Hey. Sorry about the long break in posting, had my final exams and stuff all went a bit manic. Nearly done now tho. Anyway, no wildly exciting local birding done by me, but a fair bit of twitching in the last few weeks. I was on the way to Flamborough when news of the Calandra broke, so kidnapped Chris Gomersall and took him kicking and screaming across the county line. Needless to say we failed to connect, seeing as the warden had booted it halfway to Scandinavia by all accounts, but spent a pleasant few hours at Frampton Marsh RSPB, finally managing to put KC's name to a face, and year-ticking R-N.Phal, 6+Temminck's Stint, Garganey and a few other pleasant bits and pieces. O, Tim TICKEDWATER PIPIT, the big tart. We then dipped on WT Eagle again. FFS. The next day I was back at Frampton so Josh could yeartick all that stuff, on the way to dip Great Snipe at Cley. Did get Lesser Yellowlegs, Spoonbill, and Bearded Tits bouncing about whilst we were aimlessly standing around, ostensibly in a queue.
Sunday picked up the success rate a bit, with two ticks in an afternoon, me and Tim driving to Sheff to meet up with Josh, before picking up his Uncle just over the border. Not really what you expect when you're travelling to Wales, and don't leave the house til half 3. Anyway, the 1s male Citrine Wag at Conway was stunning, the Broad-billed Sand was underwhhelming, whilst the flock of Dunlin it was with was really quite impressive. A Curlew Sand amongst them as well. Sadly there wasn't enough light to make it a 3 tick day with the Buff-breast at Frodsham.
This Sunday saw a dawn start with Josh picking me up at half 4, and watching the Rustic Bunting at Filey by just gone half 5. An absolutely stonking bird, very tame and showed magnificently. No one else had bothered to get up for it, and what a tret it was compared to the Cley twitch to have such a fantastic bird to ourselves. We carried on to Easington, so that Josh could yeartick Tawny Pipit. It was my first time out that way this spring and was quite impressed by the constant hirundine passage, although i know its been far bigger and more impressive on other days.
Thats me up to date, I'm currently writing this rather than watching a Least Sand cos i seem to have mislaid my car keys quite seriously, so fingers crossed the situation will be resolved soon and you wont hear from me again for a week or two.
