Wednesday, 20 August 2025

20250820 Arctic Skua, Cley Beach

 

20250820 Arctic Skua
Dark phase juvenile waiting to launch.



20250820 Lapwing
Buckingham Marshes

20250820 Little Stint
Wood Sandpiper & Redshank, Buckingham Marshes.


Sunday, 3 August 2025

20250803 Zitting Cisticola & Black Stork, Suffolk Coast

 

20250803 Zitting Cisticola
Male in frequent song flights over reedbed, Walberswick, just out of shot over mill...
Diverted for British Isles tick on way to shoot a Black Stork...
Zitter's first seen in Mallorca 1989 as Fan-tailed Warbler and assumed it would be bagged living on the South coast.
Odd the species is still classed as a Mega Scarcity in Britain?
Following a wide-ranging circular song-flights the bird dived straight into cover...
Proved rather difficult to switch from bins to camera which then locked onto Dragonflies &c.
'ziit' repeated in flight. Or 'tzet' better.


20250804 Black Stork
Juvenile Boyton Marshes.

20250804 Black Stork

20250804 Black Stork



20250815 Greenshank
Juvenile waders showing well at Cley now.  Time for a photo shoot.

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
The second bite of the cherry, and the bird performed well in  frequent circling song flights.
Perched up at a distance but usually dived into cover.
Fanned tail and dark crown of male shows here...

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
Compared notes with a top Vol from the Holkham Est, a very rare birder type, rare info
and very rarely away from the Norfolk Coast...

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
Tail shows as a small triangle when not fanned.
Clean pale yellow ochre underparts and darker head.
Short bluntly rounded wing profile, p3-6 almost equal length.
OM1's bird subject detection locked onto this miniature subject at range in flight... 

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
Climbing into song flight frantically calling.

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
Closed wings during bouncing flight.
Diagnostic shape to the closed tail.