Sunday 25 October 2015

Siberian Stonechat Caister and a Rough Legged Buzzard at Holland Haven

After connecting with a couple of Short-eared Owls at Rainham last night and having two birds deciding to sit about ten feet from me I really regretted not taking the camera with me so I headed back this morning but the birds could obviously see that I was now holding said camera so decided to stay well away. After a while  I decided to give up on the plan and instead head up the A12 to twitch the Siberian Stonechat that was spending some time on the golf course at Caister. After collecting the Jims and steaming through the 124 miles we pulled into the beach road car park at the Lifeboat Station and walked the 500 yards through the dunes. A small twitch of around thirty odd people was in progress but nobody had the bird on our arrival then a flash of the orange rump had me calling it and the group were quickly scampering along the path to enjoy decent views of the bird sitting on the fence line before it decided to head back into the brambles to an area it used to launch itself from at every passing insect. We watched for a couple of hours before heading back down the A12 to Holland Haven.

Siberian Stonechat at Caister on sea
Our target here was the rather showy juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard but my attention was somewhat distracted by the Short-eared Owls hunting over the marsh. I took a brief scope view of the Rough-leg sitting in a bush and then set about trying to capture a reasonable image of one or two Shorties.

Short-eared Owl at Holland Haven CP
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Short-eared Owl

A cracking and memorable day in the company of some great birds moving the life list to 364 and the year list to 266

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