There had been a Citril Finch
yesterday at Burnham Overy Staithe, which was a lifer for David, Ken, Roger and
I. We had not been able to get there
yesterday and so had arranged that we would go today but would wait for
confirmation that it was still there.
Information that it was seen at 06:00 but had flown in the dunes but had
not been seen again by 06:20 appeared on Bird Guides at 07:20 and after some
phone calls David was driving us to Uppingham to pick up Ken just after
08:00. As time passed there had been no
reports of it being seen again and although its initial behaviour was a replica
of yesterday’s a long period without it being seen was not. The next piece of news was a negative report
that it still hadn’t been seen by 09:10, which was now over three hours and we
suspected that it might have gone.
We arrived at Burnham Overy
Staithe beach car park at 10:50 and began the long walk out to the pines at the
far end of the dunes with still no news of it being seen. As we walked out we had several Little Terns
and two Common Terns in the harbour and also a female Wheatear. David and Ken had gone on ahead of Roger and
I and we saw a couple of Little Egrets as we walked towards the dunes and heard
a Bittern boom. Other birders were
coming back along the track and there still hadn’t been any further sightings
of the finch. As we continued in the
dunes I was able to get a few shots of a first-summer male Wheatear and other
then two Spoonbills flying over we saw very little else before reaching the
pines.
Wheatear
We hadn’t seen too many
birders as we had walked out but there were plenty when we reached the area the
finch was seen yesterday. A Spotted
Flycatcher in a silver birch was my first of the year and hearing of a male
Redstart being seen from the path just inside the pines we moved away from the
main crowd to hopefully see the Redstart.
There was a small crowd gathered and we soon saw two more Spotted
Flycatchers and then the Redstart, which was a little elusive. However once it had shown the crowd dispersed
and eventually there was just Ken, Pat and myself. I then picked up the Redstart again and this
time it performed very well and we had it in full view for almost fifteen
minutes in a small hawthorn bush. It was
a little too far away to photograph but I did eventually fire of a few record
shots before it disappeared again. A
Hobby was observed over the pines just before we departed.
Redstart
With still no sighting of the
finch by 14:15 we called it a day and set off back to the car. I was able to photograph a second
first-summer male Wheatear on route back but other than a nice summer plumaged
Grey Plover, a Whimbrel and a few commoner warblers we saw very little
else. After some refreshment we set off
for home, agreeing that we would comeback if the bird was seen before we
reached Kings Lynne, but if we had gone further we would have to agree
depending on commitments if would go back or continue going home. Needless to say we arrived home without any
further news of the bird.
Wheatear
No comments:
Post a Comment