Let it Snow..

After my borderline disastrous pre-birthday birding, I subsequently turned fifteen.  To break in my new age, early the morning after my birthday I headed to Newhaven Harbour with Caleb for a spot of birding.  It wasn't an encouraging start after I missed the train I was intending to get.  Still, it was dark... So early enough.  With the sun coming up over the sea to start a clear day, I headed to the pier to look for Purple Sandpipers. They seem pretty much guaranteed here from December-March, so finding them usually isn't too hard, getting a shot on the other hand... not so easy.  They seem to favour feeding in the shade below the pier, bad angle, bad lighting, I'll leave it at that.  Always a joy to watch though!
 There was a single Shag fishing just off the pier, and that was about it for the next hour or two, save countless flocks of finches.
 While watching one of the groups of finches (in this case Greenfinch) feeding on a beach, we caught a glimpse of something larger with big wing-bars come down on the beach. Snow Bunting flashed to mind.  And after cautiously - and slightly excitedly I will admit - approaching where it had landed, yes!  There it was, Snow Bunting. A burst of shots, then we moved around and waited for it to come a bit closer.  Thankfully, it complied.  Need I tell you how the next four hours were spent?  Perhaps not, but I will. I feel I must, for it was rather incredible. Somehow this was my first Snow Bunt, funnily enough I dipped one here a couple of weeks ago.
I dread to think the amount of times I filled my memory cards - perhaps a reminder to clear them before I go out?  Employing the crawling-on-shingle approach, we managed at times to be within 10 foot of him (it was a male). The light was perhaps too harsh, and sure he seemed to have a love for distracting debris, but with views like that I'm not complaining...

We watched him (with just a small break) until the sun was too low to photograph any more.  Such a great bird, the third to turn up on this stretch of coast in the last few weeks, but by far the the showiest!

Double Dip Doldrums

My yearly tradition of a birding trip in the days before my birthday came around again. A pre-sunrise start had us heading to Cambridge.  Why not try to join the Rough-Legged Buzzard bonanza of the last few months? Am I the only person to have not seen one?  It's the Yellow-browed Warblers all over again, well... not quite.  In a naive way, I thought finding the Buzzard would be easy, I mean a big bird like that, how hard could it be?  It was a cold, grey, uninspiring morning, even the Common Buzzards just sat there in the trees. Still, the fens were scanned, and produced a lot of Kestrels. Not a large pale raptor in sight.  A few Red Kites and Buzzards were all.  The hours of the morning passed and it began to rain, with hopes for the RLB extinguished, it was perhaps time to move on.
 Thankfully the Buzzard wasn't the whole day plan, we had a back up.  Just down the road was a 1w male Ring-necked Duck, again we approached with naivety.  How hard would it be to separate from the Tufty's?  Distinguishing it wasn't the problem, there was a distinct lack of Aythya ducks altogether.  And the lake it was on? Very large.  The sun was starting to set, at an angle which could only be described as awkward.   Again, we had to leave with no success.
 Ah, at least there was some light relief, a few Corn Bunting in with a Yellowhammer flock was a nice surprise - and year-tick - on the walk to the car.
 It was just one of those days.

Bring out the Bunting

I was just packed and ready to hit the patch this morning, when a well timed check of twitter brought some surprising news - Lapland Bunting at Wanstead Flats! Showing in grass near Alexandra Pond.  Well... I didn't go to the patch.  With our direction turned to Wanstead we made haste. A twenty minute walk later and I realised this wasn't going to be all that easy.  There was really rather a large amount of grass. Long, long grass.  After rather pointlessly staring into the grass, a bird started circling, expecting a mipit I pointed the camera its way.  I'm not sure I've ever been more delighted to be wrong - I was watching a Lapland Bunting!  It circled a few more times then dropped down into the middle of the field.  Buzzing with excitement we joined another birder and again, began hopelessly searching for it in the grass. And so progressed the afternoon, with a couple more brief flight views of this delightful little bird.  There ended up being seven of us looking for it, yet still we could not pin its location on the ground. With little happening it ended up just being four of us left searching for it. Again we had brief views as it flew in the direction of the ditch it was originally reported from but alas, despite scrutiny of every patch of grass it could not be found. A master of disguise.
 I'd seen it, and got a few poor shots of it in flight, that was good enough for me! So we started to leave, that's when it showed up darting down into the grass. Backtracking, we began again scanning the grass, but this time it paid dividends, I spotted it a few metres away. What a beautiful bird!  I managed to grab a couple of record shots before it flew off and began circling again calling as it went. It showed on the ground a couple more times before heading for the other side of the field.
 Fantastic views of a fantastic bird, and my second lifer in less than twenty-four hours. Happy?  That sounds about right...