Dartford Warbler

About three months ago there was a Travelodge sale - rooms for £10. So hows about a visit to Minsmere and not having to drive home after a long day - Travelodge booked at Lowestoft £10, can't be that bad, can it?

Over the last few days the forecast has been looking so bad we were contemplating not even going, but yesterday the forecast looked better and today it's looking just fine. In fact it's looking so fine we visited Dunwich Heath first for the Dartford Warblers and they generally require a warm calm day to show well. As you can see they showed very well thank you.

On to Minsmere and the new birds for the year were Mediterranean Gull and Pintail and hearing a Nightingale, while the highlights were a couple of Little Gulls and an exceedingly distant view of a nesting Stone Curlew. The disappointments were no sightings of Bearded Tit and no sign of the Glossy Ibises although other birders had had good views of them earlier.

We'd only managed a circuit of the scrapes by the time we'd felt we'd had enough. Normally we'd have dragged ourselves round the other hides, but today's different, we can come back tomorrow - time to head off to find out what the Travelodge is like.

Check out RCB's Blip for a photogenic Swallow.