Common Crane and lots more

Birds seen at the observatory recently include:

• 1 Common Crane flew South on the 18th May (a first for the observatory and my first ever on my path)
• 1 Green Woodpecker flew East (surprisingly a first for the observatory)
• 1 Lesser Black-Backed Gull flew South
• 1 Herring Gull flew East

I have also seen lots of the normal birds including a record 18 House Martins circling overhead. Also, Starling have decided to build a nest under a neighbour's roof which means I can see the Starling collecting nest material and then taking it to the nest. The Common Crane is an amazing sighting for the observatory. There seems to be some kind of theme with a Glossy Ibis, a White Stork and now a Common Crane seen from the observatory in the past year. Here are all the pictures of the Common Crane (some pictures are better than others as the bird was quite distant):

White Stork!!!

On Monday (May 1st) I was getting out of the car and I saw a bird circling and slowly flying East. I quickly ran inside to get my binoculars and quickly identified it as a White Stork (as I had suspected when I first saw the bird). Presumably this was the same bird was also seen at Frettenham and Hainford.  Amazingly, this is the second for the Horstead Bird Observatory and the last one was a individual seen 1 or 2 years ago (I unfortunately did not record the date) who flew low over the village, heading South. 

Other birds seen recently from the observatory are:

•  1 Lesser Black-Backed Gull
• 2 Swallows (the first this year for the observatory)