Graham's Bird Blog

Birding over the festive period

2012-01-02T21:53:00.003Z

After spending Christmas Day in Norwich I headed back to my home city of Stoke-on-Trent for a few days between 26-29 Dec. Then it was back to Norfolk for some birding over the new year.
I spent an afternoon and a morning at Aqualate Mere (Staffs) where the new hide gives a good view across the mere and the big seed feeder right in front of the hide provides good photo opportunities to get snaps of Willow Tit, now a description species in Norfolk.

Common Buzzard, Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Willow Tit, Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Reed Bunting (female), Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Coal Tit, Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Back to Norfolk and I spent 30 Dec 11 on the North Norfolk coast with Mark Golley. After starting out at first light watching about 100 Red-throated Divers and 40+ Snow Buntings at Cley Coastguards, we headed up to Fakenham to look at the Great Grey Shrike that was mooted as being of the form homeyeri.
There's a good discussion of the bird on Martin Garner's website Birding Frontiers . An interesting bird and subsequent discussion from which I've learned lots.

Great Grey Shrike, possibly a homeyeri intergrade.

It was then off to Titchwell RSPB to see a few things. The Coue's Arctic Redpoll was showing well by the visitors centre. A first-winter bird, a good view is needed to tell it from the couple of Mealy Redpolls in the same flock. A Water Rail was showing very well along the footpath ditch and a female Mandarin on the freshmarsh was a nice surprise. A couple of Greater Scaup, Spotted Redshank and a Bittern were nice additions to the list.

Water Rail, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk

Shoveler (female), Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk

Common Redshank (left) and Spotted Redshank (right), Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk

Little Egret, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk

Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk

I spent New Years Eve and 2 Jan around east Norfolk mainly looking at waterfowl. As the Ring-necked Duck had been showing well at Ranworth Broad I headed out and got good views of it near the visitors centre and then popped down to Buckenham Marshes to see the returning Lesser White-fronted Goose with the Taiga Bean Geese. It was fairly distant, but quite distinctive being the only White-front in the flock. I also headed up to Cockshoot Broad to take a look at the Ferruginous Duck and/or hybrid(s). There were 2 birds on the broad which later flew to the river where I got some nice photos of them.

Ring-necked Duck, Ranworth Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck (right) and Ferruginous X Pochard hybrid (left) Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck (right) and Ferruginous X Pochard hybrid (left) Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous X Pochard hybrid Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous x Pochard hybrid, Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck (left) and Ferruginous X Pochard hybrid (right) Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck (front) and Ferruginous X Pochard hybrid (back) Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck, Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck (left) and Ferruginous X Pochard hybrid (right) Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck (right) and Ferruginous X Pochard hybrid (left) Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

Ferruginous Duck, Cockshoot Broad, Norfolk

I ended the day with a trip to Martham/Heigham Holmes. There were about 200+ White-fronted Geese plus 16 Common Cranes feeding out in the pastures.

Quite a nice festive season really. The weather stayed nice for winter birding and we can now all look forward to the days getting slightly longer.

More geese, but finally a rare

2011-11-13T18:21:00.001Z

I headed out to Nelson Head first thing today. As on the north coast yesterday, lots of Blackbirds and a few Robins, but rather quite otherwise. I had a few Snow Buntings on Horsey Beach flying over the pupping Grey Seals and then headed back to the car. I had a quick scan along the dunes before I reached my car and to my delight saw a Red Kite moving slowly south. It dipped down behind the dunes a few times, presumably interested by seal placenta. Above it was a large falcon, presumably a Peregrine, which soared around and then headed off north.
I decided to go a little further north and headed off to Horsey Gap. Again it was a bit slow, but when I returned to my car I stopped to ID a small bird that had flicked up into the top of some sallows. It turned out to be a Chiffchaff, so I stood and watched to see if there was anything else in the area. It was then that I heard a light "tuck" call coming from a little further back in the bushes. The call reminded me of a Radde's Warbler that I'd heard a couple of weeks ago, but perhaps slightly harder. I headed into the bushes and after a bit of searching tracked down the call - Dusky Warbler! It gave me the run around a bit, proving VERY difficult to photograph, but I eventually got a few clear photos of it. I put the news out and when the first people came along to look at it (about an 90 minutes after I found it), I headed off to Cart Gap to look at a lovely flock of mixed Tundra Bean, Eurasian White-fronted, Graylag and Pink-footed Geese.
I great way to finish off the autumn!

Dusky Warbler

Tundra Bean Geese

Tundra Bean Goose

Greylag Goose

Eurasian White-fronted Goose

Autumn's not over, but I'm looking at geese

2011-11-12T20:51:00.000Z

Mark Golley and I headed out and spent all day in Burnham Overy Dunes and the west end of Holkham Pines. There was quite a lot to look at, but our hard work and persistence didn't pay off with a nice rare unfortunately. The tally of birds for the whole day was quite good though. 5 Shorelarks were the best find. They flew over calling and then looked to land out of sight in the dunes. Unfortunately, when we made our way over to where we thought they'd landed, they where nowhere to be seen. A massive Lapwing movement was taking place today. We had 1000+ birds all moving west during the day. Dave Foster from Whitburn also commented on the number of Lapwings he had over Tyneside today, so I guess they must be on the move big-time. One Lapwing in particular got the adrenalin running. It had white primaries and primary coverts (on both wings), the back looked paler and the whole bird looked smaller. But it was just a partially albino/leucistic Lapwing. Lots of migrant Blackbirds in Burham Overy dunes, along with quite good numbers of Song Thrush, Redwing, Robin, Linnet and Greenfinch. There were a few birds in Holkham Pines. 4 Chiffchaffs and 2 Blackcaps were the only warblers we saw all day, along with great views of a Firecrest and a group of at least 3 Waxwings flying west. There were good numbers of Lapland Buntings flying over all day. One flock of 11 birds was the most together, pushing the daily total to 25+ birds. The sea, which was quite choppy on our way out to Holkham was flat calm on our return, so it was quite easy to see a few Slav Grebes and a female Long-tailed Duck along with quite a few Common Scoter and Red-throated Divers.

There were lots of geese in the area, mainly Pink-feet and Dark-bellied Brents. There were some nice Pale-bellied Brents, but the 'best' bird was a Black Brant x Dark-belled Brent hybrid. On the more striking side of a hybrid, the bird had a good neck ring and very contrasting flank patches, but the back and belly wasn't dark enough for a pure Brant. The day was nicely capped-off by a flock of about 10,000 Pink-footed Geese that took off from fields near Docking, filling the horizon.

Firecrest

Hybird Black Brant x Black-bellied Brent

Hybird Black Brant x Black-bellied Brent (rear)

Pale-bellied Brent (left) with Dark-bellied Brent

Pink-footed Geese

Waxham - 14 Oct 2011. Autumn at last!

2011-10-15T16:28:00.001+01:00

I took the day off as I'd been gripped off the day before by not one, but two different birders telling me that they'd found Red-flanked Bluetails, so I thought I should give it a go. I headed out to East Norfolk early on and headed out on the Nelson Head track. Plenty of birds on the move, especially Meadow Pipits, lots of finches (Brambling and 27 Crossbills the highlight), quite a few Redwing and Fieldfare, Read Buntings, 1 Lapland Bunting and lots of Lesser Redpoll. There was also Whinchat, Northern Wheatear, White Wagtail, a couple of Chiffchaffs hanging around in various places too. I headed off to Horsey Gap after that, from where I walked north to Waxham. A single Barn Swallow was flying around the car park, but the rest of the walk was pretty quiet. A couple of Short-eared Owls came in off the sea and I had good views of a Great Grey Shrike that had been hanging around Waxham. Upon arriving at Waxham I found that there had been a Radde's Warbler in the church yard but after spending about an hour there I had one flight view and heard it call a few times. The end of the day brought me wishing I'd gone north, as late news emerged of a Rufous-tailed Robin had been found on East Hills (late as in it was found late in the day and late as in the fact that it was actually on Warham Greens, information that was nicely suppressed for ages before putting the correct new out. Thanks for nothing).

Great Grey Shrike Waxham, Norfolk

Short-eared Owl, fresh in off the sea, Waxham

California, Nevada and Arizona - 24 July -13 Aug 2011

2011-10-02T19:57:00.001+01:00

I've been really bad at updating my blog lately. Part of it is that I've not been out all that much, but the main reason is that I've just been lazy. Here are a bunch of photos that I took on the family holiday to the States this summer.

