Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Welney

Off to look for the Bluethroat today. On arrival at the usual spot there were a few people that had been hanging around for a couple of hours with no joy so decided to leave them to it and have a look around. This post-breeding male Ruff flew in whilst looking from the hide.


There were also a few Continental Black-tailed Godwits about but too distant for any meaningful shots.
Some time later 7 birds Ruff flew up from the other side of the island. Manage to get onto 3 of them


After everybody had finally given up looking for the Bluethroat decided to have a go myself. I noticed that on the bank there was a flattened area where people had obviously been standing in the past. Jumped up there and waited for a while. After a few minutes decided that some pishing was in order. Had only been doing it about 5 seconds when out it jumped.
It stayed around for about 10 seconds until its curiosity was satisfied and then disapeared back into the undergrowth . Did get some shots but unfortunately there was too much vegetation in the way. Had to move across a bit and pish again, however this time it didnt appear. It clearly wasnt going to fall for that one again so decided to do some wierd whistles and hey presto it was straight back out. This time did get a few decent shots although again there was a lot of foliage with some very close stuff slightly blurring the first two shots here a bit. The third one was the clearest but unfortunately its head went behind a reed on that one.




Still one Whooper around. Presumably want fit enough to fly north.


Ad Turtle Dove on the Ten Mile Bank road


Headed for the coast in the afternoon. This Little Tern was one of around 25 birds feeding off of Kessingland Beach.