Last August around the time of the Birdfair, the BTO announced that they
would be holding their first Young Birders Weekend which would be sponsored by
theCameron Bespolka Trust, at the time I knew
that I probably couldn't make it due to it being in exam season. But 2
weeks ago I found out that there were still places available, with it also
being in my holiday I could make it! So here is how this weekend turned out to
be one of the greatest experiences of my life!
Day 1
I stayed behind school to get changed and waited for my dad to pick me
up from school, we set off around 4pm hoping to get to the BTO HQ in
Thetford Norfolk for 6:30pm but due to2 accidents on
the A1 we didn't arrive till 7:15pm but in that time my dad and I got brilliant
views of Red Kite, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Grey Heron. When I arrived
many people had arrived some I knew and others I was yet to get to know.
After everyone else arrived we tucked into dinner, I sat on a table with
Ben Moyes, Sam-Pitt Miller, Elliot Montieth, Luke Nash, Max Hellicar and Zach Haynes. I knew most of them on the table got as the evening progressed we all
got to know each other better, later on we were taken to the campsite where
Glamping-styled Tipis awaited us. We all unpacked and got to know each
other in our tents even better, by this time it was 10:30pm with a 4:45am start
the next morning so we all decided to 'try' and get some sleep, but 2 factors
affected my tents sleep; one being the tent next to us who were talking or an
extra hour! And forgetting to zip the bottom of the tent up properly so we were
all quite cold!
It was a very early start 4:15am start but to brighten the mood was a
distant Cuckoo singing away in the distance! There were a lot of tired zombies
walking around the camp, but the excitement was starting to kick in, as we
arrived at the BTO reserve the Nunnery Lakes, to take part in separate tasks in
multiple groups which were; Bird Ringing, Nest Recording, Bird ID and Bird
Mapping. I was in Group 2 which was made up of Paddy, Mya Bambrick and Sam-Pitt
Miller. We started off with a ringing session (my favourite) I got to extract 2
Willow Warblers and got to see my first Kingfisher in the hand this year! Also
saw my first Reed Warbler of the year, as I've not been out to a reedbed this
year due to GCSE revision. In the other groups the highlight was a smart Garden Warbler.
Our next activity was Bird Mapping, we were led by Su Gough, like many
people in my group this was a different way of recording birds in a given area.
we took a particular route that Su had mapped around the Nunnery Lakes, we
started off straight they way with a singing Willow Warbler and Whitethroat. We
later saw Canada Geese with many Goslings some of the geese had BTO colour neck
rings on (this doesn't harm the bird) and saw my first Cuckoo, at first Paddy
and myself saw what we thought to be a female Kestrel fly away from us on our
walk, but when it was flying away a bubbling call was heard from the same
direction, this turned out to be the female Cuckoo, but this Cuckoo was very
special it's a hepatic bird which is a rare 'morph' of the Eurasian Cuckoo. We
finished the walk with seeing 2 pairs of Kingfisher, multiple Reed Warblers, a
Treecreeper with nesting material and a very unusual singing Marsh Tit. This
was a brilliant way to map out singing birds around your patch.
This was followed by Paul Stancliffe taking a bird ID session around the
Lakes, we saw the hepatic Cuckoo again, plus Paul taught us how to separate
Sedge from Reed Warbler and Garden Warbler from Blackcap. After watching and
listening to the knowledge of Paul, he went to show a site where we could
hopefully see Slow Worm, this is reptile I've always wanted to see, well we
didn't just see one! We saw 12 Slow Worms varying in size and huge Grass Snake.
Already this weekend is getting really awesome and were not even half way
through!
2 small Slow-worms
The biggest Slow-Worm
After that session, we went onto Nest Recording with Mike Toms, we were
equipped with a cane (for tapping only) and given basic knowledge, he showed us
a Linnet nest found be Ben Moyes earlier on today as well as Yellowhammer and
Whitethroat both found by Elliot Montieth. When tapping around the gorse
bushes, my hay fever started to set in quite bad, then I saw something hopping
along the floor, after some watching it turned out to be an Adult Jay! After
catching the bird it was apparent it was severely underweight. We took the bird
hoping it would later be released after some feeding Also Mike showed us his
Red-legged Partridge nest with 12 eggs in! With 10 minutes left we were the
only group who hadn't found a nest, then suddenly I saw a Willow Warbler fly
from almost under my foot! After half an hour of waiting from a distance, Mike
Toms managed to find the Willow Warbler nest located in some dead grass, the nest
contained 6 young chicks big enough to ring, so everyone in the group managed
to ring one of the chicks!
Yellowhammer nest found by Elliot Montieth
The unwell Jay caught whilst nest finding
Linnet nest found by Ben Moyes
The Willow Warbler nest that I found
We didn't have breakfast till 11am! We were all starving but 10 minutes
later LUNCH arrived! Our next stop was one of the places I was most looking
forward to about this trip the RSPB's LAKENHEATH FEN, we were given some brief
history about Lakenheath we were shown a Crane egg from a predated nest earlier
this year. We were split into 2 groups with David Walsh, a good friend of mine
on the other team as we set off for an afternoon Bird Race.
