Sunday 12 November 2017

Dartford Warbler Dash

   
     Got a message last night of a Dartmouth Warbler being seen
     at St Aidans ( rspb )  i.e Swillington Ings , I thought to myself
     Ive got to have a go at seeing this cracking bird so off I went
     at 7.30 this morning in high hopes, first bird I spotted was a
     Kestrel that looked beautiful in the sunrise then after another
     500 yards of walking I came across a few birders who were all
     on the lookout for the elusive bird but the strong cold winds was
     keeping all the birds hunkered down in the long grass, so it was
     a long waiting game for everybody and a few said that it may
     have been scared off by over keen birders yesterday who wanted
     to get as close as they could, nothing else about at all for a few
     hours until the sun rose a bit and then a Wren and a few Reed
     Buntings started to brave the cold so I was hoping the Dartford
     might think the same but no, it must have been tucked up thinking
     of warmer places to be. ( couldn't blame it ) it was freezing.

    I bumped into my mate Chris T and we decided to have a walk
    around the reserve because we were beginning to seize up, Heron,
    Gadwall, Coot, GC Grebe, Little Grebe, Skylark, Stonechat,
    Moorhen, Meadow Pipit, Greylags, Cormorant, Lapwing, Mute
    Swan, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, Kestrel, Red Kite, Canada's,
    Pied Wagtail, Reed Buntings and a few unid'd but guess what
    no Dartford bloody Warbler, I then went for a coffee to take out
    which I put on the dashboard of the car which I forgot about until
    I set off OOPS it went all over the place, camera, binoculars, gloves,
    and hat all wet through so with steam coming out of my ears I set off
    to Fairburn Ings where I decided to lose my vapour cig blower grrrrrr.

   I didn't stay long as it was packed with families, Tree Sparrow and
   the regular finches and tits were seen and a few Pheasant and a Little
   Egret was by a lake on the roadside, my garden had Bullfinch, Robin,
   Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Collared Dove, Starling and Chaffinch.
      I did stand still for 2 minutes silence at 11 o'clock.
 














 


2 comments:

Bradshaw Rambler said...

Smashing photos Dave.

You seem very accident prone lately.
Accidents come in 3's so you should be OK now mate.
John

Dave Brotherton said...

Its still happening John, I am a dodo.