The Juvenile Birder

Egg-cellent Bird Hunt! We set off at 3:00am and arrived at RSPB Middleton Lakes at around 6:00am in hopes of seeing the rare Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Once we arrived at the site, there was another birder there who said that the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers were often seen in the oak trees opposite the car park. We waited in the car park, and after a few minutes, we heard one drumming. It took a while, but we eventually located the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker  in the middle of the oak tree. It showed incredibly well, before eventually flying off. Soon after the  Great Spotted Woodpecker started drumming in the exact same spot! Overjoyed with our views, we made our way to Whitemoor Haye for a rare grebe. We arrived at Whitemoor Haye at around 8:00am in hopes of seeing a Slavonian Grebe. As soon as we arrived at the site, we noticed multiple singing Yellowhammers . We walked further down to a gap along the road and started looking for the bird. As I was scanning, I noticed a flash ...

Another Cliffhanger! Image by @RobsBirding, not same bird We arrived at Filey at around 11:00am after getting a lift there by Carl. We had just come from Nottinghamshire where we dipped Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. As soon as we arrived at Filey, we immediately started walking towards Top Fields, where three Lapland Buntings had recently been seen. Along the way, I noticed a Fulmar  flying along the cliffs, as well as multiple Kittiwakes  far out to sea. Once we had arrived at Top Fields, we met another birder who was also searching for the Lapland Buntings. Suddenly, Carl called us over saying he had seen the three Lapland Buntings in flight. After a bit of waiting, we spotted the Lapland Buntings again in flight. They were much darker and longer winged than the Skylarks that were in the same field. After getting a few more brief flight views, I spotted what I thought was a Reed Bunting at first in the field, but I then realised it was a Lapland Bunting . We waited a bit longer...

 Temporary Tick! Image by @RobsBirding, not same bird We set off at 3.30am, picked up Dave and were taken to Fakenham by Keith. We arrived at around 9:00am. Our target bird was the Rustic Bunting, that had been seen here yesterday, however a Coues's Arctic Redpoll had been seen earlier in the morning, which would also be a lifer. Once we had arrived at the site, we scanned the crop cover at the far end of the field. The first thing that stood out to me was the large flock of Lesser Redpolls  feeding in the crop cover, as well as the numerous Meadow Pipits and Skylarks in the surrounding fields. We also noticed many Red-legged Partridges  in the fields. In the crop cover were a few beautiful male  Yellowhammers . There were also a few Bramblings . I was very happy to see them after only getting brief views of them in the past. Suddenly, someone spotted the Arctic Redpoll in their scope, and they let me have a look. The Coues's Arctic Redpoll was sat on a branch, ...

The King of Garden Birds! We set off at 3:30am in hopes of seeing a mainland Myrtle Warbler in Kilwinning. The last mainland Myrtle Warbler in the UK was ten years ago, so this was quite a special bird.  As soon as we arrived, we met Kristian who pointed out the Myrtle Warbler  straight away feeding on the feeders. We also met Wayne who was there for seconds of the bird.  The Myrtle Warbler  was much bigger than I expected, and its prominent white wingbars stood out when I first saw it. It stayed on the feeders for quite a while, before it started chasing away the Blue Tits  and the Great Tits . There was plenty of food in the bird feeders in the garden, but the Myrtle Warbler was too busy chasing off birds. The only birds it didn't chase were those larger in it, which included the  Song Thrushes and the Blackbirds . Suddenly, as I watched the Myrtle Warbler  through by binoculars in the trees, a female Siskin appeared from behind but it too got chase...