A great weekend trip to York to see Danny. We saw a bird of prey display in a park, hired out a boat, went to some good pubs and finished with an Indian meal. Sunday morning we popped into the National Railway Museum.
Monthly Archives: May 2015
Blacktoft Sands RSPB
Stopped off at Blacktoft Sands on the way to York to see Danny. The star birds here at the moment are a pair of Montagu’s Harrier which I was hoping to see. After a wait of about an hour and a quarter I spotted the pair over the reedbed although quite distant. They stayed on view for 10 minutes or more. The male was seen to mob a Marsh Harrier on a number of occasions. There were a lot of Marsh Harriers and Tree Sparrows around the reserve.
Montagu’s Harrier
Fox
Tree Sparrow
New Forest
A day out in the New Forest yesterday. I had hoped to see a Honey Buzzard but when I arrived at Acres Down the two people there had seen one displaying and overhead about 10 minutes before my arrival at 9am. There were frequent sightings of Goshawk during the next 3 hours but no further sign of any Honey Buzzard. I did manage to see a couple of Wood Warblers and a few Dartford Warblers at other sites.
Wood Warbler
A very rubbish, distant and heavily cropped shot of a Goshawk.
Norfolk
Best birds today in a trip to Norfolk were 12+ Dotterel near Choseley Drying Barns, Temminck’s Stint at Titchwell RSPB and Displaying Stone Curlew at Weeting Heath. Unfortunately they were not the best pictures I took as they were quite distant.
Dotterel
Temminick’s Stint
Stone Curlew
Little Tern
Swifts
Goldfinch
Reed Bunting
Slaves at the London Scala
Good night out seeing SLAVES. They had been on Radio 1 Live Lounge during the day. It was like going back to 1977 again. Check out the videos below. The support group was Wonk Unit.
Nightingale
Little Paxton Gravel Pits is one of the best place to see Nightingales. They can be easy to hear but a lot harder to see. It took a while but eventually one came out in the open for a few seconds. Another difficult bird to see but easy to hear is Cetti’s Warbler. Here is a rather poor picture of one from today at Marston Vale Country Park. I also managed a few shots of Common Whitethroat here.
Nightingale
Cetti’s Warbler
Common Whitethroat
**MEGA** Hudsonian Godwit
A Hudsonian Godwit was found at Shapwick Heath NR last Saturday whilst I was at Southend for the football. I was going to see it the next day but it was not reported that day or for the next few days. It was however seen again a few days later. I decide to go for it early Saturday morning and was hoping to get back in time for Luton’s last game off the season. Left at 3.30am Saturday morning arriving at Shapwick Heath just after 6.30 am. Luckily the bird was present when I arrived. I also managed to see Great White Egret, Bittern, Cetti’s Warbler, Garganey and Kingfisher. I was back in time to be down the pub by 12.30 and Luton beat Stevenage 2-0. Here are a few poor record shots of the bird, it was nearly always quite distant in dull conditions.
Great White Egret
