The Juvenile Birder

Cumbria Crack! We arrived at Sizergh Castle at first light in hopes of seeing Hawfinches. We parked on the left side of the car park, and walked over to the veranda. There were a number of birders lined up. We approached them and met Joe and Steve, who kindly pointed out two showy male Hawfinches  less than 40m away. We also saw a female Hawfinch. I managed to get a record shot of both of them, before heading over to the River Kent for Dipper.  Image from @RobsBirding, not same bird We arrived at the River Kent at 8:00am.  As soon as we arrived, we set up the scope along the bank of the river, since the bridge was shut, and on the first scan, I managed to the see the Dipper  bathing, however I wasn't quick enough for a photo. We stayed for an hour, seeing the Dipper  a few more times, however I wasn't quick enough for a record shot. Satisfied with our views and eager for a lifer, we set off on the hunt for the reported Richard's Pipit.  We arrived in Ulvers...

Hiking in the Highlands! We set off at 2:00am in the morning and arrived at a secret site up in the Highlands of Scotland at around 9:00am. Our only target was Ptarmigan. I had dipped this last year, after a hard and long climb up a mountain, in the snow! We were feeling strangely optimistic about this adventure, as lots of the snow had melted, meaning that the Ptarmigan should hopefully stand out. Enroute to the site, I spotted loads of Red Grouse . As soon as we arrived in the car park, the first bird we saw was a Red Grouse  feeding in the grass only a few metres away. After scanning the boulder scree on the mountain from the car park, I couldn't initially spot anything that stood out as Ptarmigan. I then started scanning the few patches of snow. Suddenly, two white specs caught my eye as one of them moved. They were Ptarmigan ! I was ecstatic, and immediately got a digiscoped image of them. The pair were showing well, however they were extremely distant. They were a lifer for m...

 Magic at the Marsh! A bad record shot of a Peregrine We arrived at RSPB Marshside at around 2:30pm, and immediately set off to the sandplant in hopes of seeing some interesting raptors. Once we had arrived at the sandplant, we met two friendly local birders. After a few minutes of searching, I spotted a small, dark raptor with a distinctive white rump. A ringtail Hen Harrier  flew distantly above the marsh, spooking a flock of Lapwing before it dropped down near the estuary. A few minutes later, it was up again. This time, it continued further and further away from us, until it was out of sight. Then, one birder spotted a Peregrine distantly on a log. It was in the exact same place I saw my first Peregrine on my first visit here back in 2021! I managed to get a horrible record shot of it, before it flew off. I then noticed a small raptor close in on a post. A stunning male Sparrowhawk was perched on a fence, allowing for some nice digiscoped record shots.  Another birde...

 A Rarity In & Out of the UK! We set off at 11:00pm on Friday and arrived at Ruan Lanihorne at 7:00am on Saturday. Once it was light enough to scan the estuary, we immediately started to look. There were many Canada Geese & Wigeon out there, as well as a few Curlew , Shelduck and even a Whimbrel . Suddenly, the first flock of Lapwing  flew in and landed in the estuary. After scanning through them in flight, we couldn't see our target bird. We then watched two more groups of Lapwing fly in, all from different directions, as well as a large group of  Golden Plover , until suddenly one person said our target bird was along the water's edge. He let me look through his scope and there it was! The Sociable Lapwing was showing distantly on the estuary. After getting good looks at it through the man's scope, I then managed to get it in my scope, before everything took off and I enjoyed a good view of its distinctive wing pattern. It then landed much closer, allowing me to...