Mum had rather optimistically booked an early breakfast for 7 am. After the late night the evening before, after being in the audience of Springwatch Unsprung, laughing at our great friend Gary Prescott aka Biking Birder, we were pretty tired.
After a silent breakfast, Mum and I had to go back to bed for a bit.
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| Reed Warbler, Minsmere RSBP Reserve Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
When we arrived at Minsmere RSPB Reserve, There was no sign of the Red Necked Phalarope that had been there the day before, which was a shame. There wasn't any point being too miserable about not seeing it the day before, as there hadn't been time.
We then wandered around the reserve with Oscar Dewett, a young birder and photographer who was taking photographs for Springwatch to go on their blog. He was there for the three week duration. Oscar had seen me on the BBC4 Twitchers: A very British Obsession programme from 2010, which was funny.
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| Avocet, Minsmere RSBP Reserve Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Avocet, Minsmere RSBP Reserve Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Avocet, Minsmere RSBP Reserve Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
After great views of male Bearded Tit, Reed Warblers, baby Avocet, a fantastic Bittern flying around in the open and a Hobby we stopped for a quick lunch before heading off via a Stone Curlew.
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| Common Redshank, Minsmere RSBP Reserve Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
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| Common Tern, Minsmere RSBP Reserve Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
After a long drive towards home, we stopped again at the Lady Amhurst's Pheasant site in Bedfordshire.
We heard the last surviving male call several times from the other side of the clearing but had no luck seeing it (again). I can tell this is going to turn into a bogey bird for me.
Dad goes to China on a birding trip on Monday and so I'm going to have to do some sweet talking to persuade him to bring me back to try for the pheasant again before he goes.
On the way home, we stopped at the same take away as last week. The same Bangladeshi guy was just as friendly as last week and was very excited about me having been on TV yesterday, even though he had not heard of Springwatch. The British Asian world is like an alternate universe, but one that I would like to bridge...
About the writer
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig |
Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol, UK and blogs about birding and conservation from around the world. Wader conservation is important to her and she is Ambassador to the global wader initiative World Shorebird Day. She is looking forward to Mountain Gorilla trekking this summer in East Africa and to watching penguins in Antarctica in December, her 7th continent. She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.
Lovely place isn't it, I was there the week before Springwatch, it was fantastic despite some dreadful weather! I did a blog too - but don't get many "followers". If you want to read my version of Minsmere just search for Amwell Watcher in Google & you'll find it there. Just a quick point- the picture you've got in your blog as a Bearded Tit, is actually a Reed Warbler - I guess you picked the wrong photo! I do it all the time (that's my excuse anyway!). Enjoyed your blog, nice to get someone else's views. Good spotting!
ReplyDeleteOops - uploaded the photo on my dad's phone and couldn't really see what was in it so guessed, wrong! My superb Bearded Tit photo will have to wait until my Dad gets back from Birding in China, as I digiscoped them on his phone.
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