North Norfolk, A Mid Suffolk MEGA and a day of volunteering at RSPB Minsmere!

Wednesday 29th October 2014

This week was my half term week and the first day Dad had free so we could go birding. We thought we'd go for the Surf Scoter in Holkham Bay, and then wherever the birds take us. We arrived at Lady Anne's Drive at 11am, and as I scanned behind the flocks of Pink-feet, I picked up a Rough-legged Buzzard flying distantly towards Wells, its white rump very obvious. We got into Holkham Gap, and joined the small group of birders. Our first delight was a Slavonian Grebe, quite close inshore, and then we picked up the flock of Scoter. Bobbing in and out of view, the obvious white patches on the head picked out the cracking drake Surf Scoter, a lifer for both me and Dad! Great stuff!!! We didn't get any pictures though unfortunately.

We then headed to Cley, to try and find the Shorelark, but it had flown off by the time we got there, so we didn't waste the time, so we called into the Cley Visitor Centre, and got some cake. Yummy!!!

We then went to Burnham Overy Dunes for the rest of the day. We didn't see the reported Ring Ouzel, Whinchat nor any Lapland or Snow Bunting. We did find a brief Brambling, a flock of 200+ Golden Plover, and a Wheatear...

When we met David Norgate, he showed us a probable hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose that he had found. It was a nice bird to see, but it just didn't look right for the real thing!!!

Hoopoe!!!

After I played golf on the Thursday, Dad took me to see the cracking Hoopoe at Framsden in the afternoon. It was a great bird to watch...

Volunteering at Minsmere:

I was volunteering at Minsmere on Friday, being a guide on the reserve. I went out in the morning around the scrape with a couple of other guides, and we managed a juvenile Caspian Gull and an adult Yellow-legged Gull plus the usual waders/ducks. The gulls shot is just for the record...

In the afternoon, I was in Island Mere, and we got my first Goldeneye of the winter, the Great White Egret, 2 Bitterns and an Otter. An enjoyable day.

Very distant

Passing through Framsden to go to Cretingham to play golf, I enjoyed the Hoopoe again, and was delighted to show the bird to Mum. In the afternoon, an added bonus was an Osprey flying over! Brilliant.

Happy Birding!!!

Waxwings In Ipswich

I went to work with mum in the morning in Ipswich, and, as we were in Ipswich, I asked her if we could visit the flock of Waxwings on Heath Road. Well, here's what we got....

We played had a game of golf at Stonham on the nine hole course just to keep our hand in. Plenty of Yellowhammers, a Green Woodpecker and another Chiffchaff.

Happy Birding

Dipper City!

On Saturday, it was another visit to Thetford and Lynford Arboretum yesterday (Saturday), but this time with Mum. We thought we'd bring Mum along is because she loves the Dipper, so for her to miss out on the Black-bellied Dipper would be a shame. I exaggerated on the video note, taking 4 excellent videos of the Dipper. I have put the 2 best ones after the pictures, that all have us have contributed on. Here are Mums.....

And here are Dad's......

And here are mine.....

We then went to Lynford Arboretum, this being attempt 2 of trying to get the Hawfinch. We started by parking in the Lynford Water car park, and walking through the arboretum. We past the little stone area were the feed is, and we saw Nuthatch, Marsh, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, plus a Sparrowhawk. We got round to the Paddock, and guys with scopes were looking towards a tree top were 2 Hawfinch sat. There were distant, but here's one of them.

We then walked to the gate to Lynford Hall, and found 4 very greedy Squirrels on the stumps.

We then went down the path that goes alongside the river, and caught a large flock of Siskins and Redpoll feeding....

Then there were a very tame Mute Swan...

We ended the day with a Marsh Tit posing for the camera....

Dad's Birthday

Dad decided to go to the Broads for his birthday, and we started off at Strumpshaw Fen. We started off with some Teal at the Reception Hide.

We then got some Snipe over Fen Hide, and also a Marsh Harrier

I then got a brief Cetti's Warbler over the reedbed at Fen Hide, and we missed a Bittern too. We then got about 60 Pink-footed Goose over the wood by the meadow...

I then got my first Jay of the year before moving on to Buckenham

We arrived at Buckenham, and walked out onto the marsh, and already we saw the Taiga Bean Geese, but they were quite distant..

Digiscoped effort

Scanning the fields we also picked up some White-fronted Geese, Barnacle and Canada Geese, Lapwing and a solitary Ruff. The unmistakable part of the marsh though was the amount of Wigeon. I scanned for a possible American Wigeon, but no luck. Here some that me and Mum took...

Over 600 Birds

We met my cousin Jim again and he took us to Claxton Marshes, to see the Short-eared Owls. Well, we got 3 birds hunting over the marsh. In the video, near the end, you may see the Barn Owl hunting in the background. Enjoy!

We finished the day off by going back to Strumpshaw Fen, to see if there were any Woodcocks, Chinese Water Deer, or Barn Owls. We saw all 3 things, including the Barn Owl very close past, 2 Woodcocks flying around where we were standing, and me and mum jumping out of our skin with the harsh barking of a Chinese Water Deer about 10 yards behind us! Thanks for reading and happy birding.

A New Years Treat!

This is the first of my 3 posts that I need to get done about the first week of January's Birding. Well, on New Years Day, we headed down to North Warren in the morning, and Minsmere in the afternoon. If you looked at the Daily Sightings Page, you may have gathered what we saw that day, but for those of you who haven't, I won't spoil it for you now. I get on with the pictures and videos then. We started off the day with a Pheasant with an Albino bird in Coddenham.

We then got to North Warren Car park, and a nice surprise was a female Stonechat in the grass

We then got to the path across the field and we parked our scope mid-way down, and scanned for the Red-breasted Goose (and the three feral birds) amongst the Barnacles. Well here's what we got.

I believe that this is the wild bird but I'm not sure.

I'm not that fussed to know which one is the wild bird in these two photo's because I know it's one of them. These are 4 individual birds. The wild bird was a 1st-winter, and the 3 feral birds were adults. We also saw White-fronted Geese.

And Barnacles...

And then we saw some ducks, including some Pintail, but a little distant.....

And we finished with some Lapwings...

We then moved onto Minsmere, and we started with food in the cafe, then we moved onto North Hide. We didn't see the Waxwings in North Bushes, but some ducks were added to my year list including 4 Smew..

There was 4 birds (another Redhead), but she wandered off!

Then we went to Island Mere, meaning we missed out of the rest of the hides due to flooding. We didn't go up to south levels either to see the Bean Geese, because of time. We got a few Marsh Harriers and missed a Bittern by 30 seconds :( 

We then got 3 cracking Bullfinch's!

We got to Bittern Hide at Dusk, and with 4 Bewick's Swan flying over, we didn't expect to have 2 Otters fishing on the lake and river...

Happy New Year