Sunday 16 March 2014

Suffolk wins over the GSC

We flipped a coin and ended up in Suffolk for the day instead of driving the 265 miles in search of the Greater Spotted Cuckoo in Wales and I have to say we had a good day. Starting on the heath we bagged a year tick without leaving the car when Dartford Warbler was seen sitting on top of a bush only a few feet from where we'd parked. On the same heath I got my second year tick when a Linnet flew in. Add a couple of deer showing along side a second  DW and a decent start to the day.

Dartford Warbler

We moved on to Minsmere where we enjoyed two more year ticks when a pair of Garganey decided to rest in front of North hide along side a Spotted Redshank. Bittern and Marsh Harrier put in an appearance from the Bittern hide before we went off in search of snakes. Along the track from Bittern to Island hide we located several Adders and enjoyed a few minutes getting up close and personal with a couple of them. Barnacle Goose was added to my year list before we got lucky and found three Caspian Gulls from East hide.

Adder
Adder
We visited Walberswick in search of Yellow-legged Gulls but failed to find any...or any we recognised as our target anyway. A nice day birding in Suffolk moving the year list to 155.

A couple of gulls shots for the hell of it........





2 comments:

  1. Lovely shot of the Dartford Warbler Brian, would love to see an adder.

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  2. Thanks mike, got lucky having the warbler sitting up from the car like that.....you should try to get up to Minsmere as the Adders are "quite" easy to find on a warm sunny morning at this time of year...... Looking just off the right of the main path from Bittern hide to Island Mere you should with a little search find one or two.

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