After lunch today I went a short distance east along the coast to Morston, to look for a ring ouzel. There have been quite a few migrating in recent days: they winter in places like north Africa and then migrate to northern Europe to breed in upland valleys and mountainous moorland. In the UK they breed in most high areas from Cornwall, through Wales to northern England and Scotland.
I have only rarely seen one as they can be hard to find!
I parked at Morston Quay and walked a short distance along the coast path to scan a horse paddock where a male ring ouzel has been hanging out. After about 15 minutes I spotted it, but the combination of strong wind and heat haze made viewing it very tricky. I spent about half an hour watching it in case it came closer, but it remained resolutely at the far end of the paddock.
So I then decided to go back to my car and move to a small car park near Morston church from where I could cross the coast road and scan the same paddock from the south end. Of course by the time I got there the canny ouzel would almost undoubtedly have flown to the north end!
But no: As I got to the gate of the field there it was, but when I put up my telescope tripod and looked again it had disappeared into some undergrowth. However after a couple of minutes it pottered out into an open area, and with the sun in a better direction, and being much closer (though still not that close!) to the bird I finally got about 20 minutes of good views of this rather lovely bird.
New species for April 19th:
Birds: ring ouzel
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 164
Moths = 19
Wildflowers = 56