100th patch bird of the year...

30th December 2009

I was still in bed when I got a text from Adam, telling me there was a Black-necked Grebe at Whitlingham. After a half-asleep "are you sure?" message, it was established that the bird was indeed a Black-necked Grebe, and I had to see it. I left without any breakfast and walked down to Whitlingham in the drizzle. I spotted a Kingfisher and a redhead Goosander close in to the shore as I walked along, stopping level with the island. At first I couldn't see any grebes other than GC, but a second look revealed the Black-necked Grebe, which promptly dived. I watched it for a while, periodically wiping my telescope and glasses. A local birder came over and we watched the bird for a bit longer, before continuing round the broad. There was no sign of the GN Diver, although it had been seen ealier in the morning. Through the flooded north-east corner, and along the back path we saw little, until a Bullfinch flew out of some brambles.

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When I got home I had a tot up and found that the grebe was my 100th Whitlingham bird of the year. I had been aiming for 100, so to finish on 101 (Bullfinch was also new) was particularly pleasing. I had missed a fair few birds; Garganey, Mandarin, LRP, Wood Sand, Brent Goose, all the terns, plus fly through Crossbill and Whooper Swan, but all in all a good year. My best self-found bird was probably an Avocet on Thorpe Broad. Here's to 110 next year!

Goose watching

28th December 2009

Gary & I had originally agreed to go to Wayland Wood to see if there are still any Golden Pheasants there, but on the day we decided to head for the coast to fill in a few gaps in my year list. We arrived at Docking and scanned through thousands of Pink-footed Geese in the hope of finding the Snow Goose, but no luck. On to Holme, and we suceeded in seeing Long-tailed Duck, Gary picking up three just offshore. We cut inland towards Wighton to look for more geese, and duly found another flock. We scanned this one for a while too with no luck. I later found out the Snow Goose was at Holkhma, but hey, you can't win them all.

Giving up on geese, we called in at Cley, where a flock of Twite have been recently. Suffice to say they weren't there whilst we were, but we did see a Kigfisher and a Jack Snipe, whilst a Kestrel proved an obliging subject for a while. The last target of the day was Merlin, so we headed to Stubb Mill. We were doing well, Gary called 4 Cranes and I spotted a ringtail Hen Harrier, but banks of mist/fog rolled in and put an end to the fun.

Fudge & Diver

...the new detective series starting on ITV3. Not really, they only show repeats.
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27th December 2009
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With Cath & her mum having joined the NWT over Christmas, they wanted to go to a reserve. I suggested Barton Broad, certainly not just so I could have a look at the Fudge Duck. After braving the boardwalk, slippery with water and ice, we reached the viewing platform where four birders were looking fairly close in. I soon found the male Ferruginous Duck with a small group of Pochard near the tern platforms. As the bird was giving good views, I took the chance to use one of my Christmas gifts, a hardbacked sketch book. This is useful because a) my digiscoping is crap, and b) I realised this year I don't take enough notes, and if I want to get birds through rarity committees I need to start taking more! Below is todays masterpiece (yep, I took pencil crayons too!). All in all a success, but I don't think many birds are going to make as obliging subjects. There were 20+ Goldeneye on show too, and lots of Fieldfares.

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My Fudge notes. The blue line on the left is a scanner artefact.

We took a slow drive along the coast as far as Walcott, but didn't see the Cranes. Lots of Lapwings around Brograve farm though. Back in Norwich we stopped at Whitlingham, and after a short walked along the south shore my scope was full of diver. Presumably the Strumpshaw bird, I had hoped it would drift along to Whitlingham before Christmas, but better late than never. It was diving a lot, and will hopefully make its home there for a while so I can get better views later in the week. The broad was full of Coot and Gadwall, and a Grey Heron looked uneasy on a post, as if it was minding the space for a Cormorant and hoping it wouldn't be long. I might put a photo of the diver up, but its hardly worth it, it was so low in the water you can only see a third of its body!

Merry Christmas!

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog, those who have left comments or that I have met in the field this year.

