The Juvenile Birder

 Evening Lifer!! We arrived at 7:00pm in hopes of seeing a lifer Red-footed Falcon (a bird I've been wanting to see for a while). We parked along Lawson's Road and walked up to Marton Mere and arrived at the RBA location. There, we met Phil Rhodes, the same person from the Sabine's Gull twitch. He let me look through his scope to see this stunning falcon. I took a terrible digiscoped image of it through my scope. We then walked further along the path where we met another birder who we were familiar with from the Temminck's Stint twitch. We then saw the bird fly out of a  bush. After a while of chatting, the birders left. Soon after we saw the bird fly around right above our head. It was around 8:40pm and turning dark. Lastly, we went towards the first hide from the entrance and saw a huge honey bees' nest with all the honeycomb covered by the bees, only showing the top honeycomb. It was a site to see and quite still and calm as all the bees went to sleep. Overall, a...

 Flamborough Seawatching Festival!! We arrived at Flamborough Head at 7:00am in hopes of seeing some lifer seabirds. When we arrived, we had heard that they have had a Pomarine Skua (a lifer for me) and a Sabine's Gull earlier in the morning. We seated ourselves in the seawatching hide and scanned the sea. Tony, one of the members of the observatory, gave me a scope to use while in the hide since it was a guided seawatch. There was a big bouy as well as a distant rig and fishing boat that we used as landmarks. It didn't take long for me to get my first lifer, a Manx Shearwater, as a flock of them flew past the bouy, soon after followed by a lifer Sooty Shearwater. We continued to wait as two juvenile Long-tailed Skuas were reported flying past Hornsea towards us. About 40 minutes after that report, someone says "Long-tailed Skua juvenile distantly heading North." The same bird then landed on the sea and with the approaching fog, came out of view. A couple of Great Sku...

 Morning Mega!! We arrived at Redcar at 4:30am in hopes of seeing a MEGA rare Greater Sand Plover that was reported last night. A few days ago, this same bird was located in Aberdeenshire (6 hours away) and we were tempted to go. Then, the one there left and this was found. Whether it's the same bird, we don't know, but it's much closer than Aberdeenshire. It was a two and a half our journey and the sun was barely out when we arrived. We parked at Majuba Car Park and followed a group of birders along the path overlooking the coast. Sanderling ran along the shore with Ringed Plover, while Oystercatchers and Redshank fed along the softer sand. We then arrived at the spot it was last seen and started looking. Suddenly, a man shouts that he's got it in the line of kelp midway through the beach, yet I had no clue where to look. It took a couple of attempts to find the bird, with joggers and dog walkers making it fly off and come back, when suddenly, I got a quick glimpse of ...

  Near Death Experience! (distant digiscoped Arctic Skua (x2) on sea) We arrived at Spurn YWT at 7:00am in hopes of seeing a reported Wryneck. We asked a site volunteer directions towards Middle Camp, where the wryneck was, and he said walk along the beach and pointed to the beach but the estuary blocked the view of the beach and we thought he meant to cross the estuary (don't want to get him fired). We walked over the grass until we were within touching distance of the mud. And when we went in, we sank in the soft mud and lost a pair of shoes.We knew someone called Phil who did it before and mentioned soft sand so we kept repeated, if Phil could do it, we can do it. But after telling him about the quicksand, he called and said "Get off the estuary, it's really dangerous, go along the road to a beach with soft sand, if I meant mud I'd have said mud,". We did it but unfortunately couldn't retrieve the shoes as it was too dangerous so we left them. I did notice ...

 Crakes and Rare Herons! We arrived at North Cave Wetlands (East Yorkshire) at 5:30am, in hopes of seeing a reported Spotted Crake. When we arrived, it didn't take long before it was spotted. The bird was showing well from Turret Hide on Island Lake on the mud in the Northeast corner. It ran, at speed in and out of the reeds and started feeding alongside a Water Rail. It was distant but showed well. It was just difficult to see the plumage, as the sun light wasn't located in that area yet. A Water Rail came out, away from the Spotted Crake, but still on Island Lake and surprisingly showed well in the water. A Red Kite also flew past with several Green and Common Sandpipers present. We then headed over to Pagham Harbour (Sidlesham, West Sussex) which took us, at least 5 hours, due to the Sunday motorway works (set off at 8:30, arrived at 1:40). We went...optimistically...once again...for a reported Squacco Heron. There, we parked in a layby at the end of Mill Lane and alongside ...

A First For Britain!! We arrived at 8:00am at Eyebrook Reservoir (Leicestershire) in hopes of seeing a reported White-rumped Sandpiper. We met someone who let me look through his scope to see it. A lifer for me! It was paler that the Dunlin it was feeding with. It was also slightly smaller and longer than the Dunlin. Soon after, a large raptor hovered for a second above the water. It was an Osprey! It flew around and then went away. He told me it was likely the ones nesting at Rutland Water. The White-rumped Sandpiper kept feeding distantly as we viewed it. Not long after the Osprey, two Red Kites soared in the field behind us, as well as three more feeding in the field opposite us. We then went to Willow Tree Fen in hopes if seeing some Cranes but when we arrived (at 10:50am) it was closed. We waited a bit as it mentioned on Facebook that it was open today. Soon after, a report came in on Rare Bird Alert of a Cape Gull. We found out that it was a first for Britain and lucky for us, we...

 A  Quick Morning Lifer! We arrived at Conder Green at 7:20am and parked in a layby on the B5290 that overlooked Conder Pool on one side and a river/creek on the other. Recently, there had been a reported Temminck's Stint present. They are small waders, around half the size of a Dunlin. This bird was an adult and was moving quite a bit. We had come on the 1st August and the 2nd August in the evening but dipped it twice. With it being seen every morning and barely in the evening, we came earlier. We went to the screen and met someone who said they had seen in on the island full of lapwing but it went down a channel. We waited and soon enough the man said it was visible. I looked through with my scope and saw it as it foraged along the rocks. It didn't seem small when looking through a scope but with a naked eye it was tiny, I could barely see it with my binoculars. It then flew to the neighbouring island and foraged along the tip before going out of view. Then, someone who we h...