I was at Titchwell RSPB when a MEGA appeared on my pager:
"MEGA Suffolk BLACK-BROWED ALBATROSS Adult Minsmere RSPB on pool behind South Hide at 4.40pm the flew south over sea towards Sizewell and lost to view at 4.51pm."
The immediate reaction from most birders was laughter, chuckling and 'yeah right'. I mean, you couldn't make it up could you!!! An Albatross sitting on a pool at Minsmere, sounds like one of my April Fools jokes!!! Then...... news appeared on Twitter that a picture had been taken!!! OMG! Found by Ian Salkeld and photographed by Peter Hobbs – WOW! Congratulations! I wonder how many others were in the hide before it flew off? I just can't believe this sighting, how incredible and a first for Suffolk to boot.
Discussion on Birdforum HERE. In the media HERE. Also write up on the RSPB Community Minsmere Blog HERE with the history of this mega bird.
PICTURES HERE & HERE
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Oooo 'eck!!
ReplyDeleteI feel for those two guys...
you see something and your mind boggles..
you shake your head, both in amazement and to clear the vision...
no it is still there.
Take pictures, quick... look at pictures... yep! It IS!
Wonderful, they'll never forget that...
and, in this day and age, with the onset of digital photography...
recordings are much more accurate and, dare I say...
more frequent, as with "proof" of a sighting...
they are more likely to be submitted and to be accepted.
Pauline et moi, with over one hundred years of wildlife watching experience between us....
had difficulty in getting our recordings accepted by the Faune Touraine moderators...
and we are the only recorders for around fifty square miles...
so there are no "balancers" to compare results with...
and we are "les Anglais" and obviously know not....
what wildlife there is in "la France profonde!"
Yes, the adrenaline rush they must have had on first spotting it...
would have been rapidly dampened....
by the concern at actually being believed!!
Sounds like you had a "nice day out" in Suffolk....
even if the bee-eaters didn't show...
I have only ever seen the Norfolk Hawker twice...
singly... once at Upton.... many moons back...
and once here at the La Cherine reserve in the Brenne...
it would be a nice "link" to have them here...
but our neighbours large lake acts as an agricultural reservoir...
so is kept almost barren.
But we get Large Pincertails instead...
and those records weren't accepted until we put in photographic evidence...
because "they didn't occur in Touraine!"
Keep well, keep on bloggin',
Tim