26 Oct 13 - Happisburgh to Trimmingham

Started the morning off with a visit to the church yard at Happisburgh, where a Radde's Warbler had been reported yesterday. Unfortunately, there was no sign of it, but there were plenty of birds coming in off the sea, mainly Skylarks, Starlings and finches. I headed north and stopped off at a few places along the coast until I got Mundesley, where I parked up at the holiday camp and walked south along the cliff top towards Bacton Gas Terminal, checking the fields and the sheltered habitat below the cliff.
There was a particularly co-operative Snow Bunting near the car park, which was presumably fresh-in and allowed me to get quite close to it. Further along the cliff-top path the characteristic twitter-"tuuuu" call of a Lapland Bunting attracted my attention as it flew around with some Skylarks. I remained in that area for a while (the smallest grassy field midway between the holiday camp and the gas terminal) and counted up to five birds together at once in the field. There were lots of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits in the fields, but nothing rarer.

Snow Bunting, Mundesley

Snow Bunting, Mundesley

Snow Bunting, Mundesley

I then headed into Mundesley and looked around the sheltered areas near Sandy Gulls Caravan Park. There were a few birds, along with quite a big Long-tailed Tit flock in the area, but nothing to shout about. I then headed up to Trimming. Just after I passed the radar station I saw a swift flying around over the road, so I jumped out and managed to get some half-decent photos of it.
As first I thought it was a Common Swift as it was so dark and the outer primary was the longest, but as Chris Batty quickly informed me, these features don't rule out Pallid. You can see a number of features that point towards Pallid Swift in the photos below. The most telling feature is that the throat is grey and not white and the eye stands out because the grey goes behind the eye, making they eye more obvious. You can also make out some 'scaling' of the underparts in some of the photos and pale tips to the coverts on the upperwing.

Pallid Swift, Trimmingham

Pallid Swift, Trimmingham

Pallid Swift, Trimmingham

Pallid Swift, Trimmingham

Pallid Swift, Trimmingham

Pallid Swift, Trimmingham

Pallid Swift, Trimmingham

After the swift headed off inland I headed over to the north side of Trimmingham, where I found other birders watching a Pallid Swift between Trimmingham and Sidestrand. Although this bird was a bit more distant the paleness of this bird was very obvious and although the light had gotten a bit better now, I'm pretty sure this wasn't the bird I'd seen and photographed earlier.

9 Oct 13 - Pelagic and Sora sojourn

I went on the pelagic out of St. Mary's today. There wasn't large numbers of anything, but there was quite a bit of variety. The best bird was a Grey Phalarope that flew around the boat and landed on the water for a while. A Red-necked Grebe on the way out of The Scillies and a summer-plumaged Great Northern Diver were also pretty good to see. Seabirds were hard to come by, but 4 Balearic, 1 Sooty and 6 Manx Shearwaters, 12 Bonxies and 4 small skuas were all seen from the boat. There was a constant following of gulls behind the boat, attracted by the chopped-up Pollock. Yellow-legged, Lesser-black-backed, Herring, Great-black-backed, Black-headed, Mediterranean Gull and Kittywake were all seen.

On the way back the boat skipper, Jo Pender dropped us off on Tresco so that we could go and see the Sora which had been found whilst we were on the pelagic. The Sora showed pretty well, although I wasn't very popular when I dropped radio on the floor whilst trying make some room for others to see the bird. It landed on the floor with a loud 'crack' and the Sora hot-tailed it back into the thick cover of the reads. Thankfully, it was only the photographers who were at the front of the hide, so I didn't feel too embarrassed. It makes a change for a birder to scare a bird that photographers are watching, rather than the other way round.

