Kev Heath (@kev07713) and I arrived at Smithy Fen in Cambridgeshire earlyish. We’d set off at 4.45am and parked in a Business Park to access the footpath we needed from there. A white stork had been reported late on Friday evening and so we hoped to arrive in time to connect before it left. There had also been a Caspian tern close to here that had gone to roost - two for the price of one.
Our hopes were first raised when we saw two birders ahead scanning with scopes then dashed as we reached them and they told us that there was no sign of the stork. We waited with one of the birders while the other went on hoping to perhaps locate the bird further along the track.
Worse news yet came when the birder we were talking to told us he had already been for the Caspian tern - people had been on site since first light had reported that it must have departed under the veil of darkness. Both birds gone - not a great start and some harsh reality after our successes of late.
We scanned and walked up and down the footpath hoping that the stork might just be out of view, but it never appeared. We did have a little ringed plover and a sandpiper of unknown species - it flew before we got close (most likely common). What now?
We had thought about making RSPB Titchwell our base for the day and set off there, diverting when close after a red-backed shrike was reported at Cley. Kev has seen red-backed shrike this year already, but I had not. We parked and reached the reported area and investigated but had no sighting - just the usual warblers, avocets, redshanks, blackwits, buntings, and a marsh harrier. Time was getting on and so we decided to make our way back to Titchwell, only for the shrike to be reported a couple of hours later; just 500m from where we'd been, but on the other side of the road ... damn.
Having been unsuccessful in locating specific species all morning, we grabbed a roll from the Visitor's Centre and set out onto the reserve hoping to find something to add to the year lists - the first target were bearded reedlings - Kev had yet to see one this year. We stopped alongside groups watching from the main footpath leading to the beach, glad to hear that the reedlings had recently been showing well - it sounded like a family group. Then started a long vigil.
We waited for an hour or so, spotting a female marsh harrier fly into a storm of black-headed gulls and be driven off - just for fun it thought to repeat the exercise every ten minutes or so. A male marsh harrier though it would join in and it’s incursion concluded with the same result.
We had Mediterranean gull over, several redshank through, lots of reed bunting, reed warbler and sedge warblers through, but no sight or sound of bearded reedlings. After a while I decided to go on a wander as someone passing had mentioned little terns fishing beside the footpath - I'd already had great views of bearded reedlings at Stanwick Lakes earlier in the year.
I couldn't find any little terns in the area suggested - they must have moved on - but I did have a spoonbill drop in for a few minutes, feeding on the opposite side of the pool.
So many avocets fed in the pools that I had to take a photo - it looks like it is going to be a good year for avocet numbers as there are so many everywhere we are visiting. There were birds in all stages of development.
Knowing there had been little terns around I pushed on, eventually reaching the beach. I could immediately see a small flock of sanderling scurrying around. I went and stood in their path and waited for them to pass by, which they duly did.
There were very few birds on or over the water. I followed a couple of black-headed gulls and a common tern before I saw a distant little tern flying away from me. Not to worry - just like buses along came another, still distant but easy to follow through bins.
I had walked quite a way from where Kev was waiting and hoped he'd had some luck - on the return journey I had a couple of calling water rails but as usual couldn't spot them in the reeds. I reached Kev to find he had heard but not yet seen a bearded reedling and so I joined him. Behind us a kestrel hunted and kept us sane - well relatively.
It took another half an hour before we saw a couple of reedlings, first a female across the reeds and then Kev had a male in the channel below. The wind was a bit stronger now and perhaps they were going to stay low and out of sight. We decided to call it a day and make for home.
On the way we noticed that the white stork had been reported again at Smithey Fen but when we dropped by it was not showing – it was just not our day ...
On Sunday afternoon my wife was playing in a tennis match and so after lunch we both set off: her for the match; me to Wildlife BCN Summer Leys where a purple heron had been showing for a few days. Updates told me the bird was showing well - this was confirmed by other birders as I made my way from the car park to the Paul Britten Hide (aka the double-decker hide).
I arrived at the hide to find one person in attendance, and that he had arrived just a couple of minutes before me. He hadn't seen the bird and it was not in view. Damn. The people we'd talked to just minutes before had left the bird sunning itself in full view ...
People came and went, until a hard core of birders stayed to wait and see the heron once it emerged. We were eventually joined by Stuart Munday (@MundyStuart) and then Kev and Karen Heath (@kev07713 and @karenheath62). We all settled in and waited, constantly scanning, but without success. Karen produced Garibaldi biscuits and shared them round - I'd only popped out for two or three hours and I'd already used all that time up. It wasn't until I'd been there for almost three and a half hours that a black-headed gull dived a couple of times, in a manner that resembled attacks on grey herons. I scanned back and forth eventually spotting the purple heron barely visible down in a ditch. Everyone got onto the bird, and we had fleeting views on and off for an hour or so - then it was lost.
At one point a carrion crow dropped into the ditch and appeared with a sizeable fish - had it stolen it from the heron ... brave? ... unlikely?
I called home to make my apologies for not setting off home for dinner - I now wanted to stay for the bird to show itself. There were lightning strikes around and so I joked about being worried about the safety of leaving - the Bengal tiger in the car park made it even more perilous.
Now almost six hours after arriving the heron stepped out into the open and I managed to get some better photos - the light had gone, largely because of the dark skies overhead. The heron then sloped back into the reeds and out of view.
I was already going to be late home, so decided you could only be in so much trouble ... I decided to wait for the bird to fly to roost. Another hour past with Kev and Karen keeping me company until at last the bird emerged, fished a little, flew up onto the bank and then off to roost.
We left and made it to the car without getting wet - Kev and Karen heading off for dinner and me back home. The rain had been so heavy here that the water in the dips in the road near Croughton was up to a foot deep. Amazing. I'd been out for almost nine hours and seen a year tick - is this getting obsessive?!
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