Saturday 12 July 2014

Winged it! (12th July)

Another stupid pun for a title *sigh*

Together with Sh4rpy, Paul and Ephraim we headed for the Norfolk coast with the hope that the Stilt Sand would produce an appearance, get reported and we'd have a good chance of seeing it but with still no news by the time we reached 2/3 of the way we decided on Lakenheath instead as our destination.  This was soon abandoned and we headed for Carlton Marshes instead.  After driving a fair share longer than we had anticipated, we finally arrived at the marsh to start birding.  We connected with all 5 Wood Sandpipers that had been reported earlier (albeit rather distantly and through some heat haze) but Sh4rpy managed to pick one up at a closer range providing decent views as it fed at the waters edge.  It took a little more searching but I did eventually pick out the adult Little Gull and an adult Mediterranean Gull to boot.  My personal highlight was finding no few than 2 Norfolk Hawkers on site, one sitting nicely at the side of the path in a rather tattered state (a life tick!).

 Norfolk Hawker

Wood Sandpiper, an absolutely rubbish record shot (if I can even call it that)

Our second site tick for the day was Abberton Reservoir where we obtained decent views of the WHITE-WINGED BLACK TERN, an absolute stunner performing well in front of the visitor centre alongside a adult Black Tern!  Quite a few Yellow Wagtails were also kicking about the area and a Hare put in an appearance.  In all, a nice day out with no dipping thankfully.

 an absolute stunner!!  White-winged Black Tern (centre) with Common Tern on the left and the adult Black Tern to its right

 White-winged Black Tern

Abberton Reservoir

Thanks again to Sh4rpy for the driving!

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