last of the Little Gulls

With all the gulling about recently I've been glad to get some sort of memory poured out onto canvas, just to clear the decks before I have a go at the Bonaparte's Gull seen at Fen Drayton this weekend.

Once Bittern, Twice Shy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tTPKC0oN8

 

Having missed the American Bittern at Carlton Marshes, fortuitously close to our weekend break in Kessingland, the opportunity to spend more time not seeing this bird was too good to miss so when Mark H offered a trip on Monday afternoon I snapped it up.  Having missed the bird again there was nothing to do but go back on Saturday, after 13hrs total, I did pick the bird up on it's first early morning flight.  However the photo above is misleading, Mark did very well to grab a shot - I didn't see it like this, although everyone else around me did.  Something went wrong, I couldn't find it, I didn't panic but as the crowd ooeed and arggghhedd and cameras fired off like machine guns it became a real possibility after 15 seconds or so that I was going to miss out and be left hopelessly looking in all the wrong bits of sedge for this skulker.  I don't think it's ever happened to me before but there you go, it has now, not sure there's anything to learn from the experience.  What then to do? 

The decision was a swift one as Mark received a heads up that an adult Bonaparte's Gull, a long predicted first for Cambridgeshire had been found at Fen Drayton.  We twitched...again.  This time the bird was much more confiding and on show throughout allowing us to drink in the Nearctic gull. On the way home a smart 2CY Little Gull was briefly over the settling beds and a Little-Ringed Plover was on the boathouse flash.

 







 



Today Ben and I headed out for an afternoon scout along the washes.  The water levels are high although we did manage to pick up a Grey Plover on a flooded field.

A freshly arrived Lesser Whitethroat was rattling its way Northwards along the budding hedgerows, lovely to watch and listen to.  Spring is sprung.

Black Sabbath

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lVdMbUx1_k

 

 

Several Sundays worth of highlights, Ben's Common Scoter at the Beet Pits were fantastic and I think a new bird for the Wildspace.

 

 

This Sunday we were staying at the coast at Kessingland, my planned potter around the dunes and scrub was diverted by the news of an American Bittern found at Carlton Marshes just 5 miles away.  I didn't see the Bittern in the mud and rain but a bit later did find a couple of Black Redstart around the caravan park.

 

 

 

The run of Little Gulls at the Beet Pits were most enjoyable and a rogue White Stork that roosted on rooftops in Stretham was not without charm.

 



 



my newt us.

The expected rain was late this weekend, and before it eventually started I explored a few local spot's with Rich, on the lookout for Spring migrant's. A fine flock of fifty Avocet's at Isleham and a few Pintail at Sutton Gault drew the eye, and a grey Plover flew over before we looked s'outh to find the Ring-necked Duck consorting with a group of Pochard, but the only signs of Spring were a couple of Chiffchaff's and a Wheatear. Indeed it still felt like winter, with a sprawling gang of Redwing' at the Gault- despite a few trill's of their unfamiliar song echoing across the sodden field.

Thi's afternoon, however, I got a call from Dunc, who was bearing new's of three Little Gull's' at the beet factory. I trudged down there to find all three still raking across the water among a noisy spread of Black-headed Gull's, and proceeded to watch them for an hour or so. One in particular had a beautiful pink blush to its belly, and the three together displayed the subtle variation's of age and moult that all gull's show.