I started birding late due to work, fancied seeing the Greenish at Winterton but also having a look for my own stuff to.
I headed to Horsey Gap and thought I would walk through the dunes to see what I could find. Wheatears were plentiful and a few Meadow Pipits. Terns and a few Skua's were passing by on the sea.
I got as far as the Shrike but on the seaward side of the dunes when I saw a bird come off the beach (possibly off the sea but didn't pick up on it until halfway across the beach). It was a brief view that gave me a what the ?? feeling.
The bird ditched in the first available dune so I walked along to investigate.
I had to nearly stand on the bird before it flew again, legs trailing behind a streaky body with red/brown wings this was in fact a Corncrake.
I was it just long enough to get my bins on it and see its head and grey body, bloody fantastic.
I went to the top I was just past the 6/7 birders watching the shrike. I ran round to see if any of them had seen the Crake fly over but none had, and none seemed overly interested. I was left to myself to try and re-locate the bird but had no joy, I tried both sides of the dunes and did see a small party having an organised look through after I had been chasing a moth (no idea what) on the other side.
I then walked back seeing Stonechat and more Wheatear.
After Horsey I headed to Winterton to see the Greenish Warbler, I saw Stuart White who told me he was unimpressed with his big 5min wait (lol) and Jim Bradley who was equally unimpressed with his 5 secs, so with that I knew I was cursed, and I was right.
After two hours of waiting the Greenish finally called and gave good but brief views and was always one step ahead of my camera.
It was now late so I headed home seeing a Pied Flycatcher near the Hermanus and still with a Corncrake smile on my face.
No comments:
Post a Comment