27/02/2018 Redpoll and Siskins at the garden feeders

Tuesday 27 February 2018

The thick covering of snow brought 2 welcome rare birds to our garden feeders.

• A single Redpoll and 4 Siskins came in for a feed, giving superb views.

More snow please!

24/02/2018 Rye Harbour with the East Grinstead RSPB Local Group

Saturday 24 February 2018
Rye Harbour

I spent a pleasant couple of hours with my local RSPB group before leaving them there to go to the Amex Stadium for the Albion v Swansea soccer game.  The weather was clear and bright but extremely cold.

I only saw about 30 species, mainly the usual suspects.  Pick of the bunch was the group of Pintail which looked terrific in the glorious sunshine.

Short but sweet!

18/02/2018 Dungeness and Lade GP with Paul and the Group

Sunday 18 February 2018
Paul and Group
Dungeness and Lade Gravel Pits

A very enjoyable day out with Paul and the group, my first of the year.  The weather was superb with lots of sunshine and little wind.  I have listed the highlights below.

• I thought we had a view of the Long-eared Owl by the visitor's centre but it turned out to be a Sparrowhawk which was occupying a similar position in the bushes. 
• The Black-throated Diver was still there but it had moved from Denge Marsh onto Burrowes.
• The Slavonian Grebe was still there and showing well from Christmas Dell Hide.
• As we left the reserve, I picked up a good sighting of the 2 redhead Smew on the pond near the cottage at Boulderwell.  The drake did not show this time, however.
• On the sea, viewed from the fishing boats, we had superb views of 3 Velvet Scoters flying west.
• At Lade Gravel Pits we saw the 2 Long-tailed Ducks and in the bushes, by the side of the path, my first Dartford Warbler of the year entertained us for a while. 

68 species seen, including 4 year ticks!

12/02/2018 Bluethroat at West Rise Marsh

Monday 12 February 2018

I couldn't resist going down to see the Bluethroat at West Rise Marsh today, particularly since it had stayed until I got back from my Norfolk trip.

Shaun took up my invite to join me.

Conditions were difficult underfoot and wellies were the order of the day.  The weather was good with sunshine and bright, clear skies.

• We had to wait well over an hour before the bird showed but it was well worth the wait with super views for several minutes.

Bluethroat
courtesy of Graham Fellows and Twitter

Not easy but worth the effort!

11/02/2018. Norfolk with Marcus Nash 3/3

Sunday 11 February 2018

Our final day, this time in the Brecks, turned out to be even more eventful than either of the others.  The weather forecast was the best of the three days, and even though it was perhaps a little cloudier than we were expecting, it was largely dry and there were some nice bright spells particularly in the morning.

Goshawks

At Cockley Cley, we soon found our target species.  

• In fact, we couldn't get out of the car quick enough as the first Goshawk was showing well.  A young female, big and bulky, brown above and orange-tinged below, it was circling just above the trees. We all jumped out and had a good look at it before it disappeared back over the tops. 

Over the next hour or so, we were rarely without a Goshawk up in the air.  We reckoned on at least 5 birds with well over 10 sightings.

• The best moment of all was when an adult female Goshawk came slowly across over the edge of the trees in front of us. It was a nice flyby and gave us a great look at it, but halfway across it suddenly turned towards us and dropped down in front of the trees. It was flapping powerfully now, with purpose. Ahead of it, a male Pheasant was strutting in the field with its back to the trees, oblivious. The Pheasant realised just in time, panicked and ran towards a cover strip in the middle of the field. It dived in, the Goshawk turning sharply and looking to follow it, but decided against it at the last minute. Wow!

Goshawk
courtesy of Marcus Nash

• There were a few other raptors up too this morning. A Red Kite drifted lazily over the trees. Several Buzzards circled up, as did a couple of distant Kestrels. A Sparrowhawk flew across, much smaller than the Goshawks and with bursts of much faster flapping flight.

Woodlarks

It had clouded over, so we decided to drive to a nearby site to look for Woodlarks.  

