What a day!

For once I actually got a day where a large chunk of it was spent outside.
First up was an early morning WeBS count. Nothing special but it was nice to be counting waders. 16 spotshank, 70+ dunlin, green, common and wood sands and 12 spoonbill.

I hadn't been back in the office when Dave radioed to say there was a spotted crake showing well from Island Hide. A dash down the path and a wait of 20mins the bird showed well. A cracking adult out in the open. A couple of water rails in the area was nice for comparison.

Middle part of the day was spent on the inevitable paperwork until the 'other' Dave called in to say a skua with a long tail had been seen on the beach. Before I had really had chance to get my bins ready he was radioing again to say it was over the fresh marsh.
Its been a long time since I have run down the path but I legged it until I could see the saltmarsh to see the bird very distantly. A futher dash to Island Hide and the bird flew straight towards the path almost going over our heads onto the lagoons before heading towards the sea. Such a stunning bird with its massive tail and graceful flight. My 1st ever adult and what a bird.

Back out for more after work. The skua was spending all of its time with a group of 16 Arctics and it was great to watch the different flight and jizz of the bird.
Rounded of the day with a flyover turtle dove and more of the crake.

One of those 'red letter' days

Looking awesome

Following the skua debacle from yesterday, I decided to get in to the reserve early this morning. Partly to look for the skua but also to beat the crowds.
Unsurprisingly the carpark was empty at 5 so I had the reserve to myself. Stopped off in Island Hide to shelter from a shower and had a nice colour ringed blackwit  which was close enough to read, a surprise juv water rail feeding along the reed edge and a juv med gull.
Counted the waders ftom the main path and headed to the beach. Managed to get half drowned by another shower before looking at the sea. Loads of terns moving but only a single fulmar of note.

Headed back to Parrinder Hide to look through the waders. Wader levels are peachy at the moment and decent numbers are already on the move. Dunlin numbers are building nicely with the odd curlew sand and little stint in recent days. Blackwit and avocets have been touching 300 each most days and there are loads of ruff about now.
The undoubted stars of the place at the moment are the incredibly showy wood sands. This morning, one of them was feeding within 5m of Parrinder Hide. Much of the time it was too close to phobescope but I did manage a couple of shots.

A walk around Choseley produced a good number of yellowhammer and skylark singing, a family of grey partridge and a couple of marsh harrier. Lots of butterflies and 6-spot burnet moths about too

Phonescoping

I have to say that I am really impressed with the results I have been getting recently. I know they are not as good as digiscoping and nowhere near the quality of a DSLR but for use on social media or the occasional blog I am very pleased

After finding it tricky at first I seem to have got the hang of it. No use of any adapters just held up against the eyepiece.
As with any photography it has its limitations. The subject needs to be pretty close and the light needs to be good to get a decent shot but you can get good enough images if that rare happens to drop in. Who doesn't carry a mobile these days anyway...

These shots are all from the last few days at Titchwell. The garganey was only 8-10m from the path.
The Temminck's stint takes my yearlist to 156