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

James

Whitlingham snowy extravaganza

19th & 21st December 2009

Saturday was still snowy, so I ditched any ideas of heading to the coast and instead went to Whitlingham. A flock of around 30 Siskin and Goldfinch were in the alders, and Cath noticed a Water Rail skulking near the path. At the end of the Little Broad a Grey Heron and a redhead Goosander (a long overdue patch tick) were standing on the bank.

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The Great Broad held a vast number (400+) Gadwall, and probably a similar number of Coot. Cath spotted a Weasel near the path to the bird screen, whilst a Cetti's Warbler flew up out of the reeds. The north-east corner of the broad had flooded the path, so we hurried around the final part of the lap to go home and dry off!

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On Monday I decided to spend a whole day at Whitlingham, hoping to catch some winter migration. The Little Broad had frozen almost completely, but along the back 11 Shoveler represented an increase on previous numbers. I started counting the Gadwall, when I heard some children chanting ho-ho-ho. Never a good sign. The ducks started moving as Santa arrived on a boat. I bet people who patch-bird at Cley never have these problems. A few Teal and Wigeon were on the Great Broad, but no sign of anything better until I stopped to talk to a fellow birder who picked up a redhead Goosander flying past us.

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Small numbers of Lapwing flew west all day, the biggest group around 55. There had clearly been an arrival of Snipe recently, I saw 15, several in flight but most flushed. More impressively was my first patch Woodcock, making a nice change from Snipe! A group of 13 Skylark also flew west, a notable record. Other decent birds included 3 Kingfishers (Trowse Meadows, Little Broad and Great Broad), a Marsh Tit, several Song Thrushes and some Redwing. The snow may be over, but hopefully there is still time for a rare grebe or diver to find a temporary home.

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A white-bearded dude goes duck spotting

Winter Blackcap

13th December 2009
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A shopping trip in between the showers took me & Cathy past Grove Road, where we found a male Blackcap in the trees opposite the mini-roundabout. It takked a bit and then flew off into the gardens behind. My first overwintering one, although many do now apparently.

Sleeping Ducks in West Norfolk

6th December 2009

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Having decided to have a pre-Christmas birdwatch with Gary at the weekend, I was pleased to see that a female Ferruginous Duck had been found on Friday. To add to this, an American Wigeon was found on Saturday, so we set off in the rain for a wildfowl extravaganza. On the way we stopped at Denver Sluice to look for Goosander, but with no luck. I did spot a Barn Owl flying across the channel, which was some consolation. The approach road to Welney held large flocks of Whooper Swans, with some Bewick's mixed in too. We arrived, I coughed up the £6.30 entrance fee (they get you to pay before telling you the whole reserve is flooded too ;-o) and we proceeded to the observation hide, where the guide/hostess/volunteer cheerily told us she had seen the American Wigeon earlier but had no idea where it was now.

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After a few false starts, Gary "eyes of a hawk (or hwak, which I originally typed)" White, spotted the American Wigeon about 6 miles across the lagoon, sleeping on the bank. We spent about 30 minutes staring at the side of a sleeping duck, until it indulged us for 30 seconds with it's head up, showing the pale face and green facial stripe. Gary managed to record this feat, and leaving a number of birders to stare at the yank wigeon until it woke up again, we left, rubbing our eyes.

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Next stop was Snettisham RSPB and the long walk to the pools. We slipped along the path (Adam's balance being particularly suspect) until we got to Rotary Hide, noting Goldeneye and Little Grebes on the way. A first scan of the bank turned up nothing, but a second scan turned up the female Ferruginous Duck, asleep. Lazy things, ducks. It woke up a few times, stretching its wings and going for a quick swim and walk, enough to note all of the fudgy features (chestnut colour, white vent, white belly patch, white underwing, sloping forehead, longish grey bill and dark eye). A large flock of Greylags held two hybrids (presumable with Canada), both looking like Greylag but with white on the face, unlike the commoner "brown necked Canada" type.

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On the way back we cut through via Docking in the hope of catching up with the/a Snow Goose. We did find a pre-roost flock of thousands of Pink-footed Geese, but no rarer stragglers. These were flushed by something behind the field and flew over us, a spectacular sight. We arrived at the Dun Cow as the sun was setting in the hope of getting an owl for our pub list. No such luck, but we did manage Little Grebe, Shoveler, Brent Goose, Lapwing and Pink-footed Goose amongst others, before we left in the dark.

