Gripped....

Ok if your not familiar with the word Gripped, basically in birding terms it means you have seen a bird your fellow patch workers or twitchers haven't!!

So yesterday and today local birders Vince and Steve et al are just that.  With the former being at work and the later away in Norfolk somewhere, I poached their patch (though I may add this as one of my old stomping grounds, and have seen many a good bird here, inc Great Snipe and Pine Bunting being the most famous).  I rocked up yesterday and added Redshank - something of an inland rarity on site, and only for Vince to dip later that evening.

yesterday's mega shank

Today I must of trod in shit again (as one normally does here!), whilst dragging my five year old son around for a late afternoon amble.  I pic up two distant raptors that turn out to be RED KITE'S!!!!  After alerting Blowmonkey, who ticks them from his window as they drifted from Romford flying south west, one done the decent thing and flew right over the top of me.

I feel a few more Dagenham Chase visits are in order.....