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Lesser Whitethroat |
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Marsh Frog |
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Sedge Warbler |
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Lesser Whitethroat |
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Marsh Frog |
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Sedge Warbler |
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The gate overlooking Upper Ray Meadow |
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Common Tern |
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Spotted Flycatcher |
I found myself with a free day at last so arranged to take Jim to Minsmere for the day.
The walk out gave good views of several Bearded Tit and a pair of Bullfinch along with the usual expected encounters. At East hide we plotted up and scanned all areas adding another 29 species to the growing day list. Lot's of Sandwich Terns and a few Kittiwake were good to see and we picked out a few waders but numbers were low. We picked out a black billed Common Tern but decided it was more likely not the reported Eastern bird but instead a Common that hasn't yet experienced full moult.
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The dark billed Common Tern with a Sarnie |
From the public platform we found the two reported Roseate Terns for a nice year tick and a second year tick when a Little Tern dropped in for a while with another two flying over high up in the clouds. A Great White Egret flew over and some Black-tailed Godwits dropped in. We encountered a couple of 2cy terns but couldn't be sure either was the reported Eastern candidate.
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Roseate Terns with Sandwich, Common and Little Tern |
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Roseates amongst the Sarnies |
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Roseates |
The walk round to Bittern Hide gave good views of at least three Bittern, six Hobby and a few pairs of Marsh Harrier to end a nice morning birding in Suffolk with a day list of 78 species.
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Hobby |
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Hobby |
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Hobby |
Year list now 214
This year the Surrey OC have released details of an established Honey Buzzard watchpoint so I thought I'd give it a go for this years fix at it's only about fifteen miles from Thursley Common.
We stopped at Thursley first being closer to home and walked the common for a couple of hours from first light. We had a garden warbler by the moat to give Jim a nice early year tick before finding lot's of Woodlark including a couple of juveniles. Tree Pipits were abundant and several Dartford Warblers flitted about here and there. Lot's of Stonechat with many juveniles and a Cuckoo added to the days spectacle. Swift and Swallow hawked around the bog and several Lizards were seen on the boardwalks. We spent a while looking for the Red-backed Shrike that's been around since 25th May but didn't find it. As we walked back to the car I spotted our only Redstart of the morning to add another year tick and the bird allowed a couple of pictures before retreating back into the copse.
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Redstart |
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Redstart |
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Redstart |
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Stonechat |
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Stonechat |
We left Thursley and headed to the new raptor watchpoint driving up the single dead end lane to the small car park where we found about thirty like minded souls and arrived to news that we'd missed just one Honey Buzzard so far. Over the next couple of hours we enjoyed five views of Honey Buzzard with at least two seperate birds and probably more. The birds gave great scope views but remained a little distant for my little 400mm camera lens. Common Buzzard, Red Kites, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Raven made up the best of the rest here. This is a nice new place for us and I'm sure we'll return for more time with these great summer visitors.
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Record shot of one of the Honey Buzzards |
On the way home we tried for Spotted Flycatchers at a local spot we'd been tipped off on but failed to find the target birds despite the intel.
Year list now 212