MEGA - Dusky Thrush

Ok , I must admit that every now and again I can't resist a bit of out-of-county twitching for a British tick!
The Dusky Thrush was not the best looking bird I have seen, in fact, this first winter female was probably the dullest of all the Thrushes I have seen in the UK but she was very rare. A new BOU tick for almost every UK birder and the first twitchable bird since the late 50's

On arrival she sat in a tree almost motionless surrounded by a few hundred birders. Almost impossible to get a photo as she thought she was out of sight. The presence of so many people chasing the poor bird may have been the reason she was gone the next day!

My first new bird in the UK since last Spring.. and completes a nice selection of rare Thrushes I have seen here which include (in order of my best memories) White's, Blue-rock, Red-throated, Naumann's, Black-throated, Swainsons, Grey-cheek, American Robin.

Seeing this bird was great but finding birds (even if just scarce rather than rare) is much more exciting. So will be back on the Norfolk coast next time!

The terrible shot below shows how hard she was to view.. But close prolonged views meant that all the features could be noted.

Good raptor passage today but  somehow managed to miss Osprey and Montagu's Harrier at Cley and turned back along Point only to find that a female RBFly was found in plantation later in day! Ahh

Highlights of the walk (part of the way!):
3 Wheatear
Willow Warbler, 3 Whitethroat, a hunting Sparrowhawk, Kittiwake.

N hide.. A few Black tailed and one Bar tailed Godwit. A few high soaring Buzzards and Marsh Harriers but little else of note

Better luck back at the Eye field with 5 Wheatear and 7 Flava Wagtail which included at least 3 Blue-headed Wags.. One was a nice bright male

Grey-headed Wagtail

Was alerted to an interesting Wagtail in the eye field by resident birder Tom Green. Very happy when I saw a stunning male Grey-headed Wag appear next to a female Yellow. This is a subspecies I have never seen despite it being a regular scarce passage migrant (mainly mid May)

Much darker head than any Blue-headed would be .. Small white throat does also appear fairly normal and within variation for Thunbergi... Although I will not even go into the hybrid possibility but it had no pale supercillium visible so can't see any reason why this would not be a pure Grey-headed.... Now, a Faldeg would be nice!

No photo as the bird disappeared as I tried to digi scope it... So you will all have to make do with a rubbish sketch instead!

Other birds of note today: 3 White Wag, 4-5 Wheatear, Little Stint, 30 Dunlin, a few Bl t Godwit, Whinchat...

Spring in Norfolk

Was quite pleased with this photo, taken this morning with my phone.

It has been a while since I have posted anything here. This is mainly due to the birth of my beautiful daughter. It means limited time for birding .. But when I do have some spare birding time, I make the most of it!

Today found a really nice drake Goosander while driving over a small bridge in N Norfolk. Scarce around here. A sprinkling of other migrants such as Little Terns, LRP, Nightingale. A Sparrowhawk hunting low over the shingle along Blakeney Point but very few migrants on the ground despite the E Winds...

Will be posting mainly on Twitter only for a while but will try and do a blog update from time to time

Eagle breakdown

I had a spare hour and although not holding much hope of seeing it I thought I would have a look for the White-tailed Eagle that has been in the area near Houghton Hall.

After passing Houghton Hall, with no other birders around, I stopped on roadside for a quick scan and then found the car would not start at all! I called the RAC and they said it would be a 2-3 hour wait.... I had given up all hope of seeing the Eagle and was by now just hoping it wasn't just flying around nearby with me stuck, unable to chase after it.

What happened next was unbelievable... A birder stopped next to me to announce that he had seen the Eagle fly in and land nearby. Of all the places it could have landed, it chose the nearest group of trees to stop.. amazing view of such an impressive bird. Other birders arrived then before I had a chance to study the bird while perched it flew up and was mobbed by some of the many Buzzards around. In flight you really get to see how big these birds really are.. They are huge!!

Thanks to all the people who offered to help with the car and to the birder who offered me some food too.....

The damage was £100 for a new battery (RAC prices!)... But I have never been as happy as this to breakdown before.

I have been fortunate too have seen many WT Eagles in Japan, even next to the even bigger Steller's Sea Eagles. However, I have not seen many in the UK and I missed one in Norfolk in 2011 by 15 minutes when it decided to leave the county and settle in Lincolnshire crossing over the Wash before I got to see it! A nice county tick for me.

