1ST JANUARY 2015
Digi Scoped record shot of the Little Bustard.
News of a Little Bustard being found at Fraisthorpe in East Yorkshire and still being present at dusk on the 31st December 2014 was to great to resist , so plans were put into place and i was leaving my home at 1am on the 1st January 2015 and heading to Yorkshire .
I arrived on site at approx 7.15 am and it was still dark , i made my way around to the Kale field where the Little Bustard was last seen the evening before and joined the mass of birders already in wait , as the light started to improve everyone was scanning the field and after approx 30 mins rumbles were spreading down the line of birders that someone had located it , thankfully it didn't take long for me to get onto this fantastic bird , i dipped the Dorset bird back in the late eighties and thought my chance had gone after all this time without seeing one , so you can imagine my delight once i got my eyes on this little beauty .
I had some excellent scope views and tried to get some digi scope photos but the wind was quite strong and it was difficult to keep the scope still , so i just enjoyed watching this bird which was picking insects of the oil seed rape stretching it's neck up , it had a little walk where you could make out the patterning on its back and wings , i even saw a little bit of white in it's wings at one point , cracking bird and a great way to start the New Year.
After a warm up and a lovely breakfast i headed off to Calder park for another look at the Blyth's Pipit plus i was hoping for better views.
Record shot of Blyth's Pipit.
I arrived at Calder park and was straight on to the Blyth's Pipit which was walking in the grass , i saw it quite well before it suddenly flew high over towards the KFC field , great to hear the very distinctive call again , it was relocated in the KFC field but although it showed well at times the views were very brief , i managed a couple of record shots but once again i was more happy viewing the bird .
Male and female Goldeneye.
I had a quick walk along the river to try and see the drake Smew but was out of luck with that one however i did see a female Goosander and 5 male and 2 female Goldeneyes.
From here i headed of to Old Moor RSPB reserve in the hope of seeing Willow Tit a species i have not seen for over 15 years in Kent as they are sadly extinct in that part of the UK .
This is the first time i have been to this reserve and what a great place , the bird feeders set up by the visitor centre are incredible and i saw loads of finches , tits and woodpeckers coming to the feeders.
Male Great Spotted Woodpecker.
2 Female Bullfinches.
Male Bullfinch
Another male Bullfinch.
There were Tree Sparrows all over the place and then 2 Willow Tit's flew in and were feeding on the feeders right in front of me , fantastic birds to see and were definitely the cherry on top after a quite fantastic days birding and without doubt my best birding start to a New Year ever.
I also added a cracking Brambling here from a different hide .
Brambling.
