Tristis triumph and it does not add 1 to the list...

...but pleased to find none the less as I had not self-found one before.

Did not see (though it was seen later) so no photo but the recording of song is of more interest than a poor quality photo. A few other species in the background as well as a train...

tristis song MVCP Pillinge 26-3-16
tristis song 2 MVCP Pillinge 26-3-16

Summer duck

Busy day at work with no lunchtime.  So pleased with a bit of afterwork ticking at Roxton.

Ruddy Nora!

Didn't expect this one on the ol' SFYL anymore.

Black Cat Pits

Added SF Rockit, Shelduck, Ringed and Little Ringed Plover here.

Flyover false alarms

Always great to see Ravens but the real reason for this post is to protest my innocence over what would have been a great SFYL tick of the "Stone Curlew" that appeared on Birdguides today. I have no idea how my Beds Birds post of a Curlew over Sandy Smith NR ended up on that site as a Stone Curlew - any ideas?

As this was my 3rd Beds Curlew of the year I didn't even bother taking a picture of it, so maybe I should in future in case of any further shenanigans.

Jim

Powerful Peregrine

And another fine carbon free tick.

Wybo Barnie

Seen several Barn Owls this year but nice of this one to stay put while I turned the car around.

Radwell red rare

Blimey, what a big rare - first for years in the county.  The last time we saw one of these, GW Egret hadn't been recorded in Bedfordshire and now we've had about 15 of the trashy birds.

Anyroad, here is my best obscure shot and a follow up PF Goose which I'm having.  Its not the Harold injured one as I saw that half an hour before.

Carbon free Corn

Pre work cycles give me a chance to do some carbon free birding and fine tune my photography skills.

Both Red Kite and Corn Bunting in this shot. 

Scaup scoop

Like to scoop a Scaup wth my scope each year as a useful SFYT. This female bird was a newbie found with Tufteds on Rookery North on March 6th.  Needed to overexpose a bit to get much detail as it insisted on swimming to a position between me and the sun however I approached through the trees

Foggy Henlow Grange 11/03/2016

The football posts at the far end of the pitch had been swallowed up by the fog and visibility did not improve on my wander round this morning. Several species are now in song, including Redwing and Treecreeper, which made life a bit easier as I saw relatively little!

The Poppy Hill fishing lakes were shrouded in fog making it difficult to discern the surface of the lake giving the impression that some of the ducks were floating in air. A few species swam close enough to the bank to allow me to see them, including Greylag Geese, mainly in quarrelsome pairs and a Great Crested Grebe. The Tufted Duck flock was tucked into the north-eastern corner and was accompanied by a pair of Goldeneye, which was a pleasant surprise (my first for the patch was only last autumn).

The fields to the east of the ponds were eerily quiet with no birds singing although there were plenty of calls to identify Reed Bunting, Yellow Hammer and Corn Bunting plus some of the other regulars. In contrast to recent days no Skylarks were singing. The rookery seemed busy, not that I could see it, judging from the calls coming from that direction.

I have decided to go all out for the MB (or should that be President's) photography award this year and here is my first offering. Given the conditions I'm actually quite chuffed the bird is even in the frame!

One down.

My first notable bird of the year thanks to a pre breakfast bike ride west of Eaton Ford. One of two Stonechats seen. The other in Cambs, so no good to man or beast.

Oriental vagrants or just local drifters

Surprise for me on Saturday afternoon was to get two new site ticks at Cainhoe, a pair of Shelduck potentially could be new in and poking around for a nest hole in the future ?, and more surprising a flock of nine Mandarin, easily the most I have ever seen together in Beds away from the two traditional locations of Stockgrove and Woburn. Count as very pleasing self-finds when away from the normal sites where they get "found"