The Juvenile Birder

 Twitch On & Carry On! image from Toby Carter Our targets for the day were King Eider, Iceland Gull, Little Auk & Smew. The weather throughout was freezing, with strong winds and lots of heavy rain. It was stormy weather, making me hopeful for Little Auk. We arrived at Redcar at 8:00am and parked opposite Zetland Cafe. We immediately scanned the beach for an Iceland Gull reported yesterday afternoon. But, upon scanning, there was no sign of it. We then walked towards the Palace Hub in hopes of seeing our target bird, the King Eider. It was reported as being far out and difficult  to see, but it was worth a shot. It was windy, hammering with rain and cold; exactly what I wanted  today. We scanned from multiple shelters until we met 3 other birders all looking for the King Eider. One of them had even seen a Little Auk! We kept scanning until someone found the bird, and they gave directions for where the bird was. To my despair, I wasn't able to pick it up. Gary ...

 Rare Warblers and Rare Starlings! (record shot by birder next to us) We first went to RSPB Langford Lowfields (see post named Hobbies Hawking and Bitterns Booming and.., FLYING! for location pin) at 6:00pm in hopes of catching a glimpse of the rare Great Reed Warbler. We met someone called Andy on the way there and when we arrived at the Beach Hut, we could see a group of people by Phase 1 to the right of the hut. When we arrived, there were a frenzy of birders. The bird was singing loudly in the patch of reeds in front of us. At one point, we even heard it directly beneath us. We thought we got a glimpse of it as it flew towards an island and back though it could've easily been a common Eurasian Reed Warbler. We waited for about an hour until the someone finally spotted the bird. We rushed down and saw amazingly close views of it as it sung away in the reeds. Besides it were two Eurasian Reed Warblers trying to chase it away from its nest that was nearby. The bird was huge compar...

Murmurations ! We arrived at 6:10am in hopes of seeing some Great Bitterns. We went to the Causeway where we were greeted to the continuous booming of Great Bitterns, a sure sign they were there. We went towards the Causeway Hide, seeing a Eurasian Wren on the way. There, two juvenile European Otters were seen playing with each other while the mother was somewhere nearby, probably hunting. We continued along the Causeway when we stopped at the channel crossing to scan the reedbeds yet we saw no Great Bittern. We heard a possible Red Fox along the way but never saw it. Common Pochards, Common Snipe, and many more were out but no Great Bitterns. We then headed towards the saltmarsh where we saw Black-Tailed Godwits, Pied Avocets, Eurasian Oystercatchers and Common Redshanks feeding in huge numbers out on the lagoons.  We then arrived back on the main reserve. We went to the Grisedale, Tim Jackson and Lilian's Hide without seeing anything. We then went to the Causeway Hide where ...