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Purple Heron Pevensey April96
A regular species in Britain, particularly in spring, but they don't all show as well as this one!
This bird landed in a small area of reeds and grass between two roads, and carried on hunting
despite a group of birders just yards away.
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American Coot Stodmarsh April96
A first for Britain isn't always that obvious, how many of these have passed unnoticed?
With just one Irish record and no further mainland occurences, hadn't we better start looking at
Coots again?.
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Indigo Bunting Ramsey Island Oct.96
Still the only accepted record in Britain, I consider this my luckiest photo to date. Having
waited for half the day in atrocious weather for the boats to be able to land us, it was
still drizzling when the bird, flying up and down the length of the crowd, landed on top
of a gorse about ten feet in front of me,about two minutes after getting the camera out ! .
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Steppe Grey Shrike Holland-on-sea Nov.96
Not the first record by any means,the recent elevation of this taxon to full species status
ensured a large crowd along the seafront. The bird played its part very well, being very
approachable (except on the top of yacht masts!).
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Canvasback Welney Jan.97
The year started with a major twitch when this long-awaited North American duck finally
appeared with excellent credentials, and no signs of hybridisation. Living close to Welney
I managed one of the few photographs taken initially, however it became much less wary as time
passed and sometimes came in to feed with the Pochards, where this shot was taken.
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Spectacled Warbler Landguard April 97
I was abroad when the first twitchable one arrived, so imagine my delight when this bird turned
up near home. At first causing a major logistical problem resulting in long queues to view a
narrow area, it moved slightly a day or so later and fed on the ground almost at your feet!
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Collared Flycatcher Ethie Mains June97
In common with most of its kind this immaculate male didn't stay long, but long enough for many
to make the journey to Scotland (again). Unlike autumn birds there was no argument about the
identification, it was a classic.
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Red-necked Grebe Wickstead Park Kettering July97
Not all birds worth travelling to see are rarities. Rarely seen in summer plumage in England,
this absolutely superb bird spent the summer on a park lake. Perhaps the local breeding Great Creasted
Grebes attracted it, but sadly it remained a batchelor.
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Semi-palmated Plover Dawlish Warren April98
Only Britain's second record, this bird was present for a few weeks in a Ringed Plover colony
before its identification was clinched. However once seen it wasn't too difficult to pick out,
as the photo shows. It returned the following year but not for long, and was never seen in
breeding dress.
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American Golden Plover Pennington Marsh May98
I took this shot of an extremely obliging bird at 6.00am. The majority of these occur as juveniles
so this was a welcome sight. Unfortunately it didn't quite reach the beautiful full breeding
attire before it left.
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Bonaparte's Gull Hearne Bay Kent June98
A first summer individual that gave a lot of people the runaround in North Kent before succumbing to the
lure of chips right by Hearne Bay pier. Even then it didn't linger, this was a very lucky shot.
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King Eider Ythan Estuary June98
We tend to forget King Eiders are still BB rarities as they usually stay so long. This is the famous
Ythan bird, on the day it came to investigate us! It will surely not be long before another stunning
male takes up residence somewhere.
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