Heermann's Gull

Brown-headed Cowbird - juvenile

Black Turnstone

Sea Otter

Humpback Whale

American White Pelican

Elegant Tern

Red-shouldered Hawk

Californian Condor

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Wilson's Warbler

Band-tailed Pigeon

Heermann's Gull

American Herring Gull

Turkey Vulture

Coyote

Sooty Grouse - female

Sooty Grouse - male

Mountain Quail

Lesser Nighthawk

Mountain Quail

Acorn Woodpecker

Osprey

Solitary Sandpiper

Bighorn Sheep

Canyon Wren

Loggerhead Shrike

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Bewick's Wren

Western Willet

Royal Tern

18 Jun 2011 - Red-footed Falcon, Nelson Head

2011-06-18T17:06:00.001+01:00

I headed out to Nelson Head at Horsey today and was treated with great views of the 1st-summer male Red-footed Falcon. I watched the bird for half-an-hour before it flew inland to Hickling Broad. There was also plenty of nice Dark-green Fritillary butterflies in the dunes at Horsey too.

For best quality select 'HD' from lower-right drop-down box.

8 Jun 2011 - Marsh Warbler

2011-06-18T15:41:00.000+01:00

I headed off into West Norfolk to look at a Marsh Warbler that I'd been told about which had been showing well in suitable breeding territory. Soon after I arrived at the site the bird burst into song and I was treated to a cacophony of mimicry by this fine songster. Call and song notes from Common Tern, Great Spotted Woodpecker (both the 'peek' call and the rambling alarm call), Barn Swallow, Sand Martin, Goldfinch, Linnet, Sedge Warbler, Bee-eater, Common Swift, Blackbird and Common Whitethroat were all heard in the birds song.

6 Jun 2011 - White-throated Robin, Cleveland

2011-06-18T15:33:00.000+01:00

It was 08.35 and I'd been in work for about 3 minutes when the Mega Alert started warbling away on my pager. The bird that had earlier been reported as a Red-flanked Bluetail in Cleveland had been re-identified as Britain's second ever White-throated Robin. I was on the road by 09.00 and arrived at Hartlepool Headland at 2pm. The bird had flown off, but only to the nearby Doctor's garden and after a rather nervy half-hour wait it finally flew back out onto the bowling green where it hopped around both on the road outside and on the grassy areas inside the bowling green perimeter. The bird put in another appearance before going missing for a number of hours. It was found in Doctor's garden and became quite a media celebrity during its stay. The bird stayed for the next 5 days, but thankfully departed on the Friday night (there's nothing worse than taking a day off to twitch a bird only for it to stay over the following weekend!)

24 - 26 May 2011 - Lunteren, The Netherlands

2011-06-18T14:59:00.000+01:00

I stopped off in Holland on the way back from the US to the UK for a meeting in Lunteren. De Werelt Conference Centre was right out in the forest next to Lunteren with plenty of trails to walk around. Although I didn't have too much time to explore the area (on foot) I did get out for a few hours.
The best birds that I found in the mixed coniferous woodland were Short-toed Treecreeper, Crested Tit, Goshawk and Firecrest.

Magee Marsh, OH. 22 - 23 May 2011

2011-05-24T19:42:00.005+01:00

I've returned to Magee where the morning of the 22 May brought a really big push of migrants. 2 Black-billed Cuckoos were in the parking lot and large flocks of Blue Jays (moving east) and Cedar Waxwings (moving west) were going over. The north-east corner of the parking lot (now officially my 'patch' as I seem to be the only person that goes there) was good again, with a Mourning Warbler, female Purple Finch, Philadelphia Vireo and 3 Wilson's Warblers. There were lots of Empids in the wood today. Lots of Least Flycatchers, quite a few 'Trails' and the largest number of Yellow-bellieds that I'd seen in one day here.
After lunch I decided to explore and look for some good habitat next to the lake. Lakeway Drive runs parallel with Lake Erie and then finishes at the marina, so this seemed a good place to look - I wasn't disappointed. My only Orange-crowned Warbler of the trip was feeding in trees right next to the shore line, whilst in a small wood at the junction of Lakeway and Waterway Drive there was a female Hooded Warbler plus a pair of Black-billed Cuckoos. At the marina end of Lakeway was a Red-headed Woodpecker, Cape May Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Ovenbirds.
Along Park Colony rd (runs south from Lakeway) there were some waders of which Marbled Godwit and Pec Sand were the pick.
The day ended off nicely with a female Hooded Merganser at the Ottowa-Lucas Rd plus 2 Cattle Egrets on the south side of the road between the turnings for Ottowa and Magee.

The morning of 23 May was my final morning. The number of birds had fallen considerably on the previous days birding. An Eastern Towhee was a new bird for the trip, but the best location was the north-east section of the parking lot which had 2 male Mourning Warblers and a female Blackburnian.

Photos: Red-eyed Vireo, American Redstart, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler (2), Blackburnian Warbler, Swainsons's Thursh, Baltimore Oriole, Black-billed Cuckoo, Dunlin (2), Orange-crowned Warbler, Canada Warbler (2), Mourning Warbler (3), Yellow Warbler, Purple Finch (2), Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Finally, the Lucas-Ottowa Road had Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 4 Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Sand, 10 Semi-p Plovers, 5 Semi-p Sands and about 100 Dunlin.

Waterloo State Rec Area, Michigan. 20 - 21 May 2011

2011-05-22T03:05:00.002+01:00

I spent 24 hours in Waterloo State Rec Area with the target species of Henslow's Sparrow and Acadian Flycatcher. I headed off to St Jacob Evangelical Lutheran Church on Riethmiller Road for Henslow's and after a bit of searching found at least 6 birds feeding in the long dry grassy field due west of the church (I saw 3 of these and heard at least another 3 singing). With a bit of patience you can get good views of the birds, usually feeding around the lower stems of the larger grass clumps. There was also a few Sandhill Crane and Eastern Bluebird in the area.

I then headed over to Mclure Road and birded the area between Bush and Loveland, where I also headed at first light the next day. I managed to see 3 Acadian Flycatchers before the light faded along with White-breasted Nuthatch, Scarlet Tanager, Ovenbird and Red-eyed Vireo.
The next morning I revisited the area hoping to see Cerulean Warbler, but although I could hear birds singing in the canopy I couldn't get onto any. Wild Turkey, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Red-eyed Vireo and 2 Hooded Warblers (a singing male and a female both within 500 yards of the Waterloo Area Headquarters. I then headed off to Cassidy Road (where I had a ringtail Northern Harrier) and birded the area between the junction with Roe Rd and half a mile east of there. Along the road I had another 3 Acadian Flycatchers, Indigo Bunting, Pileated Woodpecker, Brown Creeper, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blackburnian Warbler and just when I had given up seeing Cerulean Warbler found a pair nest building just metres from my car. The female did all the building whilst the male spent most of the time singing. I've put some video of the female nest building at the bottom of this post.
Photos: Acadian Flycatcher (3), Pileated Woodpecker, Scarlet Tanager, Cerulean Warbler (2 photos plus 1 video).

Mio, Michigan, 19 - 20 May 2011

2011-05-21T21:08:00.002+01:00

The purpose of this visit was to go on the Kirtland's Warbler trip in Mio State Forest. On the way up there I stopped in at Nayanquing Point Wildlife Area. The heavy rain made it tough to find stuff, but King Rail, 3 Least Bittern, American Bittern (heard only), 3 Black Terns, Caspian Tern, 15 Yellow-headed Blackbird, 6 Sandhill Crane, Marsh Wren, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Swamp Sparrow and Lincoln's Sparrow were all nice birds to see.

Ignoring warnings of the Apocalypse, I headed out with the rangers and was soon watching Kirtlands singing from the top of the Jack Pines. The birds were always quite distant, but at one point two males chased each other around in a territorial dispute and one landed in a Jack Pine quite close to me allowing me to get some photos off. We saw about 10 birds in all plus Clay-coloured Sparrow.

After the tour I headed out into the some other areas around Mio. Ruffed Grouse and Broad-winged Hawk were seen to the south of Mio and to the north-east a pair of displaying Upland Sandpipers were just east of the junction of West Kneeland and North Galbraith Rds.

Sites near Magee Marsh 15 - 19 May 2011

2011-05-21T20:31:00.000+01:00

There are plenty of other places to visit around Magee. If you want to increase the amount of species you see then it's a good idea to take a look at Kenn Kaufman's guide to the other birding areas. I visited Maumee Bay, Ottowa NWR, the Ottowa-Lucas road (for shorebirds) and a few other sites dotted around the Magee area.

