Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 14 25-Sept-2016

No new birds, but it was nice to go out.
I headed off with a friend who had never been to Longham before and we immediately flushed a Green Woodpecker that was feeding in a nearby field. There were lots of Great Crested and Little Grebes about, and we also spotted a hovering Kestrel. I thought I spotted my first Sparrowhawk too, but as neither of us could identify it with 100 per cent certainty, it's not being included.

Pleased with this Green Woodpecker :)

There were a few gulls about, but mainly Herring, with the odd Black-Headed Gull for good measure. No Little Gulls, despite an intensive search for them. Ducks in general were quite scarce, with just Mallard and Tufted Ducks present, which was a little disappointing.

Black-Headed Gull flyby. Boring.

Still on 62 birds for the year, which isn't the best, but I still managed to have a nice day :)

Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 13 18-Sept-2016

Yes I know, it's been a terribly long time since I've done an update.
Life has gotten in the way and if I'm honest, a death of decent sightings on previous trips have put me off writing about them.

I'm back though, and massively behind Martin, but today was a decent little day, and it's given me the bug again, so I'll try and get more solid updates going forward.

When I got to the actual lakes there were a large group of people, around 20 or so who must have stumbled onto the lake as there were no cars in the car park to support them. They were a pain in the ass, talking loudly, scaring stuff and paying no heed to other people. As I was taking photos at one point a stone made a huge splash in front of me scattering the birds I was taking images of and causing me to say some harsh but deserved words to the gentleman that threw it.

It was a fair way away, but crops quite well.

I hung back, leaving them to pick berries and go about their annoying ways and soon found some nearby grebes again.

I started walking along the back of the second lake but the midges were swarming like anything, getting in my mouth and generally being bothersome, so I gave up and instead made my way to the small pathway that separates the two lakes.

Coots are always plentiful at Longham.

As I reached the final corner of lake two I was attracted by a rustling in the reeds by me. Before long, a small brown bird flew off and hung around some reeds about 20 feet from me. I tried phishing and eventually it came forward, enough for me to see it was a Sedge Warbler, my first for the year at Longham. Not a rare bird, but a lovely looking one all the same.

Not the best shot as he was in reeds and it's handheld at 600mm, but not bad either.

I wasn't on patch long, roughly an hour and there wasn't much else of note, but I did enjoy myself. I'm still a long way behind Martin, but with migration period upon us, there's a chance I might be able to close the gap between us.