Cold start

I had a quick early morning hour around the usual spots from 06:00, a Little Egret on LFGP, 4 Teal & 1 Common Sandpiper, was about it there. Another Little Egret was just by Sandford Mill, Grey Wagtail at the layby bridge. From Bittern Hide the Med Gull showed well and was calling frequently, no better shots with my HTC though. At the back of the scrape Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat called. It was really darn cold and light hail began to fall as I did a loop back round BSL sailing club and Sandford, with nothing more to report.

Little Gull

I am very grateful to Peter Scudamore who I passed at the layby, having picked up FOLL post and not stopped due to having my son in the car. Only to get a text 5 minutes when I arrived at my mums, saying he had a Little Gull and had I seen it? Nooooooo, and fair play to my mum for jumping in the car with me to look after Ethan, so I could run down the path for a 2 minute stop, look and dash back. A very nice adult winter type plumage and it never stopped feeding up and down around the islands. My first since 2007 and only my fifth ever.

Migration resumed

After a week of cold North winds and lack of time for meto look, I connected with Sedge Warbler, 2 at WSL then 3 Common Terns flying around BSL, then a Whitethroat at the end of BSL viewpoint, then short bursts of Nightingale song well out of sight in Middle Marsh, nice 4 year ticks in one 1.5 hour trip. Now hope to get down early again to connect with Cuckoo and maybe catch up with a Green Sandpiper any day now. I expect Swift, Reed & Garden Warbler will follo in the next 2-3 days, then Hobby and Lesser Whitethroat. After that we just have to hope for good wader and tern migration, as well as making an effort to be up and out early to catch the fly overs.

Start again

With just an hour free mid afternoon, I was over the moon to immediately find a superb male Redstart at the bottom of the car park field, my sixth in 3 years, the only difference this time being that it was my first spring find. It only showed briefly twice, so a record shot was out of the question on this occasion. 4-5 others did get a 20 second view around 16:30, so great to know others saw it too.

Mediterranean Gull still here

After being absent all morning and missing Cuckoo yesterday and today Hobby, Common Tern and Sedge Warbler, I refound the Med Gull on Lavell's Tern scrape bund. Allowing a much better picture opportunity.

Migration getting going

Brian Bennett texted to say the Med Gull was on Tern scrape late afternoon, so I popped down hoping for a better record shot, only to see it flying over East, then back North towards LFGP. I decided to do a loop of the car park field, turning up nothing, I thought I'd give BSL a one minute scan for Common Tern and hirundines. On the sailing club beach a Grey Wagtail and the first Common Sandpiper for the year, were foraging at the other end near the blue containers. Despite two ignorant dog walkers allowing their pets to chase the geese and swans, the bird remained long enough for Brian to get it and Trevor, but it had done a quick sortie to the main island, but returned just after I left. Prior to that 3 House Martin went thru, along with 2 Swallow and a small handful of Sand Martin.

Mediterranean Gull

After missing one on the 3rd, I was delighted to find this bird on Lea Farm G.P. at around 09:00, assumed to be a 2nd summer. I actually heard it call first on the shingle island with the Black headed Gulls, it then moved to the SW corner, where it stayed until about 10:15.