Flew Southwest

Monday 4th June 2012.
A planned trip to East Yorkshire with Dave, Paul and Brendan was cancelled because the European Roller "flew southwest" on sunday evening. As no further reports had been posted that evening we decided to head for Norfolk and in particular a couple of sites where we might see "Montie's". On route news came through that the Roller had been seen in it's usual place, however, as we were already in North Norfolk we resisted temptation.

On route near Walsingham a wing tagged Red Kite was noted.

We drew a blank at our first "Montie's" site and same result at the second.

Next stop was Titchwell which was really busy people wise. Nothing out of the ordinary here, the highlights being; Little Gull, Little Tern, Fulmar, Bearded Tit, Red-breasted Merganser. From here we returned to one of the alleged "Montie's" sites. No Montie's (of course!) but we did note; Grey Partridge, Marsh Harrier, Red Kite, Buzzard, Yellowhammer and a possible Quail ran quickly across the farm track but too distant to confirm i.d.

With nothing much reported in Norfolk we decided to head for Lakenheath in search of Crane's.

Lakenheath; Golden Oriole (singing), Bittern (booming), Bearded Tit (pinging), Cuckoo, Hobby, Garganey, Kingfisher, Marsh Harrier-up to 20 birds seen including several pairs performing  "food pass", Barn Owl-prolonged views hunting over ditch's, Crane-2 adults foraging for food, it is believed these birds have young but reeds too tall for us to see them.

On the way home we stopped off on the Ashwell to Bygrave road in North Hertfordshire. A great way to finish our day as not only did we see the recently reported Turtle Dove but we also had outstanding views of the following; Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer, Linnet, Lesser Whitethroat, Yellow Wagtail, Grey Partridge.

Paul managed some pics and they will be added soon.