Maumee Bay State Park is an excellent place to see gulls, Caspian Tern and migratory song birds. Head off to the last parking lot and check the beach and the large artificial lagoon for the first two. I had about 10 Caspian Terns plus about 100 American Herring Gulls and 50 Ring-billed Gulls. Head back the way you came and then go to the Nature Centre and take the boardwalk around the flooded woodland. Maumee is very good for thrushes. In one sweep across the forest floor I counted 16 Swainson's, 1 Veery and 1 Grey-cheeked Thrush plus I had more of all three at other places on the reserve. The best bird I found there was a female Golden-winged Warbler near the Nature Centre and Eastern Wood-Peewee, Hairy Woodpecker, Indigo Bunting, Northern Waterthrush, a roosting Common Nighthawk and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Shorebirds are quite difficult to find. They're mainly in flooded fields, but there is a nice marsh at the end of the Ottowa-Lucas Road which has a good number of birds in it. About 350 Dunlin with smaller numbers of Semi-p Sands, Semi-p Plovers, Least Sand, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted and Solitary Sandpiper and Turnstones. The best birds there though were a pair of Stilt Sandpipers that dropped in and spent the afternoon feeding on the lagoon. Also, the junction of Couduroy and Yondota (south of Cedar Point NWR) there were a few hundred Dunlin, 30 Black-bellied Plover, 100+ Turnstone plus 20 Buff-bellied Pipit and Horned Lark.

The road that goes south opposite the entrance to Ottowa NWR has Boblinks at the end of it. Drive for about 2 miles, go over the railway line and there is a flowering field on the left about a quarter of a mile after (if you get to the stop sign, you've gone a little too far). There were about 10-15 birds displaying one evening.

Magee Marsh: 17 - 19 May 201

2011-05-21T20:00:00.001+01:00

The weather let up a bit, with the rain generally being very light and the wind dying down slightly. There were still lots of birds around though. Over the 3 days the highlights were Eastern Screech-Owl, Least and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Philadelphia, Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos, Veery, Swainson's, Grey-cheeked and Wood Thrush, Brown Thrasher, 25 species of warbler, including Cape May, Blackburnian, Blue-winged, Tennessee, Connecticut, Mourning and Canada, Scarlet Tanager, Lincoln's Sparrow and Slate-colored Junco.

The morning of the 19 was particularly good. The wind dropped and the western side of the boardwalk was particularly birdy. I managed to find 2 Connecticut Warblers (or maybe the same one twice), 2 Mourning Warblers plus a Blue-winged Warbler in the north-east corner of the parking lot and a Slate-coloured Junco on the beach.

Magee Marsh: 15 - 16 May 2011

2011-05-17T04:39:00.002+01:00

Carlsberg don't do Bird Reserves, but if they did, they'd probably still not be as good as Magee Marsh.I'm currently pretty tired and am not going to go on about how fantastic a place Magee is and how close the birds are. You can just have a look through the photos below and judge for yourself. 23 species of warbler, 3 vireos and 3 Catharus thrushes in a day and a half isn't bad though!
From top: Bay-breasted Warbler (3 males, 2 females), Cape May Warbler (3), Chestnut-sided Warbler (3), Black-and-White Warbler (2), Canada Warbler (3), Northern Parula (3), Philadelphia Vireo (2), Black-throated Green Warbler (2), Magnolia Warbler (1 female, 1 male), Veery (2), Ovenbird, American Redstart, Blackpoll Warbler (female), Wood Thrush, Prothonotory Warbler (2), Black-throated Blue Warbler (female) and Blackburnian Warbler.

Central Park, Manhattan, NY – 10 May 2011.

2011-05-11T15:44:00.000+01:00

I was wide awake by5am, so I headed off to Syosett station and got the train/subway to 72^ndstreet and headed into Central Park with coffee and bagel in hand. The firstthing that struck me was the amount of birders there. I’d expected to see onlya few people out birding, after all it was a work day, so I wasn’t reallyprepared for the large groups of birders that thronged through the park. Istarted off around Strawberry Fields before heading off towards The Lake andthen over to the Ramble.

There was lots of stuff to look at,especially for a visiting Brit like me. Magnolia, Black and White, Blackpoll,Yellow-rumped Warblers, Northern Parula, Ovenbird, American Redstart, CommonYellowthroat, Blue-headed Vireo, Eastern Towhee (which I thought would becommon, but was the only one I saw) Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and BaltimoreOriole were seen around Strawberry Fields. After failing to see the Cape MayWarbler which was reported in this area I headed off to the lake and walkedalong the shoreline from the small gazebo. Prairie Warbler was the best bird inthis area, but I also saw my first of many Black-throated Blue Warblers andalso Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Then if was off to the Bow Bridge and into TheRamble where I spent the next 5 hours. The Ramble was great! Lots of songbirdsin some great habitat. The Oven, The Point and The Boathouse were the bestarea. Chestnut-sided and Wilson’s Warbler, Northern Waterthrush were theremaining warblers to be added onto my list. The Chestnut-sided was feeding onwhat looked like termite larva in a chopped tree stump at the head of the Oven.The other good bird was a Lincoln’s Sparrow feeding just north of a smallbridge half-way between the Bow Bridge and the Upper Lobe. A rather skulkySwainson’s Thrush was also seen nearby. The Azalea Ponds were nice. My first oftwo Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (the other singing at Bow Bridge) was seen herealong with plenty of warblers. The Point was one of the most productive areas,being very good for woodpeckers (Northern Flicker, Downy and Red-belliedWoodpecker) and warblers (Wilson’s, N. Parula, Black-throated Blue,Yellow-rumped, Magnolia, Black-and-White and Blackpoll). At the base of thepoint near the Boathouse, a Spotted Sandpiper fed with a Northern Waterthrushon the muddy patches around the sheltered shoreline. A number of White-eyedVireos were singing throughout the Ramble and a Warbling Vireo was a niceaddition to the list before I left.

Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island 9 May 2011

2011-05-11T03:14:00.002+01:00

I arrived at the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory (CSHL) this evening and went for a walk around campus and then headed out on the sandbar that separates the inner and outer harbours. The trees around campus held a few songbirds, mainly common stuff like American Robins, Grey Catbirds, Starlings, Common Grackles, etc, but there were a few birds that were nice to see. A pair of Yellow Warblers were my first Wood Warblers of my trip. Cedar Waxwings seem to be quite common on campus and a pair of Chipping Sparrows were nice to see.The sandbar had quite a few birds on it. About 50 Least Sandpipers were feeding on the eggs of mating Horseshoe Crabs and about 6 Greater Yellowlegs flew around nervously, never settling in the same place for very long. Lots of hirrundines were around the point; mainly Barn Swallows, but also quite a few Northern Rough-winged Swallows and a couple of Tree Swallows. There’s a pair of Ospreys nesting on a platform there too and provide good photo opportunities.

Top to bottom: Osprey (2), Least Sandpiper (3), Great Egret.

Finally, something to blog about - 2 May 11 East Norfolk

2011-05-02T14:41:00.005+01:00

OK, I have been quite lazy and not blogged about much lately, but I had plenty of birds today, plus some nice photos so thought I'd post something about them.
I started out at a new site that I've discovered next to the River Bure. The best birds were a pair of Garganey that showed nicely on the edge of the scrape. The pair of Little Ringed Plovers were still present from my previous visit as was Common Sand and Bar-tailed Godwit. Still a few Tufted Duck and Pochard hanging around and the number of Common Terns loafing along the banks had increased to 6.
Next was a trip to Rush Hills Scrape which had plenty of birds on it. Top of the list was at least 3 Wood Sands, followed closely by a pair of summer-plumaged Spotted Redshanks. 6 Greenshank, Common Sand, Grey Plover and a small group of Common Teal gave a nice selection of birds to look through.
The visit was topped off by a nice female Ring Ouzel from the footpath between the church and the wood. It was pretty skitish though and ended up in the hedge at the back of the field.
I finished off with a trip to Waxham, but the wind was quite strong and getting onto stuff in the bushes was pretty difficult. Lots of Whitethroats and a nice Sedge Warbler singing from a blooming Hawthorn made some nice photo opportunities though.

