In 2018 when I was in hospital I remember reading about different birdwatching sites in the UK. I found one that interested me- Lakenheath Fen. That was very close by- 2 stops by train away from us. What especially interested me was the golden oriole- the book said they bred here. I've passed by Lakenheath a few times on the way to Thetford Forest but never was interested in the reserve. I took a look at what the oriole looked like and sounded like, and that was the start of a dream to see golden orioles!
Initially we went to Lakenheath when I got better. I was very disappointed to hear that golden orioles were long gone from the reserve, with the last succesfull breeding in 2009 and the last sighting in 2015. However, the trip went way better than expected with, among other things, a red-footed falcon present on the reserve, as well as a funny situation which happened as we were walking back. We were walking along the riverbank, and this cuckoo just comes flying out of the forest and landed on a branch 10 meters away from me. I managed to take a picture before another cuckoo charged it and it flew off.
But I was really dissapointed with the orioles- I really hoped to see them. As such, I am sure you can imagine what happened when, a month later when I was in Russia, I wake up and hear the fluty whistle of the oriole right outside my window. The oriole then stopped singing and I heard it further away in the village I was staying in. I grabbed my bike and headed out to look for it, looking for the area from where the cat screams where coming from. I rode past a nice woodland, and just as I was turning onto a secondary road I saw a yellow-black bird fly very quickly out of the wood I was just looking at and into a beech forest. I wasn't about to go in there- I didn't want to harass the bird, nor did I want to deal with grass almost as high as me.
I kept hearing the oriole a lot of the time afterwards. One time, I was returning from the shop on my bike and a female oriole came out of nowhere and perched in a pine tree right next to me, before flying off. I had no camera with me at this stage. I still was looking for the male, though. It was prettier.
Eight days later I was unable to see the bird anywhere. I at one point pinpointed the isolated tree in which it was screaming and then a horrendous downpour started which seemingly caused both of us to run for cover. Another time I again realised where it was, and just as I zoomed in to look for it my camera ran out of charge and deactivated.
The next day I decided to get serious. I woke up at 5 and heard the oriole shrieking somewhere. I took my bike and rode out along the road where many days ago I caught my first glimpse of a golden oriole. The shrieks were coming from somewhere here. About 70 meters away there was a tree standing right out in the open. I initially thought it was a magpie sitting in there, but then that magpie screamed again and I reconsidered, and zoomed in.
It was the male. I got several photos of it, including a really good one before it started moving around. I thought it was about to fly off, but all it did was turn with its back now towards me. It then eventually did fly off, and I went home and for a long time couldn't stop admiring what I had taken. This was notoriously difficult to do. I kept hearing the oriole for a few days later before it disappeared on migration. I never saw it again despite searches next summer. I, however, did hear an oriole nearby- I hope it was him, because the other alternatives are it died on migration or was killed by the goshawk I saw a few days after the pictures were taken.