A Good Day's Birding in 2013 - bugging me.

2013 was the year I started getting into nature a bit more than ever before, having been to India and Kerala in the same winter. 

So in that summer we went to East Anglia during the summer holidays. The weather was mostly great, with very little rain and some good birds. There were 2 days that I remember most fondly. One was visiting Minsmere, where I found my first Stone-curlew and saw my first Avocets, as well as seeing Bitterns and more. The other day, which was just as good, was going on a boat trip in Hickling Broad NWT. While I saw Swallowtail caterpillars and lucked out with an Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar too, the birds were even better with numerous wader species seen including displaying Ruff - as well as my first Great White Egret. After the boat trip we went for a walk along the public paths, looking for Otters and butterflies, until we reached a hide called the Bittern Hide. Though we saw no Bitterns, a bird that we saw has been haunting me for around 6 months, since the Spotted Crake at Morden. 

While a Water Rail was scuttling around on the other side 15m away, from in front of the hide I noticed a tiny bird dart across, like the Water Rail, into the reeds to the right of the hide just 5m. I alerted the only other birder - who hadn't seen it - who said it was probably just another Water Rail or Moorhen, promptly leaving the hide. At the time I knew little about birds, so the only thing I thought it could be was one of the 2 birds he'd said. However, I wanted to see which one - getting a picture of a Water Rail would've been great anyhow. I waited for 5 mins with nothing seen. Then I saw the bird sheltering by a log, then it darted across, stopping for 5 seconds near the reeds, then going back in and not returning. I had captured 3 pictures, all of which were pretty bad, but was enough to show what appeared to be a Water Rail - except a smaller, short-billed version. The birders were gone - when I reached the entrance the only remaining naturalist was the person who had taken us on the boat trip, who was a naturalist but best with mammals and invertebrates not so much with birds - I remember her saying she wasn't sure, as it looked like a weird Water Rail. She suggested a juvenile Water Rail, which to me seemed logical. So I left happy. 

November 2017 saw me looking for the pictures, as I was almost certain (90% is high for me) that I'd find a picture of a Crake sp. I spent an evening finding a folder saying 'Hickling Broad 2013' on Dropbox, clicking it, and finding it empty. My dad emptied it last June, saving only the 'good pictures' which is fair enough, in a different folder.

Like Ed's Thorncombe posts last year about 'ones that got away' (ie birds seen too breifly etc so left unidentified) I seem to have one too. Ah well...

On Saturday I reached a target I set in my review of 2017 - a Common Snipe flying West this morning extremely fast was just what I was hoping for, and was the 52nd garden bird - I accidentally double counted Great Spotted Woodpecker last year - so the Skylark was the 51st. Gulls have been high in number being blown about, and Fieldfare are flying S. Today, whilst driving past the old patch Beddington Park, 2 Little Egret were fishing in the usual places, and a Buzzard was circling high over the Farmlands. A Grey Wagtail was also at Carshalton Ponds.
I'm pleased that Morden Hall had a Jack Snipe today - I've been keeping an eye out for a long time for them, and the fact one was found by someone today means that the marsh/reedbeds is working.
I'll say it again for the umpteenth time just for the sake of it: I know I'm going to regret it if I miss the Horned Lark. I feel like it must happen in the next 2 weeks...