Breckland Produces - Again!

On Sunday, Dad took me out to the Brecks again, to try and pin down some of the specialities, and also some early spring migrants. We started off at Great Livermere Lake, where a scan around picked up an slightly unusual gull sitting on one of the bars. My initial thought was Caspian, and lots of people said Caspian, but I'm no expert on finding and identifying scarce gull species. Here it is...

Further scanning around the lake produced 2 Mediterranean Gull, a late Pink-footed Goose and a lone Barnacle Goose which were the highlights...

We then went to look in the pig fields north of the lake to try and find an Iceland Gull which was seen the previous day. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it, but there was still hundreds of gulls that were not searched. 

We moved on north to Santon Downham, to try and look for a hopeful Lesser-spotted Woodpecker. After a lot of searching, we couldn't nail it down, but we did get several Nuthatch, Grey Wagtail, Brambling, Chiffchaff and Lesser Redpoll. The star of the visit had to be a cracking Firecrest however...

We then got a call from our good birding friend David to say that he had a pair of Wheatear and 4 Stone Curlew at Cavenham Heath, so that's where we headed next. After scanning around, we picked up one cracking male Wheatear, 8 Stone Curlews and a singing male Stonechat. I do love the brecks!!!

Happy Birding!

Lynford LIFER!!!!

As I was off school on Wednesday due to the strike, Dad and I visited Lynford Arboretum, to try for the Two-barred Crossbills for the third time this year. We got to the car park, and could hear 2 Firecrests singing. I found them after a hunt, and then we moved on to the visitor hut. Dad found 1 Crossbill in the larches, but nothing else. We then met a chap who we spent the day with who had a Mealy Redpoll in the trees earlier. We went up to the feeders, and saw nothing much in there, just the usual Nuthatch. We then got a big flock of about 25 Crossbill flying over. Half landed in the surrounding trees, half went to the larches back by the visitor hut. We scanned the flock, but couldn't find any Two-barred's. So we went back to the visitor hut.

I soon spotted a male Crossbill in the top of a pine. But when I put my bins to it, it had 2 massive bars!!!!! It was a TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL! It then flew to the construction site, and into a big puddle, where I got this distant pic.

It then flew off, with about 5 Common Crossbills. I then could hear another 2 Firecrests in the local area. We managed to find them both, including one showy and vocal individual.

I did get a few Brambling down by the little stream adjacent to the river near the bridge, but to my knowledge not much else.

On the way back, another Crossbill flock came in and landed in the pines. We searched through the flock, and was delighted to pick out a second TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL!!!! This time though, it was the first winter bird, and clearly different to the first one we saw. The bars though were pretty obvious.

We then went to Santon Downham with this guy (sorry, don't know what your name is.) We got a distant Chiffchaff showing on the river...

We then got a female Mandarin...

After walking a mile down river though, we didn't see any of the Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers, even though 2 were reported on RBA. Annoyed!! We came back though and a male joined the female Mandarin, which was nice to see. We did get the usual Nuthatches as well...

There was also a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker and 3 Hawfinches reported at Lynford, exactly where I walked to see the Brambling's by the River!!! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!! Always next weekend.

Tonight, I had a golf lesson at Stonham Barns. I got a Yellow Wagtail on the range which was a great early bird.

Happy Birding!

Summer has come early!

The first day of this spring that my Cousin, Dad and I went bird watching in Norfolk. I have already got 130 species of birds this year, and we're not even halfway through April. We first headed to Santon Downham in the Thetford area, looking for the elusive Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, where we parked by the side of a small track for a while. Unfortunately, it didn't show for us, but we did see Nuthatch and Coal Tits in this area. We then moved on to park at St Helen's picnic area further down the track. We walked around the church looking for Firecrest that we were told were more reliably seen here, but not today. My first Willow Warbler of the year was singing in a dense Hawthorn, and shew well on the top of it. The soft churring with a trill was being produced at the top of some bare trees, where Brambling's were feeding in small double figures (10-15).  We walked through the wood through to the river and alongside the trees. A nasally whistle of a pair of Mandarin Ducks flew over our heads and into the trees, lost from our view. As much as we used the 10 minutes to search for the pair of ducks, just a distant call indicated their disappearance. After hearing a drumming noise from the wood, we drove down the road in luck for the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker. we didn't see that, but I then spotted a very early male Cuckoo, hopping from tree to tree, superb. We then drove to Lynford Arboreretum, still within the Thetford area. On arrival we walked around the accessible path around the Paddocks to the bridge. Many small flocks of Crossbill were flying over our heads, but sadly not showing perched. We then tweaked on to a pair of Lesser Redpoll over the bridge at a medium level, but soon disappeared. We then got told by a man that by the Folley area we may be lucky to view Hawfinch feeding on the ground bellow the feeder. He also shew us a picture that he took about 5 minutes ago from that point, so we headed straight there. Within reaching their, a flock of about 10 Crossbill were in the tops of trees, a majority of them were males. After taking a few looks and pictures, we moved on to the Hawfinch, where I first found a female in a short ivy-covered tree. We were then fortunate enough to see 2 females feeding where we were told. Brilliant. A fantastic day.

My cousins link is www.jimsbirdingblog.blogspot.com

TOTAL OF BIRDS FOR 2012 = 134