Rolling

Embarked on what I consider to be my first long-distance twitch today - I often twitch county birds but rarely travel out of county (the Red foot yesterday was the first time I'd ever even done that) specifically for a bird. You could argue seeing the Wilsons Phalarope at Welney or dipping on the Western Sand at Cley is classed as long distance twitching but in my eyes both those birds were just a small sidetrack from a "wider" day out birding, a convenient bonus if you will.

Today though I finally cracked.... I dont know what pushed me over the edge, perhaps it was the woe of spending most of yesterday freezing to death on a riverbank in Derbyshire looking for a falcon that had been found deceased several hours previously, perhaps it was the fact that on birdmap there had been a large square over East Yorkshire for several days saying, "look you idiot, there's a spanking Roller just here, go and see it". Who knows? Not me, thats for sure. Either way, with my portable paying-for-petrol device (mother) in tow, I made the journey north from Leics and two and a half hours later I arrived at the strangely empty car park (Bewick Hall) and made the short walk to the area where a dozen or so birders were staring intently across a crop field. Two minutes later I was feasting my eyes (albeit distantly) on a cracking Roller! I clearly don't need to mention that this was a lifer, but it was. And it was good.

Roller twitch

Always nice when there's a giant arrow pointing towards the bird

which, to be fair, was ****ing miles away

Views were distant but adequate of what was clearly a gorgeous Roller but it seemed quite happy on its current perch so after a while we carried on up the coast to Hornsea where sausage and chips was discovered to be showing well on the sea-front along with an interpretive board with a tremendous error on it.

Seaside

Sea

Error

A brief look at Hornsea mere for the departed Red-necked Phalarope was the next port of call before heading back to see if the Roller had moved back to its favoured white post/tilled field area, again parking in the strangely empty car park. Two minutes later and bingo! Roller on a white post next to a tilled field, about three quarters of a mile closer than it had been previously! Jackpot! Still a bit too far away for my baby lens to cope with but a couple are sort-of usable along with a couple from the trusty galaxy:

And it was here, of course where I discovered why the carpark was so empty.....

literally a two minute walk...