Wet weekend wildfowl

28th & 29th November 2009

On Saturday me & Cathy took the train to Hoveton and walked to Wroxham Broad. I was surprised that no other birders were there when we arrived. To the left (west) of the car park a group of Pochard were partly visible, and I found the Ring-necked Duck with them, although it had it's head down so i couldn't make out the beak. It drifted out of sight towards the yacht club jetty, so we settled down to wait for its re-emergence. A local birder joined us for a while, but decided to leave looking through the fence to us. Standing in the scrub at the edge of the car park and 'scoping through the metal fence I watched the Pochard flock around the jetty, and was eventually rewarded with a better view of the R-N Duck as it swam through my field of view. Not as good views as Whitlingham last year, but at least we saw it. Back in Hoveton a Black Swan was on the river near the Tourist Information Office.

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On Sunday me & Adam went down to Whitlingham. As we arrived it started to piss it down with rain, a feature of the trip. Conclusions are that my new coat is waterproof, but this makes my trousers very wet. A Kingfisher flew across the Little Broad, and a Grey Heron stood close in to the path. We saw little other than the usual geese and Coot along the southern edge, and almost turned back as the rain strengthened and it became apparent that the path was flooded near the east end. We carried on (my new walking boots are waterproof too, thankfully) and were rewarded with a large number of birds in the conservation area:

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Lots of Coot, Mallard, Tufted Duck & Gadwall

Pochard - 57 (33m, 24f)

Teal - 12 (7m, 5f)

Little Grebe - 7

Wigeon - 4 (2m, 2f)

Shoveler - 3 (2m, 1f)

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Adam picked out a Snipe preening on the edge of one of the islands, and Cormorants had displaced all the gulls except one LBBG from the posts. Another Grey Heron was on the main island, and a couple of Common Gulls were loafing with the Black-headed Gulls. A walk up the tree avenue failed to produce any signs of mythical Tawny or Little Owls, but did turn up Green Woodpecker and Jay. Two pairs of Egyptian Geese argued over the road, one pair having the field as a territory, the others settling for the Little Broad carpark. The field pair won, so the carparkers don't even have access at the moment! Still no sign of any Brambling or Waxwings, but Northerlies forecast this week.

Sculthorpe Moor

22nd November 2009

As part of Cathy's birding education, we went to Sculthorpe to get a better look at Water Rails, Marsh Tits and possibly Brambling. As it turned out there were no Brambling yet (much to Cath's annoyance, if anyone sees any around Norwich in the near future please let me know. UEA bird feeders is usually a good site). We did see all the usual woodland fare minus the Golden Pheasant, which had obviously migrated to the Himalayas. No sign of any Willow Tits either, but the rain put us off from looking too hard. In terms of non bird life, we saw a Bank Vole, 2 Muntjac Deer and some Wood Blewitt fungus. Gary & Claire joined us in the scrape hide, but by then the rain had set in and everything had gone to ground.

Marsh Tit from the fen hide

A Water Rail strikes a characteristic pose

Red crested Pochard, but should I feel bad about counting it?

21st November 2009

I nearly missed out on another patch tick today. Following the reappearance of the broads Ring-necked Duck, I planned to get up early and hit Whitlingham at dawn to look for scarce Aythya species before the whole county descended on the country park. My alarm went off at 6, then went off full stop. I slept in until 10 and thought bugger it. Settling down in the afternoon, a text from Gary alerted me to a Red-crested Pochard that had been seen the previous day (presumably this news was from RBA, there was no news on BirdGuides). The light was poor, but I figured I could get there with 45 minutes of light left, so I power walked down, arriving at 3.15. No sign in the conservation area or on Thorpe Broad, and I was on the verge of giving up when I found the drake RCP, attacking a Gadwall. I watched it as the light faded, unfortunately too dark for a record shot. I then walked home in the dark for a celebratory beer.

