Brecks & Burnham

15th March 2009

A trip out with Gary and Adam. Our first destination was a place in the Brecks to observe Goshawks. Its got to the point where its an open secret, I was amazed to dind about 25 cars parked opposite. Anyway, if you see a Red-tailed Hawk, you're probably close ;-) Following a few false alarms (Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, distant Kestrel, aforementioned Hawk) we finally got distant views of a soaring Goshawk. Not particularly spectacular, but its a lifer, and hopefully the next one will be self-found and closer to earth! A further bonus was a flyover Iceland Gull and three calling Crossbills.

Later we called in at Roydon Common. We had been informed that a Great Grey Shrike was showing well "near the car park", failing to mention there were two car parks. After trying the first one, we went to the much more plausible looking second one. Sure enough, we could see the shrike from the car, allowing distant record shots. A cruise around Wolferton Triangle was unsuccessful, and there was no sign of the Rough-legged Buzzard over Dersingham marshes.

To end the day we decided to go Wheatear hunting at Burnham Overy. Suffice to say we didn't see any, however at the end of the dunes closest to the pines, Adam saw what looked like a Dartford Warbler fly down into some scrub. It called twice, confirming Adam's ID, although the brief views through levels of branches made the viewing experience for me worse than the Goshawk! Later a Dunnock flew out of the bush, in turn flushing another bird, presumably the DW, but we couldnt relocate it.

Year list 147 species.