Grip eraser

2011-01-12T20:00:00.001Z

Getting pissed-off with birders harping on about rares that you didn't see? Your local bird club members gripping you off with the Gyr Falcon that you missed last weekend? Fear not! New Grip Eraser will make all of them disappear. Simply wipe Grip Eraser on the guilty bragger and watch them quickly disappear.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Weekend in North Norfolk

2011-01-10T22:47:00.001Z

I had some birding friends visiting this weekend - Dave Foster from Whitburn and Richard Crossley from Cape May were in North Norfolk, so I spent the weekend on the coast birding with Dave and Mark Golley, but not managing to catch up with Richard. The weather started off quite wet and overcast on Saturday morning, but this soon passed and the rest of the weekend was lovely clear skies, albeit with a rather bone-chilling wind.
There were loads of birds around, mainly waterfowl and seabirds, but also some decent non-waterbirds. The Northern Harrier continued its stay in the Thornham area, but only being seen in the couple of hours after sunrise and before sunset, spending the rest of the time in various sites east of Thornham. A couple of ringtail Hen Harriers in the area provided a good comparison. Titchwell had quite a hoard of birds on it over the weekend. The freshmarsh was host to an imm. Greater Scaup, whilst 50+ Twite and 3 Water Pipits fed on the seeded areas of the brackish-marsh. The sea and beach were the highlight though. 9 Shorelark fed just inside the dunes, whilst at sea 2000+ Common Scoter, 7+ Velvet Scoter, 3+ Red-necked Grebes, Slav Grebe, 4 Long-tailed Duck, juvenile Iceland Gull and a smattering of Common Eider and Red-breasted Mergansers made exciting viewing.
One of the Ross's Geese put on a nice flyby at Holkham with a spectacular flock of about 20,000 Pink-feet, whilst a juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard put in a nice aerial display. We also found 2 Tundra Bean Geese in a field next to Stiffkey Fen before they all upped and offed towards Blakeney and a nice flock of 12 Pale-belled Brent Geese with some Dark-bellieds showed close to the road at Crabbe Castle Farm, Whighton.

Cley Marshes was a bit quiet, but even that had a lovely drake American Wigeon.

Photos below (in order from top): Pink-footed Geese in flight, Dark-belled Brent in flight, Pale-bellied and Dark-bellied Brent Geese, Ross's Goose in flight with Pink-footed Geese (x2), Eurasian Curlew (x3), Spotted Redshank (x2), Little Owl, Water Pipit (x2) and video of Shorelarks.

2011 - New Year in North Norfolk

2011-01-02T18:50:00.000Z

Although my original plan was to head out to Thornham to look for the Northern Harrier, the crowd of ~100 birders that greeted my arrival made me think again, so I headed over to Titchwell to see what was on the reserve. It wasn't a wasted journey; 9 Shorelarks, 4 Water Pipits, 8 Twite (including a colour-ringed, yellow over green, bird), 2 Pale-bellied Brent Geese and some Velvet Scoter offshore with the Commons made the visit more than worthwhile.
After that I decided to take a look for the Northern Harrier again. As it obviously wasn't at Thornham, I thought I'd go and see if I could find it at Burnham Norton, where it has previously spent time earlier in its stay. So, after a quick stop at Brancaster Staithe, I head over to Burnham Norton. There were lots of Marsh Harriers out on the marsh and I glimpsed a ringtail harrier (probably a Hen) a couple of times as it rose above the seawall, but not much else.
When I reached the seawall I started looking around, but other than Marsh Harriers, there wasn't many other raptors to look at, so I turned my attention to the saltmarsh, where the first thing I saw was a rather pale looking gull sat in the marsh, feeding on something. The gull immediately took flight and flew past me. 1st winter Iceland Gull! It's been ages since I found an Iceland Gull in Norfolk and this bird showed really well, flying round and heading back to the same spot a number of times. It stayed around for about 25 minutes, after which it flew off west towards Brancaster Staithe.

The day ended well too, as the Northern Harrier turned up finally at Thornham (presumably on a pre-roost feeding sortie), so I made the short journey there, entertained on the way by Stan Colleymore's 'mental' on the radio as Aston Villa scored an injury time goal to bring the score back to 3-3. The Northern Harrier was showing well on the saltmarsh when I got to Thornham. It still flies with one of its legs dangling and still likes the look of those Redshanks on Thornham Marsh. I'd go for turkey myself though, given the choice.
Happy New Year!

Northern Harrier, Thornham

2010-12-19T17:06:00.001Z

After having a wasted journey into London yesterday for the cancelled Arsenal v Stoke game, I hoped to have a slightly less wasteful day today by heading up to Thornham Marsh and try to get some better views of the Northern Harrier that has been hanging around in Norfolk since October. Mark Golley and I saw the bird a few weekends ago at Stiffkey, but the views weren't great and I wanted to see the bird a bit better. After standing around in temperatures well below zero the bird appeared and promptly dumped itself onto the side of a water channel, where it sat in the open for about half-an-hour giving really nice views. After this the bird got up and spent some time hunting around the harbour, west towards Holme and then headed off towards Titchwell (from where I saw it again later). There were two other ringtail Hen Harriers around too, giving a good comparison to the much darker, rufous Northern Harrier.

Most of Titchwell was frozen over, but there were 3 Water Pipits showing well from the shiny new Parinder Hide on the Saltmarsh and 15 Twite flew over calling. There were a few hundred Common Scoter on the sea, but there was a bit of a swell so it was really hard to look through them for anything more interesting.
Finally, on the way back to the reserve visitors centre, there were a couple of Water Rails showing quite well in the ditches near the feeders.

Glossy Ibis, Welney

2010-10-30T20:52:00.001+01:00

I spent the first half of today on the Norfolk/Cambs border watching a Glossy Ibis near Welney. The bird was feeding at the far end of the cow field when I arrived, but no sooner had I put up my scope, the bird took off and flew to the roadside pool, just down the road from the cow pens where I was watching. I jumped back into my car and spent the next 90 minutes photographing the bird from the car. By the end of my visit, the bird was very comfortable with my presence, not bothering about me getting out and moving around by my car (although it did become very alert when newcomers arrived at the site and tried to get closer to the bird).
Here are the pick of the bunch, click on a photo for a larger image...

St. Agnes

2010-10-13T19:30:00.001+01:00

Spent the day on St. Agnes today, which relieved the relative (for Scilly) boredom of slogging around St. Mary's and seeing very little. Mark and I headed straight for Gugh once we left the boat. The sandbar separating the island of St. Agnes from Gugh was just starting to become uncovered, so I did a bit of paddling and scampered across to be first on the islet. There were quite a few birds around the plantation, including my first 2 Fieldfares of the autumn. Ring Ouzel, Redstart, Black Redstart, Pied Flycatcher and a few Wheatears were also a nice supporting cast. Mark got onto a Wryneck, twice, but a never managed to see it and I couldn't really be arsed to hang around and wait for it to come back out, so we headed off to St. Agnes for some lunch at Covean Tearooms. My first cream-tea of the trip was greatly appreciated and I even helped Mark finish off his, as he also had the mushroom soup (5/5 Mark gave it) and couldn't just manage the rest of his cream-tea. Well, that's what mates are for, eh.
It was really nice to bump into Graham Gordon on Gugh, a friend that I first met when I was in the RAF in Norfolk and he was at the UEA, and whom I subsequently spent a lot of time with at Cape May in New Jersey. Graham now lives on St. Agnes and he spent the rest of the afternoon taking us around fields and hedgerows that were off-limits to most visiting birders. Firecrest, Ring Ouzel, Garden Warblers and lots of finches were our reward.
All-in-all a nice day, with lovely sunny weather (shorts and t-shirts weather really). At least when there are now birds on Scilly it's still really enjoyable to walk round.

Reed Warbler

Firecrest

Double wheatear combo

2010-10-12T22:32:00.003+01:00

Most birders are no strangers to seeing the phrase "Black-eared or Pied Wheatear at..", for a bird that hasn't yet been identified from this difficult to ID species pair, but it's not often (ever?) that you actually get to see both Black-eared Wheatear and Pied Wheatear in the same place! This was the case on St. Mary's today when a Pied Wheatear was (finally!) identified on the golf course to join the Western Black-eared Wheatear that has been present on the island for the past 4 days.
Mark and I saw a few nice birds on the island today on our walkabout. A Jack Snipe and an obliging Common Snipe on Lower Moors, a few Ring Ouzel dotted around the island, 2 Common Crossbills flying over the island and a rather grey Willow Warbler by the Rat Pond.
Pity the England football team couldn't make my evening as enjoyable as my afternoon.

