like busses... another self found tick

Stunning (joke) pic of the Savi's (!!)

On 4th May two days prior to the Red Rumped Swallow find  I was conducting a waders and wildfowl survey at Strumpshaw, this involved a semi early visit to the fen. It was a fairly quiet day with not as much bird song from the reeds as expected in early May, although seemingly normal for this spring, still plenty of wildfowl to keep me occupied which was good. On exiting the Tower Hide I caught a very brief 1-2 second reeling from the fen, immediately I knew it was not a grasshopper Warbler but the song belonged to one of the top birds on my hit list- Savi's Warbler. I hung around for a further 20mins or so to see if it would call again but alas no joy, it didn't even perform at all that evening either. I was left being 99% sure that I had a new self found world tick but all too brief an identification! I would have to wait until the following Wednesday, 5 days later before I received a text saying it was singing from exactly the same position from TH, I dashed down to the hide and sure enough the deep buzz of a Savi's was gracing my ears at long last. In the following nights/weeks I have been back quite a few times and have been lucky enough to see the bird fairly well, all be it fairly distant.
What a cracking species though, all the better for the self find, its still present at the moment too 14 days later so it seems to find Strumpshaw to its liking!
That's two good self finds in three days, they say luck comes in threes so hopefully my Icterine Warbler will be a nice little self find at the end of the month, that is now my final 'easy' to get species!

Also managed a smart plumaged Pec Sand yesterday at Buckenham, another Mid-Yare tick.

1st self find tick since 'that' goose!

After quite a few weeks of being faithful to the Waxham area I finally scored a bit of luck this morning.

The past 4 visits have held quite a lot of the expected species of common migrants including good numbers of Lesser and common Whitethroats, a few Garden Warblers and a ring ouzel on each visit, (the Hoopoe too) which is not bad going. But given the track record of the area and the fact that it is only watched by a few people I always feel this is one of those places to find (good) stuff for yourself. I must admit as I walked back towards my car this morning I was feeling as though I had not got just reward from my efforts in recent weeks, when all of a sudden a Red Rumped Swallow appeared over the dunes about 10 metres inland of me! It flew by in an all to brief appearance but was close enough to see all necessary features, a cracker of a bird and just what I needed to boost my birding enthusiasm. I do love finding good birds and getting that rush of adrenalin, especially on days where the east wind is blowing with fronts coming up from the South, I didn't see another birder between 6.30 and 10.30 either, which surprised me given the conditions!

I have almost self found RRS before at Winterton, I received a text saying one was on its way south past Waxham while I was at Winterton (this very weekend) 3 years ago, sure enough Dad and I picked it up coming towards us, as I say not quite a self find. This one most certainly was a full self find (288) doesn't sound as if it was seen by anyone else further South either?

A great morning,often it is just 1 bird that can make the difference!