• It wasn't long before we heard one and then we saw it flying.  
• We managed to get some excellent views of up to 4 birds, in the top of a tree and on the ground. 

Woodlark
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Parrot Crossbills

There has been a flock of Parrot Crossbills around the Santon Downham area since November last year, but they can be very elusive. As specialised pine cone feeders, they have lots of trees to choose from here – Thetford Forest is the largest lowland pine forest in the UK! However, they need to drink regularly and will sometimes come in to the same puddles for water. After disappearing for a few days, they had been seen coming to drink yesterday at one of the car parks, so we thought we would have a go at catching up with them.

When we arrived at the rough forestry car park, there were a few people standing around looking down at the muddy puddles. They told us the Parrot Crossbills had been seen coming to drink earlier, which was definitely a good start. We drove round to one of their other favoured areas nearby, but there was no sign of them there. However, we did bump into someone we knew who told us he had seen the Parrot Crossbills coming to drink over an hour before. That meant they were just about due to come back for more, so we headed straight back to the first car park to await them.

• It seemed an opportune moment for an early lunch, while we waited for them to appear. We hadn’t even finished unpacking the sandwiches before we heard the Parrot Crossbills calling and turned to see them landing in the top of the oak trees just across the road. We got them in the scope, as they perched there calling quietly, working up the courage to come down to drink. There were at least 15 of them.

Parrot Crossbills – perched in the trees before coming down to drink
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Parrot Crossbills – great views as they came down to drink in the car park

courtesy of Marcus Nash

Parrot Crossbills are very scarce visitors here. Breeding mainly from Scandinavia across into Russia (with smaller numbers in Scotland too), like other crossbills they are an irruptive species, moving south and west in response to any shortage of cones in their home range, but rarely making it as far as southern England. So it is a real treat to see them here, and to see them so well.

Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers

Things had gone so well that we were ahead of schedule so we decided to look for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers along the woods by the Little Ouse river.  This was to be our only disappointment - a combination of wrong time of day, the chilly weather and the presence of numerous walkers and dog walkers made this a long shot. 

Hawfinches

We headed round to Lynford Arboretum for the rest of the afternoon. Hawfinch was our main target here and as it was cool and cloudy now, we decided to head straight down to the paddocks. 

• We were quickly rewarded with a distant Hawfinch in the fir trees at the back, so we made our round for a closer look. It was perched on the edge of the trees, so we got a much better view of it.
• A second Hawfinch flew in and landed in the tree next to it, the two of them staying there together for several minutes before dropping back into the trees. 
  

Hawfinch – good views perched in the edge of the firs
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Firecrest

• It was only as we were getting into the car at the arboretum that we heard a Firecrest call from the trees nearby. It flew across and disappeared into some dense young firs, still calling. We walked over and could just see it flitting around on the edge of the trees, before it disappeared in deeper, out of view.

Starling Murmeration

• As we drove back north to pick up my Mondeo at Swaffham, we could see thousands and thousands of Starlings whirling over the town. It was quite a spectacle. 

There has been a murmuration here for the last couple of winters, and numbers really start to grow at this time of year, presumably as birds start to make their way back towards the continent. 

• We stopped in the market place and watched them for a while, whirling round overhead. They were quite spread out this evening, but it was still amazing to watch them all, there must have been at least 30,000 birds!

Starlings – part of a huge murmuration over Swaffham this evening
courtesy of Marcus Nash

The Starlings were a nice way to round off our three days. It had been very exciting stuff, the best of late winter in the North Norfolk, the Broads and the Brecks. We had seen some great birds (well over 100), lots of great moments and good company too.

10/02/2018. Norfolk with Marcus Nash 2/3

Saturday 10 February 2018

Day 2 and our focus switched to looking for birds on the Norfolk Broads.  So we were off, going inland in a southeasterly direction.  The weather was dry until lunchtime before the light rain arrived and remained for most of the afternoon.  As you will see, this did not stop us from having another very special birding experience.

Cranes

• Marcus had targetted Cranes today.  After having no success at Horsey and then Ludham we met up with them in the fields a few miles further south.  They were feeding on the maize strip, some 150-200 metres away.  Initially, we saw 5, then another 14 were seen flying nearby and, as we looked back to the maize strip, more had emerged from the reeds until finally, we had seen an amazing 29 birds. 6 f the feeding birds took flight and circled the area before returning to the ground, giving us some magnificent views.

Cranes by the maize strip
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Time for a quick flight.
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Geese ( or no geese!)

Next stop was Cantley in the Yare Valley where we were hoping to find some geese.

• A single Egyptian Goose was all we saw and as the poor weather was closing in we headed back to the car.  
• Marcus then spotted a Peregrine by the stack of the sugar-beet refinery - it looked really snug and comfortable.

Peregrine keeping warm at the sugar-beet refinery
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Swans

• Whilst we were at Ludham we came across 6 Whooper Swans and 6 Mute Swans.
• After a delightful stop for lunch at Strumpshaw Fen, we headed out towards the coast and found 4 Bewick Swans on the grazing marshes near Halvergate.

Glossy Ibis

• At Bure Park in Great Yarmouth we twitched the Glossy Ibis that had been around for a week or so.

Glossy Ibis
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Rough-legged Buzzard

• This unbelievable day got even better when we went to "the mound" on Waveney Forest from which Marcus soon found the Rough-legged Buzzard on the adjacent Haddiscoe Island.  It was on the grass rather than its usual position on the gates or posts.  After a while, it took to the air flashing its distinctive white tail with a contrasting black terminal band. It turned into the wind and started hovering, like a giant Kestrel in slow motion. It repeated this several times – Rough-legged Buzzards are habitual hoverers when they hunt, unlike the more familiar Common Buzzard which will hover only occasionally. After hunting for a few minutes, it flew back across and landed again down on the grass close to where it had been earlier.

Rough-legged Buzzard
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Stubb Mill

Despite the adverse weather, we were still up for the visit to Stubb Mill for the roost.

• 2 Cranes were showing as we arrived, followed shortly afterwards by another sighting of 2 more.  We also heard at least 2 more pairs behind us.  Incredibly another 5 flew in and landed on the reserve making a total of at least 42 for the day!

• I lost count of the number of Marsh Harriers we saw.

• A lovely, if distant, male Hen Harrier provided the icing on the cake.

• For the second time this year, I missed the Merlin as it shot across the reserve before I could make the sighting.

What a fantastic day!

09/02/2018. Norfolk with Marcus Nash 1/3

Friday 9 February 2018

In Norfolk again - this time with Marcus Nash and 5 other birders.   Poor weather, with showers and a cold breeze, made things uncomfortable at times.  The birding, however, was excellent as you would expect in Norfolk at this time of year.  Day 1 was given up to birding the north Norfolk coast.

Holkham

• We made a good start and soon found the 9 Shore Larks that I saw here a couple of weeks ago.  

Shorelarks at Holkham
courtesy of Marcus Nash

• A close Red Kite, a Black Brant and some White-fronted Geese were other notable sightings.  
• There was only a single Pink-footed Goose to be seen, mirroring the experience of the Ashdown Bird Group.

Ringstead

• Next stop was Ringstead to look for a couple of Tundra Bean Geese.  After a short tour around, we found one in a flock of 1000+ Pink-footed Geese in a recently harvested sugar beet field.  The bird was initially asleep but when it awoke and started moving, it's orange legs and bill band were clearly evident.

Tundra Bean Goose
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Thornham

• At Thornham, I met up with the 25+ Twite again.

Twite at Thornham
courtesy of Marcus Nash

Titchwell

At Titchwell, after lunch, we added to our day list rapidly.

• Pick of the birds were 2 Bramblings at the feeders, a Water Pipit feeding along the western edge of Parrinder Hide and a distant Spotted Redshank on the Volunteer Marsh.  

After a quick seawatch we were glad to call it a day and head for the shelter of the car.

A great start!  3 additions to my year list - the Tundra Bean Goose, a Ruff seen at Holkham and a Rock Pipit that flew overhead at Thornham.