As I said in my previous post, I was hoping to see a few firsts on this trip and it didn’t let me down.

First was a Bearded Tit. Regret to say I didn’t come across a male, but this little beauty more than makes up for it. Beautiful clean lines flittering amongst the reeds heralding it’s presence by a somewhat quiet and cheeky song.

Whilst in the Island Mere Hide I stayed around hoping to catch a shot of an Otter (see previous post) but was immensely and nicely surprised by a Bittern flying past at a nice angle about 60 meters away.
I’ve a photo of one taken in Spring at Conningbrook Lakes but as always I only saw it after it flew over thus getting a nice rear view shot !!

   

My day of nice surprises was not over. On my way back to the Campsite I walked through Dunwich Heath and saw what I thought was a Long Tailed Tit. With want of taking more photos I aimed in to find it was a Dartford Warbler. In fact, it turned out it was chasing a Long Tailed Tit, so luckily I aimed at the right bird!
I had a joke with another Birder asking him if he thought it had followed me up from the Dartford Tunnel. He didn’t get it, probably thought I was just getting on a bit and lost the plot !

I saw much more in my three days but thought I’d just stick the the more .nice finds’. Minsmere is a great place to go at any time of the year, but I think I’ll avoid it when there’s about 100 Crew from the BBC around.
Job well done!