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The first question should be whether the Red-crested Pochard comes from a sustainable population or is an escape. Unfortunately I can't think of a good way of finding this out. November has seen a large increase in wildfowl numbers at Whitlingham, and if a "wild" bird was to turn up, now would be the time. I'm happy either way really, but should I be? To explain this, with ironic timing fellow UEA alumni the Punkbirders have written an article for Birdwatch about whether it's ok to tick category C species. To be honest I don't really understand it. The suggestion appears to be that as many introduced species negatively impact on native species, ticking them is unethical. I don't really see the link between the impact of a species and its "tickability" personally. Maybe I've missed the point, but in answer to the sub-headline "Is it really ok to tick those Category C birds?" I can't see past the obvious answer. Yes.

No birds, but a Bird's Nest

15th November 2009

The "no birds" bit isn't strictly true, although no interesting birds probably is. A walk around Whitlingham after the strong winds was notable only for a female Goldeneye, the first I've seen there this autumn. The best part of the day was finding a number of Bird's Nest fungi (Crucibulum laeve) on twigs near my house. (Well worth looking up on google). These tiny fungi are apparently not uncommon, but due to their size are just rarely recorded. There are 39 records from Norfolk up until 2007, from only 7 observers and none since 2002, although I think specimens have been found at one other site this year and are yet to be added to the database. Later I participated in a fungus foray at Whitlingham. I committed a schoolboy error in forgetting to take a pen, and listed everything we found using Cath's eyeliner pencil, which worked surprisingly well.

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Common Birds Nest (Crucibulum laeve)

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Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) in Whitlingham Woods

Return To Pegwell Bay

Yes I am aware the title sounds like an Enid Blyton book.
7th November 2009
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Following our previous disappointment at missing out on the Zitting Cisticola, its subsequent re-appearance tempted Gary to drive back to Kent this weekend. Me, Adam & Claire all went along, on what may ultimately be a waste of time if they colonise the UK in the next few years. As before we arrived at Pegwell around 8. There was no dog show, so we walked straight to the edge of the saltmarsh, where Gary recognised the sound of the Zitter. We got a brief flight view, but over the next 15 minutes got super views as it climbed up thistles and grass stems.

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We did a mini-lap of the sight to look for perched Parakeets (a flock of eight had flown through already), and had another quick look at the Zitting Cisticola, still showing well. I had a cup of tea and a bacon roll from the friendly owner of the Dog Walkers Cafe, who joked he would be releasing a Siberian Thrush in a fortnight to keep up trade. This will of course provide a dilemma if one were to turn up, but luckily I think thats unlikely.

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Despite having seen it on the way to the Scillies, Gary sportingly agreed to go and have another look at the Brown Shrike at Staines. We slipped and slided in the mud on the way down, churned up by thousands of birders and a week of rain. The shrike showed well in the hedgerow to the right of the bridge, showing off the huge black and white facial mask. Excellent.

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Following two megas, we then stopped off in Southend to hunt for the Ring-billed Gull. Once again we spectacularly failed, along with another few birders also present. We patrolled the seafront, I threw half my roll at the gulls, but the best we got was 4+ Med Gulls. Incredibly annoyingly we were asked "what are you looking at?", "what are you photographing?" (we had no cameras out) and "what's going on?" by every other pedestrian walking past, which really got on everyones tits. But there we go.

So many geese

31st October & 1st November 2009

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Saturday started with rain, and I was considering not bothering to leave the house until Gary called to say he was already at Sheringham. Sportingly he came and picked me up from the city, and we headed to Burnham Market to search for the Snow Goose that has been in the area for the past few weeks. To cut a long story short, we searched between 6000-7000 Pink-footed Geese, in three large flocks and a number of small ones, over the course of a day. The possibilities are extensive, Snow, Barnacle, Tundra Bean, Whitefront, Ross' etc. We saw one Pale-bellied Brent Goose. Bugger. But at least we were out looking. We did detour to Holme briefly in the hope of picking up the Rose-coloured Starling seen heading West from Titchwell, and managed to see two Shorelark for our troubles. On the way back Gary relocated the GW Teal at Cley, along with a Water Pipit.

