Saturday 24th January
Arrived at
RSPB Lakenheath just after 9am - freezing cold, but sunny. I have not been to Lakenheath for a while and was surprised by all the fantastic work they have been doing - as you approach the main viewing bank (directly north of carpark) there is now a sandy coloured gravel path that weaves around ponds and seats all the way to the 'flash'! and back round in amongst the trees/bushes back to the carpark. I had brilliant views of the
Caspian Gull in amongst hundreds of others!! along with
Yellow Leg Gull,
Mediterranean Gull,
Lesser Black Backed Gull,
Great Black backed gulls, common gulls, black headed gulls and a couple of
Great Crested Grebes. The
Great Great Shrike was sitting in a tree on the Norfolk side of the river
!!! Around the reserve I heard bearded tits, saw a pair of stonechats, kestrel, a
Kingfisher and back by the visitor centre (which incidentally was closed, which I was surprised by on a Saturday)
5 Lesser Redpolls (Suffolk side!) were feeding on the alders by the pond. I walked back round to the flash where I bumped into
BF Ivan and friend
Scott and we went along to have another look at the
Caspian Gull. Ivan and Scott were then going to look for the Rough Legged Buzzard at Coveney, Cambs and the Great White Egret at Pymoor so I followed them to save me looking on the map! Thanks to Ivan's sharp eyes we had a brief view of the
Rough Legged Buzzard (2.45pm) along with a
common buzzard sitting in a tree and a
whole tree full of yellowhammers! On route to Pymoor Ivan spotted a
Merlin (3pm) going over the fields which we all saw along with
5 Whooper Swans flying over. At the railway bridge we did not have any luck with the Great White Egret, but had a
massive flock of Fieldfares and a few
Redwings in the fields below the embankment along with goldeneyes and whooper swans etc etc. I moved on to Welney where I saw several
White Fronted Geese and
Tundra Bean Geese, along with a
stock dove, 3 reed buntings and a barn owl and obviously loads of whooper swans, mute swans, pochard and my
2nd merlin (4.30pm) of the day. First class day's birding.
Best Wishes Penny:girl: