The Snowy Patch Visit

 

I set out early on Saturday with the hope of finding some clear water ways and maybe a bit of the Whitlingham magic would occur here. I arrived at Pigney's Wood and spooked a Woodcock from near the car park. All the larger bodies of water were frozen and only a few little streams were flowing. The Little Egret from last week was still about though.

 

The Barn Owl was about again also.

Also manged to get part of it Barn Owls foot print.

I manged to clock up a few more species for the patch work challenge seeing Reed Bunting, Buzzard and Skylark. Only other birds of note at Pigney's were 5 Bullfinch and the Siskin/Redpoll flock was up to about 150 birds though very mobile (so mobile I never actually saw them land).

After Pigney's I thought I'd try my luck with Ebridge Mill, not alot happening here apart from a Teal on the unfrozen part of the canal, and this Egyptian Goose on the Frozen part.

I went home had a cuppa then headed out again but this time to Trimingham. I got to the Cliff Top wood before seeing any birds. A Treecreeper was with a Long-tailed Tit flock and a I spooked my second Woodcock of the day. Upon leaving the wood for a sea watch I noticed a flock of birds that had just taken off, these were a Lapwing and Golden Plover mix that had been put up by a Peregrine.

Watch the sea was hard with a very strong and freezing cold Easterly, I didn't stick at it long maybe 40mins. But did see two Brent Goose, Gannet, Kittiwake and plenty of Red-throated Divers.

After the sea watch I headed for home via Trimingham Church where a flock of Thrushes were busy looking for food.

I arrive home to see I have Bramblings back in the Garden seeing at least four.

 

After another cuppa I went sledging back at Pigney's Wood where a Hen Harrier (ringtail) flew through.

Patch Lifer!!

I have had broadband troubles so my updates are a little behind but here goes.

 

On Thursday 17th Jan an appointment in Cromer meant I could drive through the patch in the morning to see if anything good had turned up.

 

I stopped at Gimingham Church and Pond where the ducks and Swans made the most of an open piece of water.

 

Further along I started getting some new year ticks for the patch, seeing Grey and Red-legged Partridge.

This Fieldfare was also and addition one of many seen along the coast even with some small flocks coming in off the sea to our warmer shores.

I got to see Mistle Thrush and Sparrowhawk before seeing this posing Pheasant

Before arriving at the cliff top wood Two Waxwings flew over my head and headed inland.

On the sea a Great Crested Grebe and Red-throated Diver were the highlights, but the best bird of the day was a Patch Lifer! It was on the Cliff for a few seconds before it spotted me and flew further along it was a Rock Pipit.

Patchwork Challenge first visit

Having been busy getting 'better' I had stayed 'in' and opted not to go to the patch, last weekend I was better and after spending Saturday getting pictures of that wonderful Dipper, I had a few hours spare early morning to do my first real patch visit.

The reason I say first real visit is that I had stopped very briefly with highlights of Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher on the 7th.

I have also decided to try and photograph as many scarce (and rare if it happens) birds for the patch as possible to document my findings.

 

I started Sunday before sunrise, slightly later than planned due to having to scrape the icey snow stuff off the car.

 

I went to Pigney's Wood and after the normal first Woodpigeon of the day, I saw a Wren, Dunnock, Chaffinch and I spooked a Song Thrush from the undergrowth.

 

A Blue Tit gave a warning call and alerted a small flock of Siskin that flew away as this Barn Owl flew through. The Owl was close but as I have a new camera I keep it safe in a case and by the time I got it out it was this far away.

 

 

I walked further along seeing Bullfinch and fly over Redwing and Greylag. Below is a picture of where a Cetti's Warbler sat as I pressed the shutter button.

 

 

The next highlight was this Little Egret that I spooked from a pool next to the path, it took off and flew through between two Ivy covered trees and in turn it the spooked a roosting Tawny Owl which flew off and into the trees. The Little Egret circled and landed in this tree.

 

 

A few Lapwing flew over and a Waterail swam across the river.