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On Sunday the weather was even worse, but me & Cath joined Gary & Claire for a trip to Minsmere. We got soaked in Island Hide (the window seals have gone, leaving a large gap for water to spray in), but consolation was the long-staying Great White Egret standing at the back of the pool. Other decent birds included Bewick's and Whooper Swans, leucistic Mallard and Moorhen, Water Pipit and a 3rd year Caspian Gull. The GW Egret was my 2nd, the first being a trip to Cley with my dad 15 years ago!

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Great White Egret in the rain.

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Well done to all of the birders involved in settling the Greenish Warbler dispute. I think we've had enough Phylloscs for one year now (except maybe a Hume's at Holkham, fingers crossed).

More half-term birding

I've lumped wed-fri together so people don't get sick of the constant updates.

Wednesday saw me & Adam brave the crowds for another patch visit to Whitlingham. The birds were all crammed into the conservation area, and amongst the Coot I saw a Wigeon with what looked like a green Teal-like stripe on its head. I was thinking Teal x Wigeon, although American Wigeon x Wigeon would look similar. Either way, I moved to get a better view and couldn't pick it up again. The bright sun on the water could well have created an artefact, so although exciting at the time I won't be dwelling on it. The only other sighting of note was three flocks of Redwing over going determinedly west (10, 21, 22).

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On Thursday Cathy & I got a lift to Snettisham via Flitcham. Unfortunately the Little Owl wasn't showing, but we did see a Bullfinch, a number of Red-legged Partridges running (always an amusing sight) and a Common Buzzard. At Snettisham we both noticed a Water Rail simultaneously in the reeds, and picked out eight wader species whilst waiting for the Knot to flock. We left before the last remaining birds had taken to the air, but were still pleased with the views of Knot and Golden Plover flocks twisting and turning above us. We diverted via Brancaster in case the Snow Goose was still around, but were just in time to see the remnents of the Pink-feet fly North.

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By Friday I was ready for a more local trip, and took the bus south to the village of Shotesham. I waited on the edge of the common with a small group of birders (seeing Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher by the ford), until one of them located the Siberian Chiffchaff in a hedge. I saw it flitting about in a willow before it emerged from the top and flew across the road into someones garden. The call seemed to be straightforward tristis, although I don't think I've heard abietinus calls to compare it with. The residents very sportingly gave us permission to go down their drive, but as it hadn't called in a while I had a quick scout of the nearby trees and then got the bus back home. The bird has been heard to sing and has been recorded, so it should get clinched either way. I had planned to have a drink in the local pub, but it was shut when I got to it. Later in the day a possible Parrot Crossbill was reported from Wells Woods, which sounds like a tempting trip for Saturday!

Cley & Salthouse

27th October 2009

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After a complaint from Cathy that I wasn't finding her enough birds, we went to Cley to look for Snow Buntings. A compromise look through the waders failed to turn up the White-rumped Sandpiper, but there was a nice looking white-headed Ruff. We sat in Dauke's Hide scanning the Teal and Wigeon, and eventually found the Green-winged Teal sleeping on an island. A slightly surreal moment happened earlier when a woman who followed us into the hide asked us straight away where it was, and when I replied "I don't know, I've only just got here" muttered "you mustn't be able to see it from here, there's not enough people" and walked out. Notwithstanding the old way of doing things (i.e. looking for yourself), it seemed an odd principle that a bird is only present if a crowd is watching it. Very odd actually.

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Great. Now where's my Blue-winged Teal?

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A few Bearded Tits flew over, and flocks of 30-50 Redwing and Fieldfare were flying over regularly. We heard a Water Rail, but didn't see it, much to Cathy's dismay, and unsurprisingly the Snow Buntings had gone. A seawatch was poor, however in addition to a lone adult Gannet going east, a Great Northern Diver sat offshore. We walked along to Salthouse, then back to the village. A flock of around 200 Greylags was on Arnold's Marsh, and a (tame) Snow Goose and at least 4 Canada x Greylag Geese joined a Canada Goose flock. A Barn Owl hunting over the marshes was a nice end to the day.