January

Currently ill at home which has given me the chance to update my blog.

These are some of the highlights of the month so far:

Dramatic winter scenes with lots of snow and ice

Lots of birds in the garden including Nuthatches, Great Sp Woodpecker and this Brambling

The birding highlights of the year have been: Hen Harriers (Cley and Strumpshaw), Waxwings in Norwich (on way to work yesterday), Merlin hunting in Norwich City (again on way to work), Taiga Bean Geese at Buckenham and a few Snow Buntings at Cley

This 'leucistic' Brent Goose was seen at Cley. A recent article in British Birds magazine described the various plumage colours of birds and talked about 'brown' plumage rather than leucistic. Something I had not heard about before. I think 'brown' Brent Goose is therefore the correct term for this plumage variation

And finally. While waiting for the weather to warm up and Moths to start appearing again it was nice to find this Herald 'roosting' for the winter in a jacket.... They are often found wintering in old barns etc. This could be the herald of a good season for rare and scarce Moths in the gaden in 2013 .. I hope so!

2012 Highlights

There have been plenty of internet sites (like Birding Frontiers) posting their highlights of 2012. So I thought I would summarise my highs and lows of the year about to pass

I ended up seeing just two new birds in the UK. One pending acceptance (Les Canada Goose) and the other a long awaited 'tart tick' (Blyths Reed Warbler). Both of these were in the home county.

This is the lowest number of UK ticks ever for me. I could have added a few more like Sh B Dowitcher, Orphean Warbler and Parrot Crossbill if my twitching instincts had got the better of me!

I did also add a further 9 new 'world' birds on my one venture out of the country to St Lucia.

My personal highlights were the big October fall in North Norfolk. Although I only caught the tail end, the sight and sound of thousands of Thrushes dropping out of the sky, whilst being surrounded by Bramblings, Robins and other birds (including a lovely Red flanked Bluetail) will stay with me forever.

Quiet also on the finds front. However 22nd September on the Point with Ortolan Bunting at my feet and finding a Barred Warbler in the sueda was memorable.

Also seen in Norfolk were:

Coues Arctic Redpoll, GG Shrike, Bee-eater, Baird's and Pec Sand and a few Waxwing finds.

Bewick's Swan, Black Redstart and Reed Warbler were good additions to the garden list.

I also recorded record number of Micro moth species in the garden (185 plus) - Those highlights require their own page!

Now looking forward to 2013. With a new addition to our family in March to look forward to, birding will take a back seat (for a while). Although I'm sure I will be able to squeeze a few new birds in :)

Good luck to all and have a happy Christmas

More Goose thoughts

Ever since I posted the photos of the Richardson's / Cackling / Small Canada , whatever you would like to call it, on my blog, I have been wondering about its true origin.

I was surprised that nobody had initially reported this bird to any of the pagers, especially considering  the number of other 'Small Canada' Geese in the country.

I do have a vested interest in this bird being accepted as wild (I will not deny it) as I have dipped a few others in Norfolk in the past. I was hoping that by mentioning this bird, on my blog and on twitter, the news and debate on the origin may spread. ... and it has.

Mark Golley summed it up beautifully in the Rare Birds Alert weekly roundup this week. He shares some of the thoughts I was starting to have regarding its origin, especially considering the number of other birds that have been around recently. 

http://bit.ly/QHJ4f8

Why would it not choose to hang out with some of his bigger relatives! It probably has no idea how small he (or she) looks next to the 'bog standard' Canada Geese,

There were Brent Geese in the same flock and lots of Pink Feet nearby. After flying all that way with the Pink feet I too would be sick of their high pitched squabbles. Nice chilled out Canadas are the ones to hang out with any day

On the theme of wildfowl at least there was no doubt about the origin of the Bewick's Swan that flew over my garden this morning. I picked up the distant (unfamiliar) call and then saw the Swan heading high over and to the South. Presumably it was staying ahead of the snow and cold weather that appeared in the afternoon. A very welcome addition to my landlocked garden list!

Now what else will appear with the ice and snow??

Mild November Day

Morning walk around Kelling. Not really expecting to see much but there were a few birds on the move.
A flock of  c.150 Finches seemed to be wintering here. Mainly Greenfinches and Linnets.

A nice Short Eared Owl flew over being chased by a few of the resident Rooks and then headed back to the grassland area and landed.

