Mega Redpoll - 15.12.12

5 Decent photos from 45 taken!!

Due to having my son last weekend I couldn't make it up to Suffolk until today so around 10am I set off for Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast and arrived just over 2 hours later. I parked up in the car park just below the sea wall where a small group of birders were positioned. I climbed up and got into position and saw nothing! Apparently the bird had disappeared into a clump of weeds only the size of a football on the beach. Thankfully after a few minutes out it popped and there infront of me was my first ever HORNEMANN'S ARCTIC REDPOLL! This high Arctic snowball was a big lump of a bird and had obviously never seen humans before it arrived as it fed happily only a few feet away from us! I managed a couple of photos before it flew off towards the yacht club. I then bumped into fellow Herts birder Mike Illet who then picked up a Red-Throated Diver flying south. This was an embarrasing year tick! After half an hour or so it was refound sitting in a wooden fence before it flew back to the beach. I had to move backwards to be able to get the whole bird in the camera when digi-scoping!! Other birds noted were singles of Meadow Pipit, Turnstone and Dark-Bellied Brent Goose.