Common Dolphin, Scilly Isles

Common Dolphin with Lesser-black-backed Gull, Scilly Isles

Common Dolphin, Scilly Isles

Red-necked Grebe, Scilly Isles

Red-necked Grebe, Scilly Isles

Yellow-legged Gull, Scilly Isles

Yellow-legged Gull, Scilly Isles

Great Skua, Scilly Isles

Great Skua, Scilly Isles

Great Skua, Scilly Isles

Great Skua, Scilly Isles

Great Skua, Scilly Isles

Sooty Shearwater, Scilly Isles

Balearic Shearwater, Scilly Isles

Balearic Shearwater, Scilly Isles

Gannet, Scilly Isles

Gannet, Scilly Isles

Gannet, Scilly Isles

Kittiwake, Scilly Isles

7 Oct 2013 - Bryher

Had a great day on Bryher today. After some photos of a strange looking stint emerged last night, about 10 birders took the early boat across to the island to check it out and then spent most of the day there. The stint was probably just a Little Stint, but there was plenty of other birds on the island too. The best bird, which I found, was a Little Bunting that I flushed up from a grassy field. It called a few times and then landed in some bracken and then on some rocks. It showed for about a minute and then flew off with some Meadow Pipits, despite being searched for it wasn't seen again until I re-found it some 7 hours later with a big flock of Meadow Pipits around the campsite.
The radio was handy again as it alerted me to a juvenile Rose-coloured Starling that was flying around the Hell Bay Hotel behind me. It flew around for a minute and the landed in Martin Hallams back garden.
I also managed to get great views of a Yellow-browed Warbler by playing my Long-tailed Tit recording and seeing what came out to it. A few other nice birds on the island included about 5 Whinchat.

Isles of Scilly 5th and 6th Oct 2013

It's been a quiet couple of days. On Saturday (5th) I headed over to St. Martins with Lincs birder Dean Nicholson. Although a pleasant walk around the island, passerines were quite thin on the ground with a couple of Yellow-browds and Lesser Whitethroat being the only birds of note. Waders were in good numbers though along the southern beach with 200+ Sanderling, 60+Ringed Plover, 2 Dunlin, 2 Bar-wits and a Grey Plover. On retuning to St Mary's I caught the bus up to Watermill where there was an Arctice Warbler at Newford Duckpond.

Arctic Warbler, Newford Duckpond

Arctic Warbler, Newford Duckpond

Arctic Warbler, Newford Duckpond

Today (6th) I went up through the airport and then down to Porthelick, through Carn Friars, Normandy and then around Green Farm and Content Farm. I was pretty gutted that after spending almost two hours on the airfield at the windsock that I failed to find a Short-toed Lark that spend the day lurking on the opposite side of the runway. The rest of the day was pretty quiet with only a few common migrants as reward to some hard work in the field.

Isles of Scilly - 4 Oct 13

I started off first thing at Pendeen Lighthouse, just before 7.30am. As I drove down to the lower car park, a bird flew out from the side of the track and landed in front of my car, dazzled slightly by my headlights. It was facing away from me, but then turned it’s head 180 degrees to look at me – a Wryneck! It sat in front of the car for a while and then flew up onto the wall next to me, but alas not long enough for me to get any photos. It showed well later on my way out of Pendeen and I managed to get a few shots of it. Alas, as I was trying to get back to St. Just airfield I didn’t have time to look at the rest of Pendeen. If I had, maybe I’d have found the Isabelline Shrike that was found later in the day! Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve – didn’t.

Wryneck, Pendeen, Cornwall

Wryneck, Pendeen, Cornwall

Anyway, I got my flight across to The Scillies at 9.30, moved into my digs, got the groceries in and headed out into the field. It must have been my Wryneck day today as at the north end of Port Mellon I noticed a small bird hoping around the rocks, raised my bins and realised that I’d found my second Wryneck of the day! There were lots of White Wagtails and Wheatears on the beaches. I’d estimate that I saw at least 50 White Wagtails today and around 30-40 Wheatears. My route took me over Harry’s Wall, Porthloo, Telegraph, Content Farm, Pelistry, Green Lane and Watermill. Spotted Flycatchers were quite numerous (6) with a few Pied Flys, 3 Whinchats, 5 Yellow Wagtails and a nice winter-plumaged Blue-headed Wagtail.

Once I’d left Hugh Town, I didn’t see a single birder (just a few dudes). I’m sure there must be more stuff about. Just hoping that I can find it!