Birding Braunie

Another anxious and nail-biting week where working for a living became quite annoying as various birds of interest kept popping up on the various bird news sites I view, hourly. Eventually however, Saturday arrived like it always does and the warm sunny weather of the working work dissipated into a largely cold south-westerly wind, nasty black clouds and some whiplash-like rain showers. How nice. My plan had been to go to Rainham Marshes, specifically to the Cordite store area to experiment with the macro lens I have use of at the moment on a plethora of bum-biters and butterflies but the cold wind and the rain put paid to that. Of course the plan had also been to see if either the Spoonbill and Garganey pair were still there as well as building on the Wildgoose Chasers meagre year list. And with spring sort of here, I first went looking for migrants along the Thames path. There were no signs of any Wheatears or even Ring Ouzels but I could hear a Sedge Warbler and there were a lot...

Normally I take an early morning walk around the Lee Valley at Fisher’s Green on my own, before going on duty. Today was different. Today was special. The powers at LVP are always looking for new volunteers and are always asking how and why we (volunteers) do it in order to get an insight on how they can persuade others to join the team. well, the answer is simple; volunteers form close friendships with other volunteers and this means days like this. Instead of my normal insular walk, I was joined by my good and generous friends Brenda and Jo. We met at Fisher’s Green before most people are even awake and enjoyed a bracing 3 hour walk around the park pretty much to ourselves before taking up duties at the Bittern information Point. 50 shades of Grey Wagtail. We made our to the Grebe hide, a trail I often take and stopped at the vantage point that look across the Grand Weir. Now, I have only ever seen a Grey Wagtail once in this park...back in some forgotten year but we were luc...

Not sure when the American phrase 'Jaywalking' came into existence but it should now be called Jay-flying and be attributed to Norfolk. There has been a huge influx of Jays across the county and my brother Ant and I saw it first hand as we stopped in Hunstanton for a hot sausage roll breakfast. We witnessed squadrons of Jays passing overhead as we headed for Holme Dunes at the start of our epic weekend of birdwatching on the North Norfolk coast. Holme Dunes NNR (just as it says on the picture) Normally this time of year heralds the right migratory winds from the east that would make any birdwatcher salivate at the prospect of the rarities in abundance falling at their feet. Not this weekend though. With a very light North Westerly, things were quiet on the land and on the sea. Nice day for a stroll though. There were a few wader species on the beach. Knot, Turnstone, Sanderling, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank and Oystercatcher all allows close viewing with only the oc...