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.

Whitlingham & Mousehold

24th & 25th October 2009
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A patch visit to Whitlingham saw the usual crowds of walkers and dogs. The Egyptian Geese had mostly buggered off to Thorpe Broad (51 on the spit), whilst everything else had made for the conservation area. Large amounts of Coot, too mobile to count, and the first Wigeon of winter, 4 males and 6 females. No sign of Adam's female Mandarin. Whitlingham Lane was covered in ladybirds, mostly 7-spot, but a reasonable number of Harlequins as well.

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Following that unsuccessful visit it was back to Trowse Woods to get a sample of the bracket I found last week. It is still on to be Ganoderma resinaceum, which would be about the 5th Norfolk record. Other notable fungi included Polyporus durus, Mycena arcangeliana and Mycena adscendens.

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Bearded Tooth Fungus at Trowse Woods

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The following day a wander around Mousehold saw the customary number of birds (it varies between 5 and 6), and a surprising lack of fungi. We failed to see Fly Agaric, my main reason for going. The fenceposts were covered in ladybirds, but in contrast to Whitlingham, most were Harlequin.

Eastern Crowned Warbler

24th October 2009

I had planned to go on a local fungus foray today, but the offer of a lift to see the latest addition to the British List provided to strong a temptation. Me and Adam met Gary & Phil at six o'clock, and we headed off to Lincolnshire. Here we stopped for breakfast at a Little Chef whilst awaiting news from the quarry. First news negative, but by the time we had finished our tea the ECW had been seen again, and the journey was on.

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A largely traffic-free journey to South Shields and we eventually found Trow Quarry. We walked down to the crowd and had brief views in the scrub before the Eastern Crowned Warbler flew to the next stand of trees. A Yellow-browed Warbler called and showed well, but it took the next flight of the ECW before it showed well. I was able to watch it feeding, during which it performed a nice roll around a branch, demonstrating the key features; pale underparts, yellow vent, crown stripe, long bright supercillium and thin wingbar. Happy and not too wet, we decided to wind our way home via Bempton.

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We drove across the corner of the Yorkshire Moors, in the hope of seeing Red Grouse (probably the most common British species I'm yet to see - I don't leave Norfolk much!). Unfortunately the rain was pouring down, and we soon gave up. We also didn't see any Dippers at a favourable looking stream, and had a nice bacon roll in a cafe in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at Bempton Cliffs RSPB in the mist, and walked around the corner towards the feeding station. Here we crouched down and watched a Red-flanked Bluetail foraging in the undergrowth close in. A small child was particularly excited, chanting "there it is" long after the bird had gone (a stringer of the future?) before wandering into my telescope.

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We decided to attempt one last bird, a Dusky Warbler at Flamborough Head. We walked down a muddy track alongside the Viking Pub (unfortunately it wasn't visible from the pub) and stood in the rain for what seemed like an age, without success. Eventually the rain stopped, and a birder found what looked like the Dusky in a stand of scrub behind us. We spent a while getting brief flight views before the bird called. I managed to get a 30 second view, enough to pick out the facial markings and colouration to go with its "Tek" call, and decided it was unlikely I would get any better views. Before leaving I scanned a large flock of Starlings (no RCSs) and saw a Yellowhammer on the wires. Off home, and back by 9:30. A long and successful day!

West Runton (2)

17th October 2009

With no further sightings of the Pied Wheatear, my attention was caught by a report of a possible Veery. I'm still not entirely sure of the order of events, specifically if there was also a Swainson's Thrush or a re-identification, and also whether it/they were seen later on but not reported, as one BirdForum poster says he saw both birds in the evening. Either way I decided to head for West Runton and hope that any Catharus thrush reports would reach me by word of mouth.

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I walked up to the field west of the derelict buildings, where around eight birders were looking in different places, suggesting no-one was on the bird. Having seen about 30 Skylarks, a birder approached me and asked if I'd seen the Short-toed Lark yet. Saying I hadn't, he pointed out an area of the field where he had seen it last, and sure enough as we neared the area it flew up and did a loop of the field. I managed to keep it in my binoculars until it landed, by which point more people had come over and managed flight views the next time it took off. To confuse matters some people got on a Skylark sitting on the fence and thought that was the S-T Lark (it would have been ironic getting that good views, everyone I spoke to had only seen it in flight). I stayed a while, hoping to get a view of it in a furrow, but unlike the Skylarks it seemed determined to remain in the stubble.

