Rough justice for Dave

Got up this morning, clear and still but had to go to work so no ringing - gutted. Still conditions at work with cracking light and Dave went out birding while I was in the office - gutted again. Dave had a frustrating morning with only a mystery small auk he couldn't nail down being the 'highlight'. The other volunteers said that it was quiet too but I was in need of getting out of the office.

I walked down the path and met Stuart near the Island Hide watching a buzzard sp sat in a sueda bush out on the saltmarsh. Stuart though the bird may be a rough-leg and it looked good from the hazy views we could get. I radioed it back to Tony and carried on watching. The bird was sitting side on so the views were not great. As I was counting the pintail on the fresh marsh, 226 if you are interested, the bird moved and another birder said it was a rough-leg. I didn't see the necessary features so watied longer. I eventually moved further down the path and the bird took flight. Tony was on the path by now and we followed it slowly flying west and it turned out to be a common and probably the rough-leg lookalike that has been at Holme.

I carried on towards Parrinder Hide when Tony called up saying rough-leg! I got my scope on the bird and sure enough it had a white uppertail with the common buzzard lower down. 'Our' bird must have bought up the rough-leg from somewhere south of Titchwell village.

Yesterday, Nat and I went on an 'away day' to Lakenheath to look at some machinery they are using to cut reed with the possibility of using on some of our other reserves.

Golden oriole plantation @ Lakenheath

If you know anything about wardens, you know we like our big toys and this one was pretty impressive. Weighing 20 tons with a 16m reach, this is an impressive beast but probably a bit too big for our little reedbed!

Despite the 4 massive smoky fires and a very noisy machine, we managed to pick up a few birds with these 3 cranes flying over being the highlight. They were a bit distant and the light was rubbish but you get the idea.