This following Small Canada Goose was in amongst the other Canada Geese. It has apparently been in the area for at least a week (I would probably of overlooked it had it not been pointed out by one of the local birders)
It is a shame it has chosen Canada Geese rather than nearby Pink Feet to associate with. Small Canada Goose is still a bird I have not seen 'in the wild' having dipped a few in the past (in Norfolk) .
Even if it is of very dubious origin it was interesting to see how small Cackling (I presume this is the subspecies) are. It was almost the same size as a nearby Brent Goose

Apart from a Little Egret, 6 Bullfinch ... Nothing else of note was seen

Yesterday a flock of 6 Waxwing brightened up my walk into work as they flew over Cinema City / St Crispin in Norwich. The first birds I have seen this year, although many more to follow i'm sure

Surprise garden visitor - 4th November

After being away from home for a week I returned, looked out of the window and was greeted to a flash of black and white ... A small bird started catching flies around the windows and amazingly it was a male Black Redstart!

I rarely see this species in North Norfolk let alone in the garden


I managed to get a record shot as it stopped in a bush just in front of the sitting room window. Not a digi phone/bins shot .. just hand held phone to show how close it was.

My 80th species in the (new) house/garden, and one I was not expecting at all

Just goes to show - you can find unusual birds anywhere .. even when at home in the sitting room!!

October 23rd - BIG FALL

I had read on many reports that something truly spectacular had taken place with the fall of birds yesterday afternoon in the fog and light East winds. On reaching Stiffkey this morning I could see what they meant. There were birds everywhere. Every bush, tree and hedge had Blackbirds and Robins shooting out in all directions.

In thick fog I walked slowly through the woods towards the area that the Bluetail had been found and along the way I stopped and searched through the Robins while Thrushes streaming through overhead. A few Redstarts were nice to see and Bramblings fed quietly in the trees

Redwings, Blackbirds and Fieldfares by the 1000's!

The Bluetail was very nice and showed well down to about 10 ft , I was keen to get away and look for my own birds

I walked the track from Stiffkey to the concrete 'circle' along the coast. On the way 3-4 Ring Ouzels were seen and heard (but many more must have been passing). 2-3 Chiffchaff looked fairly nominate and Redpolls called overhead while Bramblings moved through in decent flocks

On to Wells in the hope of flushing an OBP! .. It was evident that many of the birds from yesterday were still sheltering in the woods waiting for the fog to lift.

Again 100's of Robins, Thrushes and Goldcrests everywhere

Brambling numbers were even higher here (40+). Despite searching through all the tit and crest flocks I could not find anything rare .. Back at the car park and a quick scan over the seawall towards E Hills and a beautiful male Black Redstart was seen catching flies around the lifeboat station.

I will not forget the sight of Thrushes shooting out from every bush that I passed in a hurry!

October 8th

October is always an exciting time on the Point and today the sun was shining and there was a light NE breeze. The only problem was that it was too calm a day to displace any good migrants

The morning started with a quick seawatch from Cley coastguards. A family pod of Harbour Porpoise swam slowly past, the young calf sticking close to its parent's side. A few distant Little Gulls and my first Shags of the Autumn/Winter season. They are annual here in November but never common

Started the walk up and it was clear it was going to be a quiet day !

A group of 40 Jay flew over Blakeney Harbour heading SW - These are part of the recent big movement taking place in the UK and on continent that seems to be linked to an acorn crop failure. I have never seen any birds from the Point and they just about count as a 'patch tick'
A further surprise was hearing a familiar sound over the sueda near the Watchhouse.... I knew the call but could not think what it was! Then I saw two long tailed birds 'pinging' overhead - Beardies - Another bird I have never seen here despite being common nearby at Cley
I then heard further birds were noted in Wells Wood, so a small local passage was taking place.

Raptors are always a great feature of this time of year and today was no exception with a juv fem Hen Harrier patrolling the dunes and shingle in search of some tired migrants.

The rest of the morning was spent chatting to Joe (warden) about how unpredictable migrants are! And searching for the next big rarity (without much luck!)

... It has been quiet in the county but its only a matter of time before Norfolk hosts something special

October 3rd - Kelling

Due to the continuing West winds decided not to walk the Point and decided the more sheltered areas around Kelling might be worth a look

The highlight was a close (ish) Manxie past along with a scattering of seabirds - Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots, only two distant Sandwich Terns and a few RT Divers

Wheatear, Chiffchaffs and just singles of H Martin and Swallow

..... Kelling Water was devoid of birds other than a few Teal and a few BH Gulls ....

