Since passing my driving test in April, I have been itching to drive to my first serious twitch. So when news of a Roller in Suffolk was released on BirdGuides, I faced a nervous wait until the Sunday when I was free to twitch the bird. The reasonable hour and a quarter drive from my house to the site coupled with reports of great views meant that I couldn't resist twitching the bird. Luckily the Roller did the generous thing and decided to stay put for the Sunday.
Waking up, I experienced the first pre-twitch nerves that I've had for a long while. But after constantly refreshing Birdguides, I saw to my delight that the bird had been reported in the morning. After seeing this, I hastily packed my birding gear into the car and set off to Icklingham (the sight of the twitch) with my Dad. Luckily, the journey was fairly straightforward and very little traffic was encountered - another good sign that I may connect with the bird.
Eventually we arrived at the site. Often it can be tricky to locate the exact site of a bird, however this was made highly obvious by the number of birders encountered by the roadside of the A1101. Evidently, this was the biggest twitch that I've been on yet in my relatively short birding experience. A few cars were parked on the A road itself to the displeasure of passing cars who often honked their horns at this questionable parking. Upon arrival, we encountered a stroke of luck as there was a space in a lay-by right opposite the birders. Gladly, we made the most of this space and parked up - quickly gathering up our equipment to join the mass of twitchers who were assembled roadside.
I breathed a sigh of relief when a birder next to me stated that the bird was showing on a post not too far away. After this tip-off I directed my scope onto the post and there it was! The European Roller in all it's glory - the most beautiful bird that I have set eyes on in the UK and possibly the most beautiful I will ever see. It's bright colours almost comically juxtaposed the overcast Suffolk field that it found itself in - reinforcing how lost this bird must be.
European Roller
Me and my Dad stood and watched the bird for a good hour or so as it gave ridiculously good views. It often landed on the wires above us and at one point was directly opposite my scope at a really close distance. The Roller was particularly stunning when it flew from place to place - demonstrating its remarkable colours of cobalt blue, orange, purple and black. For brief periods, the bird even flew to the ground. Eventually, me and my Dad were more than satisfied with our views and returned to the car to head on to our next targets that awaited us at Hickling Broad in Norfolk.
After another hour and a half drive, we arrived at Hickling Broad, a reserve that I had yet to visit but had heard so many great things about. After parking the car, we headed to the visitor centre where we bought lunch. As we sat eating our sandwiches, a Butterfly fluttered into view - we had stumbled across a Swallowtail within minutes of arriving at the reserve. Despite my very limited knowledge of Butterflies, I could still appreciate the beauty and scarcity of this species as I sat watching it whilst munching on a sandwich.
After we finished lunch, we decided to head out to Brendan's Marsh in the hope of seeing the two Black-Winged Stilts that had been reported there for the last few days. Eventually, we arrived at a raised viewing platform which was occupied by the maximum of two birders allowed on it. However, the birders stated that the two Stilts were showing well. I anxiously waited for them to finish on the platform before I eagerly headed up the steps to set my scope up onto the marsh. Immediately it was evident that the two Black-Winged Stilts were still present and provided brilliant views as well as my second UK tick of the day. After scanning the marsh for other goodies that had been seen (such as Curlew and Wood Sandpiper) to no avail, we decided to head on towards the raptor viewpoint where we were hoping to see our first ever Common Cranes.
Black-Winged Stilts
However, the journey to the raptor viewpoint was not to be uneventful. On the way there, I stopped to set my scope up on some distant dead trees and stumbled across the nine Spoonbill which had been reported for the last few days. Although the views of this species were distant, it was a great bird to see nonetheless and a nice year tick. Whilst watching the Spoonbills, me and my Dad got talking to an older couple who mentioned that they had had a sighting of a Bittern doing a feeding flight. Just as we were talking about this, the older man pointed to a bird flying low above the reedbed. After getting binoculars on the bird we could confirm that it was a Bittern - a bird which I frankly never get tired of seeing (not that I see them too often).
After the exhilaration of this sighting, me and my Dad pressed on to the Raptor Viewpoint in the hope of seeing some Common Cranes. We had been instructed on the difficulty of catching a glimpse of this species due to their elusiveness in the long grass. However, one of the strangest moments I've had birding was about to happen. As my Dad sat down to rest on a new bench at the reserve, I set my scope up. Amazingly, 3 Common Cranes came into view of the first place I looked at with the scope. I couldn't believe my luck as I called over to my Dad that I had already found the birds to his disbelief. We watched the two adult birds along with a juvenile for a good half an hour before a woman came over to us. In a bizarre turn, she asked us if we wouldn't mind leaving the bench as it had been placed at the viewpoint only a few days ago for her husband who had passed away. She mentioned that there were Crane footprints on the bench - perhaps this bench was a lucky charm!!!
After departing from the Raptor viewpoint we decided to head to the Bittern hide in the hope of getting more views of Bittern. En Route we stopped at another viewpoint where we managed to see a Little Ringed Plover, at least three Ruff, an Egyptian Goose and distant views of the Black-Winged Stilts. After adding more species to the days list we continued on to the Bittern hide where we spent 20 minutes in the hope of seeing another Bittern. However, it wasn't to be - a number of distant Spoonbills again provided a massive consolation however!
After departing from this hide, we headed back towards the visitor centre, once again stopping at the viewpoint en route. Apparently all our luck for the day was yet to be used up as a man pointed out two more Common Cranes which had landed within reasonable distance of the viewpoint - providing much better views than we'd had at the Raptor Watchpoint. Happy days!
Common Cranes
After taking in these great views for a long period of time, we decided to head back to the car park via a cut-through which we had been told earlier was a great place for Swallowtails. Yet again we struck lucky as we got splendid views of yet another Swallowtail. What a great way to end the days birding.
Swallowtail
What a remarkable days birding with an endless list of great species seen. The day was well worth documenting in my first blog for over a year and a half. A big thanks for my Dad for coming and sharing this wonderful experience with me!
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