22th June

I went on my first birding trip with Dave, Brendan, Chris, John, Samuel and Ephraim. It had been agreed that Norfolk and hopefully the Rose-coloured Starling that had been present in a garden on the sea front would first port of call. We met The Three Horseshoes in Garston at 6.00 am on a very wet morning. We took a leisurely drive and by the time we arrived at around 8.50am the rain had stopped. There was a small group of birders looking into a very small garden. The light wasn’t ideal and getting a good shot of the bird when it showed wasn’t easy but these record shots will do.

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From here we drove to an area hoping to catch up with one of the UK’s most graceful and elegant birds of prey. It took some time and plenty of scanning, but Brendan and I suddenly called Monty. It was a little distant but over the course of the next 45 – 60 minutes we had the bird in view. For part of that time it perched in a hedge while we had to shelter from a couple of fast moving showers. The female briefly showed but disappeared again over a hedge. It really was a cracking bird as it quartered the nearby fields, on occasions it landed on the ground. In the end we left the bird, normally it is the other way around.

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From here we drove to Swanton Novers raptor watch point in the hope of connecting with a Honey Buzzard that has been seen several times recently. We gave it more than enough time but with not a glimmer of a Honey, plenty of Common Buzzards but no Honey’s.

Back in the cars and off to a very blustery Titchwell. Here we saw 6 Little Gulls, 5 Spotted Redshanks and the usual cast. That is apart from large numbers of Knot. Were these later birds heading north or early birds heading south?

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And of course there were a few Avocets

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Comments

rosey and monty....two beauts there.
Great pics as always.