France

Great White Egret



Cirl Bunting

Though I may have only gained 1 life tick (Short-toed Treecreeper) my 1st ever trip abroad was still a great experience and one that I shall relive at the end of April when I head off to Holland with College (ignoring the fact that I will have all ready been abroad so it wont be my 1st trip...) The Great White Egret came as a surprise as I had not realised they were within the are and the 1st flock of cranes were dismissed (on call) as some sort of chicken, or farmyard poultry species (Like the Egret, I was not aware they were around) The 2nd flock numbered around 115 birds. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was heard calling and drumming but refused to show itself and our only view of Coypu was one that swam across the back of the lake before disappearing into one of its tunnels. The last morning produced a cracking male Hawfinch within about half a mile of the house aswell as the expected Woodlark, Firecrest and Cirl Bunting plus a Black Redstart on one of the houses and excellent views of Short-toed Treecreeper. Ok, so most of these birds may be thought of as "dross" or "poor" but when you can see Cirl Buntings on the roof of the opposite house and sit outside eating tea listening to the songs of Woodlarks its difficult to complain... If people are wondering what you are up to and are talking to each other about it, you wont feel embarrassed or uncomfortable as you can't understand what they are saying.... unless you can speak French.

Glaucous Gull

After spending the morning at Cley, waiting for the bird to reappear on its favoured Seal, the bird was refound at Salthouse, where it had found a fresh supply of meat further along the beach in the form of a freshly washed up Porpoise. On arrival, the bird was resting on the beach but retreated to the sea where it drifted further further away (and rturned to steal a fish from a fisherman), before taking to the air and flying back towards Cley.

Snow Buntings shown by the red circles.... As you can guess they were pretty close.

One of two Waxwings flycatching from the wires above the Holme NWT car park.

North Yorks

The main reason for heading up North was not to see the American Robin (above) but to see the Pacific Diver that had taken up residence on a relatively small sailing lake near the village of Farnham. Thinking this first for the Western Palearctic was going to be the "easiest twitch ever" (after being told the bird was showing well on arrival) we were to be proved wrong, as we pulled up to watch it fly over the road, and slowly gain height. After an initial panic, and talks about the birds inevitable return, the bird changed direction and looked set to make a return to the lake. Unfortunately it had other ideas and proceeded to fly around in circles before disappearing as a speck in the distance, never to be seen again. Interestingly 2 further Pacific Divers have turned up in Britain since the Farnham bird so it can only be a matter of time before another twitchable one comes around again. On arrival the American Robin was showing well feeding on the rough area of grass, but disappeared into the nearby gardens after about 15 minutes where it remained for much of the day putting in only brief appearances. Compensation came in the form of a nearby Firecrest which showed superbly next to the canal. Unfortunately the camera was on the wrong setting so the pictures have come out worse than normal. Overall, quite a frustrating day... I was really looking forward to seeing that Diver.