Typical that later in the day Pec Sand and Water Pipit were found there!!

Not having the best of luck so far this Autumn but the fun and games should start next week when we get a bit of E and N breeze .. just in time for the chance of some real Siberian migrants

Westerly winds return

28th September The long awaited visit by my friend Dave Gandy who is now living in Thailand (see Bangkok city birding blog).We had been planning our search for rare birds for months.

The day arrived but so did the start of West winds which made birding hard work. We knew it was an 'all or nothing day' and we were right!

 As we walked towards the Point 4 Spoonbills were the highlight and we reminisced about the previous rarities we had seen along the way. A couple of Song Thrushes (I also heard the first Redwings over my house before we set off), a few Skylark and Mipits were all we could find. At the lupins a pale Sylvia looked good for the Barred which I first found over a week ago in the nearby sueda... We waited and after about 45 minutes what may have been a second Sylvia flew closer to Dave's position and he saw it was a Garden Warbler. So probably a few different birds hiding out in there as I see the Barred was still present by the weekend

 On the way back a few Stonechat, 1-2 Wheatear was all we could manage to strain out of poor migrant hunting conditions!

 Seeing as in the past Dave has always been jammy and coincided his Norfolk visits with days when great birds have turned up (Black Lark being the best), I guess the lucky run was not going to last... Still a pleasant day out and good to catch up.

Classic Point

What a morning...

Started with a quick seawatch at Cley - Sooty Shear, 3 Manxies, a few Arctic Skua and Bonxies, lots of Gannets past. Yet again I missed a Long T Skua ! Will I ever see one in Norfolk!?

The pagers started beeping and it was evident that there was an arrival from the East following some good 'fall weather'. N Winds with rain showers overnight.

It always amazes me how people rush off to look at found Y Brows when the potential to find one (or something better!) was surely there. I rushed up the Point with hope of at least one Y Brow or RBF
Unfortunately I got neither but the day panned out even better

Lots of Mipits and when I reached the Hood the first hint of better birds started to appear. Stonechats (pair) and Spot Fly.
As I reached the plantation the warden (sorry don't know your name despite our regular chats) said he had seen a few birds. A Goldcrest flew out of the Plantation and flew into a window stunning itself! It was a nice male bird with bits of red in the crest .. It soon recovered and was released by an assistant warden into the plantation

Here Pied Fly, Wheatear appeared then things started to pick up around 11.30

As I walked along the main track a massive pale grey Warbler flew past. (and I mean big!). It had a long tail, pale grey all over and large size with a hint of wingbar .. Barred Warbler.
I flushed it three times but it kept moving further into the marsh towards the Yankee wreck .. each time it got harder to flush and eventually I had to give up on trying to relocate it. I released the news as possible but not much else it could have been .. The pale plumage size and long tail seem like a clincher to me ..

Just 20 mins later I bumped into James Mc , R Porter and crew .. Certainly easier to find birds in a team like that!
They had just bumped into an Ortolan ... Great bird and just beat me to finding it (aaaargh)

Managed a few record shots on phone

Stunning tame juv bird .. and a really scarce bird these days

Further birds inclued
2 Lap Bunts
Redstart

Bumped into two other birders that had found a really skulky bird .. we spent ages chasing it and it turned out to be just a female Blackcap. As always birding the Point can be frustrating .. but it is worth the effort

A really enjoyable day with some great birds

Autumn migration

Morning visit to Cley

Started by seawatching from coastguards and despite the West winds which have dampened the enthusiasm of most Norfolk birders, a few seabirds were passing. Close juv Gannets, a distant Arctic Skua chasing a few of the remaining Sandwich Terns, a few Auks and RT Divers.
Highlight was a sum plum Black-throated Diver that flew close inshore heading up towards Blakeney Point. Thanks to the visiting Dorset birder that pointed it out (I was scanning  much further out and would have missed it!) Always a scarce bird in Norfolk and the first I have seen this year.

Skeins of Pink feet were coming in-off and a female Marsh Harrier flew low over the waves heading west into the wind.

Onto North Hide and a Wheatear flew up along the way.
Pec Sand and 2 Curlew Sands were about the only birds of note here.

