A trip to the Yorkshire coast without 500 pictures of Gannets? Apparently it is possible if you spend all your time at Flamborough instead of Bempton Cliffs. You can get some smart birds too.
Six legs good, two legs better
Back to birds today with a trip to Dungeness. There won’t be many days’ birding in the UK when a Hoopoe doesn’t get into the top three birds, but it was a rubbish distant view, whereas the Kentish Plover (still too distant for a good photo), Bittern and Great Crested Grebes, were excellent.
(These photos are better viewed at full resolution, so click on View full size below the picture.)
Two legs bad, six legs good
Turtle Time
Still Clinging On
Sunshine Returns
The early bird…
There’s much to be said for a pre-work seawatch. On a good day it can send you into office buoyed up with early success. Today it made the prospect of a morning’s work an attractive improvement.
Still, the reward came in the garden this afternoon. A flock of 11 Red Kites drifting east at lunchtime was remarkable as we have only had singles before at home, but pride of place goes to the magnificent male Redstart that took up residence in the back field. It wouldn’t cooperate enough for a decent photo, but these digiscoped ones show it reasonably.
So much for spring
Spring at last
After finding a large Grass Snake in the pond (which slithered off before I got the camera) we went for a look around the commons. It was warm and pleasant in Sussex today. and the birds were enjoying it. A final stop off at Cissbury Ring for the seven Ring Ouzels there at the moment had a bonus in the form of a Black Redstart too.