NORTH NORFOLK: Mini birding pub tour

31st August 2018

Having earmarked this day to go birding with Adam, Gary and Jim, it was somewhat typical that the winds were uncondusive to seawatching or migrant birds. We had initially been thinking of getting a lift up to the coast and then using the Coasthopper bus to move between sites as a nostalgic reminder of birding before I passed my driving test. Unfortunately the lift would have meant starting very early, so I decided to drive.

Upon reaching North Walsham to pick up Adam we had a quick chat to plan the day, and decided to head for Blakeney. Adam suggested heading to the King's Arms, which seemed to be an odd place to start as it sits on the high street, but what we didn't realise is that the garden out the back is adjacent to a scrub-lined lane and National Trust owned meadow. Whilst having a drink we racked up around 20 species, including a Red Kite circling up with some Buzzards. The highlight was a presumably migrant Reed Warbler seen in the Hawthorn hedge.

The plan was to eat at the Dun Cow because of the marshland views, but it was still a bit early so we stopped off at the Three Swallows. A large group of House Martins were visible over the marshes, along with a few Swallows (some sort of pub-birding gold star here for seeing a species from a pub of the same name). Sparrowhawk, Carrion Crow, Coal Tit and Cormorant were also new here.

Moving on to the Dun Cow, seeing a Small Heath butterfly on the green, we got drinks and did an initial scan, picking up Mute Swan, Rook, Grey Heron etc. Looking back towards Cley we picked up Teal and Avocets in flight too. After looking at the menu we decided to head to Sheringham for some more basic food (I'm sure the food is still very nice, but it looked a bit posh for us. The website states that the aim is to be a pub that serves good food rather than a restaurant with a bar, but how many pubs offer Lobster Thermidor as an option?) The main reason we couldn't order though was the inclusion of Spam on the menu, making it impossible to actually say what we wanted (spam, spam, halloumi chips and spam...*)

Arriving in a rather busy Sheringham, we located ouselves at the Two Lifeboats where we had some bowls of topped chips and scanned out to sea. Jim picked out three Gannets moving east, then a Sandwich Tern flew west. A small flock of Ringed Plovers flew east, a new pub species for me.

After lunch we decided to call in at the Gunton Arms on the way back. This lovely country pub set just inside Gunton Park afforded lovely views, including of the Red and Fallow Deer herds kept in the park, but failed to turn up the hoped for Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush etc. We did add a few commoner birds to the daylist. A lacebug that landed on me turned out to be Physatocheila dumetorum, a new species for me.

I finished the day with a pub list of 42 - although some of the others had heard an extra species or two.

* If you don't understand this reference, please go and watch the entire Monty Python back catalogue

NORTH-EAST NORFOLK: Some seawatching

29th October 2011

After a brief spell moving some furniture around, Gary, Adam & I set off for everyone's favourite stretch of "under-watched" coastline, Trimingham. Before walking to the woods Gary noticed a Buzzard sp. flying west that appeared to have a white rump. We managed to find a gap in the treeline and confirm that the bird was as suspected, a Rough-legged Buzzard. The bird then stalled in the air and swooped down out of sight. We intended to try to re-find it, but news of a Red-rumped Swallow flying north from Sea Palling with two Swallows had us instead choosing to go to the clifftop.

The sea was initially not too productive, but as time passed several groups of Little Gulls passed leisurely by, as did several Kittiwakes and a couple of Wigeon. A number of Red-throated Divers were on the sea, and a lone Snow Bunting flew east along the cliffs. At around 12:30 the moment we were waiting for arrived, when three Swallows flew up from the cliffs. In a blur we panned from bird to bird as they split up across the fields. Surely one had to be the Red-rumped? The closest two were definite Swallows, the third had come and gone none of us had seen a pale rump on it. We were faced with the truth that despite it being the end of October it was just a coincidence that there were two groups of Swallows along the coast.

Feeling hungry we moved on to the Poacher's Pocket at Walcott, where we could get a bit more seawatching in. After the initial curious questions from patrons and passers by had been answered we started scanning the sea. Most of the birds seen were similar to Trimingham, but here they were mostly pub ticks for me. Several Guillemots were loafing offshore, and a Common Scoter and 2 Red-breasted Mergansers were good birds, as was a flyover Redpoll. I missed a Great Northern Diver, but the best bird of the day was a Black Guillemot. A rare bird in Norfolk, it flew in and landed on the sea, allowing reasonable views before drifting west. Whilst eating we had been haunted by the calls of Pink-footed Geese, so we decided to have a look for them on the way back.

Following the calls we soon located a large flock of Pink-footed Geese in a couple of fields just inland of the coast road. We failed to find any scarcer species in with them, but Gary found a neck-collared bird (Pale blue CCI). The WWT got back to me very quickly about this bird, which was tagged in Aberdeenshire in April 2002, and has been sighted in Norfolk most winters since then. This year it had already been reported from the Horsey area the previous week, so the birds weren't 'new in' as we had suspected. On the way back to North Walsham we stopped off at Ebridge Mill where we saw a Grey Wagtail, and we had a Sparrowhawk near the library.

Neck-collared Pink-footed Goose

CAMBS & NORFOLK: Terns & Waders

21st August 2011

After a fairly quiet August (so far) I didn't take any tempting to go to Graffham to see the White-winged Black Tern that has taken up recent residence. Gary & I arrived to see a few birders on site, and took advantage of a close Black Tern to get some pictures. It wasn't until it flew off that the comments around us made us aware that some individuals thought it was the White-winged Black Tern. The bird we were after was actually flying around with some Black Terns on the far edge of the reservoir. Eventually they made their way round to the sailing club, and the White-winged Black Tern treated us to some close fly-pasts before settling on the pontoon. After giving far better views than 90% of vagrant species* it set off on another lap, and we took our cue to head back to Norfolk.

After getting stuck in traffic near King's Lynn, we headed inland then north to Titchwell. We had a look through the waders, where Gary earned himself hero-worship status from a nearby birder by locating three Curlew Sandpipers near the back of the freshmarsh. Whilst this birder told his friends how he could hardly see the bird, let alone an eye-stripe, another well-meaning birder committed a cardinal sin. He tried to express his doubts about a recent Buff-breasted Sandpiper sighting (on-site this was changed later to Dotterel, I'm not sure on what basis) but insisted on only calling the bird a BBS. Don't do it folks. Maybe use acronyms when writing to save time, but not when speaking. You have time to say "Buff-breasted Sand(piper)". What if we think you mean Broad-billed Sandpiper? Or Big Balled Stint? More importantly, it justs sounds really really silly.

After calling in at Stiffkey campsite carpark (a couple of Spoonbills on the saltmarsh), we went to the Dun Cow, hoping to cash in on the wader bonanza around the coast. The best bird was pretty much the first one, Gary spotting a Yellow Wagtail get up from near some cattle and fly west. I picked up a Hobby soaring above us, and at one point four were circling together, a lovely summer sight. A kettle of gulls over Cley seemed to be highlighting where we should be, so we finished the evening in the central hides. We were treated to some very close Common and Green Sandpipers, whilst further out six Spoonbills slept, and amongst the waders were one each of Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper, plus three probing Snipe. The whole lot was put up by a marauding Sparrowhawk, and some Swallows flew into a nest they had made inside the hide! Always a great place to end a days birding.

* This, like pretty much any unreferenced statistics on the blog is a completely made up stat.

WHITLINGHAM: Thorpe & Town House

25th & 26th July 2011

Thorpe Marshes (25/07/11) - c50 Lapwing, Stock Doves, not much else.
Thorpe Green (25/07/11) - Black Swan (1)
Whitlingham C.P. (25/07/11) - Usual stuff, plus some juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls
Thorpe Marshes (26/07/11) - c60 Lapwing, Stock Doves, still not much else.