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I then walked west along the coastal path, past some handgliders towards Beeston Bump. A number of Cormorants were in the shallow foreshore pools, and a Lapland Bunting stopped briefly on the cliff edge before flying off eastwards. A Kestrel and two Meadow Pipits were the only other birds I saw inland, whilst the low tide meant seawatching would have been pointless.

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Back in Norwich I went to Trowse Woods to have a look at a fungus known as "Bearded Tooth Fungus." I eventually found it on the end of a Beech log. As far as I know this is the only site in Norfolk, and it wasn't seen last year (it could be that the dry conditions this year have been beneficial for a change!). There were a number of other species , mostly brackets, but also large quantities of Honey Fungus and Sulphur Tuft.

West Runton (1)

16th October 2009

Earlier in the week a Pied Wheatear had been found at Horsey. The east coast is difficult to get to by public transport, but I had managed to organise a lift on Friday night after work. Of course, the wheatear buggered off Thursday night. Typical. Instead of calling the trip off, me & Neil went to West Runton to look for the Short-toed Lark. A few other birders were looking, but seeing only Skylarks and getting drenched in a sudden downpour, we returned home via the King's Head in Hoveton.

Two patch ticks and a Buzzard

12th October 2009

Upon getting home from the cinema on Sunday, I saw just how much had been seen on the North Norfolk Coast, including a Rose-coloured Starling. However, being seen on a Sunday afternoon, I couldn't have got there anyway. Possibly more annoying, was a Common Scoter on Thorpe Broad, which I could have seen (mind you, "Up" is a very good film, I recommend it). Anyway, after getting home from work on Monday, I saw on BirdGuides that the scoter was still there a few hours ago, so I powerwalked down to Whitlingham.

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Upon arriving, I was alerted to a Common Buzzard over the woods by a flock of circling Jackdaws, taking turns mobbing it. The Buzzard kept on soaring, completely nonplussed. I watched it for five minutes (Buzzards still aren't very numerous in the area) before carrying on along the broad. Another stop, as a V of Pink-footed Geese flew NW, a belated patch tick for me. Eventually I did make it to the end of the broad, and looked across the river to Thorpe Broad. After a couple of minutes, a drake Common Scoter swam into view. I watched it until the light started to fade, then walked back, directing another birder who had been looking on the main broad on both evenings rather than Thorpe Broad. I counted 82 Mute Swans as I hurried back home. On the way back from the Waterfront later that night, he odd Redwing call could be heard above. A productive evenings walking!

More local wandering

10th October 2009

With an uncharacteristic October lull (I was dipping a Wilson's Phalarope this time last year) I decided to head back to Whitlingham. Following a mini-influx of Yellow-browed Warblers, I scrutenised all of the Long-tailed Tit flocks I could find, but no luck. The best part was whilst watching some on Trowse Common, a Kingfisher dived through my binocular view into the river! A large amount of canoeists were on the main broad, and further up I saw a group of old people power-walking sideways along the path. Puzzled, I walked up to them (it took a while, they were surprisingly nimble) and found that they were having a model yacht race, but were worried about the yachts going out of range, and were keeping parallel with their boat. So anyone that thinks birding is a bit odd, there are odder hobbies out there.

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In the conservation area a large amount of Coot, about 50 Tufted Duck and some Gadwall were joined by three pairs of Pochard. About a third of the Great Crested Grebes are now in winter plumage. I walked up the tree-lined avenue looking for roosting Tawny Owls (I heard two calling last month, but couldn't pinpoint them), but saw nothing other than a few Jays. Lets hope we get a few rares next weekend, to make up for not being able to go to the Scillies with Adam, Gary & Phil.

Whitlingham

4th October 2009

In a fairly foolish move I agreed to social engagements for the first weekend of October, and feared the worst with regards to rarities turning up. Luckily the weekend was fairly quiet, the westerly winds not bringing in much. Saturday I watched Norwich destroy Bristol Rovers 5-1, and Sunday I went to Whitlingham for Cathy's mum's birthday meal. A quick walk around yielded two interesting birds, a returned Black Swan and the second-generation Chinese Goose x Greylag, which unlike its parents has a black beak. The conservation area was packed with Coot, but a lack of binoculars prevented me from scanning the banks.