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 ...

Day 2: You Can Never Have Too Much of a Good Thing! We set off from our Inn at 6:30am and went over to Blagdon Lake for a Ring-necked Duck. We found the lake, which was huge, but at the two different locations that we stopped we were unable to find the duck. We could not get close to the lake; it was always overlooking private land and we were unable to therefore walk the circumference of the lake. We also tried to get to the location of the Bristol Dartford Warbler at Trooper's Hill but there was a lot of road works taking place in Bristol and the old sat nav we have could not navigate us to the right location. We ended then going to WWT Slimbridge. We arrived at 9:30am and rushed straight to the Rushy Hide in hopes of seeing the Bewick's Swans. We entered the hide and the three Bewick's Swan were sat right up front, on the mud, showing very well. I had only seen Whooper Swans at WWT Martin Mere, a site local to me, and had been scanning the flocks at Martin Mere for ages...

 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 ...