I popped down to the patch this evening after a full day on the allotment and thought I would try a bit of viz-migging for an hour. Common crane and spoonbill had been fly-overs further north or I might even fluke something rarer like an Alpine swift.
What was obvious was a big influx of hirundines, adding my first swallow of the year to my year list. Not seeing much else and thinking of packing up when I was approached by a birder called Graham who said he had been watching a common crane from the Budge screen. We both hurried back there but couldn't see it, despite scanning the fields several times. A blackcap was singing behind the hide which was new for the year.
Graham headed off north and I decided to scan the surrounding fields from the top of the big dune. I re-scanned the Budge fields first - and there it was, a common crane standing in the middle of the field. A full patch tick!
It must've been behind some of the taller rushes when we checked from the hide.
I've dipped two cranes before that have been reported as fly throughs from nearby so it was nice to finally nail one. A handful of birders came for a look whilst I was there, including Hector who managed to pick me out a red-legged partridge perched on a fence by the cottages. A brucey-bonus indeed! Red-legs are very scarce on the patch and this was my first since 2014 - they are a species I usually associate with harsher weather.
The great white egret appears to have gone.
The crane takes the patch list to 241 species. Hopefully it's not the last addition of the year.
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