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Hampshire to Dorset to Hampshire. EOW!!

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All week there had been a showy Lapland Bunting residing at Portland Bill. Although I have photographed them before it is one species that I haven't managed to photograph very well so I made plans to travel down early Saturday morning with Ian Wells. I picked up Ian around 05:30am but little did we know we would be hammering it back to our home county 6hrs later and only 20-30 mins drive from our houses.  Surprisingly we arrived at the bill with no other photographers or birders present. This was a result as we did expect abit of a gathering and wondered how well the bird would show with a group staring at it. The sun just started to shine through as we made our way down to the cliff edge and it didn't take long before literally I nearly trod on the bird trying to photograph a Northern Wheatear close by.  View from the Bill on a glorious September morning. As you can see it was certainly showing well as soon as we had found it.  We spent another couple of hours in the company o
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3rd time lucky for Bluethroat!

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As with the Brown Booby I finally scored with a Hampshire Bluethroat that had been found at Hook-with-warsash. Bluethroat has been a long awaited county tick for me with most of them proving to be very frustrating one day birds or no news until they had gone. Orginally found on the Sunday I tried in the morning and also went back in the evening but managed to miss it on both occasions.  I thought it would almost certainly go but nope Ian Wells had seen it Monday morning so after work I shot straight down there as it's only 15 mins away and thankfully after a little wait it showed for a minute or so in a bush presumably just before going to roost. It's a smart looking bird for sure but no very showy being very elusive throughout the day. My 304th Hampshire tick!  Male Bluethroat
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Brown Booby!!! Once, twice, three times.........

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FIRST TIME It was the August bank holiday weekend and for the last year I had planned to take Jess to see Ed Sheeran for her birthday. I joked about a real rarity turning up which is usually the case when we have made plans bit thankfully it didn't and we both enjoyed a nice night away in Ipswich. Monday morning we got up and headed back home to Southampton. I was expecting abit of a grim drive back however it was trouble free and we made it back in very good time. News circulated of a reported Brown Booby off of St Ives however with the report being by a birder without bins I really didn't give it a second thought like I'd imagine most birders didn't. Little did I know how wrong I would be.  Tuesday morning I'm back at work when the mega alert sounds. I quickly look at my phone and incredibly it said BROWN BOOBY, ST IVES!!!  Twitter had already had some pictures uploaded which proved it's identity beyond doubt so the next step was when could I go! Unfortunatley
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