Brunnich's Guillemot - Anstruther Harbour

Skegness

Spent 4 days down at Skegness with Patricia on a largely non birding trip. I still managed to sneak in a some quick visits to Frampton Marsh, Gibraltar Point & Donna Nook. Frampton had c6 Little Stints, Curlew Sand & Yellow Wagtails & Gibraltar Point had 5 Spoonbills, 6 Spotshanks & 3 Green Sands.

The weather was absolutely terrific with 29 degrees on one of the days.

Glorious Weather

Little Egret at Gibraltar Point

Jackson's Marsh at Gibraltar Point

Berlin

East Lothian

I have had a couple of trips through to East Lothian prompted by easterly winds over the last fortnight. Last weeks trip to Thorntonloch & Torness yielded nothing better than a Whitethroat. Today's trip was exclusively to Musselburgh & coincided with a high tide that had pushed lots of waders on to the scrapes.

Ruff - 1 of c10 present

 Other interesting waders included 1 Curlew Sand, 1 Greenshank, Black Tailed Godwit & Bar Tailed Godwit & Snipe.

A Red Necked Grebe was off the sea wall as well as Velvet Scoter, 2 Red Throated Diver & 1 Arctic Skua.

Barwits leaving the roost

Lots of Oystercatchers

Curlews on the move

The Swamp Thing

Arrived at Minsmere at 5:30 am after an overnight from Glasgow. The Western Purple Swamphen was soon on view on the South Pool.

1st for Britain pending BOURC acceptance

Spent the whole day at Minsmere mostly taking in the huge variety of wading birds. I counted 18 different species:

1. Oystercatcher
2. Curlew
3. Dunlin
4. Redshank
5. Ringed Plover
6. Turnstone
7. Knot
8. Lapwing
9. Black Tailed Godwit
10. Whimbrel
11. Spotted Redshank
12. Greenshank
13. Green Sandpiper
14. Common Sandpiper
15. LRP
16. Little Stint
17. Avocet
18. Stone Curlew

Little Egret in early morning sun

Other notables included Bittern, Bearded Tit, Water Rail & Green Woodpecker.

I camped overnight at Leiston (Cake & Ale) & went to Westleton Heath first thing. I managed several Dartford Warbler but could not find any Woodlark.

By 1pm I was at Frampton. I quickly found the White Rumped Sandpiper. Despite being a reasonably frequent trans atlantic visitor this was only my second ever & the 1st one was way back in the 1980's.

Black Tailed Godwit

Dunlin

Frampton really is a super place, just alive with birds. Waders in big numbers particularly Dunlin. Other highlights included 3 Yellow Wagtails, 1 Corn Bunting & finally a Kingfisher for the year.

Mull 9,10 & 11 July 16

Spent 3 days on Mull with Patricia staying in a B&B in Dervaig about 10 miles from Tobermory. The weather was a bit mixed but we made the best of it.

Black Guillemot in Oban harbour

 The ferry The ferry over produced Manx Shearwater as well as some of the commoner seabirds.

Sunday dawned dull with occasional rain but by mid afternoon the sun had come out & we got Sea Eagle & Golden Eagle at Loch Na Keal as well as Short Eared Owl.

Juvenile Wheatear at Loch na Keal

A Spotted Flycather at Salen Hotel was my first of the year.

Monday was much better weather wise & we got a Hen Harrier at Grass Point.

Tuesday we got good views of Sea Eagle & Whinchat at Dervaig.

Whinchat (part of a large family party) close to the B&B

Big Twitch Weekend 18 & 19 June 2016

With 3 lifers within 100 mile radius in Eastern England I spent 2 highly entertaining days over the weekend trying to connect with them.

Arrived at cool & blustery Titchwell c3am & slept in the car until it got light. The fresh marsh held a reasonable sized flock of Knot but no Great Knot. News came through that it was on the beach but by the time I got round the flock had flown and most birds dispersed towards Scolt Head.

  I busied myself looking at what was on offer at Titchwell including Little Gull & of course the usual stuff. With no further sign of the Great Knot I headed back into Lincolnshire for Caspian Tern. No problems here with the bird on view soon after arriving.

A brute of a Tern

I camped overnight at Stiffkey & by 7am was back at Titchwell. The Great Knot was again present on the beach & I was able to get good scope views but no pics.

By mid morning I was on to target number 3 a Little Bittern at Old Moor RSPB in south Yorkshire. 3 hours sat in Bittern hide secured a 10 second flight view. Twitching really is a mugs game.