Jack Snipe, Lower Moors

Common Snipe, Lower Moores

'Eastern' Willow Warlber, Rat Pond

Pied Wheatear, 1st winter male, St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly (HD video below)

Part 2

2010-10-12T22:18:00.005+01:00

Pied Wheatear, 1st winter male St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Western Black-eared Wheatear, 1st winter female, St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Racist Robins

2010-10-11T23:40:00.001+01:00

Racist

Now, most people think of Robins as nice cheeky little birds that hang around on spade handles in back gardens and make their living from their annual appearance fee on Christmas cards, but what isn't widely known is that Robins are really racist. I've witnessed this first-hand over the past few days. Scilly has a healthy population of resident Robins, but currently is being hit by a wave of Eastern European migrants. All these poor, tired migrants want to do is to spend a bit of time to rest and recover from their long trip, feed up and be back on their way, migrating south in a couple of days. But NO! Those nasty resident racist Robins don't like it. I had a taste of this a few weeks ago when I was birding on the Norfolk coast during a good easterly wind and I've seen it time after time, day after day since I arrived on Scilly – migrant Robins being mercilessly harangued, harassed and pursed by resident Robins. I don't know what their problem is. Perhaps they think the migrant Robins are going to steel their Christmas card appearance fees, perhaps by appearing for less than the resident Robins charge, or perhaps the resident Robins have some unfounded distrust of migrant Robins, thinking that they will rape and pillage their beautiful and fair land, but whatever the case, the resident Robins just won't leave the migrant Robins alone. I'm sure the resident Robins vote for RNP (Robin National Party) or at least UKRIP (United Kingdom Robin Independence Party).
Rant over.

Today was a bit slow on The Scillies with no new rarities turning up. A couple of Lapland Buntings on the golf course were nice along with a Red-breasted Flycatcher in Holy Vale and 2 Little Buntings at Carn Friars again. Other 'filler' species such as Ring Ouzel, Pied and Spotted Fly, Yellow Wagtail and Firecrest made the day acceptable. Probably the biggest highlight of the day was the Apple Strudel and vanilla ice-cream at the Countryhouse Café for lunch – yum!

Photos, from top to bottome: Yellow Wagtail, Little Bunting, Lapland Bunting (2), Small Copper butterfly, Red-breasted Flycatcher (2)

Lark-ing about

2010-10-10T20:35:00.001+01:00

So, apparently, we don't identify falcons on the Scillies anymore. No, instead we have 'large falcon', 'dark falcon' and 'large-dark falcon'. Heavens forbid if anyone who saw a falcon on the Scillies would actually identify it!
OK, gripe over, on to what we found/saw/identified today….
After a solid nights sleep (I'd only had 30 minutes, max, the night before), Mark and I headed out into the field at 8.30, with the plan to meander up to the airfield, see the rare waders up there and then head up to the north of the island, trying to avoid any large party of dudes. As the school was closed (Sunday) we headed down into the playground and looked around the wood areas around the school. Common Redstart, Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff were all present, making us hopeful that there would be more of the same over the island. Old Town Churchyard was devoid of any life (well, it is a cemetery after all!) so we headed up to the airfield. When we got there, the first bird we saw was a Whinchat, and then we realised there was a nice big flock of Meadow Pipits making use of the lack of Sunday flights and feeding on the airfields short grass. About 100 birds were feeding on the southern slope and we slowly made our way through them to see if we could find anything interesting (a Red-throated Pipit had been reported earlier). Although nothing other than Mipits could be found, I noticed a small pale bird feeding with the Mipits. It was barely bigger than a Mipit and was dwarfed by a nearby Wheatear. It then turned round to face side-on and it was then that I realised that the bird was actually a lark! The penny dropped – Short-toed Lark! Mark got onto the bird and agreed and we watched the bird for a few minutes feeding with the Meadow Pipits until it was flushed by a dog walker and flew north over the airfield. It was seen again later in the morning, but disappeared after midday, but was possibly seen by Ian Lewington on Tresco at 2pm. The American Golden Plover and Buff-breasted Sandpiper also put in an appearance, but only in flight before touching down out of sight near the airport buildings.
We spent the rest of the day in the north of the island, seeing some nice migrants such as Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, 3 Firecrests and a smattering of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs. We finished the day at Carn Friars where we met Ian Lewington and watched 2 Little Buntings and a few Yellow Wagtails feeding quite close.
So a nice haul of birds for the day and with 5 Mega Alerts for birds in other places in the UK from both sides of the globe, we hopeful of an even better day tomorrow.
Prediction: Red-eyed Vireo (and more dark falcon sightings of course)

Little Bunting, Carn Friars, St. Mary's.

The Scilly Season starts

2010-10-09T21:12:00.006+01:00


The Scillonian III from Bar Point, St. Mary's with a Grey Seal pup in the foreground

After watching the England u21 football team beat Rumania 2-1 at Carrow Road, Mark Golley and I set out on Friday night for Land's End, to catch our flight to the Isles of Scilly. The journey was quite eventful, finding a freshly-dead Otter lying in the middle of the A303 (at about 3am) and then having great views of a Badger feeding on the side of the road just before the M5. The badger was feeding on a grass verge on the side of the A30 and wasn't overly fussed about our presence.
We arrived at Land's End at just after 5am and set about getting a few hours kip in the car before having a full-English and then catching our 9.50 flight over to St. Mary's. We checked into our apartment and started to unpack, but after only 10 minutes in the house the Mega-alert was sounding with the message "MEGA Black-eared Wheatear, Isles of Scilly, St. Mary's at Star Castle". We were off!
We headed up to the Garrison to find 50 or so birders milling around aimlessly. The bird had flown off and nobody had managed to relocate it. I took the opportunity to catch up with a few birders I'd not seen for a while (Ian Lewington, Dick Filby, Will Wagstaff and a few others), but not long later the bird was relocated on the rocks at the bottom of the King Charles battery. It fed on the cliff sides and on the big boulders below. Judging by the lovely buffy tones of this bird it is certainly a Western Black-eared Wheatear.
After doing our groceries shopping, Mark and I grabbed a pasty from the Kavorna and caught the bus up to MacFarland Downs. At this point I feel that I should mention something about the amount of birders on the island. There was about 100 people at the wheatear, plus I guess there might be quite a few people on the off-island, but it appears that although 100 people could make it to see a rare wheatear, hardly any of them could actually make it out birding. Mark and I walked the whole length of the island this afternoon (Bar Point to The Garrison) and only saw about 10 people out birding, so it appears that there are hardly any birders on the island at all. This is good in one way – if there's something cripplingly rare out there, perhaps we'll have a chance of finding it, but the downside of this is that if we, or a handful of other birders don't find it, it could be quite a rare-free week.
Anyway, we headed across MacFarland Downs, across to the bulb dump, down to the shore, along to Bar Point and then back to Hugh Town via Porthloo. The best bird we saw was only a Pied Flycatcher, but a few Spotted Flycatchers, Common Sandpiper and a few Northern Wheatears broke up the afternoon.
There was also a nice seal pup hauled up on a boat launch near Bar Point which lay still long enough to get it in frame with the Scillonian Ferry in the background.

You can right-click 'View image' to get larger images of the photos below.

Western Black-eared Wheatear

Pied Flycatcher

Autumn hits Norfolk!

2010-09-27T22:03:00.008+01:00

25 Sep 2010, Stiffkey and Blakeney

I was heading south from Holt, intending to catch the second-half of Man City v Chelsea, when my pager Mega Alert sprang into action....

Earlier in the day, I'd been birding around Stiffkey. I'd started off at Stiffkey Fen, then to Stiffkey Woods and then went out to the little plantation on Stiffkey Saltmarsh. It hadn't been a bad day. A couple of Spoonbills dropped into the Fen, a rather tame Lapland Bunting allowed me to take some nice photos of it and the first Pink-footed Geese of the autumn had returned to Norfolk. But after battling away in the wind and rain and not seeing a single passage migrant, I decided to cut my losses, nothing was going to show it's face in this weather....

Eurasian Spoonbill

Pink-footed Geese in flight.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Lapland Bunting

I picked up my pager and glanced down at the message. It's not what you should be doing when driving, but the message that met my gaze almost made me crash the car. I pulled over to double check I'd read the message right "MEGA Norfolk Empidonax flycatcher (probably Alder, Willow or Least) Blakeney Point in Plantation at 1.05pm. Approach with caution"!!!!
Reverse, break, first gear, wheel-spin, away....
20 minutes later I was geared up in my waterproofs starting the arduous 3 mile trek into a raging wet North-westerly in order to get to 'The Point'. 1 hour and 10 minutes later I arrived and after a rather nervous wait, the Empid put in a brief appearance. It showed briefly on and off for the next 3 hours that I watch it. The pager was carrying the bird as Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, but I wasn't really convinced about that and discussed the ID with a few locals. (It now appears that my scepticism was well founded and that the bird is an Alder Flycatcher).

Here's some naff video of it.

