Birding Braunie

Dear God. Could you please refrain from making early spring mornings less dewy. My boots, socks and fetching cargo pants got rather wet at the weekend as I crawled through scrub grass at Thistly marsh in a quest to capture a Grasshopper Warbler. Picture the scene; I’m crawling through wet grass at 6am, trying to un-snare my telescope’s tripod legs from a resistant bramble tentacle whist attempting to not collapse on my backside which would rightly raise a few questions from passers-by later on. I could hear that tinnitus-like reeling or playing cards in the bike spoke sound of the Grasshopper Warbler a few metres away but couldn’t see anything – this is normal. I caught a glimpse of the joker as it moved from one small straggly bush to another. It was keeping low and unhelpful. This too is normal. Finally, it blinked first and sat up in a Hawthorn bush and sang it’s little heart out. I still had to manoeuvre myself and my kit to a view where I could get a shot. Normally a bird fli...

What chance have I got? I mean, I would quite like to hit the 200 species mark this year and my chances are looking rather Dodo like. I know there’s no prize for reaching this total or I’m not doing a patch race etc... but I like to have a target because it motivates me to get out early or go a bit further to see more. This is the problem though, I haven’t gone that bit further. I do get up early but I have realised I haven’t been that far from home this year with Thetford in Norfolk being the only trip I have made outside Essex/London. Having said that, the species are ticking over slowly. Obviously I would like to bag at least 20 new species a month to realistically reach that score and the arrival of spring has helped boost my total. Just by snatching a couple of hours here and there, before work, after work, en route to somewhere and by just looking up sometimes has got me the majority of the common spring migrants. At Wanstead Flats a Wheatear and a Whinchat. Common Whitethroat,...