Stake-out

A friend was due round for dinner at 7:30pm yesterday evening so it probably wasn't the most sensible thing on my part to belt out in the car at 7 to check if two wader species reported at Micklemere (22 miles return!) were still present... but I did it anyway. Birds-per-minute in a 7 minute(!) visit were top drawer - not only were the waders happily settled down for the night but a spanking adult/near-adult Iceland Gull materialised in front of me as the site's pre-roost dispersed! And I was only 8 minutes late for dinner.

Spurred on by this good fortune, I pedaled back out there at 6am this morning - the Black-tailed Godwit (118, and my first in Breckland, hence not annual) was still asleep when I arrived 50 minutes later, and the 3 Ruff (119) soon fell into place too. No large gulls (Iceland already OMN-ML anyway, so no worries there) but a Blackcap (120) singing nearby completed a very satisfying haul.

Percentage of target to date - 77%

Distance cycled - 235.2mls / 378.5km

Latest addition - Blackcap (120) 31 Mar

Walking in a white-winged wonderland!

Everyone else seems to have Goshawk on their Nunnery Lakes list. I don't, and in a bid to rectify this, I came to work prepared with bike and 'scope today so as to get as much of my lunch break as possible at my 'raptor watch point' (raised bank round one of the fishermens' carparks - you have to take what you can get in the way of hills in Breckland!).

Only a couple of distant Buzzards ion the raptor front but just as I was about to leave, a ghostly gull loomed into view - 3rd calendar year Iceland Gull (106)! Incredibly it landed on one of the lakes (big gulls tend to be reticent about this as the lakes are fairly small, and quite disturbed), before giving fine 'scope views overhead as it drifted off.

Couldn't quite believe my luck after my 'double dip weekend' with this species. One nagging question remains: can I garden-tick it retrospectively?!

Percentage of target to date - 68%

Distance cycled - 126.6mls / 203.7km

Latest addition - Iceland Gull (106) 27 Feb