This rather cute little Grey Seal pup was sheltering on the beach on the way back

Grey Seal pup

26 Sep 2010, Waxham

I only popped out for the afternoon, but the wind had subsided considerably from yesterday and a few hours around Waxham finally paid dividends when I heard a Yellow-browed Warbler give a short call and found the bird feeding in some sycamores just north of Shangri-la Cottage. It's a bit out of focus, but you tell what it is.

Yellow-browed Warbler

27 Sep 2010, Waxham

The wind was north-easterly today, so I started out at Wells Wood, looking for yesterday's Western Bonelli's Warbler. The bird didn't show, but it was obvious there were lots of birds on the move; Ring Ouzels, Brambling, Siskin, Pied Flycatchers, and loads of Song Thrushes and Redwing were flying around. I decided to head off to Burnham Overy Dunes to see what migrants were around. I spent 6 hours in the dunes and the west side of Holkham Pines and saw lots of birds, but not the 'biggy' I was hoping for.
Shorelark and Wood Warbler were the best birds of the day, but 7 Ring Ouzels, 6+ Redstarts, 40 Chiffchaff, 10 Willow Warblers, 5+ Garden Warblers, Lesser Whitethroat, and Northern Wheatears were all nice to see, but the most amazing thing was the amount of thrushes. I estimated at least 2000 Song Thrush, 150 Redwing and about 200 Robins. I hardly remember a second when there wasn't a Song Thrush within a few metres.

Shorelark, Burnham Overy Dunes

Wood Warbler, Holkham Pines

Redstart, Burnham Overy Dunes

Garden Warbler, Burnham Overy Dunes

Blackcap, Burnham Overy Dunes

Northern Wheatear, Burnham Overy Dunes

And just to show it's not ALL about the migrants...

Little Egret, Burnham Overy Staithe

11 Sep 2010 - Holme

2010-09-11T16:19:00.000+01:00

Headed up to Holme NOA today in the hope of seeing the Arctic Warbler which was caught and ringed on Monday, but had been a real nut to crack for the rest of the week, only showing once or twice a day. I arrived at 7.30 and spent the first 90 minutes trying to get to grips with the tit flock in the NWT car park, but the bird departed so I joined the small throng of birders in the pines, where after chasing around for 5 minutes I finally saw the bird low down in a pine tree. The Arctic Warbler remained very difficult to see, spending all of its time near the top of pines and never showing for more than 10 seconds.

Redwell Marsh was not quite so frustrating, with a lovely juvenile Red-necked Pharalope feeding on the marsh, along with a nice apricot-coloured Ruff and a couple of Green Sandpipers.

Red-necked Phalarope, juvenile, Redwell Marsh, Holme NOA, Norfolk

Green Sandpiper, Redwell Marsh, Holme NOA, Norfolk


Green Sandpiper, Redwell Marsh, Holme NOA, Norfolk

Green Sandpiper, Redwell Marsh, Holme NOA, Norfolk

Ruff, juvenile, Redwell Marsh, Holme NOA, Norfolk

1 Sep 10, Osprey - from the office!

2010-09-02T17:10:00.001+01:00

I'd long predicted seeing a Red Kite over my workplace at The John Innes Centre and when I first saw a large raptor circling from my office window I thought today was the day. The bird was back-on and could just make out the dark back and slightly downward-flexed wings. I was expecting the bird to circle round and reveal a long forked tail and white wing patches, but when it did turn I was momentarily flummoxed. Instead of red-brown underparts with a big white wing patches, I was confronted with a short-tailed bird with black and white underparts, with a large black carpel patch. "Oh my God! Osprey! Osprey! Look up here - it's a fuckin' Osprey!!!" was my reaction to my somewhat bemused office mates. I grabbed my bins and watched the bird as it soared around, gaining height on a thermal. I rushed round to a the office of a work college who I knew was interested in birds, but by the time we returned to see the bird it had drifted off west.
This now brings my work list to 81. BUBO Work list

30 Aug 10 - A windy Bank Holiday Monday

2010-09-02T16:41:00.004+01:00

Even a 5 a.m. rise wasn't early enough to earn me a spot in the fully-occupied Sheringham seawatching shelter, so at 5.50 a.m I found myself sheltering behind a small wall at the far western end of Sheringham promenade with my scope trained on the 'busiest' area of sea. The seawatching started off quite well, with plenty of skuas, mainly Arctic and Great but also a single Pom. I got onto a possible adult Long-tailed Skua, which promptly disappeared behind a trough, never to emerge from the other end of it. The rush of shearwaters that others had witnessed the day before wasn't apparent this morning. I saw only two shearwaters - one Sooty and one Manx, both heading west, into the wind. There were lost of waterfowl heading west too. A few hundred Common Teal and lots of Common Scoter, along with a few Pintail and a single Greater Scaup. A few Arctic Terns also added to a bit of diversity.

After watching the sea for 4 hours, I headed off to Muckleburgh Hill as it was about the only sheltered spot that might have been harbouring some migrants. A Spotted Flycatcher was nice to see, and the large flock of Chiffchaffs and Long-tailed Tits occupied about an hour of my time.

One of many Chiffchaffs at Muckleburgh Hill.

I then headed off to Cley where I was first on the scene of a juvenile Red-backed Shrike that had just been found at Walsey Hills.

After that I spent the rest of the afternoon on Cley reserve in Dauke's hide, photographing waders and waterfowl. Gargany Some of my efforts are below.

Juvenile Ruff, Cley.

Curlew Sandpiper, juvenile, Cley.

Spotted Redshank, adult winter, Cley.

Curlew Sandpiper, juvenile in flight with Dunlin.

Curlew Sandpiper, juveniles in flight with Dunlin.

Common Snipe, Cley.

Curlew Sandpiper, juveniles with Dunlin.

Garganey, female.

It's third time lucky for White-tailed Plover

2010-07-12T20:52:00.003+01:00

So, after travelling more than 1700 miles in search of White-tailed Plover in the UK I finally got to put this bird on my British list today. I was kicking myself for not going to see the bird at Rainham Marshes a few days earlier, thinking that Spain v Germany in the World Cup was a suitable substitute (how wrong I was). Anyway, when this bird turned up at Dungeness RSPB yesterday I decided to drive down over night and look for the bird at dawn. After watching the World Cup Final, I set out from Norwich and arrived at Dunge at 02.00am. I tried to get some sleep, but the heavens opened and I spent the whole night in a noisy thunderstorm not getting any sleep at all. Anyway, after a rather worrying start, when I couldn't find the bird for half-an-hour from dawn, I finally found it feeding on the edge of an overgrown pool. I watched the bird for an hour and a half and then again later on. Some nice photos and video of the bird below.
Not sure what was going on with RBA this morning though - I phoned the news out at 5.05 and again at 6.30, but the news didn't go out until about 7.30. Oh how a bird loses it's 'mega-status' so quickly these days (it is, after all, still only the 5th British record).
I also managed to see the pair of Purple Herons that are nesting on the reserve. They should have well grown young now which will be fledging over the next week or so
Below are some photos and video of the White-tailed Plover. Enjoy!

5 Jun 10 - 5 (Five) Black-winged Stilts!

2010-06-19T18:10:00.000+01:00

It took a bit of racing about, but I finally connected with 5 Black-winged Stilts at Titchwell RSPB.
I was just arriving in Holt when the pager bleeped to tell me there were 4 Black-winged Stilts at Titchwell, so I drove passed my exit to Cley and headed off to Titchwell. By the time I arrived, the number had grown to 5, a Norfolk record, so I quickly parked up and head out onto the marsh only to meet Paul Eele who informed me they'd just flew off east, but may have landed just over the bank at the end of Gypsy Lane.
I dashed back to my car and headed off to Gypsy Lane. After 10 minutes I was nicely situated in the middle of the saltmarsh when my pager bleeped to tell me they'd returned to Titchwell - doh!
Anyway, I headed back to Titchwell to find all 5 birds feeding on the freshmarsh.
Although they were fairly distant and didn't stay together as a group very much, I did manage to get a couple of shots of 4 birds together.

9 May 2010 - Winterton Dunes

2010-06-19T17:51:00.000+01:00

It's been ages since I updated my blog. I blame this on Stoke City's great season and my general tardiness.
Anyway, I got down to Winterton Dunes this afternoon to see the rather showy Woodchat Shrike that had been hanging around.

17 Jan 10 - An afternoon round The Norfolk Broads

2010-01-17T19:26:00.000Z

My main mission today was to go and have a look at Barton Broad, which had Ferruginous Duck and drake Smew there. I tried last weekend, but it was blowing a NE gale right across the ice-covered broad straight into my face and I really couldn't be bothered to stand there in the freezing-cold looking right across the other side of the broad in the fading afternoon light. Today though, was to be different. With most of the snow gone, ice melted and the sun in the sky, I diverted to Wroxham Broad to have a quick check. Not much going on there. Lots of Tufted Ducks and lots of small gulls roosting, but not much else.

