Weekend Birding in Cambridge and Lincolnshire

This weekend just gone I ventured away from my Beddington patch and headed up to RSPB Fen Drayton in Cambridgeshire to join a BTO Youth Walk guided by Arjun. Sam Levy picked me up from East Finchley early on Saturday morning before then picking up Keir. Despite a long diversion off of the M11 due to a junction closure and the occasional bad driver the journey up went quite smoothly. As soon as we left the car park at Fen Drayton we found ourselves looking at some Goldeneye. A pair of displaying Sparrowhawks put on a good show - the male up high repeatedly diving acrobatically down towards the female. During his display the male did not look anything like that of a bird of prey; it's wing beats were more reminiscent of a Lapwing. Over 100 Common Gulls were out on the islands in front of one of the hides but none stood out to me as a potential candidate for a Russian Common Gull. From this hide we also watched some of the Goldeneye displaying. Other highlights included 2 Great White Egret, 3 Bullfinch, and a Rock Pipit (the latter being only the 2nd ever record on the eBird hotspot, the first being 18th October 2003 - before I was born). It was great to catch up with Arjun, Keir and Sam again and also meet Joe Parham for the first time. The walk also had someone new to birding attend, which is always really good to see. Our full group eBird list can be seen here.

Great White Egret

Once the walk had finished on Saturday afternoon I then travelled up to Lincolnshire to stay the night at Beth's. I hadn't seen her since Spurn at the end of January so it was great to catch up with her and she kindly treated me to some birding at RSPB Frampton Marsh on Sunday before I headed home. Just as we approached the reserve we scared 2 Red-legged Partridges off of the road and into a field that also had Hares in. From near the car park and Visitor Centre we had great views of Snipe and Kestrel. Beth spotted a single Whooper Swan over in the distance that we could just see the head of. From the 360 hide I was blown away by the 63 Ruff as this was by far my highest ever count of the species. But then as I was scanning from further round the hide my scope suddenly landed onto a bird that I have been wanting to see for a very long time... a male Hen Harrier!! My day was made and I couldn't stop smiling after that point. As we were leaving the hide I picked up a Rock Pipit on call flying over before it briefly dropped down. We then headed back to the Visitor Centre for a quick bite to eat before walking the hedgerow and along to 'The Reservoir', where there was 3 Goldeneye and a big flock of Wigeon. Just as we were thinking about turning back to head home I spotted the movement of a small group of geese hidden behind a slight bank. They were the 8 Russian White-fronted Geese that have been present on the reserve for a while with 1 Pink-footed Goose. These were only my 2nd ever Whitefronts after seeing the 4 that turned up on Clapham Common in south London back in 2020. Whilst taking some photos of them a big female Peregrine raced in and caused absolute chaos across much of the reserve. All the nearby Wigeon flew up and in the distance a flock of Golden Plover flew up high. I took a photo of the Golden Plover and managed to count 1,897 in the photo. On route back through the hedgerow we heard 2 Yellowhammer and a Mistle Thrush. We ended the day on 63 species, which Beth told me was one of her best ever day list totals. Full eBird list here.

Brent Geese, Dunlin, Lapwing, Redshank, and Ruff

Brent Geese, Redshank and Ruff

Phonescope of the White-fronted Geese

Wigeon flock below: