Two great birds in one morning, April 2026

 Red spotted Bluethroat


This Red-spotted Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica svecica) has been seen regularly on a wetland footpath in the Swineham gravel pits. These birds are "passage migrant and don’t yet breed in the UK. The appear in the UK in the spring, as they miss their migration path from Africa to Scandinavia.

This male bird was very confiding. Apparently, locals have been putting out meal worms to keep it in the area!





Black crowned Night Heron


These primarily nocturnal birds are still rare in the UK. They spend the daylight hours tucked away in dense lakeside vegetation, emerging at dusk to hunt for fish, frogs, and insects. They are ‘overshoots’ from mainland Europe during spring migration but are seen as a species that may colonize the UK more permanently, due to climate change.

This bird appeared briefly at the Borrow Pit on the Seaton Wetlands on the 17th April.




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