The Juvenile Birder

Scoring Close to Home! Day 1 I managed to find a new patch which had a more diverse habitat and more accessibility than my last one. We arrived at our new and improved patch (Carr House Green Common) at 6:00am. Looking at the Fylde Bird Club website, we saw recent sightings of Grasshopper Warbler, along with Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat. As soon as we arrived, I spotted a Whitethroat singing in a tree right next to the layby which we had parked at. We then continued along one of the footpaths, spotting a singing  Sedge Warbler  and a flyover Shelduck . Suddenly, I heard a loud, reeling sound. It was the distinctive call of a Grasshopper Warbler. We searched for it and within a few seconds, I spotted a small, brown bird with a yellowy chest perched up on a bush. It was indeed a Grasshopper Warbler . The bird was incredibly showy and was only a few metres away. We enjoyed watching it for ages, and it was relentlessly singing. Satisfied with our views, we moved on. We walked jus...

 More Rarities and A Wanted Species! (image from internet) We arrived at 1:00pm at Hornsea Mere to see a rare female Ferruginous Duck. When we arrived, we went to the viewing area near Hornsea Sailing Club. We saw a birder who had seen the bird a couple of times before it dived down. It was a female so a hard bird to connect with, especially as it dived a lot. The man lowered his scope, since mine couldn't go that far, and showed me it a couple of times but it had either dived or moved out of view by the time I had looked through it. Suddenly, it stayed up for a long time and was by itself. I looked through and saw it as it swam side on to the right at the end of the raft. Wanting a better view, we went into the fields opposite and met Rob, Chris and some other birders who showed us the bird multiple times through their scope. We then got another decent look at it in the other field with a footpath where we also saw a Black-Necked Grebe. Everyone was struggling to find it, especial...