James Dee Birding

A few hours spent at Strumpshaw Fen today.  Highlights were an Otter and Kingfisher.  Six Great White Egrets.  A Chinese Water Deer and a Blackbird sunning itself.  No Swallowtail butterflies seen sadly.  44 bird species in total. Emerald Damselfy and Brown Hawker also present.

I took 165 minutes to walk around the entirety of Lakenheath RSPB reserve, on what felt like a dead day bird wise.  I still encountered 45 species.  The highlights were hearing a couple of B earded Tits and a  Common Crane  though I saw neither.    Bird activity was at a minimum.  The visit reminded me of a previous visit to try and see Golden Oriole many moons ago, and only being able to glimpse them as they quickly flew back and forth in the tree tops. Afterwards, it's only a quick drive down the road to Weeting Heath.  I went into the East Hide first, saw nothing, so headed to the West Hide.  A Stone Curlew revealed itself by the fence, and after watching it for a while, noticed another adult and chick in a tuft of grass.  One adult was sitting near the chick, presumably on guard duty, whilst the other shuttled insects to it's young..  The chick remained hidden most of the time, only standing on a couple of occasion to accept a ...

After the Bird Fair, I had no place to go so stayed one extra night at the camp site there, then eventually, on the 14th July ended up at the Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire for an evening session.  Not expecting to see anything in particular, I didn't take my camera so no distant photos of the Wood Sandpiper , Kingfisher or cow swimming in the river!   The most surprising birds seen were the six adult Whooper Swans.  No chicks seen unfortunately. A Bittern was booming near the visitor centre in the evening.

Whilst at Frampton Marsh the previous day I chatted to a fellow visitor who suggested I visit Willow Tree Fen.  And so, here I am arriving at said location at 9.30am.  I doubted I'd see any Cranes but as I pulled in, one was immediately visible before I'd even parked up. It turns out to be a pair with their chick, and they showed reasonably well for the hour or so I remained until they wandered off away from the viewing platform.

4th July I arrived at Kilnsea Wetlands via a brief goose ridden stop at Hornsea Mere and saw the sad sight of dried mud where freshwater should always be.  I dragged myself over to the Beacon Ponds instead, where one of the Tern wardens, Holly, asked if I'd come to see the Roseate Tern.   No, I didn't know there was one here, but I will force myself to look at it.   What's that?  Oh it's gone.   That's good isn't it?  😀 Luckily, it hadn't gone, but was obscured by clouds of sandwich Terns (5 or 6).  I love Roseate Terns.  For many years, they hid from me, and now I've seen 16 in the past few weeks.  There were also at least 50 Little Terns  at the 24hr protected colony on the eastern edge of the ponds ,  nine Little Gulls , some Dunlin and a Knot .  5th July Kilnsea is a nice place.  For the record, I'd like to spend a lot more time there.  I spent the day getting to know the area again as it had been...

I called the Puffin boat trip company as soon as I dared to try and get on the 9am sailing but it had been cancelled due to lack of interest, so I booked on the 10am, giving me time to twiddle my thumbs and eat breakfast. The smallish boat was quite full, and over loaded in my opinion with over 40 people and several dogs making the trip.  Although this going to a bird reserve island, this isn't a bird tour.  The general public fill these boats in order to see.. what else.. puffins and seals. It takes just 20 camera shielding minutes to reach Coquet. Within moments, we were being directed to view the Roseate Terns  that obligingly next closest to the coast, so all is well!  I counted around 15 individuals and countless Puffins !  An estimated 20,000 nested on Coquet in 2025 according to the local information. The American Black Tern  that had been present thirteen days previously at Long Nanny was also there, asleep on the rocks amongst Arctic and Common Ter...