I arrived at Barton Broad at about 1.30pm and the 'Fudge' Duck, alongwith 3 drake Smew were showing really well in the, now ice-free, bay infront of the the observation platform.

Then it was off to Rush Hills Scrape where there was quite a lot of coming and going of ducks (mainly Teal and Shoveler). A nice Lesser Redpoll stopped to feed in a nearby Alder giving some nice photo opportunities. A walk a little further along the Weavers Way provided more Redpoll, a fly-over drake Goosander and a couple of roosting Tawny Owls.

On the way back, the number of duck had risen quite markedly up to 250 Common Teal, but Andy Kane appeared on the opposite bank (presumably to do some maintenance work) and all the duck got up and flew off. Presumably there was a redhead Smew with them as one was reported there around the same time.Anyway, a nice day around the broads and it's good to see the back of the snow and ice.

Fame at last!

2009-11-03T15:24:00.002Z

The BBC News 24 team obviously saw my potential and singled me out of the crowd of c700 birders at the Eastern Crowned Warbler for this interview. I'm just waiting for the TV offers to come flooding in. Expect to see me on Springwatch next year...

15 Oct 09 - Pied Wheatear, Horsey Gap, Norfolk

2009-10-15T21:37:00.000+01:00

Dashed out for an extended lunch today for a quick twitch up to Horsey Gap to see the 1st-winter male Pied Wheatear sat on the pillbox just south of the NT car park. The bird called quite often, a soft "chit", similar to a Stonechat, but without the hard 'tacking' property. It often flew in the air and hovered a-la Eurasian Skylark and this enabled viewers to see the sooty underwing and characteristic tail pattern.

The bird was really co-operative and sat on the pillbox at close range for extended periods. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the Paddyfield Warbler at Snettisham. After sitting on news of it for 6 hour, word finally got out but the bird had gone. Thanks guys - not!

13 Oct 09 - Raptors in Oxon

2009-10-15T21:19:00.000+01:00

Whilst driving around Oxfordshire looking for gulls, there was a number of photo opps for raptors, particularly a nice perched-up Common Buzzard and numerous Red Kites.
Here's a selection....

13 Oct 09 - Azorean Yellow-legged Gull in Oxon

2009-10-15T20:48:00.003+01:00

After seeing London's Brown Shrike I headed off to Didcot and spent the rest of the day searching for the Azorean Yellow-legged Gull that Ian Lewington found last week at the dump between Didcot and Appleford. After going back and forward between the fields and the dump pool for 5 hours, I finally decided enough was enough and decided to give the fields one last look, but before I could start sifting through all the gulls a Perigrine attacked them and all the gulls from all the fields flew up and headed to the dump, so I decided to give the pool one last look and sure enough, there it was swimming around with the LBBG's. Azorean Gull is a real beast as can be seen from the photos below.

13 Oct 09 - Brown Shrike in London

2009-10-15T20:39:00.002+01:00

OK, I know most* people will say that Staines is in Surrey, or Middlesex or somewhere like that, but as far as I'm concerned, if it's inside the M25 - it's in London.

*southerners

After not having time to go to Flanelborough last autumn and not bothering with Marcus Lawson's 'Red-backed Shrike' on Bryher those many moons ago, it was great to finally catch up with Brown Shrike. I've only seen adults in Asia, so it was nice to see a first-winter so well.
There are a number of features which identifies the bird as Brown. The black mask with flaring white supercillium, the very short primary projection, the round head and round body, giving it a rather rotund appearance, the quite long, but more importantly, thin tail with the outer-tail feathers being about 2/3 the length of the longest tail feathers, the plain looking tertials and the fairly unmarked flanks.

18 Sep 09 - Burnham Overy Dunes - A taste of autumn

2009-09-25T08:41:00.010+01:00

Headed out to the north coast this morning for a dawn(ish) raid on Burnham Overy Dunes. Got there at about 7.30 and bird the dunes, into the west end of Holkham Pines until 14.30. I was pretty knackered by the end of it, having kicked and booted every likely looking bush from Gun Hill to Holkham. The highlights of the day was a fly-over Lapland Bunting and a nice Snow Bunting (perhaps my earliest Norfolk record ever?) on the boardwalk which decided to fly off just as I got my camera on it. There were quite a few migrants in the dunes, although nothing to get exited about: 8 Redstarts, 5 Lesser Whitethroats, 6 Northern Wheatears and 2 Pied Flycatchers (in the pines), as well as about 1000 Pink-footed Geese over Holkham freshmarsh.Still plenty of hirundines about, with roughly 200 Barn Swallows over the staithe on the high tide.

Northern Wheatear

Common Redstart (male)

28 Aug - 4 Sep, Cornwall. A Seawatchers guide on how to arrive too late and leave to early

2009-09-06T17:16:00.013+01:00

What have a good joke and seawatching got in common?
Timing!
And my awful timing whilst on a family holiday in Cornwall last week means that the joke is well and truly on me. My first bit of bad timing is excusable, I suppose. We couldn't move into our self-catering cottage at Pendeen until 4pm on 28 Aug, so by the time I arrived at Pendeen Watch, I'd already missed a Little Shearwater, Wilson's Petrel, Yelkouan Shearwater, Cory's Shearwater, 6 Great Shearwaters and 5 Sabine's Gulls. Anyway, I did manage to see 2 Great Shearwaters, 5+ Grey Phalaropes, Red-necked Phalarope (a real mega in Cornwall), 2 adult Sabine's Gulls plus lots of Balearic and Sooty Shearwaters. I also managed to miss a Wilson's Petrel that when passed whilst I was there through a combination of having a rather narrow field of view in my 20-60 zoom eyepiece and pretty bad directions from the finder of the bird.
My next bit of bad timing came two days later at Porthgwarra. I'd been seawatching from dawn, but had to leave at about 10.00 to get back for breakfast. Anyway, at 11.27, one of THREE Fea's Petrels that I was unknowingly about to miss over the next 4 days, passed PG that morning. I can accept missing these birds as they were all fairly well in the middle of the day and being on a family holiday meant that I really was never going to be there long enough to witness any of these sightings.
The last bit of bad timing is really inexcusable though. The wind had been strong SW for 3 days and was due to turn NW on 3 Sep, classic conditions for a great Pendeen seawatch. Due to the inclement weather, Angela and Matthew said they didn't mind me spending the day at Pendeen, so I headed out at dawn to join the 30 or so other birders that had gathered, anticipating a good days seawatching. Although the Manx Shearwaters were passing at a rate of about 4000 per hour, the morning started badly for me, failing to get onto 2 different Wilson's Petrels, but after seawatching for 12 hours I'd notched up a decent list, having seen 1 Great Shearwater, 2 Cory's, Sabine's Gulls, 3 Grey Phalaropes, a few Storm Petrels, plus lots of Balearic and Sooty Shearwaters and Great and Arctic Skuas. Things had really tailed off by 6.30 pm, so at 6.50 I headed off back home to buy fish and chips for the family as a 'thank you' for not complaining about me spending nearly the whole day birding. But, 30 minutes later, I found myself gazing in wretched anguish at the message on my pager: "Cornwall MADEIRAN PETREL flew west past Pendeen at 7.08pm". The bird had taken a few minutes to go past and Mark Golley had tried to call me to let me know, but the phone reception was pretty week in the cottage and it had gone straight to voicemail.
Oh well! That's birding for you. If you don't stay until the end, or don't check that last bush, or wait for that small wader to turn around, you don't know what you're going to miss.

Anyway, I did see some good birds during the holiday other than the seabirds listed above. The juvenile Citrine Wagtail at Marazion Marsh RSPB was nice and provided some good video (see below) as was the Baird's Sand which showed well on the beach at Marazion.

This is a short video of the Citrine Wagtail

This is a longer video.

Baird's Sandpiper (juvenile), Marazion Beach.

Baird's Sandpiper (juvenile), Marazion Beach.

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Salthouse, 23 Jul 09

2009-07-26T18:01:00.007+01:00

I couldn't get to the Great Spotted Cuckoo (a Norfolk tick for me) when it first turned up last night as I was off to watch The Dickies at The Waterfront in Norwich, so as soon as it turned up this morning, I was off! It was really distant, and I mean REALLY distant, when I first arrived (518 metres according to Google maps), but a bit of local knowledge meant that I could get much closer to the bird without disturbing it and got some really nice views, photographs and video. The bird sat in the same place for the 45 minutes or so that I watched it, often falling asleep for a while before waking up and preening. About 15 minutes after I left the bird flew off and was only seen briefly that evening before disappearing for good.

