Sunday 13th January 2013

    Got up at first light, about 7.30am, not early really. It was freezing, with quite a strong wind blowing too, not nice! A look in Lowestoft Harbour added Great Northern Diver to the growing list. A Sanderling flew across the Harbour and out towards the sea. There was a flock of Dark-bellied Brents flying out over the Sea too, a birder there said that he had picked out a Pale-bellied amongst them, but i didnt look that hard, too bloody cold, and now there was snow falling too.....Back for breakfast.

   We drove down the coast a bit to Minsmere RSPB reserve. There had been a small flock of 6 Tundra Bean Geese, being seen in a field near to Minsmere, but not this morning. I went into the new information centre at Minsmere, very nice, and the staff were pretty helpful too. I asked if there was much to see on the reserve, they told me what was about, but it was not enough to get us to wander around, especially in the really cold weather. We drove back out for another look for the Bean Geese, still no sign, but one of the staff at Minsmere had said, he had seen some Geese near to Eastbridge. So we headed that way. We found the flock just outside the village, they were all Greylags, or were they? No, at the back of the flock was a Pink-footed Goose and a Tundra Bean Goose, sadly a bit too distant for photos again.

   After that we drove down to Southwold to look for more Geese at North Warren RSPB. There were quite a few Geese there, but as all the rest, distant. There were lots of Greylags, White-fronted Geese, some Pink-footed Geese and a Red-breasted Goose. Turns out the next day there were 6 seen!!! We then decided to get one last place in before going home, Shoeburyness, Essex. There had been a Long-tailed Duck and a juvenile Common Scoter showing really well for a while there. My dad said he saw the Long-tailed Duck, but i was concentrating on the Scoter, as you can see below. Got some fairly decent shots before i lost the light. I even used a flash on the righthand one, think it worked rather well!

Common Scoter

Common Scoter

  Then the long drive home, some nice photos in the bag. Then it snowed, and didnt it ever... as it turns out we were lucky, as they had it really bad in East Anglia over the next few days.