Budge Field bonanza and a traffic cone in Kent.

I hadn't thought on until Liam pointed it out to me on Twitter that i had had a canny couple of days at the Budge Field, Druridge Bay.
Wednesday.

Shared these two Spoonbills with DAVE on Wednesday.
Not for long as half a dozen of the Exmoor ponies were getting carried away with the joys of spring and started galloping around the field spooking the Spoonies, never to be seen again !
Friday.

The Great White Egret, which had eluded me for three weeks was finally espied.
It just hadn't been there when i was, although i was away in Kent for the middle of those three weeks. Speaking of which.
I experienced what must have been the worst weeks weather that they have had in Kent in spring in living memory. It was awful.....almost like being back home in the north east (it was even worse back home apparently) My visits mainly concern my grandchildren these days but i try to manage a full day out but due to my son moving soon a planned days dragonhunting with WARREN had to be cancelled which, as it happened, would have been a disaster given the conditions. Apologies again Warren for having to cancel.
I did fit in two of my very early (4a.m. - 11 a.m.) mornings. One of which i spent at Cliff Pools and heard a Nightingale and heard then saw three Cuckoos interacting. Didn't even get the camera out of the bag due to awful light. For the other i bit the bullet and did the 45 minute drive down to Dungeness so i could spend a mere couple of hours there. Like most of this years birding on the whole, a bit disappointing due to the conditions with one exception, this beautiful Hobby along the track to the ARC gravel pits which allowed me to get within four metres of it as it sat on the ground. I spend sixty of my allotted one hundred and twenty minutes with the bird. Time well spent. It did alight to a telegraph pole and to some bushes a couple of times but returned to the ground many times with one exception, the time it landed on a traffic cone which was nearby for no apparent reason.