After an agonising 4 days of not being able to go for the Crested Lark, out in the North sea on a seabird survey, I finally got the chance to go on Sunday afternoon. We docked at Lowestoft at 13:50 and by the time I got off and to my car it was 14:10. After 177 miles and the usual bank holiday traffic I arrived at Dungeness at 17:15 to find only 4 birders there and none of them had seen the lark. We spread out and after about 15 minutes I saw the bird get up and fly about 100m before landing again. We approached slowly but before seeing the bird on the ground it flew again, very flighty. After about 30 minutes of this we found the bird feeding in the open on the edge of a patch of shingle and enjoyed excellent scope views, on and off, for about 30 minutes before it disappeared into the vegetation. Great relief at finally seeing it, my 504th BOU species for the UK.
_________________ Regards,
Andy.
|