Sheringham Sea-watch and more patch ticks!

On November 22nd (seems ages ago), Dad and I went to do a sea watch at Sheringham, as the conditions were in favour of a good variety of birds being on offer, and we weren't disappointed.

The previous day had produced Leach's Petrel, Long-tailed, Pomarine and Great Skuas, Grey Phalaropes, Little Auks, all 3 diver species and much more! Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any pictures of the birds we saw during the sea watch, but I got 7 year ticks from a 5 hour sea-watch. These were 3 Grey Phalarope, 13 Little Auk, Great Northern Diver, Slavonian Grebe, 12 Great Skua, Iceland Gull, 3 Purple Sandpiper and 2 Velvet Scoter. We got several other birds that we nice to see, like Eider, Guilemots, a Razorbill, Gannets, Common Scoters and several other common wildfowl.

Later in the day, we headed west, where we missed a Little Auk on the duck pond at Salthouse by 5 minutes! AARGH! That would have been amazing to see one that close! Oh well....

We finished the day at Warham Greens where we had 4 Hen Harriers (2 males), 1 Short-eared Owl, 2 Merlin, 1 Peregrine and 5 Marsh Harrier.

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Stowupland has been a very good addition to my patch area this year, where I've seen 69% of all the birds on my patch this year. I managed another patch year tick on Thursday with a Curlew over the house, making it 119 species seen between Stowupland and various sights in Needham Market.

Pipps Ford is under a lot of disturbance at the moment due to a lot of habitat works going on, but weekends are your best chance of getting some birds on the scrape, even if it's just a couple of Swans and a Coot! I did have a nice Green Sand Thursday however...

Hoping to get out to North Norfolk tomorrow, with Cattle Egret (present at Sea Palling for c. 1 week), Red-rumped Swallow (at Cley - extremely late record and present for 2 days), and Lapland Bunting (small flock at Blakeney Freshmarsh with some Twite).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

New Years Day Bird Race, and the Suffolk Coast!

Mum, Dad and I decided to take part in the new years day bird race, so we thought we would go to North Norfolk - Titchwell and Burnham area.

In the garden before we left, we had Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Collared Dove, Starling, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, a flock of about 30 Fieldfare over, Black-headed Gull, Chaffinch, Magpie and Woodpigeon, which bought the total up to 12.

On the way up to Titchwell, we managed to see a further 29 species, making 41 species in total (see complete list at the bottom of the blog post for the birds seen). At Titchwell, the first new bird seen was Wren, followed by a Sparrowhawk. We then added the normal species on the fresh-marsh and salt-marsh, the highlight being a flock of 7 Twite from Parrinder Hide, and then a single Spotted Redshank on the salt-marsh. After finishing at Titchwell, we were on 77 species.

We then went to Burnham Overy, to look for the Rough-legged Buzzard. We soon jammed in on that, and we also got Common Buzzard and Canada Goose.

At the layby looking over to the west end of Holkham, we got a single White-fronted Goose to make the list 85.

We finished the day off at Warham Greens, where we got 3 Hen Harrier (1 male), Linnet, Merlin and a Woodcock, which concluded to a total of 89 species, a very successful day.

New Year's Day Bird Species in order:

1. Blackbird
2. Robin
3. Dunnock
4. Collared Dove
5. Starling
6. House Sparrow
7. Blue Tit
8. Fieldfare
9. Magpie
10. Black-headed Gull
11. Chaffinch
12. Woodpigeon
13. Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon)
14. Common Gull
15. Rook
16. Goldfinch
17. Green Woodpecker
18. Greylag Goose
19. Kestrel
20. Jackdaw
21. Herring Gull
22. Pheasant
23. Lesser Black-backed Gull
24. Great Black-backed Gull
25. Moorhen
26. Mallard
27. Mistle Thrush
28. Mute Swan
29. Cormorant
30. Carrion Crow
31. Red-legged Partridge
32. Song Thrush
33. Egyptian Goose
34. Great Tit
35. Pied Wagtail
36. Redwing
37. Long-tailed Tits
38. Greenfinch
39. Jay
40. Red Kite (2)
41. Pink-footed Goose
42. Lapwing
43. Wren
44. Sparrowhawk
45. Coot
46. Tufted Duck
47. Gadwall
48. Teal
49. Wigeon
50. Brent Goose
51. Ringed Plover
52. Little Egret
53. Curlew
54. Snipe
55. Redshank
56. Grey Plover
57. Dunlin
58. Shelduck
59. Avocet
60. Twite (7)
61. Marsh Harrier
62. Ruff
63. Meadow Pipit
64. Reed Bunting
65. Water Rail
66. Pochard
67. Goldeneye
68. Turnstone
69. Knot
70. Golden Plover
71. Oystercatcher
72. Pintail
73. Shoveler
74. Little Grebe
75. Spotted Redshank
76. Black-tailed Godwit
77. Bar-tailed Godwit
78. Sanderling
79. Great Spotted Woodpecker
80. Coal Tit
81. Stock Dove
82. Rough-legged Buzzard
83. Canada Goose
84. Common Buzzard
85. White-fronted Goose
86. Hen Harrier
87. Linnet
88. Merlin
89. Woodcock

Covehithe Broad and Dunwich Shore Pools

Yesterday, Dad and I teamed up with our friends David and Ed to do a bit of Suffolk coast birding. Before that however, I was stunned to see myself looking at an adult male Bullfinch in the garden. The light wasn't brilliant, but it was still a cracking bird to have in the garden! A first in 4 years...

We started off at Covehithe where we ticked Brambling, flyover Barnacle Geese, Yellowhammer, and a brief Bearded tit before arriving at the broad. We could see the Shorelarks through our bins before looking at them closely, but then they took off and flew high south, and for quite a few miles. However they have been seen again today, so they must go for a fly about before returning. We also got Red-throated Diver offshore, a redhead Smew, and 3 Goldeneye in the area.

We then went to Dunwich Shore Pools. On the walk up, we got Common Scoter, Stonechat, several Great-crested Grebes offshore, Brent Geese, a Skylark, Rock Pipit, Reed Bunting and a cracking male Hen Harrier, which hunted the reed bed albeit a bit distant...

We then located the Twite flock with a bit of help from another birder, where about 20 birds were present.

Further up (about a further 2 miles!) we relocated the Snow Buntings, which were so obliging to us...

On the way back home, we had a lovely Barn Owl hunting alongside the road in Pettaugh which was another year tick taking the total up to 108.

We had a brilliant day, and I just want to thank David and Ed for taking us out, it was a real pleasure.

North Norfolk Coast - 21st September 2014

On Sunday 21st September Dad took me up to North Norfolk as I was eager to connect with the Olive-backed Pipit at Wells Woods and the several Red-breasted Flycatchers at Burnham Overy Dunes. We arrived at Wells Woods, and as I was getting my ticket, I noticed that Penny Clarke (see her fantastic blog here) was standing right behind me. We had a chat about her twitch to see the Masked Shrike in Spurn, and then made our way up to the Dell

We found the birders standing on the bank, and had great views of the cracking Olive-backed Pipit. The light was pretty poor however, so we done well to get the pictures we did. There is a video too, but the bird was on the move, so try and keep with it!

It then flew off so we left. We then went to Garden Drove, Warham with Penny and Eddie M. Found absolutely nothing apart from a few Robins. The strong wind had blown nearly all the migrants away, so all the Red-breasted Flys were gone which I was gutted about.

We then went to Salthouse, to see the Barred and Yellow-browed Warbler. Several people we watching the Barred Warbler at close range. We managed to get some pretty good shots of this and another video.

We then went to see if the Yellow-browed Warbler was showing. It hadn't been seen for an hour, so our hopes weren't up. We got there and no other birders in this area of bushes and it was feeding on the bushes! Incredible! It was only there briefly so I could only get a record shot on the little camera...

We then went to do a bit of sea-watching for the last part of the day at Cley Coastguards. Quite a few people were in there, so eyes were always on the lookout. I managed to see my first ever Sooty Shearwater (2), with several Manx Shearwaters and Gannets, 2 Arctic Skuas and 1 Bonxie. The chap next to me (Pete Snook I think his name was) spotted a "large Shearwater"flying east. We never really got good views of it, but we think it was a Cory's, but we weren't definite so I couldn't tick it as a lifer.

Still though another great days birding!

Happy Birding!

North Norfolk Lifer!

Dad and I decided we had to go to the North Norfolk Coast for a bit of October birding. We started off at Cley Spy, Glandford. We got there at about 10:20am, considering we left at about 8:30am, we got there in pretty good time. Dad wanted to get his digiscope camera fixed, and looked out for the Black Redstart that has been hanging around the car park. There was no chance in seeing it though. It was tipping it down with rain. After 10 minutes or so it stopped, and the Black Redstart came out on show.

We then headed to Garden Drove, Warham. After going down the wrong track - not funny - we finally found the concrete pad. We parked on here and walked down. The bushes were full of potential, but the best birds were about 2 Goldcrest, 2 Chiffchaff and several Starlings and Redwings. It was incredible the numbers of these birds. 

Walking back up the track we met Penny (nice to meet you Penny), and a founder of the Red Flanked Bluetail at Warham. They had been to Wells. They had Ring Ouzel, but they missed the Parrot Crossbill that had been seen there that morning. We thought that we had to go there, so that is what we did. We got a text from our "undercover agent" - you know who you are with the injured foot (get well soon) - saying that there was Ring Ouzel, Yellow-browed Warbler, Parrot Crossbill, Shag and Slav. Grebe all around Wells. We got into the wood and found the crowd looking for the Yellow-browed Warbler. It was a tricky little fella, because unless you were in the perfect position, like I was eventually, you only really saw it in the sycamore. My Camera was not being nice to me today, but Dad's first day out new camera was on fire. Look at these 2 stinking shots he got...

Very Nice.

We then had a wonder around the woods. Got Brambling, and a Muntjac but not much else. We then started to head back when all of a sudden, the melodic chipping of a flock of 4 PARROT CROSSBILL flew over our heads going West-South-West. An incredible lifer!!!! Got some record shots....

Also got a Kestrel here. 

We then headed to Warham again to do a little bit of finding and raptor watching. We got 2 Short-eared Owl, Barn Owl, Merlin, Peregrine, Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier and Sparrowhawk. Migrant wise, we got a possible Ring Ouzel, 4 Brambling, tonnes of Starling, 1 Fieldfare, and a few Redwing

Merlin

Brambling

Happy Birding!

Lots to Catch Up On!

Sorry for the wait on this post. Homework's just been flying out the window. Not much writing but plenty of pictures. On the Sunday after the last post, it was a late start because of all the fog, so we didn't leave until 9:30am. We got to Cley Beach at 11:45am, and the fog had cleared. We were told to just spend a bit of time on a beach, so that's what we did, and here's what we got.

Brent Geese

More Brent Geese

A Common Gull

A Common Darter along East Bank

And a Cormorant

Little Egret

Marsh Harrier

And a Gannet fishing

We got some other great things too and these were probably the highlights. We got great views of 2 Juvenile Great Skua out at Sea, plus 3 flypasts of Red-throated Divers too.

We then moved to Warham Greens for a bit in the afternoon, and not much but a fantastic Male Blackcap was a nice find, and also about 70 Golden Plover over the Saltmarsh. 

Yesterday, I played Golf, and we got a great experience of a Muntjac deer running from the trees on the left hand side of the fairway straight towards the tee where we were. Within 10 yards, it turned left, but was a great sight. Also, I got my best ever views of a Jay, 10 yards away, eating berries when I shanked my ball into the trees :(. After that, I played really well, only 1 over handicap.

Happy Birding