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!

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

Isle of Mull - Day 3

Hours away, the boat trip out to Lunga and Staffa lingered in our heads, as our excitement couldn't stay beneath my teeth. Driving down to the Ulva Ferry, the regular birds such as Stonechat, Wheatear in double figures, and the local Buzzards all out hunting amongst the midges. Also, all the common wader species all out and about, getting food for their young. A nice sight was about 20 Eider Duck swimming along the fishing area on Loch Na Keal, but no fish was seen caught. Our first trip was to Staffa, but the only things that were active were some first Twite of the year and also some numbers of Fulmar flying around their territories.  On the boat, plenty of Black Guilemots, Common Guilemots and Razorbills lined the sea in numbers. Arriving Lunga, these are what greeted us;

Very Tame Puffins

A Few Twite were showing Well

Nesting Fulmar were smiling for the camera

An Extremely Tame Puffin

The glowing yellow inside mouth of a Razorbill

Nesting Kittiwakes

A Fantastic day not over yet, as Ravens in their numbers were snorting above the mountain ridges, the White-tailed Eagle pair were collecting their food for their young at Loch Na Keal, and a elegant Red-breasted Merganser pair were swimming the beautiful colours of Loch Scridain, a first for the year too.