Fairhaven Lake

As the forecast was due to be fine toady I fancied a day at the coast and after looking at was around I decided a trip up the M6 was the best option to Fairhaven Lake for the Juvenile Black Necked Grebe.

It didn't take to long to find the bird and Gemma and me both enjoyed fairly close views of the bird,
a Kingfisher darted past and a Grey Wagtail on the nearby island.

 After wards we walked along the sea wall spotting Knot, Redshank, Oystercatcher, Grey Heron and Little Egret.

One interesting observation was a group of Crows feeding on Sea Buckthorn.

Blithfield Visit

Paid a rather flying visit to Blithfield this morning after dropping Gem off at her first day at school, we then head along the A50 to hopefully see the Crane to add to Lesley's year list.
Our luck was in and the bird was found at the far end as usual.
Also noted were Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Dunlin and quite a large group of Meadow Pipit along with a reasonable sized flock of Linnet.

Berryhill Blues

After finding out that a Wryneck had been found up at Berryhill on Bank Holiday Monday I had high hopes that it would be still around the following day due to the awful weather on the Monday.

News wasn't good as soon as we reached Berryhill we bumped into a chap that told us he had been looking for 2 hours and seen no sign of the bird but we still plodded on hoping we might have better luck.
Plenty of Goldfinch around almost every bush and stand of Thistle contained them we also saw singles of Reed and Sedge Warbler along with a single male Blackcap and the odd Wheatear in the Horse paddocks on our way to the top of the hill. Poor Gem was though getting a little tired 4 year old legs can only walk so far.

In a Paddock by the viewing area at the top of the hill we saw 4 Redstart plus more Wheatear and had been told by another birder of a Whincat but  I didn't fancy walking all the way down but a little stroll down the bank only revealed a Kestrel.

I did walk around the edge of the paddocks and came to the likely area only knowing it was near the Lapland Bunting paddock means nought to me so I was flying blind a bit.

A pleasant walk although finding out in the evening it was there does leave a slight bitter taste, but that's birding and means I will have to try again another time to see one of these fellows.