Sunday 26 April 2020

Redstart in colour





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

Saturday 25 April 2020

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.

Monday 13 April 2020

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.