randombirder

A lovely morning to have escaped the carnage of London for a day out in the wilds of the Suffolk coast.  We headed to Walberswick, taking in some fresh air with a walk along the beach and round the local nature reserve.  A Whimbrel was seen on the flashes by the beach and a Grey Seal was wrestling a decent catch a couple of hundred metres from the shoreline. There was a target, inevitably, and the search for my first UK Honey Buzzard continues to elude me.  A bit late for the morning sighting, we returned mid-afternoon but with no luck which was particularly frustrating as it had been appearing around this time during the course of the week. A couple of  Hobby  were present here along with a juvenile  Woodlark , and plenty of active  Yellowhammer . However, the 17th century St Andrews church in Walberswick really is an impressive building and was worth a wander round. A few birders had assembled at the Westwood Lodge site (all waiting for their first HB sighting)

The White Stork had been present at Beddington Farmlands all week and what transpired to be two different individuals which really was an extraordinary turn of events. My first White Stork for the UK was never actually observed on the ground having seen it first fly low over toward the landfill.  Later it reappeared but began to thermal and gain height before heading away south-east.  Bizarrely it returned a couple of days later. These are the best of a really bad selection of photos.

My third consecutive field day with the Kent Butterfly group at High Elms near Biggin Hill where a decent selection of butterflies were observed.  The highlight were around half a dozen extremely flighty Silver-washed Fritillaries  and a single White Admiral that made a brief appearance flying strongly through the glade.  Other than that, White-letter Hairstreak drew a blank but there were plenty of common butterflies present.   Silver-washed Frittilary   Comma   Gatekeeper   Meadow Brown   Strangalia maculata Essex Skipper

A trip over to Ireland for my sister's wedding party but there were a couple of days for sightseeing. The Cliffs of Moher is disappointingly overrun with tourists, but not without reason as it's an impressive place.  The charge of six euros to enter the site seemed a little crude though.  Cashing in on a natural landscape was obviously the opportunity to steal a few shekels from the tourists. The cliffs were teeming with seabirds.  Plenty of Puffin , Guillemot , Razorbill , and Fulmar .  Two Red-billed Chough tumbled over the cliff face. The towns of Salthill and Galway are also worth a visit.

...and so while I was waiting for my flight back from Aberdeen having missed out on the American WW Scoter, news came through of a male Common Rosefinch found up the road from my flat on Walthamstow Marshes by the insatiable Jamie Partridge. I couldn't believe it really - my perceived misfortune made worse knowing that I was unable to make it up the road for at least three days. Thankfully though the Rosefinch decided to stick around, and on a glorious morning, the bird was found in it's favoured area singing sweetly from the aerial of the Hope and Anchor Pub. A lovely red bird, it tended to fly between two favoured locations so could go missing for periods but such a great record for London and my first for the UK. It never posed close enough for any credible photographs so the one below can reasonably described as a 'record' shot.

I like this quote; “Everything was such a damned nice idea when it was an idea.” That's exactly how it felt when I booked a British Airways return flight to Aberdeen with the hope of connecting with the rare American White-winged Scoter.  Of course there is an element of risk attached to such things, something that I was fully aware of having heard numerous stories of failed twitches.  To me they were merely amusing anecdotes.  Now they don't taste quite so sweet. It was an early start to a Sunday morning.  I was still a little jaded after a heavy night out with work colleagues and the plan to head up to Scotland may have been a little misguided given the malaise of the day before. It was a cool blustery day.  On arrival, I picked up a hire car and headed to the wonderful Murcar Links golf course.  The greens looked splendid provoking thoughts of maybe taking up this soporific sport which on grass always looks so appealing. Walking alongside the beautifully manicu