Yet another day out

Not sure what's going on but I managed another day off today and with a last minute call to the Jims we hatched a plan to find a few year ticks.

First stop was Welney village where we heard a Corncrake (my first outside of Scotland) Despite a good search from the gate we failed to find it but it was good to hear the constant calling. We also year ticked Garden Warbler here. When we arrived I found a rucksack and it had a camera in it so appeared to have been left by accident and as it was dry I guessed it had been left by somebody birdwatching this morning.

I put out a tweet asking if anybody knew who may have left it hoping the owner might get to see it if he searched ''Corncrake Welney''.  I then planned to leave it with staff at Welney but they didn't open for a while and the road to the reserve was closed so I was going to have to take it with me and hope to get in touch with the owner later but as we got to the car another birder pulled up and asked if we'd found his rucksack. He was relieved as was I because I no longer had the drama of what to do with it and how to contact him.

We moved on stopping at Choseley where Dad surprised us and himself by finding the Dotterel for us. At Titchwell there was no sign or sound of the Great Reed Warbler from last night but we year ticked Little Gull and enjoyed views of Spoonbill, Ringed Plover and LRP to name a few. It was freezing this morning more like winter than spring and after some time scanning from the hides we left stopping at Thornham to tick Wood Sandpipers for the pointless year list. By now it was raining hard with a cold wind making it very unpleasant so we headed for the car. We now had a call to make...do we head home or up to Freiston shore RSPB and try again for the Blue-winged Teal we missed at Frampton earlier this week. 

Avocet

Spoonbill

The coin landed on heads so we found ourselves heading north into Lincolnshire. At Freiston we found the screen overlooking the reservoir with two other birders but negative news on the target. I found two Garganey on the distant flood and a couple of Yellow Wagtails and then after half an hour or so I found the BWT. It had appeared on the reservoir out of nowhere to the delight of everybody present.

The day delivered some decent birds despite the grey damp cold conditions.

Year list now 202 (with the heard only Corncrake)