Within 5 minutes we had ticked off Cetti's Warbler, Cuckoo, Buzzard,
Reed Bunting and Jay. Later along the path we reached a view platform looking
over one of the reedbeds, myself and Dannte (London Birder) went in search of a
close Cuckoo we could hear, after some fleeting glimpses we managed of the
Cuckoo we also ticked off Shoveler, Kingfisher and Sedge Warbler. After the
Cuckoo moved on, we realised that another bird landed really close to path
after some searching we managed to pin point the Cuckoo and I managed to get
some photos in the scope, they weren't brilliant but I thought they weren't
going to get any better, boy was I wrong! Within 10 minutes the bird seemed to
be in TOUCHING distance through the scope, this is one of those times you dream
of getting so close to a particular bird, this time it came true even Dae ja
vu! After the bird flew off still can't believed the views we got, it wasn't
over! Within a few minutes I was watching Bearded Tits 5 metres away from me,
then I got a text from Elliot saying that Bitterns were flying 5m away from
them! They weren't wrong as one bird flew straight over our heads! Already
getting my best views of Cuckoo, Bearded Tit and Bittern ever it had to end
somewhere! With very distant Cranes, 2 adults and a single chick to be seen.
Without realising it we were already at the visitor centre again ranking
up 58 species across the afternoon we drew with the other team, although we got
Treecreeper and Great-Spotted Woodpecker which they didn't they managed to get
a Drake Garganey! We headed back to the BTO for a lovely BBQ for a bit of a
rest waiting to go out into Thetford Forest, within the hour we were in the
heart of the forest listening to the very knowledgeable Greg Conway an expert
on Nightjar ringing! The purpose of the evening wasn't just to see a Nightjar
but to GPS tag a Nightjar to work out their wintering grounds in the
Sub-Saharan Region, after the nets were set and the tape was played (Grey has a
licence), we went away to let the Nightjars get near the nets, after waiting we
were rewarded with 2 Nightjars flying over our heads and churring away as well!
But in the distance Paul Staincliffe managed to pin-point the faint call of a
Long-eared Owl! The bird called closer later, this wasn't a bird I was
expecting to hear or see on the trip! After being distracted by that, we came
back to find Grey Conway had caught a first-summer NIGHTJAR! This was a lifer
for me number #285! After watching this bird being processed and many photos
taken we watched it fly off into the twilight sky! It was 11:30pm when we got
to the campsite to be woken up at around 4:30am the following morning so we all
got to bed as quickly as possible to try and get some more sleep.
Day 3
We woke up early again, and headed out towards Landguard Bird
Observatory near Felixstowe, with an hour bus journey there was plenty of time
to catch a few more winks of sleep before we arrived. One time I woke up to
find everyone asleep on the bus! We arrived at Landguard around 6am to be
greeted by Andy Clements who was going to spend the morning with us, at first
we couldn't see much due to the sea mist covering the Felixstowe Docks as well,
we were given brief history to Landguard Bird Obs and with it use be an army
base, then we did some Sea-watching which resulted in 7 Dark-bellied Brent
geese and 6 Little Terns, both species I didn't expect to see this trip either,
then we moved on to the moth traps, there were a lot of moths within the traps
my highlights were seeing my first Small-Elephant Hawkmoth and an unseasonal
Pearly Underwing which was also a moth lifer for me. After being shown their Heligoland
trap, it was time for lunch which included Digestive biscuits and Prawn
Cocktail crisps! After talking to the warden Chris Bridges who I've known for a
number of years it was time to walk around the Obs to see what we could find,
after an hour of searching we managed to find Common Terns, Ringed Plovers,
Starlings and hundreds of Linnets feeding in the gorse bushes. After walking
around the Obs, David Walsh took us into the Brecks to do some Breckland birding,
we arrived 30mins later at Sutton Common hoping to find Dartford Warbler, Woodlark
and Tree Pipit. As soon as we stepped out of the mini bus we were already
watching a Dartford Warbler with food going to and from its nest, I'd only had previous
views of Dartfords at RSPB Arne in Dorset, despite the heat haze we all got
brilliant views, after walking around we picked up a Stonechat singing its
heart out on top of a pine tree. Just before we got back into our minibus Ben
and Paul managed to pinpoint a Woodlark singing away in the skies above us,
after getting distant views of this bird, we moved onto a very special site.
David Walsh took is to a site where there was a breeding pair of
Redstarts, I'd only ever seen a female so to see the male was amazing, due to
this being a rare breeding bird I'm not going to publicise the location of the
nest mainly due to the fact of I had no idea where we were!
My digiscoped effort of the Male bird
Male Redstart - Mya Bambrick
We then headed off to RSPB Boyton Marsh in search of Turtle Dove which
if we saw one would be another lifer for me! After searching for 30 minutes and
no look of finding these birds, Max checked Birdguides and saw that about 5
minutes before 2 Drake Garganey had been seen, we ran down there but we didn't
have time due to us having pre-booked lunch at a lovely pub, that wasn't the
only bad news, 3 people in our group had seen a pair of Turtle Doves fly past
them! You can't have everything your way. After having a massive lunch (I had a
huge homemade burger and huge chips) we left Mya and Josie as they headed home,
we got to the Campsite packed our bags and waited for our parents to pick us
up.
This weekend has been of my greatest experiences of my life, spending time
seeing awesome birds whilst making new friends at the same time. I'd like to
say thank you to Ieuan, Viola, Paul, Lee, Mike, Greg, Justin, Josie and the
Cameron Bespolka Trust in making this weekend so special for everyone!
Here is a link everyone's Twitter account:
Ben Moyes : https://twitter.com/Ben_Moyes16
Sam-Pitt Miller : https://twitter.com/sampittmiller
