2nd Time Lucky ..................

                             18th July 2023 : Trimingham 

                                                          

2 of the 3 European Bee-eaters.

News of a Black-winged Kite seen late evening at Horsey in Norfolk on Monday 17th July had us make plans to go the following morning !!!

We made a huge error in judgment and didn't go until positive news the following morning and it proved very costly as by the time we were still about an hour away from Horsey the news came out the BWK had flown of high north and out of sight .

It was then seen flying over the Bee-eater site at Trimingham still heading north , so we parked up to decide what to do, we decided to head to Trimingham and at least hopefully see the European Bee-eaters and we would be in a good position if the BWK reappeared which unfortunately it didn't !!!

Here are a selection of photos of the superb Bee-eaters :

In flight

Lovely colours

At the burrow

Catching a Bee

3 European Bee-eaters.

20th July 2023 ;  Horsey

2nd Time Lucky

We headed back to Norfolk on 20th July, this time very early and after a frantic 20 min walk we eventually laid eyes on the fantastic ;

Black-winged Kite !!!!!

The BWK was still roosting and was constantly wing stretching and preening , although it was a little bit distant the scope views were amazing, bright red eyes, overall grey upperparts with white underparts, pale grey crown, dark black shoulder patches & primaries plus yellowish talons were all seen very well.

Black-winged Kite.

I managed a few Digi-scoped photos of no real quality as i was just to keen to watch the bird (thats my excuse anyway....).

The Black-winged Kite eventually left the roost at approx 8.05am and flew straight towards us and headed of north then turned and went south giving superb flight views.

I was once again to slow with the camera but had some great views .

I bumped into Noah, David & Tasmin (great to meet you all) and Noah managed a flight shot of the BWK which he has kindly let me use, thank you Noah. I also saw Brian Anderson , great to see you.

Black-winged Kite Photo by Noah.

On the way back to the car park a Common Crane was seen plus several more were heard.

Record shot of the Black-winged Kite.

Back at the car park we waited and checked the nearby area in case the BWK reappeared which unfortunately it didn't , i did enjoy watching an adult & juv Swallow nearby though.

Swallows

The drive home was much more pleasant then on the 18th that's for sure !!!