 

 

My second Kingfisher for the patch flew over the pools, and this small flock of Woodpigeons got disturbed by gun shot.

 

 

I added Great Spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Redpoll, some Pink-footed Geese and a Pied Wagtail before heading home.

 

I went home via Witton and a flock of Chaffinchs/Yellowhammers held this Brambling.

 

 

 After taking the family shopping we all went for a walk around Witton Woods and I managed to see Goldcrest and two fly over Crossbill.

The Norfolk Rare

Been lucky enough to be near places whilst between appointments, on monday I stopped at Salthouse and saw the Snow Bunting. I then stopped at Walcott and saw the Purple Sandpiper on the groynes and this Herring Gull.

 

I also got a chance to stop at the patch briefly and saw Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail at the mill.
On Tuesday I popped to Filby and saw the Smew on Ormesby Little Broad. Thursday I was near Haddiscoe at lunch time and timed the visit just right with the fog and got to see the Rough-legged Buzzard and Short-eared Owl.

On Friday I got to head back to Ormesby Little Broad with the camera and got this picture of one of the Smew.

Today my Dad, Phil and I went on a south Norfolk exhibition, we went via Taverham where 5 Waxwings were still present.

We also stopped at Marlingford where the American Wigeon was showing well although the light was not great.

 Next stop was Thetford where the Dipper was showing really well!

 

After the Dipper we headed for Lynford, where we heard a Firecrest but could not see it.

The is a huge flock of Siskin 200+ that held 8/9 Redpoll

This Nuthatch was coming down to seed that somebody had put down.

After a long wait for Hawfinch we did get to hear a single Crossbill that we could not see, then Phil spotted this bird in the distance in the bins it did look good for a Crossbill but as I got the scope on it we could see that it was in fact a Hawfinch. This pleased the other 30 or so birders that had been waiting all day top see one. This bird was later joined by another three.

Jan 1st Bird Race

This is my 16th year of doing my own personal bird race and for the previous 12 years I have always got over 100, the 'pressure' was on this year as only three days before the 1st I had spent two days in bed with a High Temperature, Flu and Chest Infection barely able to lift my head.

I had to take it easy for this race but we started as always by heading for Titchwell for dawn.

Adam was with me and we had two main highlights with were the start and the end of the day.

Before even getting to Titchwell RSPB we had seen 5 species Feral Pigeon (Rock Dove), Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush and Barn Owl.

 We were in the car park at about 6.45am and the clear sky with a bright moon as day broke helped us see Wood Pigeon, Blue Tit, Mute Swan, Lapwing, Teal, Brent Goose, Golden Plover, Little Grebe, Shelduck, Grey Heron, Redshank, Turnstone and Shoveler as we walked to the beach.

 The Brackish Marsh on the walk up

On the sea a huge gull roost was present, this was something I had never seen at Titchwell? Maybe they had been spooked off Thornham by some fireworks?

Initially it was still to dark to I.D the gulls so we watched Oystercatcher and some of the largest flocks of Sanderling I have ever seen.

The light increased fast and we could soon see Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, Great Crested Grebe and Herring Gull on the sea, two Carrion Crow were on the beach.

Then as I scanned back through the gulls I came across a ‘neck-less’ grebe, I could soon see that is was a Red-necked Grebe as when it did stretch its neck out you could really see the ‘dirty look’ against the Great Crested Grebes.

Wigeon, Common Scoter, Goldeneye and Great Black-backed Gull were around before my next big find.

This bird is actually a 1^st January first taking the total of birds seen on 1^st January over the years to 170 for me.

I was scanning through the gulls that had yet to take off when I spotted an adult winter Larus Gull with a clean white head. I then looked closer and a dark eye, flattened head effect, a nice guy expression told me this was a Caspian Gull.

We then saw Eider, Fulmar, Red-throated Diver, Curlew and Goldfinch this gave us a total of 37 species before Sun Rise which was at 8.12am.

