The Juvenile Birder

Notts Adventure! We arrived at Finningley Gravel Pits at around 5:30am in hopes of seeing a rare bird. As soon as we arrived, we made our way to the pool where it was last seen at. We noticed a few Sand Martins  feeding over the lake, as well as a Little Egret . We then met a birder who had just arrived, named Nigel. After a bit of waiting, a large flock of Lapwings flew in. I scanned the flock and noticed a slimmer, smaller bird at the bottom of the flock. It was getting mobbed by the lapwings and suddenly dipped just below the horizon long enough for me to see its plumage. It was our target bird, the Black-winged Pratincole ! It soon separated from the flock and flew in the direction of another pool just further down the track. We then made our way down the track, when suddenly we were met with a few cows in the middle of the path. Nigel quickly dealt with them, and we reached a viewpoint overlooking a large gravel pit. After a brief scan, we noticed around 200 Sand Martins feedi...

 From Despair to Delight! Image from Levi Gravett (same bird, but take n on different date) We arrived at Llanddulas Beach car park at 8.00am and started scanning towards the left of the car park. We started scanning for over an hour scanning through hundreds of Common Scoters which   were moving about everywhere. There were no other birders to help and I started doubting any success.  Suddenly, a Velvet Scoter came into view, flying low and eventually landing. Knowing that the Surf Scoters had been hanging around with Velvet Scoters, I scanned the scoters nearby and saw a smaller scoter with a funny shaped bill. I tried to keep on the bird but it was difficult with the choppy water and the distance they were at. Then, as it was preening, I saw some white on the back of its head. It was a Surf Scoter ! I stayed on it for a good few minutes before all four Velvet Scoters flew off; as well as the two Surf Scoters. There were also a few drake Red-breasted Mergansers and Gr...

A Day For Ducks! We arrived at Upton at 8:00am in hopes of seeing an Iceland Gull; reported as following a plough in a field. We found a large flock of Black-headed Gulls with a few Herring Gulls in it, but after searching through the same flock multiple times, we failed to see our target; so we left and headed to Sanderson's Bank in hopes of seeing a reported Tundra Bean Goose. We got there at 9:20am and before we even parked up, I could see there were both Whooper and Bewick's Swans. I scanned through the Whooper Swans and counted at least 10 Bewick's Swans . They were noticeably smaller than the Whooper Swans and had a lot more black on the bill with a circular, yellow patch by the base. We then found a small flock of Pink-footed Geese so we scanned through them multiple times but again to no avail. We saw that the Ring-necked Duck on Dishley Pool had been reported today, so we set off seeking the American vagrant. We arrived at Dishley Pool at 12:00pm and started t...

 Rare Terns! We arrived at 5:00am in the morning, after a two hour drive, in hopes of seeing a rare Caspian Tern that was reported last night. Upon arrival, we met someone named Scott who was also searching for the bird. He said that when he arrived, there was one flying around the back of the lake with a gate. He managed to show us a video he took of it before it started flying. We made our way towards the viewpoint when the bird emerged and started flying above the wires in the skyline in the distance. It was about the same size as a Lesser Black-Backed Gull in flight. We enjoyed the bird until we lost it out of our view. A lifer, none the less. Scott then said he'd seen a Green Sandpiper, another lifer, as it flew over the trees but I didn't manage to catch a glimpse of it unfortunately. We then got word of a Caspian Tern that was roosted on the lake which gave much better views. We were unsure whether this was the one that we saw before or the second one as there were two l...

 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...

  Hobbies Hawking and Bitterns Booming and... FLYING! We arrived at 3:00pm (after a brilliant day at RSPB Frampton Marsh) in hopes of seeing Hobbies. When we arrived, we trekked through a woodland and towards the RSPB area. We asked the RSPB staff at the welcome stand about the Hobbies and after a few seconds. He pointed one out as it flew almost above our head, then joined by another. That high, they looked almost like swifts with wider wings. The colouration was completely shadowed by the sun. He mentioned that they'd been Bittern flying from a viewing platform to the left of us up the hill, overlooking two reedbeds. We saw another Hobby fly past and could hear the Bitterns. We then waited about a minute until my first Bittern ever flew out of the reeds to the other side. Shortly followed by another. We then headed back, seeing a female Roe Deer close up and a pair of Great Crested Grebes. A short, yet phenomenal trip!