Little Gull Surprise

I called in to Grovebury early evening today hoping I might  have a chance with an Arctic Tern. Searching back and forth through the distant Common Terns there was no sign of an Arctic amongst them. I then picked out a lone Little Gull (a site first for me) sat on the water. After a few minutes the Gull flew up on its own and began circling and gaining height until it was barely visible, it then left towards the north east. A fabulous bird.

The 'Green' Hundred Up

Sir Chris Hoy- pretty good on a bike. But can't find birds for toffee.

After a tiring week of early starts on my iron horse, this morning yielded a few goodies. Having missed all of the decent waders at Broom and electing for the guilty, easy Ouzel tick at Pegsdon (sorry for my defection, Mr Stevens!). I finally stumbled into some birds. Today's Broom ticks were-

Great Black-backed Gull- very good away from the Bedford Pits.
Wheatear on Gyspy Lane West flood area- can be hit and miss in this part of the world.
Garden Warbler- just a matter of time.
Arctic Tern- Another early morning did the trick at GLE+ 3 more later in the day.

This brings up a satisfying pedal-powered ton and despite missing the waders so far, up on last year. I'm not going to win any medals- but enjoying the experience all the same.

Matt- Birding's answer to Sir Chris Hoy

Turtle Dove

So far this Spring, I am averaging eight hours and 10+ miles birding per day. Putting this into context, you boys spend about this amount of time working, looking after children/ grandchildren and/or placating other halves. However, despite these hours, I am finding - or not finding - scarce birds about as tricky as advanced calculus at the moment - time plus effort does not equal rares.

Firecrest, Tree Pipit, Ring Ouzel, Arctic Tern and today Turtle Dove are really very nice birds, but they are not exactly SFYL game-changers. So far, Steve's Bar-tailed Godwit and the Green-winged Teal that Richard will undoubtedly find at Meadow Lane or Radwell this week are the only birds that I think could fall into that category.

What someone needs is a Hoopoe, Serin, White-winged Black, Roseate or Little Tern, Montagu's Harrier, Savi's Warbler, Bluethroat or something of that or greater magnitude.

Being 'number one' means bugger all and is not synonymous with 'best' - just ask David Moyes, Sebastian Vettel or Enrique Iglesias or the myriad other shite that inhabits the number one spot in the record charts.

Atb,

DOM

'One good Tern'

(Actually the Common Terns were excellent as well). Very pleasing to bump in to a Black Tern after a brief visit to Grovebury this afternoon. Desperately trying to find a quiet resting spot, but constantly moved on by the gulls present. Particularly pleasing as I didn't manage to SF Black Tern last year.

What's happening?

Not much.  The wonderful migrants are appearing each day but lovely as they are, don't really help in the league table.  We've all added a warbler or two, a hirundine or two.

Nah, we need Redstarts, Garganeys, Sandwich Terns and decent passage waders to break away from our rivals.  The main change is the powerhouse of Mr Carbon - DOM has hot stepping his way into the lead over Mr Palmer's early winning streak.

Not much difference to the rest but its just about key Self finding time!

Let the passage begin...

Mediterranean Cruise

Stopped off at Grovebury on the way home today. I thought I'd give it an hour to see if the 2nd summer Med. that had arrived to roost a few times recently was going to put in an appearance. No sign of the Med., but Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtail and Dunlin were pleasing additions to my SFL.

Tale of woe

I had a Rock Pipit this morning. Which was nice.

Problem is that having got home and looked at two different maps, it was about 50m into Cambridgeshire and I don't recall it flying into the 'right' county. Even if I look at the maps and squint and make my eyes go funny, it would still have been in Cambridgeshire.

I feel a complete and utter knob-biscuit, as they say in Amsterdam.

Know your county boundaries.

DOM