Rare Breeding Birds and North American Waders!

Rare Breeding Birds and North American Waders!

We arrived at 8:28am at the RSPB Bee-Eaters Viewpoint (location pinned) in Norfolk in hopes of seeing breeding bee-eaters. Bee-eaters are a scarce sight in the UK, so to have them breeding here is tremendous. The last time they bred in the UK was in 2017 in Nottinghamshire but they ended up failing to raise young. The last successful nesting site was in Cumbria in 2015. When we arrived, an RSPB man named Darren said they were seen earlier today. We waited ten minutes and then we saw them. A Bee-eater flew as it got mobbed by some swallows. It circled round then slowly swooped towards the nest, the wind occasionally pushing it backwards. After that, Darren scoped out two other Bee-eaters on the wires in the distance. I looked through his scope and saw them. They were very colourful with their orangey-yellow back standing out when they faced away from us and their cheeks standing out when facing towards us. Then, one of the bee-eaters flew into the vegetation while the other flew into a bare tree, giving good side-on views. I noticed that the bee-eaters looked much bigger in flight compared to when they were perched. Darren then pointed his scope towards a hole that led to one of the nests. We enjoyed the bee-eaters as they continued to perch on the wires and vegetation in the distance and flew over the quarry with food for the chicks. After we had viewed the bee-eaters. we made our way to RSPB Titchwell Marsh to see a reported Lesser Yellowlegs on Freshwater Marsh, viewable from Parrinder Hide. We arrived there at 11:28am and went over to Parrinder Hide. When we arrived, we asked the other birders there and they said the bird had just gone out of view but was still here. They then said that they had seen a Whimbrel as it flew onto Volunteer Marsh. We checked there as a Whimbrel would be a wanted lifer but had no luck. When we came back to the twitching site, the birders had said they'd seen it and Tim showed me it through his scope. But, a few seconds later, they re-identified it as a juvenile Redshank. We waited a bit longer when Audrey, another birder there, spotted it. This time it was the real bird as the yellow legs were visible. Tim then showed me this bird through his scope and I got a good view of it. A brilliant second lifer of the day, with the bee-eaters being the first lifer. Ruff, Spotted Redshank and Avocets were also showing. We then went to another twitch which will be featured on the next post.