18 Jun 2011 - Red-footed Falcon, Nelson Head

I headed out to Nelson Head at Horsey today and was treated with great views of the 1st-summer male Red-footed Falcon. I watched the bird for half-an-hour before it flew inland to Hickling Broad. There was also plenty of nice Dark-green Fritillary butterflies in the dunes at Horsey too.

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8 Jun 2011 - Marsh Warbler

I headed off into West Norfolk to look at a Marsh Warbler that I'd been told about which had been showing well in suitable breeding territory. Soon after I arrived at the site the bird burst into song and I was treated to a cacophony of mimicry by this fine songster. Call and song notes from Common Tern, Great Spotted Woodpecker (both the 'peek' call and the rambling alarm call), Barn Swallow, Sand Martin, Goldfinch, Linnet, Sedge Warbler, Bee-eater, Common Swift, Blackbird and Common Whitethroat were all heard in the birds song.

6 Jun 2011 - White-throated Robin, Cleveland

It was 08.35 and I'd been in work for about 3 minutes when the Mega Alert started warbling away on my pager. The bird that had earlier been reported as a Red-flanked Bluetail in Cleveland had been re-identified as Britain's second ever White-throated Robin. I was on the road by 09.00 and arrived at Hartlepool Headland at 2pm. The bird had flown off, but only to the nearby Doctor's garden and after a rather nervy half-hour wait it finally flew back out onto the bowling green where it hopped around both on the road outside and on the grassy areas inside the bowling green perimeter. The bird put in another appearance before going missing for a number of hours. It was found in Doctor's garden and became quite a media celebrity during its stay. The bird stayed for the next 5 days, but thankfully departed on the Friday night (there's nothing worse than taking a day off to twitch a bird only for it to stay over the following weekend!)

24 - 26 May 2011 - Lunteren, The Netherlands

I stopped off in Holland on the way back from the US to the UK for a meeting in Lunteren. De Werelt Conference Centre was right out in the forest next to Lunteren with plenty of trails to walk around. Although I didn't have too much time to explore the area (on foot) I did get out for a few hours.
The best birds that I found in the mixed coniferous woodland were Short-toed Treecreeper, Crested Tit, Goshawk and Firecrest.