Sometimes luck is on your side...

At 8:30 Mum bursts into my room with Ash Howe on the phone, slightly groggy we spoke and arranged to go see the Two-Barred Crossbill in Bedfordshire at about 12, so it left me time to whip around the patch. 6 Willow Warbler were in song which was nice, not a lot else was seen though. 11:45; Ash and Emma pick me up and we head north to the lodge, Traffic was fairly light although rather tedious through the average speed checks. On arrival we spoke to an RSPB chap and he supposedly directed us in the right direction, This turned out to be a load of arse bilge and the Crossbills were over the other side, a quick walk had us on the birds and a brief view was obtained before they fucked off somewhere else. I managed to pick up some calling birds further along the track, and they began to fly again but landing closer this time. A few minutes scanning and me moving so i could actually see the birds i managed to locate the birds and my first lifer of the day!.

Once seen it was time for a very nervous drive to the Suffolk coast in search of Alpine and Pallid Swift, This took for ever! once about 25 minutes away my phone went off alerting me of a mega. LESSER KESTREL, MINSMERE, SHOWING WELL. No other time could we have been in a better position to get this bird but 10 minutes later it flew. We arrived at Kessingland around 5 and I instantly picked up a swift we bundled out and realized we were watching the pallid! but there was no sign of the Alpine...

Pallid Swift

I mentioned to ash that it would be at minsmere so off we went. As we headed onto the road about 15 cars were hastily turning round, Not knowing what we were going for we booted it untill we found utter carnage along the road, with cars parked everywhere. A very out of breath photographer shouted kestrel, We bundled out of the car, Grabbed everything and ran! 1/2 a mile later we found the crowd, 2 mintues later i was watching it, holy shit It was a smart bird!, but i couldn't find ash to get him on it. once seen and badly photographed I took a photo of the crowd, immediately pissing LGRE off! It then re-appeared and it seemed as though everyone got on the bird, Emma had to be back at 6 so we left ( bear in mind that it was 6:30 and we were at least 3 hours from home!) All in all quite possibly the best birding day i will have for a long, long time!

Sweet ass Record shot...