The Suffolk Sandhill

I headed up, rather casually it must be said, yesterday afternoon to view the southward bound Sandhill Crane that had reached a bottleneck in southernmost Suffolk. It was only two years ago that I'd dropped everything and headed to Orkney to see this mega bird. That twitch was captured on the TV programme about us lot, and was the inauguration of Baggers the birding celeb. Thankfully I had the good fortune not to get involved.

Anyway, Sandhill Crane is an immense rarity - that bird was the first since 1991, when one resided on Shetland for a few days - so this bird was well worth a leisurely trip out for. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if my viewing yesterday was with an old friend... perhaps the exact same bird I'd seen on Orkney in 2009 given the rarity and the similar east coast track (the Orkney bird was 'lost' as it filtered down the extreme northeast of Scotland)?

I must admit that I really enjoyed this little outing and reacquainting myself with this diminutive crane. Bar the crap traffic on the A12 on the way home and a load of diatribe whacked into my ears by a rather persistent lady from Herts. When I'm birding, I enjoy my birds and really don't need to listen to a load of stuff I can't be bothered listening to. Having promised Karen we'd easily be back for 9pm for Downton Abbey, I cut it quite fine by getting in at 8.57pm. By the way, if anyone's wondering, I'm not a fan of that period drama.

Ireland again next weekend. I can't wait...