Wallasea island

With a promise to be home early today (ruling out the trip to Holkham for Surf Scoter) I made the short trip to Wallasea Island in Essex. Arriving at 6am just as the sun came up I was hoping for some Owl activity but sadly in four hours on site no Owls where seen. Our first birds of note were several Kestrels hunting the fields and then the Brent Geese woke and flew along the sea wall. A Grey Heron called and then a Male Marsh Harrier came into view. A stunning adult bird with an all white tail. This bird was joined by a female and juvenile as the morning went on. Two Peregrines came over the sea wall and gave a good display as they hunted in partnership.

Hen Harrier at Wallasea Island

Ring-tail

Then we spotted a ring-tailed Hen Harrier which was later joined by a second smaller bird and they hunted together along the ditches of the far side of the field moving large numbers of Linnet, Skylark and Corn Bunting as they went about their search. A couple of Stonechat, a few Little Egret and a pair of Stonechat added to our list for the day along with big movements of Starling and Wood Pigeon.

Adult male Marsh Harrier 

A juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard has been seen in the area but not today.

A cracking morning with great views of some stunning raptors will live long in the memory and the absence of  Owls today will drag me back for another go very soon.

Another notable

Birdguides awarded me a notable flag today for this weeks Cattle Egret shot.
It's always nice to get a little recognition.

Cattle Egret and LEO in Kent

The day started with us stood by the fishing boats at Dunge in strong wind and rain. Lot's of Gannets fishing, Great Crested Grebes on the sea, Kittiwakes and Sandwich Terns moving through, a distant Bonxie following a ship and both adult and Juvenile Arctic Skua coming right in to the tide line. Lot's of Goldfinch flocks around and good migration of Starlings. A few Common Scoter flew west and Turnstones ran along in front of us. Lot's of gulls feeding on the incoming tide but nothing of note.In the trapping area I noted four Ring Ouzel and a couple of Stonechat but little else worth a mention here.

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Back at the RSPB reserve we found a drive by Great White Egret before pulling over at the farm track to view the heard of Cows hoping for a year tick in the form of the now seemingly resident Cattle Egret. After a brief wait with no sign I noticed the bird pop up out of the reeds briefly giving us hope. Shortly after the bird took flight and ended sitting on a cow and although distant the camera came out to grab a few shots...(lot's of shots).

Cattle Egret

The Egret was harassed non stop by a small gathering of Magpies but held it's own and defended the cow as it's territory.

Get off my cow!

We moved towards home but made a quick stop at Elmley where we eventually found a Long-eared Owl in the orchard area. I tried to grab a shot but it was in thick cover so the result wasn't great...(understatement!)
Wheatear, lot's of Curlew & Lapwings plus Skylark and Marsh Harrier added to a decent days total.

Marsh Harrier

Marsh Harrier

LEO

Year list now: 259

You can't beat a good Shrike

And this was a really good Shrike....in fact a really good pair of Shrikes!

We set off to North Norfolk at 5.15am this morning arriving in the car park at Burnham Norton just after 7am. It was still misty and the sun was only just coming up as we walked along the track towards the sea wall. Straight away we were looking at the Steppe Grey Shrike and as we walked on we got even better views of this stunning and charming visitor. (A first for Norfolk and a first for me too!) Somebody had put out a pot of mealworms for the bird which kept it coming to our end of the field. (I'm not sure I agree with feeding vagrants like this but I guess that's a debate for another time)

Steppe Grey Shrike at Burnham Norton

The Southern Grey Shrike at Burnham Norton

Check out the white in the wings

SHRIKE!

The bird performed really well and we left more than satisfied with the start to our day.

Next stop was the car park of Birds Eye Frozen foods at Ness Point Lowestoft where we again struck gold parking up and seeing the Red-backed Shrike without even leaving the car. This bird was even more charming than the previous and we enjoyed it's company from the comfort of the car for an hour or more as it feasted and drank from the puddles in the car park.

Red-backed Shrike

Red-backed Shrike at Ness Point

Red-backed Shrike

RB Shrike

We got wind of a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers showing a couple of miles away at Gunton so headed off to try for them. On arrival all we found was a Treecreeper which has been reported by the locals as a possible Northern. It did look frosty but I'll leave it to the smarter brains to decide if it has Northern roots. We failed to find either YBW although one was heard.
Heading back down the A12 I decided on a quick stop at Minsmere to round our day off. We made our way to Bittern Hide where we found the Little Crake showing as we entered the hide. The guy that put us on it had been waiting several hours and there we were on it in seconds.....what a day!

Poor record shot of the Little Crake

Year list is now 256
Life list now 349