Graham's Birding Blog: July 2013

Monday 22 July 2013

Three two-barred Crossbills!

I popped down to Lynford Arboretum this evening to look for the 3 Two-barred Crossbills that had been found there yesterday. I wasn't disappointed as the birds were on show as soon as I arrived (in the larches just before the turning to the car park).
I managed to get some fairly decent photos and a bit of video to share.

Female Two-barred Crossbill

Juvenile Two-barred Crossbill

Sunday 21 July 2013

Two-barred Crossbills - the day after the day before!

I missed all of the excitement on Saturday, with at least six Two-barred Crossbills turning up across East Anglia, with four of them being in north Norfolk. So today I headed up to Cley where I picked up Mark Golley with the aim to try and find a 2-b Xbill of our own. First though we headed for a quick seawatch to see what was being blown in by the north-easterly winds. The best bird was a pale-phase Pom Skua, slowly gliding by, distinctly more broad and rotund than the 7 or so Arctic Skuas that we also saw. A 1st-summer Little Gull, my first Red-throated Diver of the autumn, a juvenile Med Gull and good numbers of Gannets made for an interesting couple of hours. One of the Arctic Skuas, an adult dark-phase, flew over Eye Field and had a few dive-bombs at a Brown Hare, probably leaving the hare wondering what it'd done wrong!

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult, Cley

Arctic Skua, dark-phase adult chasing Sandwich Tern, Cley

First-summer Little Gull, Cley

Mark and I headed off to Walsey hills after the seawatch, but no sign of any crossbills of any kind and then we decided to finish the days' birding off with a walk from Stiffkey Fen along to Stiffkey Woods. The fen look quite good, with 9 Spooonbills, quite a few Med Gulls (adults and juveniles), 2 Green Sands, 5+ Common Sands, Common Terns, Whimbrel and about 50 Black-tailed Godwits. The walk along to Stiffkey Woods was pretty quite with very little to show for our efforts.

Juvenile Spoonbill

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Common Tern

Eurasian Whimbrel

Sunday 7 July 2013

6 Jul 13 - Butterflies steal the show

I had an early start this morning to catch the high-tide wader roost at Breydon Water. Although the light was great, it reflected the fine, calm weather, which in turn resulted in a rather low tide which didn't cover much of the estuary and the wader roost was practically a non-event with only 5 Med Gulls, 1 Greenshank, 4 Whimbrel and small numbers of Avocet, Black-wits and Curlew. Other than a single Ringed Plover, there were no small waders.

I then headed up to Rush Hills Scrape at Hickling, hoping that there might be some waders on the scrape, but unfortunately it's pretty dried out and other than a few Lapwing there were no waders present.

Rush Hills Scrape looking rather dried up

The best thing about the walk out to the scrape though, was the insets, especially the Swallowtail Butterflies feeding on the Red Campion right next to the footpath. With a bit of patience it was possible to get some really nice views and photos of these lovely insects.

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Maridalsvannet, nr Oslo, Norway

As I was visiting Oslo on a conference I contacted Simon Rix through his blog and he was decent enough to give me a good birding spot just north of Oslo, along with details on how to get there on public transport and where I should go once on site. I started off at the Hammeren bus stop at the north-west corner of the lake and walked east along the road (via the fields to the north leading to the church ruins) which then turns north and then took the minor east at the new church at Maridalen Kirke. After about 1km this crosses a bridge where a slow moving river enters the lake.
The area was very nice, with quite a good selection of birds in the pines to the north of Hammermen; Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, 'Northern' Willow Warbler, Common Treecreeper and Siskins. The area along the minor road east from the church was the best place though. There were a couple of Wrynecks around the fields of the first farm I came across, along with Tree Sparrows, more Spotted Flycatchers and Osprey, but the best area was at the bridge, where a non-breeding plumage Black-throated Diver allowed quite a close approach plus a beautiful male Common Rosefinch sang from some roadside trees just beyond the bridge.