21st April 2014 - Northward Hill and Cliffe Pools

This was my first trip to Northward Hill and it really is a delightful reserve, I'd recommend it to anyone.  It also helped that the weather was glorious!  We had popped along in the hope of seeing the Ring Ouzel that had been reported there.  I had missed out last year on Ring Ouzel, so was incredibly happy when we reached the field they had been in and they were still there, wandering around and looking generally awesome.  Whilst looking at them we heard out first Cuckoo for the year which is always a delight.  There were quite a few Mediterranean Gull overhead and a lovely lone Wheatear dropped in briefly.  

Abysmal photo but that's a Ring Ouzel.

It was then on to Cliffe Pools.  It was absolutely heaving with Nightingale but despite being deafened by them, we didn't see a single one!  We did however see the Spoonbill and I saw my first Whimbrel in two years.  A selection of waders including Avocet, Redshank and Greenshank were about.  We got a closer look at the few Mediterranean Gull that were sat on the islands, which was great.  

Trip list: 47
Year list: 152
Lifers of year list: 7