Champions of the Flyway!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Thrillers in the mist


Which is overstating it just a little, but never mind. A quick one with a couple of highlights from a day ultimately dominated by thick, impenetrable fog and light easterlies. It was one of those days that felt promising, and coupled with the fact I've got a lot of BBS ground to cover, I spent pretty much all of it in the field.


A good sniff around the usual northern circuit in the morning culminated on a fairly quiet Carr Naze - all the better to chart Meadow Pipit territories - but a very smart Whinchat (new for the year) and a couple of Wheatears maintained potential. Come the afternoon, and unable to keep still with an easterly blowing, I decided on more BBSing along the edge of a hopefully deserted golf course.


It wasn't, and against all odds (and sense), parades of golfers variously lost their bearings and hacked their balls into the murk; entertaining, but not in a sustainable way, and so I ploughed on - reaching a couple of conifers on the clifftop, barely visible unless within touching distance. Which is where this little beauty materialised, turning an okay day into a very good one.

Firecrest - one of the most gorgeous birds on Planet Earth (and barely annual here)