Red Alert at Reculver!

I had planned to stay in today but when news broke this morning of a Red breasted Flycatcher on the patch, I made plans to make a visit to Reculver to hopefully catch up with this rare Reculver species, the last one in the area being 20th October 1999 which I managed to see. On arrival there were a few birders who had seen the bird but it was generally elusive. Due to a local resident not wanting birders in the caravan park we had to view from the outside which made the task quite a challenge indeed. Eventually after a patient wait the Red breasted Flycatcher came into view for a few seconds before it moved off again into the bushes. Not the best view but a great species to see on the patch and its been a while since the last one. I stayed on for a bit longer and hoped the Flycatcher would appear in a small gap with some convenient bare branches. It appeared briefly a few more times before at last it flew into the open gap and landed on one of the branches. I had about 5 seconds of firing off a few shots before it flew off again out of sight, not the best efforts and a bit noisy but a record nonetheless of a great bird. It was nice to catch up with some other Kent birders for a chat and whilst there we also noted a few Swallow going through, 4 Redwing, 1 Brambling calling, 2 Chiffchaff, 20 Migrant Hawker, a few Common Darter and 1 Willow Emerald Damselfly. I certainly didn't wake up this morning with this cracker in mind today, the beauty of birding. 

Red breasted Flycatcher