on the rock but by time everyone was allowed back on it had already gone. We waited another 4 hours to nothing..What a load of Bolloxs and very unhappy birders!!!
So I did take some pics of the Arctic Tern and Puffins. Bonxie and a Manxie were the only other birds of note really.. BALLS!!!

 

This last shot is a bird many people kept calling a Roseate Tern but is just an arctic Tern.

Life change Suffolk.

Well this weekend Rach n I were off to Suffolk to camp in Kessingland to get a real feel of the place make sure we were making the right decision. Just had to do some birding too mind. So on the Wednesday night we stopped at Rachels mums, dropping of some stuff for storage and moved onto Suffolk. Well sort of, stopped in at Notts first for what seemed my first UK lifer in AGES!!! Melodious Warbler was a bird id not twitched in the UK before so as it was so close to Chesterfield I just had to go for it. Arriving on site I could hear the bird before even arriving with the other birders. It Sung its heart out but didn't really show that well, I still enjoyed the bird and company and got some record shots..

 

After my fill of this great bird it was time to head to Suffolk. We Arrived at our campsite and had a wander around the area of Kessingland etc and were very impressed. Birds from the area and the site were impressive (to me anyway). Adult Med Gull, Grey Partridge, Reed Warbler, Sedge warbler, Green Woodpecker and Lesser Whitethroat.
The rest of the time was spent looking around the area and sorting out places to work except for a couple of hours at Stumpshaw fen. Here we had a fly over Swallowtail Butterfly but never an opportunity for Photos, the weather just wasn't good enough. I did photograph a few other bits n pieces.

Common Lizard

Helophilus pendulus

Norfolk Hawker

Bee Orchid

Life Update

Well work work work and a few days when I could have been out birding, well birding with the dogs few spots around the area, Maryport, Soddy Gap and Silloth, unfortunately nothing of note really. The rest of my time has been spent doing odd jobs on the house, on the computer looking at houses, locations and Jobs in the Suffolk area... Hopefully this time next week my house will be on the Market. A start towards moving to Kessingland in Suffolk. This is why im getting some jobs sorted around the house.