birds for me. I'd been ploughing through the internet
all week trying to find something for the weekend
but couldn't make up my mind what to do. Saturday
night came and I still hadn't settled on anything
except I fancied something a bit special. I've got to
admit I don't usually travel too far for birds, a maxium
of a couple of hours in any direction is more than
enough for me.
I'd been watching the movements of the Lapland
Buntings all week, they were popping all over the
place even reports of fly over birds at Slimbridge.
I'd hoped for maybe one on the Malverns (wouldn't
that be nice) but nothing. In fact the next closest
ones were at Minsmere, where two had been
reported throughout most of the week. I guess my
mind was made up, Minsmere and Lapland Bunting's.
I must admit the prospect of a four journey didn't
excite me to much and to arrive in time for first light
would mean leaving my place at 01.30am. I sat a wrote
a couple of quick emails to try a gain a little more
information and soon had the replys back with what
I was after, so that was it I was all set.
Sunday morning came (very quickly) and I was soon
heading up the motorway. One thing about leaving at
that time of the morning was the roads where empty.
Completely void of traffic, so that made the journey
much more bearable. I arrived at Dunwich car park
just as it was getting light, I'd been recommeded to start
at the beach here and work my way down to Minsmere
because the Buntings had been showing more at the
north end.
I scoured the beach for a good hour and half with no
success at all. I'd all but given up until I spotted a couple
of photograhers heading my way. It turned out that it
was one of the guys I'd emailed the previous night (Jon
Evans) accompanyed by his mate (Ian Clarke or
"Sparky" as he likes to be called) A quick chat reveled
they'd had about as much success as me, they too
had made there way down the beach in pretty much the
same style as myself and had seen nothing. Jon had said
"they'll be here somewhere"....but with more searching
still nothing.
I made my way further up the beach until I'd reached
the Sluice. The Sluice was home to quite a few Swallows.
I could hardly resist a go at these beautiful little birds.
I watched them as they landed on various perches from
fences to sign post's but I'd noticed one individual was
landing on a dead tree. I waited for him to move off and
got myself into position then awaited his return. I didn't
have to wait long before he was back and only yards
from me.
With a few shot's in the bag I made my way back down the
beach for what I'd originally came for the Lapland Buntings.
As I walked down the beach I could see in the distance a
crowd had gathered near to the East Hide. I arrived to
find the Lapland Buntings had been seen but then lost
again, with continued searches from everyone soon found a
lone bird.
I quickly managed a few shot's before the hoards of people
started to gather. Quite close views at times.
Apart from the Lapland Buntings there was a Wryneck
reported in the North bushes. I managed to see it but
that was about it, photograhing it was another
thing, I did manged one shot but purely for records
purposes, I'm not going to embaress myself by posting it
on here. In fact apart from the Buntings everything
that day kept it's distance. Red Backed Shrike another
first for me kept very distance, to far for even the big
guns cracking bird to watch though.
I did manged to get quite close to a Wheatear on Dunwich
Heath which was nice although I was trying to find Dartford
Warbler. I did manged to see the Dartford Warblers, again
another first for me but they kept there distance as well,
again only managing records shot's.
With the rain clouds gathering fast and everything
at least seen although not photographed it was time to
head back. A good day all in all with another five new
birds to add to my ever growing list.
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