Tuesday 25 March 2008

Monkmoor - Cettis scramble

Well, what a turn up! Monkmoor has a habit of turning up a rarity or two and such a pity keys are so thin on the ground. Nevertheless, Geoff Holmes and Ken Leah had managed to arrange access to the site for Sunday morning only. Fired up by the chance of a Shropshire tick for all the local birders (hope I'm right), there was quite a gathering!

Jason managed to capture the spirit of the scramble - we all managed to squeeze in - standing room only with a good natured gallery and only one well behaved guy with a big lens (me). The explosive call was heard within minutes of arrival, you could sense the collective excitement as Ken sighed - "you'll all believe me now"! Everyone also managed good views of the bird eventually? Some quicker than others, as with all Cetti's encounters - lots of noise - hard work to find the little sod.

Of course, there were false alarms with Chiffchaffs and Reed Buntings moving around too.....








I stuck it out for two hours before the gates had to close and whilst I did get some nice views through the bins - this one and only (strictly dodgy record shot) is all I had to show for my efforts through biting wind, hail and snow.......







(Just in case you can't see it - the out of focus brown job to right of centre!)