randombirder

A quick dart up to Brancaster having returned back from Egypt - the weather was significantly different. Parking up on the concrete pad that formed the advised vantage point for the cackling goose, it was a distant browse through the thousands of pink-footed goose foraging amongst the fallow that provided a challenging attempt to catch-up with this nearctic vagrant.  It was eventually located through a gap in a hedge feeding amongst its surrogates and that was essentially that.  A male hen harrier passed by adding a bit more interest to the day.

One of my favourite countries.  Egypt - and it was great to visit again as well as see one a good friend in Cairo.  Based in Hurghada, the Bellagio Beach Hotel has a small tidal inlet that supports a number of waterbirds that come and go as the tides ebb and flow.  It was here that the majority of new species were seen which was quite convenient as there weren't many points along this stretch of coast that were easy to access. Slender-billed gull were present constantly here in fluctuating numbers as were great crested tern  a couple of  caspian tern , a single sooty gull on a couple of evenings, and a pallas's gull that popped in for a couple of hours. Two western reef heron (a pale phase and a dark phase) flew into the bay on the first day with the dark phase seen on subsequent days. A couple of striated heron were only seen on the first day at the hotel which was quite fortunate. A fair selection of wader species would feed on the intertidal mud inc...