Redstart in colour

The drake Redstart in south Lincolnshire, was giving it large this morning and was great to see in colour.

Lockdown Firsts!

Last weekend, on a lockdown wander, I heard an unfamiliar song which sounded (to my ear) like an off Lesser Whitethroat. Something wasn't quite right but I couldn't locate it and having just heard my first Lesser Whitethroat shortly before, I put it down as just being another Lesser Whitethroat. Having visited the site several times during the week (but not in the mornings), I was surprised to hear it again this morning. Didn't take long to locate the bird- a stunning drake Redstart! Sadly, the light was awful but managed to get some sound recordings and some record shots. A really rare breeding bird for Lincolnshire so will be interesting to see if this develops into anything. 

Redstart has long been a bogey bird for me in the Deepings, having always managed to miss them in the past and I nearly missed out on this one- rare for one to be able to correct one's own mistakes in birding! So was thrilled to add this new species to my Deepings list and certainly didn't think I would add another almost immediately after! Josh Jones called with news of two Cranes drifting south over Langtoft, 10 minutes or so I was on them- another Deeping's tick for me! I lost them to view south west towards West Deeping/Maxey.

From the archives No. 6

Yesterday morning, on my daily exercise route, I was fortunate enough to find a 'pinging' drake Bearded Tit on a local patch. First time I have seen them this close to home so thought I would recycle these photos of a drake I took at Titchwell in Norfolk during 2009. This is the 199th species I have seen/heard within three miles of my house- not bad for an inland site.