π25C Wednesday 18th April 2018 ~ An excellent days birding a little further afield today with Alan Boddington and Theo de Clermont, visiting Paxton Pits, Cambridgeshire and Cavernham Heath, Suffolk. We even managed to get back to the home turf late afternoon, where an
Osprey, which had been on site at Brandon Marsh since early morning was still fishing on River Pool!
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| Year-First Cuckoo at Paxton Pits |
With an early start, we began the day at Paxton Pits, primarily for
Nightingale! A little risky considering there had only been a couple of sightings thus far this year, but we deemed it worth a try. Sadly no sign in the usual territories during our stay, perhaps considering the late spring start the birds are delayed, but a year first
Cuckoo,
Lesser Whitethroat and an excellent count of ten
Common Terns helped dampen the disappointment.
A further 45-minutes drive across counties into Suffolk we arrived at Cavernham Heath mid-morning, the temperature already in the low 20's and cloudless skies. Parking up at the small roadside car park opposite the woodland trail we had literally only walked 100 yards when across the fields opposite at least two
Woodlark could be heard singing distantly. That unmistakable song, sometimes referred to as a 'whistling yodel'. We never quite managed to connect with the birds at this point but
Grey Partridge was recorded onto the day-list.
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| Stone Curlew ~ Cavernham Heath |
Continuing along the heathland trail more partridge, this time
Red-legged and overhead
Sparrowhawk and
Kestrel. Only 10-minutes walk and we were onto one of our target birds,
Stone Curlew! Two birds, reasonably close in just beyond the heather and although good scoped views were obtained photography was a little more challenging, with a now present heat-haze. Interestingly enough by the time we reached the river at the top end of the heath, we still hadn't actually seen or heard any more
Woodlarks! However, more additions to the day-list included
Yellowhammer and
Linnet.
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| Woodlark ~ Cavernham Heath |
I'm a great believer in just taking time out and sometimes it's better to simply hold up and let the birds come to you! Deciding to settle for lunch overlooking the heath this was exactly the right tactic as after a short while two
Woodlarks flew close in, one obligingly perching up on the fence post for photographs! Across the heath from our position two
Wheatear and a flooded section towards the back held at least four
Shelduck.
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| Osprey fishing on River Pool ~ Brandon Marsh |
Heading back to the car park two
Redshank overhead, a pair of
Stonechat, plenty of
Skylarks and a distant singing
Tree Pipit, which was not seen. The job was done on the target species so we decided to high-tail it back to Brandon Marsh in the hope that the
Osprey was still on site, thankfully it was!!
Oh, and a bonus year-tick on Teal Pool,
Green Sandpiper!
