Golden Oriole and Stone Curlews

Early Saturday morning (at 6am) saw myself, Mike-PCC and the Capt on the road heading towards Norfolk for our big day out birding.  The Capt was predictably grumpy at that time of the morning and had a snooze in the back of the car on the drive up while myself and Mike-PCC clocked up some species, including a kamikaze Red Legged Partridge who unfortunately ran under the wheel of my car.

After making good time, we arrived at Lakenheath Fen by 8am and walked to the normal view points for the Golden Orioles.  It was 30 minutes, with the day heating up quickly before we heard the familiar song of an Oriole.  It was probably another 30 minutes before we got a very quick sight of a single bird flying over the top of the wood and that was to be our one and only glimpse - not very satisfactory really.  As we were on a schedule, we then made our way back to the car and clocked up cracking views of Bearded Tit, Sedge Warblers, Reed Warblers, Marsh Harriers and Hobbys.  A quick check on the river produced some Common Tern but no Garganey (although they had been reported as being seen).

We then drove over to Weeting Heath LNR and quickly made up for the poor view of the Golden Oriole we had earlier on with fantastic views of Stone Curlews, in fact, the best views I have ever had when visiting this reserve.  We also managed to track down a Woodlark, thanks to a friendly birder who pointed it out to us and had a very obliging Spotted Flycatcher outside the entrance to the West Hide.

We decided to have lunch at Mayday Farm but unfortunately due to the time of day and heat could not find any birds except for the odd Siskin.  A further search round the Thetford forest produced Goldcrests and many Nuthatch and a quick trip back to Lakenheath before heading home provided us with a pair of Garganey on the river.

All in all, not a bad day out with 3 new species for the year for me and 3 lifers each for the Capt and Mike-PCC.