Reader
Well-known member
Dear all
Well, as you know Ros & I had a weekend down in Essex. We left Birmingham at 17:40 on Friday night and I decided to go a slightly longer way via Warwick and onto the M40 and go that way, anything to miss out the M6 & M1 Friday nightmare. We arrived at Ramsden Heath just before 9pm.
Saturday and it was decided to go for a walk with the dogs, 6 of them, via the river that runs at the edge of South Woodham Ferrers and joins the river Crouch. 5 Adults, 1 child and 6 dogs duly plodded there way along this tidal stretch of river. The tide was in so unfortunately there was very little mud exposed but we did surprise a Green Sandpiper into flight as well as a Cormorant. In the trees were a few Greenfinch and Long tail Tits as well as a lone Robin and a Blackbird but very little else until we actually joined the river Crouch. I was only armed with my bins and scanned both banksides picking out various gulls, a few Mute Swans but little else until we came opposite the Anchor pub. I spotted a few Lapwing on a small point that stuck out into the river. Now bearing in mind I was walking with non-birders what do you think happened? The Lapwing flew up and in amongst them flew up another bird. It all happened so quick that it caught me out and it had flown about 50 yards down river before I realised that the birds jizz was unusual. When I first saw it I thought small juvenile gull but I wasn’t seriously thinking about seeing anything unusual. By the time I had gotten my bins on it it had started to drop down into the inland channels but not before I had sussed out that it was a small Heron species. I rang it into the Rare Bird Alert line in the hope that a local birder would try and locate it but I never heard anything else about it. I couldn’t stop to look for it, although I tried for about ten minutes, as the family had moved quite a way from me by then. I am hoping that in the next few days that someone will come across the bird and report it in so I will know what I had seen. My guess, if I were pushed, would be a juvenile Night Heron but I certainly wouldn’t commit myself to that ID.
Sunday was going home time and we did the family rounds in the morning and whilst doing this I was keeping my eye on the pager. There was a certain bird in Suffolk that I had never seen before and it was still showing by 11:15. We decided to go for it at about 13:00. It was the Dusky Warbler that had been at Thorpness for a few days.
I quickly reached the A130 then onto the A12 and was soon approaching Ipswich when a message came up about a Rough legged Buzzard on the Lantern Marshes near to Sudborne. We would be actually passing fairly close to here soon so it was decided to go after that bird first. At first I couldn’t locate the site and went the wrong side of Sudbourne before doubling back and taking one of the side roads that eventually came to the farm where it had been seen. 2 birders were already there and it had shown 10mins earlier. I put up my scope and pointed it in the direction it had last been seen and there it was, smack bang in the middle of my scope. We all watched as it turned, twisted and hovered before finally dropping down behind a bank of grass. This is only the 4th I have seen. 2 in Norfolk and one in Notts were the only ones before this so It was an excellent addition to this years list. It was just after 15:00 and time to go on.
We reached Thorpness by nearly 15:45 and I didn’t find the site straight away as the directions were not as good as I first thought. I finally arrived at 16:10 at the site just in time for all the birders there, about a dozen, to start excitedly pointing to a spot and shouting “got it, I’ve got it”. I rushed forward, pointed my bins in the direction they were pointing and watched a slight movement of grass from where the bird had just jumped from and that was the last time the bird was seen. As far as I am aware it has not shown at all today either. How’s that for a near miss? The parting shot from all the birders was that that was the best showing that bird had given all day. Talk about rubbing salt into sore wounds.
Any way, that was my weekend over as by the time I had gotten back to the car it was 16:50, nearly dark, and time to start the long drive back to Birmingham.
Regards
John
Well, as you know Ros & I had a weekend down in Essex. We left Birmingham at 17:40 on Friday night and I decided to go a slightly longer way via Warwick and onto the M40 and go that way, anything to miss out the M6 & M1 Friday nightmare. We arrived at Ramsden Heath just before 9pm.
Saturday and it was decided to go for a walk with the dogs, 6 of them, via the river that runs at the edge of South Woodham Ferrers and joins the river Crouch. 5 Adults, 1 child and 6 dogs duly plodded there way along this tidal stretch of river. The tide was in so unfortunately there was very little mud exposed but we did surprise a Green Sandpiper into flight as well as a Cormorant. In the trees were a few Greenfinch and Long tail Tits as well as a lone Robin and a Blackbird but very little else until we actually joined the river Crouch. I was only armed with my bins and scanned both banksides picking out various gulls, a few Mute Swans but little else until we came opposite the Anchor pub. I spotted a few Lapwing on a small point that stuck out into the river. Now bearing in mind I was walking with non-birders what do you think happened? The Lapwing flew up and in amongst them flew up another bird. It all happened so quick that it caught me out and it had flown about 50 yards down river before I realised that the birds jizz was unusual. When I first saw it I thought small juvenile gull but I wasn’t seriously thinking about seeing anything unusual. By the time I had gotten my bins on it it had started to drop down into the inland channels but not before I had sussed out that it was a small Heron species. I rang it into the Rare Bird Alert line in the hope that a local birder would try and locate it but I never heard anything else about it. I couldn’t stop to look for it, although I tried for about ten minutes, as the family had moved quite a way from me by then. I am hoping that in the next few days that someone will come across the bird and report it in so I will know what I had seen. My guess, if I were pushed, would be a juvenile Night Heron but I certainly wouldn’t commit myself to that ID.
Sunday was going home time and we did the family rounds in the morning and whilst doing this I was keeping my eye on the pager. There was a certain bird in Suffolk that I had never seen before and it was still showing by 11:15. We decided to go for it at about 13:00. It was the Dusky Warbler that had been at Thorpness for a few days.
I quickly reached the A130 then onto the A12 and was soon approaching Ipswich when a message came up about a Rough legged Buzzard on the Lantern Marshes near to Sudborne. We would be actually passing fairly close to here soon so it was decided to go after that bird first. At first I couldn’t locate the site and went the wrong side of Sudbourne before doubling back and taking one of the side roads that eventually came to the farm where it had been seen. 2 birders were already there and it had shown 10mins earlier. I put up my scope and pointed it in the direction it had last been seen and there it was, smack bang in the middle of my scope. We all watched as it turned, twisted and hovered before finally dropping down behind a bank of grass. This is only the 4th I have seen. 2 in Norfolk and one in Notts were the only ones before this so It was an excellent addition to this years list. It was just after 15:00 and time to go on.
We reached Thorpness by nearly 15:45 and I didn’t find the site straight away as the directions were not as good as I first thought. I finally arrived at 16:10 at the site just in time for all the birders there, about a dozen, to start excitedly pointing to a spot and shouting “got it, I’ve got it”. I rushed forward, pointed my bins in the direction they were pointing and watched a slight movement of grass from where the bird had just jumped from and that was the last time the bird was seen. As far as I am aware it has not shown at all today either. How’s that for a near miss? The parting shot from all the birders was that that was the best showing that bird had given all day. Talk about rubbing salt into sore wounds.
Any way, that was my weekend over as by the time I had gotten back to the car it was 16:50, nearly dark, and time to start the long drive back to Birmingham.
Regards
John
