Short-billed Dowitcher - finally!

I was supposed to be going to see Britain's second ever Short-billed Dowitcher last Saturday night, but my brain was so frazzled after the Genome Informatics 2012 conference that I'd been attending in Cambridge that I decided that I was just going to head home for fish and chips instead of driving overnight, sleeping in the car and fighting the traffic back to Norwich the next day. So, this weekend I drove over from Norwich to Stoke with Matthew on Saturday to watch the (very entertaining) Stoke v Man Ceth game and then set my alarm for 4am to get up to drive down to Lodmoor, Dorset this morning. It was on show almost immediately after I arrived and showed nicely for the half-hour that I was present.
It was nice to meet Vincent Legrand from Belgium, twitching the dowitcher with a bunch of other Western Pal birders from Brussels.

Juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher

Shrike-tastic!

A morning out around East Norfolk on Sunday 22 June was quite good. I popped round to see a Lesser Grey Shrike, just south of Hickling village, near Stubs Mill. It was feeding around a sheep paddock.






Also, at nearby Sea Palling, a long staying male Red-backed Shrike showed well for all. There was also a Marsh Warbler singing quite close to the site, but I had to shoot off to pick Angela up, so I'll have to save that one for another day (or year).