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!

The last couple of weeks.....

Since the delights of the Bee-eaters at Theberton, there have still been some really successful trips in the last few weeks. For starters, the patch has provided me with 6 big fat year ticks, including 5 lifers:

• HONEY BUZZARD
• Common Crossbill
• BLACK-TAILED GODWIT
• NUTHATCH
• COMMON SANDPIPER
• OSPREY

The Honey Buzzard was actually way back on June 28th (well, not that far back really), with it going over my own house with the local pair of Common Buzzards doing their best to see it off. This also allowed me to compare the 2 species really well, and enjoy this 116th bird for my patch life list!

Similar to the Honey Buzzard, the Common Crossbills were also over my house, with 2 over on the evening of July 14th. The next bird was Common Sandpiper, another lifer. Over the past week or so now, I have seen about 6 birds on the patch, an increasing visitor in July/August...

The next bird to go on the list was Nuthatch, where we had tried 3 times for this elusive bird in Shrubland Wood this year and failed. Well, on July 23rd, we finally saw one, calling and moving around the wood with a tit flock. Odd company I know, but its on the list! A Red Kite was also present here too. 

When I realised I'd missed a flock of 17 Black-tailed Godwits on the patch, I was pretty miffed! But, I was notified on July 26th that there was one present, so in the pouring rain we went, and was rewarded!

The 5th lifer of the week was seen this morning, where we had an Osprey over Needham Market town centre! Incredible views but unfortunately no photos. It was seen yesterday morning down Pipps Ford, flying west at 9:30. This morning, it done exactly the same, but we picked it up at 10am on its way west! We're going to try again tomorrow morning.

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A couple of weeks ago, we went to twitch the Black-necked Grebe at Livermere, which is still there today, and although it was distant, we saw it, along with amazing views of a Barn Owl too. I took a video of both the species as I didn't have my camera lol!

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Last Thursday, we met up with David Walsh, and headed for a days birding on the Suffolk Coast. Minsmere was reasonably quiet with no Albatross being a real shock, but we did have Little Gulls, Spotted Redshank and Ruff...

Then, an afternoons Gulling with Brian Small at Walberswick taught me how to id young Yellow-legged Gulls, and we found a Caspian Gull to join in the fun!

Adult YLG

3cy YLG

2cy YLG

Caspian Gull

Happy Birding!

The Love of Patching!

For the last couple of weeks, birding has been focused on the patch, so that my patch total for the year has the greatest chance of increasing as much as possible.

The first Little-ringed Plovers came in on the 6th April, with 3 present up to a week ago...

The first Swallow was also on the 6th, with the first 2 singing Blackcaps on the 7th. The first Willow Warbler was in at Wildwood on the 10th too. The first Nightingales were singing on the 15th along with the first Whitethroat and House Martins...

The first Sand Martins were feeding on the 19th, with Garden Warblers and the first possible 'Greenland' Wheatear was present on the 21st...

The first singing Lesser Whitethroat was present at Wildwood on the 22nd, and the first calling Tawny Owl, Hobby, Greenshank and Redshank on the 24th.

Redshank record shot

Then, a very productive 'tour' around the patch with David Walsh produced Sedge Warbler (scarce on patch), Cuckoo, Reed Warbler and Swift on he 26th. 

On the 29th April, my luck was in as I found a cracking Yellow Wagtail. All the following shots are phone-scoped.

A good record was a Red Kite over Brewery Farm, Earl Stonham the Saturday just gone, and first my returning Spotted Flycatcher came back to the usual wood by my school on yesterday.

Bird of the month so far though was undoubtedly today, as I was walking out from school, a pair of Sandwich Terns passed over flying north! That's an incredible record for the patch, and takes my total to 103 species. That is already 3 more than my total last year!

Happy Birding (and patching)!

What a start to the week!

On Easter Monday, Dad and I went to Kessingland to see the Ring Ouzels and the Dotterel. Unfortunately, the Dotterel moved on at 5:30am, so we just focused on the Rouzels. After finding the place through the help of locals (we didn't have a clue), we found the Ring Ouzels after a bit of a walk south of the Caravan Park towards the sluice. There were 3 males and 1 female. As usual though, the dog walkers didn't help, and all the birds were flushed and went and landed by the sluice. I had a detour round the area, and I found 3 Sedge Warblers and 3 Whitethroats, both welcome year ticks.

I then joined Dad, and the Ring Ouzels were showing really well, allowing for decent pictures (LOL)...

We also got a flyover Green Sandpiper, Wheatears and Linnets

Didn't see much else or go anywhere throughout the rest of the day so no need to report.

Needham Market Ringing

I went out with the local ringing team to a site in Needham Market near the sewage works this morning. We ringed a range of birds included Lesser and Common Whitethroat and Blackcap (no pictures), Wren, Treecreeper, Robins, Linnets, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Dunnocks and a Blackbird. Before I arrived, they had also ringed a Garden Warbler, female Bullfinch and a Reed Warbler. I saw the Garden warbler, and also heard a Nightingale, and saw a Swift over the sewage works.

At about 10am, I was looking across the river, when a black thrush flew high from right to left. My initial thoughts were Blackbird, but when I put my binoculars up to it, I was shocked, stunned and bewildered to see that it was a male Ring Ouzel. I shouted out RING OUZEL and it flew in a tall tree by Flordon Road. As I went to have a better look, it flew out of the tree, and onto a bramble mound north of the sewage works. I relocated, and got some great views, even if the pictures don't show that....

A superb patch find!!!

Happy Birding!