The Sun Rise over the reserve

 



We continued to watch the sea as so many birds were on the move, I spotted a Kittiwake which soon joined a second bird and then a third and forth were found by Adam.

Adam the got onto a close Razorbill flying past he then saw three Long-tailed Ducks land on the sea, whilst we tried to look for these a what seemed extra big Great Northern Diver flew through our scopes.

I then found three ducks but these were not Long-tailed Duck but two Common Scoter and a cracking Velvet Scoter. I then relocated the three original Long-tailed Ducks. Before leaving the sea we saw Knot and Lesser Black-backed Gull taking our total to 45.

 

The 'crowded' beach

 



What a great start I thought so we headed to Patsy’s Reedbed to try to see the RD Pochard and on the way we saw Grey Plover, Skylark, Moorhen, Meadow Pipit, Pink-footed Goose, Wren, Linnet, Ruff, Gadwall, Pintail, Mallard, Avocet, Spotted Redshank, Snipe, Greylag, Little Egret, Pochard, Reed Bunting, Magpie, Marsh Harrier, Cormorant, Bullfinch, Chaffinch and Dunnock.

As we got onto the concrete just past the fen hide to Stoat chased each other within yards of us which was fantastic to see.

On Patsy’s Reedbed we saw Coot, the Red-crested Pochard and Tufted Duck. We then headed for breakfast and saw Great Tit, Pheasent, Brambling, Greenfinch and Long-tailed Tit on the way. We finished our food and whilst drinking our hot chocolate we saw people looking in the ditch behind the feeders and sure enough a Water Rail was in there.

We then left but before reaching the car a mixed flock of Siskin and Lesser Redpoll fed above our heads giving us a total of 79 before leaving Titchwell.

We then went to different places to try and pick up on some ‘specials’ but we missed them all but did see Buzzard, Grey Partridge, Red-legged Partridge, Jackdaw, Collard Dove, Kestrel, Starling and Canada Goose on our way round.

We stopped at Salthouse but only saw Pied Wagtail to add to the list. It was now 1pm and we felt that we might be able to make it to Strumpshaw/Buckenham to add some easy ticks. We saw Jay, Rook and House Sparrow along the way but as we headed out of Wroxham the traffic to get to that point had been to much and we felt that there wasn’t time to go to Strumpshaw so we diverted to Ranworth instead.

A stop next to the village hall and we saw a large flock of 100 Redpoll/Siskin I then picked out a little grey Redpoll with a nice white streaky rump this was clearly a Mealy Redpoll. Around the trees we saw a Marsh Tit and Treecreeper.

We then left to go to Hickling via Repps we saw Mistle Thrush and Stock Dove before seeing the Bewick’s Swans at Repps.

We got to Hickling early, the evening was perfect and on the walk down we saw a Chiffchaff feeding in the hedgerow and a pair of Egyptian Geese in a field and these were our 100^th bird of the day everything else would be a bonus.

At the roost I was straight onto a Merlin that perched in a distant bush (was later joined by a second Merlin) a ringtail Hen Harrier flew though (first of three) then a flock of 10 Cranes came to roost (first of at least 32). Two Barn Owls were hunting a Chinese Water Deer wandered across the fields. It really was a perfect evening. We then saw some Fieldfare, Yellowhammer, three Whooper Swan and a Sparrowhawk before the light really faded.

And of course our last, our 108^th bird of the day was a Woodcock darting past.

Of note birds we missed, both Godwit, Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Redwing, Ringed Plover, Snow Bunting, Kingfisher, White-fronted Goose, Woodpeckers, Corn Bunting plus others that are less common but still get-able.

One Swallow

Saw a Swallow flypast at Walcott yesterday at around 10.30am.

Surf Scoter, Richards Pipit and Rose-coloured Starling

What a great afternoon, a brisk trek across the cliff's of Sheringham and upon arrival I flushed the Richard's Pipit a few times from the path.

I then met James and he had the Surf Scoter in his scope.

After this we headed to Northrepps where the Rose-coloured Starling was showing well.