An unexpected treat

Got to the end of a fairly long wander along a river to the north of Bedford last night as it was getting dark and had stopped to look and listen to a hunting Barn Owl in one field and a family of calling Tawny Owls in a nearby wood. I thought that was all pretty cool in itself when I suddenly became aware of sound that could only be one thing - Nightjar!

Now, I did have serious doubts at first, given the distinctly untypical terrain in the immediate area but when one actually appeared almost directly overhead showing the Cuckoo like shape and slow and exaggerated wingbeats and then did a bit of a loop before heading back into a wood on the other side of the river all doubts went away. I then hung around for ages to see if there were any more, or if it would come back overhead but I only got a fleeting glimpse of one (it) passing by a gap in the trees on the other side of the river.

I have also been doing a fair bit of searching on Google Earth etc since and there does appear to be some possible decent habitat for them in the area it appeared to come from.

Jim

(Full details with grids etc have been submitted to Birdtrack under the "sensitive" tab).

'Glip, Glip'

I was lucky enough to have a single Crossbill fly over my garden yesterday, but that's about it. Is anyone else still regularly looking for stuff? Or is it the holiday before the SFYL Autumn season?

Something big and white - try again

Still not an Egret or Spoonbill etc but the big and white summer continues
Can't SFYL tick this one though  maybe same bird seen being watched by a Pintail at Grovebury in January ?

Something big and white - Yes please !

Looking for Great White Egret, Spoonbill etc and all I get is this pheasant, completely white except for the red wattles (in Rookery South ClP ), even more white than that daft Cormorant I found, better luck next time perhaps

Blue is the colour

I'd just got out of the car at GLE when I casually noticed a "funny looking pale Buzzard" hovering over the water. It's amazing the level of complacency that sets in (for me anyway) after a load of fruitless visits. After realising what it really was I managed to get off a couple of shots but the bird was gone within a minute and I didn't have time to tweak the settings, so only ended up with a bit of a murky record shot.

It does have a blue colour ring on the left leg but as much as I've tried fiddling with the pictures can't make out any letters or numbers. Great to see in the evening sunshine all the same.

Jim

Mr Sanders

An early morning recce round Broom hoping for a Temminck's produced a nice surprise, fresh in with a flock of 'tundra' Ringed Plover.

Garden Surprise

Wheatears have been in short supply on my local patch this spring with only three sightings of four birds so far. So it was a big surprise to find a stunning male on our drive when I returned from a walk this morning. It played hide and seek behind our car for a few minutes before flying up onto our garage roof and then away. Not a SFYL tick but a great addition to the garden list.