Nethergong Birding

I was out of the house this morning at 05:45 where I birded the Nethergong site and area until 10:45am in cloudy and quite still conditions. With quite low cloud, I was optimistic of a bit of vis-mig so spent a while watching the skies. The undoubted highlight this morning was when I picked out an adult Common Crane (130) which flew in at height from the south and circled briefly before going down in one of the ploughed fields. I slowly made my way to the rough area where I could see the Crane in a field wandering around. I kept at a reasonable distance as to not disturb the bird and took a few record shots. This is a new bird for the patch and unbelievably, the 130th species to be recorded in the area this year, nine more species than in 2021 and with 3 months still to go, I wonder if a bird or two could still be added to the list. Other birds of note today included 2 Greylag Geese, 1 Golden Plover, 5 Common Snipe, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Kingfisher, 3 Kestrel, 1 Merlin, 1 Peregrine, 1 Ring necked Parakeet, 2 Jay, 2 Raven, 6 Chiffchaff, 3 Cetti's Warbler, 1 Blackcap, 7 Long tailed Tit, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Treecreeper, 1 Whinchat, 4 Stonechat, 1 Grey Wagtail, 3 Greenfinch and 1 Siskin. Around 10am a movement of mainly Swallows and a few house Martins started flying west. In around 45 minutes there were c1084 Swallow and c123 House Martin. 'Nocmig' recording on a few nights in the week was pretty quiet but I did record Little, Barn and Tawny Owl.  

Adult Common Crane - initial distant views in flight

Adult Common Crane