I've been planning a 5 day birding trip for the start of the year, with a view to getting my year off to a good start. I've got two possible ideas in mind:
First option- East Anglia: cranes at dusk at Horsey, hawfinches at dusk at Lynford, wild swans at Welney, white-fronts at Holkham, a look around Cley, Titchwell and Minsmere (there's apparently a very showy bittern at Minsmere at the moment, and if the wind isn't too bad Dunwich Heath is pretty good for Dartfords), plus wherever on the coast shorelarks, snow buntings and twite are revealed by the news services to be hanging out this winter. Maybe try for a r-l buzzard if there's a promising one.
Second option- First Scotland tour. Firth of Forth for velvet scoters (and any surf scoters that are around), Solway Firth for barnacles, a trip up to Speyside to tick cresties while they are coming to the feeders. The downside of this plan, of course, is that I will have to go back in early April to tick bananabills, as well as a west coast/ Uists trip in late May to get corncrakes and eagles (and the rest of the west coast stuff while I'm at it, including ptarmigan and the black duck at Stontian.)
Any thoughts?
