Sunday 7th July

July 8, 2019 by TrevorOnTour 1 Comment

Turtle Dove, seen whilst cycling in mid-suffolk  (photo from recent Fuerteventura trip)

I’ve just got back from a week’s ‘holiday’, cycling from Cromer to Dover – completing the England section of the NCN1. For a more detailed account, visit TrevorOnTour. Obviously, with the main focus being on biking not birding there’s less to report than normal, but we did keep a list of all the birds we saw / heard on our journey. Out of a total of 86 species recorded, there were several notable sightings, including: Tawny & Little Owl, Cetti’s Warbler, Kingfisher, Black-tailed Godwit, Marsh Harrier, Hobby, all three wagtails, Ring-necked Parakeet & Mediterranean Gull – all observed along the route, without the aid of any optics. There were several ‘stand-out’ birding moments – the family party of Little Ringed Plover along the southern foreshore of the Thames, Peregrine seen circling from our Sittingbourne breakfast window, Corn Bunting giving it’s ‘key-rattling’ song in fields atop the white cliffs of Dover and, perhaps best of all, the duetting Turtle Doves on a Common in rural mid-Suffolk. Like I said in an earlier post – (on a bike) you get to cover a lot of ground whilst still remaining connected to nature. Back to normal blogging this week I hope!