Its no wonder everybody sacks off inland birding over the summer with wonder hauls like this. On Tuesday after Adam & I had looked around Carey's Meadow and Thorpe Marshes we decided to go for lunch at the Town House, and despite the drizzle we sat outside so that we could scan the river and areas of scrub. This proved to be the most productive hours birding of the holiday so far, seeing a Sylvia warbler triumvirate (Blackcap, Whitethroat and Garden Warbler), a family of recently fledged Goldcrests and the icing on the cake, a Kingfisher.

Also a hearty congratulations to Whitlingham Country Park on receiving the Green Flag Award for the fifth year in a row (Broads Authority Press Release). However, when will the Broads Authority give up and stop calling Whitlingham "The Gateway To The Broads"?*

I'm off to learn Two-barred Crossbill calls in anticipation of an invasion. Come to think of it, I'd willing take Common Crossbill locally.

* The Norfolk Broads, in case you don't know, are a series of shallow lakes in East Norfolk that were excavated as peat diggings. When the Broads Authority started marketing Whitlingham they put signs up on the approach road saying "Gateway to the Broads". They had to remove the signs from the entrance as there was a lot of derision and complaints, mostly from places that are actually in or close to the broads. Acle has signs saying Gateway to the broads, and many people would consider Wroxham the broadland hub. Whitlingham, lovely as it is, isn't in the broads, and the great Broad and Little Broad aren't proper broads as they are flooded gravel diggings.

NORFOLK: East Norfolk

3rd January 2010

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Gary & I decided to have a day out in the east of the county. After picking me up we made a quick stop off on Clarence Road to have a look at a flock of Waxwings busy eating some rather manky-looking yellow apples. After having a good look, we carried on to Cantley to have a look at the geese. Gary's damaged foot ligaments meant that long walks were inadvisable, so we looked over from School Lane rather than walking towards the river path. A large number of White-fronted and a small number of Taiga Bean Geese were on the marshes, but there was no sign of the LWFG. We also managed to get some good views of Fieldfares hopping about in fron of us.

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The next bird required a trip into Suffolk, but we decided an Iceland Gull was worth it. Arriving at Hamilton Dock in Lowestoft a birder was already looking at the Iceland Gull, and after flying around the harbour it eventually flew close to us and landed on the fence. Easily my best views of this species, and having not seen Ross' or Ivory, it has to be my favourite gull. High praise indeed. Back across the county border (or not if you are a political boundary denialist we stopped at Breydon Water south shore. We found out that the Brent Geese and a flock of Lapland Buntings were quite a way along, so we contented ourselves to scan the estuary. A huge swathe of Wigeon covered the mud, and every wader species was a year tick, including a flock of c30 Avocets.

Heading towards the broads we pulled in to admire the sight of a field of wild swans. There looked a healthy number of 1st winter birds with them, although they were being annoyed by what was either a one-man or large toy helicopter being flown nearby. We carried on to the Eels Foot Inn for our first visit. The garden has a brilliant panoramic view over Ormesby Little Broad, which was unfortunately frozen. We got ourselves a drink and then crossed our fingers for a Bittern. No such luck, but we did clock up 24 species, including three pub ticks - Jay, Red-crested Pochard and Marsh Tit.

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Next up was Barton Broad, where I hoped to see drake Smew. A quick scan around the open water and there they were, two drake Smew amongst the Goldeneye. Whilst I feasted my eyes on the Smew, Gary had found a Peregrine sat on a post and being eyed warily by the Teal. Our final stop on the way back to Norwich was at Wroxham Broad. We scanned through the Aythya flock, interrupted for a while by the arrival of a mixed Redpoll flock in alders near the boat club. I was ready to give up, but another flock of ducks flew in, and amongst them was the 1st-winter male Scaup that had been seen that morning. Who needs colour when you have Iceland Gull and Smew?