randombirder

Still not great on a boat but it was ok. A fair scattering of seabirds passed by the Scillonian, that included Cory's shearwater , a couple of great shearwater , at least four storm petrel and singles of arctic skua and great skua . Stepping onto St. Mary's was simply joyous, it was great to be back. Briskly heading over to Albany to park the case, I legged it up to the airport where a painful five-hour vigil didn't really provide the hoped for views of bobolink . A curious bird that stayed hidden in the weedy field below the airport despite the occasional passing of the Skybus and a monstrous Airbus A400M military aircraft that performed three circuits of the airfield. It took a single-engined aircraft to excite this bird into a brief flight before dropping back down into the vegetation - a mere three and half hours after arriving at the site. A repeat performance took place around half an hour after this monumental event, a slightly longer fly-around and slightly better...

Another great day at Minsmere - due to Covid - this was the first visit after around eighteen months. Always plenty to see around the reserve.  From the east hide, ten summer plumage spotted redshank were present out on the scrape along with a couple of green sandpiper , black-tailed godwit , and two stunning ruff in breeding plumage. The raucous sound of breeding gulls and terns including hundreds of black-headed gull , sandwich tern , and a few meditteranean gull and little tern were present on the islands. A couple of lovely male dartford warbler were present along the beach and three garganey (1 drake and 2 duck) were seen from the south scrape hide while searching for the roseate tern that weren't seen during the afternoon. A short vigil from the Bittern Hide hoping for the purple heron that failed to alight from the reedbeds was a real pleasure watching marsh harrier on feeding sorties.  A single hobby was seen flying over the reeds.

A quiet day at Minsmere is when you rack up 87 species and also get to observe a variety of other interest things. East Scrape A long day but ultimately worth every mile endured along the arduous route to the reserve. The first stop was the Island Mere hide where a couple of Otter sightings on the far side of the water were typically brief. One of the Savi's Warbler made a couple of attempts to wind up a sustained reel but failed miserably.  Not very vocal and therefore no chance of grabbing a chance sighting. Four flyby sightings of Bittern during the course of the day that were particularly active presumably now feeding young. Watching the aerial Marsh Harrier glide over the vast reedbed, a Hobby feeding over the woodland, Bearded Tit dashing low over the reeds, and listening to the cacophony of Black-headed Gull and Mediterranean Gull on the East Scrape are all part of the sensory experience. On both the East and South Scrapes, a number of Kit...

On another warm glorious day, Cuckoo appeared to be everywhere, calling from around the reserve and pairs seen dashing across the fen. An initial sighting of a Hobby then turned into two before walking up to the Joist Fen Hide where there were up to 25 birds hawking insects over the reedbed. There were at least four Marsh Harrier including a couple of splendid male birds. Bittern were heard booming and all the common warblers were in song, establishing territory and providing a symphonic soundtrack to a wonderful reserve.