Bishop Hide was busy with birders. Highlight of the day (for me) was finding a juv Garganey amongst the Teal. Always a nice bird to study and only the second one I have seen this year.

Also here : 2 Spoonbill, 3 Curlew Sand, Spot Redshank

Now all we need is some E winds.
Then the fun will really start...

Yank waders

A search for American waders today at Cley produced just the Pec Sand from previous days

A nice crisp juv bird.

This Autumn has been amazing for Yank waders on the west and SW coast. I think there will be quite a few more in Norfolk in the months to come!

Other waders and birds at Cley :

Curlew Sand 2-3, Dunlin 50, Bar wit, Whimbrel, Curlew 40, Ruff 30, Lapwing 200, Com Sand, Snipe 2, Redshank 5, Ringed Plover 5, Golden Plover

And other birds of note:

Ad Y L Gull

Barnacle with Ross x Barnacle hybrid

It was then that I was informed by a helpful birder at Cley beach car park that a Baird's Sand had just been found at Titchwell
The following phone photos are terrible but you can see the really long primary projection. Not the most distinctive of juv birds I have ever seen but nice close views:

I have a bad history with Baird's having dipped at least 4 before I finally saw my first at Minsmere years ago ... which is maybe why I haven't been to see any of the last few Norfolk birds.

After watching the Baird's I noticed that many of the birds on the marshes where acting as though a large raptor was moving through and sure enough a quick scan showed the reason .. a nice Osprey flew over and straight over my head!
It was later watched hunting over Brancaster from the end of the path by the beach.

Also seen here at Titchwell:
2 Eider, Water Rail, Spoonbills. And additional waders to the ones at Cley:
Spotted Redshank, Knot, Grey Plover (also one partial albino Golden Plover with a white head!), Avocets, Black T Godwits, Sanderling and Oystercatchers .... resulted in over 21 species of wader today.

Not a bad day out .....

Now what will the next Yank wader be in Norfolk .. there must be many more heading this way

Back to the Point

... and just to keep the blog on track, I did visit Blakeney Point and Cley yesterday but it was very quiet

No migrants of note but wader numbers building up. A flock of 15 Turnstone and a few Common Sandpipers called from the harbour edges.

I did spot this very dark backed Lesser B B Gull in amongst a large group of 'normal'' looking LBBG's - Right hand bird

Next to a GBB Gull you can see that it is as dark, if not darker backed! Thoughts of Baltic (fuscus) Gull did cross my mind as there has been one reported here recently. However as you can see from the second shot it is in heavy primary moult and therefore unlikely to be a fuscus (as they would havee presumably moulted their primaries by now (?)

There was also one other dark backed bird present and I am guessing these are intermedius birds that are of continental origin ... but if anyone knows any different please let me know.

More crucially the bird was lacking any big white plastic rings which are apparently crucial when trying to get any fuscus accepted.

You can tell the birding is slow when you start getting distracted by large Gulls !!

Moths

As with many birder's blogs .. when there are no birds around attentions turn to other wildlife.

This Summer has been no exception and the moth trap in the garden has produced some good catches including a few scarce Norfolk moths like Red-necked Footman (x2), Lunar Yellow Underwing and some scarce micro moths like Dioryctria sylvestrella (<50 Norfolk records)

Here is a selection of the more distinctive species:

Batman



Great night.... at home

Found out that a team from Bristol Uni were going to be tagging and catching Natterer's bats in the church opposite home and then tracking them around the local area (and over my garden)

I went along and watched / helped on two consecutive nights. I even had the chance to hold and release a few Pipps and Natterer's!

The real surprise was when one of the students said he was bitten by something big in the trap they were using. To our surprise we pulled out a giant Noctule bat! He was not pleased about being bagged and took some thick gloves to handle. Check out his teeth below ( sorry blurry shot, but you get the idea)

And I thought that there were just Soprano Pippistrelle bats over my garden. Now I have 4 species on the garden list!

Moths stand no chance with him about

 They managed to satellite tag over 10 Natterer's and I got to handle Pipps and Natter's, which incidentaly are much cuter than the big male Noctule.. but here is another photo of him as he was fun:

So .. even though there are few birds around, the Moths and bats have been keeping me busy... more to follow on the recent Moth catches

Will have to wait a few more weeks for rare bird hunting on the coast to hot up.