Dorset and Kent! - 30.4.09

As soon as news came onto my pager I was out the house and on my way to Portland in Dorset.

A Little Tern at Ferrybridge on the way down was a year tick.

During the 3+ hour journey there was no news coming from the site and I was begining to fear the worst. Thankfully though as I turned into the street in Southwell the small crowd of birders were all looking into a garden obviously looking at the bird. I parked up around the corner and ran back to join the crowd and was told that it had just reappeared 4 hours after being first seen that morning! About 3 minutes later I was watching my first ever COLLARED FLYCATCHER, a stunning 1st summer male flitting about and posing in a couple of small apple trees.

Unfortunately after just 20 minutes of viewing it disappeared again and then the rain set in so I walked back to the car and promptly drove all the way to Dungeness in Kent!

Some 4 hours later I arrived and walked over to join the throng of birders all watching the bird in question. Unfortunately as I was setting my scope up the bird was flushed and flew over some houses and was lost to view! After over an hour the bird was flushed accidentaly again but this time it decided to sit out in the open on a shingle ridge for just over 5 minutes giving myself good views of my first ever CRESTED LARK.

2 lifers in a day but at the cost of 470 miles of driving and 12 long hours from leaving home to getting in! But it was worth it, even if news the next day of an Eastern Bonelli's Warbler literally down the road from the flycatcher on Portland broke.

You can't win em all!!