Here are a selection of photographs and a video of the bird.

Once started, click 'HQ' for high-quality video.

Pushing some Zzz's before pushing off

Rare Bird Alert (RBA) X3 pager review

2009-07-04T21:06:00.007+01:00

Rare Bird Alert (RBA) have recently released their custom designed and built pager, the RBA-X3, to their customers. I've had the new RBA X3 pager for just over a week now, so I thought I'd write an initial review from my first experiences.

Like its predecessor (the 21a), the X3 is compact, lightweight, has a clear display and fits snugly into the holster (which now sits vertically, not horizontally, onto your belt).

It comes with quick-start instructions and a much more thorough 23 page setup guide. Most of the set up is fairly straightforward, but reference to the guide is necessary for some of the more advanced features. Navigation around the pager has completely changed. The X3 has a 'folder menu view' as its main interface into the pager. This interface reminds me a lot of the Windows Explorer interface found on a PC. It shows all the news folders that the user has access to, the settings folder (similar to 'Control Panel' in windows), the clock folder and an 'About' folder. Physical navigation is now through 3 buttons, a green 'confirm' button, a red 'cancel' button and a 4-way up/down/left/right button (see photos below).

As a user of the old RBA 21a pager, the news services I had access to were 'Mega alert', National news, Earlybird, plus 3 pre-set Local News subscriptions. With the new pager, the user can instantly 'subscribe' to any local regions they desire, up to a limit of 4 (depending on their membership level). If they wish to swap one area for another (say the user lived in Norfolk and had Norfolk/Suffolk, Lincs, Yorks, and Wildlife as their 4 subscription local channels and they were going on holiday to Cornwall, they could simply unsubscribe to one of their local channels (say, York), and subscribe to the Devon/Cornwall channel. They would then get all the local news for Devon/Cornwall. When they returned from holiday they could then unsubscribe from Devon/Cornwall and re-subscribe to Yorks (on any other channel for that matter). This feature is free-of-charge and the amount of channel changes is unrestricted.

Another scenario where this could be helpful would be if the same person wanted to wait on news to twitch a Buff-breasted Sand in Cambs. Instead of putting their National channel to bleep and be notified about every rare/scarce bird in the country, they could subscribe to the Cambs channel and set that on alter, therefore only being alerted to birds seen in the Cambs region.

Other folders which the user has access to are National, Earlybird, Breaking Megas (with the actual message, rather than just triggering an alert as in the 21a), Rarities (has only 'upper-case' rarities) and Breaking Rarities (news of individual rarities that have been previously been unreported by RBA, very useful if you're a year-lister!). All the folders are individually customisable with respect to alert status and alert tone.

Another difference in the X3 is that each folder displays the amount of unread messages, so if you have a folder set to 'store', whereby the messages are immediately stored, rather than displayed, the user can keep a track of the amount of unread messages in that folder.

The X3 pager is also customisable, to suite user preferences. The default home page can be set to blank (save batteries), the clock, the folder view, or 'About' (where you can add your name and phone number in case you loose your pager). I have mine set to go blank and then start up in the 'About' view where I have my name and number in case someone finds my pager (see photos below), although beware when peronsalising your pager - the amount of characters it allows you to enter when personalising your pager is more than will physically display in the actual 'About' view! Amongst other preferences, the font size can be set to 3 different font sizes (plus bold/non-bold – see photos below), the contrast of the message lettering can be varied and the amount of time the backlight stays on for can be changed. On the subject of the backlight, the light on the X3 is excellent, being much brighter and clearer than the rather faint and unreliable 21a backlight.

So far, so good eh. But I do find a few things annoying with the X3. Firstly, it's a bit of a 'nanny' pager. As I mentioned above, the number of unread messages are displayed next to the folder name. But for a message to be read, the user must have read (or at least displayed to himself) the whole message. If I'm looking through my messages and there's a Spoonbill at Loch Einich in the Highlands, I'm not going to be overly interested and just want to flick on to the next message, and not have to page down through lines and lines of directions every time it's reported (and on the initial display of the message, the 'down' button only moves the message down by one line instead of the next page of unread message, so if the message runs 10 lines over the length of the first page then you have to tab down 10 times to get to the end of the message). The problem is though that if I just flick through to the next message the Spoonbill message will be flagged as 'unread' and marked as an unread message in the folder view (see photos below). The only way to remove it as an unread message is to go back to the folder, find the Spoonbill message, open it (as with the 21a the first line of text is displayed as a summary) and page down through the whole message (this time tabbing down takes you down a page at a time instead of a line at a time) until the end of the message is reached. Alternatively, one can open the folder and select 'mark all as read'. Whatever, it's a bit of a pain and I can see it become a totally useless feature, as users will quickly get fed up of tabbing through lines of long messages in which they have no interest and just start to ignore the 'unread messages' number. Perhaps if an 'X4' pager is released, then they might mark the messages as read once the first page of the message has been displayed.

Another gripe is the battery. On average, the battery in my old 21a pager lasted between 4-5 weeks. I've had my X3 pager for only 1 week so far and the (rather helpful) battery strength indicator says I've already used half of the battery. Perhaps it's because I had to read through all of those messages to get rid of that annoying unread messages indicator! Also, changing the battery is a bit of a nightmare (and is almost acknowledged as such in the instructions "Installing the battery requires a little practice, then it's easy!" is the claim. The advice is to use the holster to leaver off the battery cover, but both the battery cover and the holster seem a bit thin and brittle and feel like one of them will snap. I've practised taking the battery cover off about 4 times and some small chips have started to appear in the battery cover already.

As far as the reception of the the X3 goes, it's hard to say if it's better or worse than the 21a. Certainly, if you follow RBA advice and keep the pager vertical, the reception is much better than when laid on its side. Both my house and work place have trouble with reception (or perhaps interference) and the X3 has some trouble in these areas, as did the 21a. All in all, there's probably not much difference in reception quality between the two pagers. One thing that is different is that garbled parts of messages on the 21a usually appeared with lines through them, whereas the X3 apparently tries to 'guess' the correct word. This might be helpful on minor garbles, but doesn't work with longer stretches of garbles.

So, all in all the X3 is a really nice pager. I've only brushed over the main features in this review, but there are plenty of other things new to the X3. The feature which allows users to vary what local news channels they are subscribed to is a major plus and a great technological step forward - worth the £69 charge for the pager alone. The unread messages feature was a good idea, but having to read the full length of the message before it becomes a 'read' message will probably render this feature useless and redundant and this should be a major re-think on any software updates.

Holster and pager viewed from above

Holster and pager viewed from the side

The pager homepage (with owners name and contact number, in case the owner looses their pager)

The pager in folder view (note unread messages)

Pager with small bold font.

Pager with medium regular font.

Pager with large regular font.

Taking a bad tern

2009-06-21T21:57:00.003+01:00

What a twat! Not since marrying Tina Newcombe at the age of 22 have I made such a bad decision. I'd spent Saturday in the Peak District, walking along Mam Tor with Angela and Matthew and then headed off to my mum's house in Stoke. As we were arriving in Stoke, the pager started bleeping, telling me about the Afrikaan Royal Tern in Land-dudno, Wales. I quickly dropped the family off at mum's and headed off to North Wales. Unfortunately, by the time I got to Chester the bird had flown off high and hadn't been seen for well over an hour. My mind turned to Co. Cork and Black Rock Sands, (where the bird had put in all to brief appearences before heading for the horizon never to be seen again - in the same place anyway) and then to my family waiting patiently at my mum's house. So, I filled up with fuel and stupidly started heading back. 15 minutes later, the pager was bleaping, informing me of the Royal Tern's reappearance. I quick handbrake-turn on the A51 and I was on my way back to North Wales. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived (6.30 pm) the bird really had disappeared. An all too brief return by the bird for 5 luck observers (of which I wasn't one) at 8pm was the only other time it might have been seen. The worst of it is, is that the bird flew off at 6pm, 20 minutes before I arrived. Had I not turned around and lost half-an-hour, I would have arrived on site at about 5.50 and seen the bird for about 10 minutes before if flew off.
Why did I turn round? Why!!!!!???

Wet 'n Windy on the North Norfolk Coast - 7 Jun 09

2009-06-07T16:59:00.003+01:00

Headed up to North Norfolk for what turned out to be a very wet day.
First stop was Cley NWT. Hardly any waders on Pat's/Simmonds scrapes, but North Scrape was much more productive. 2 imm Eurasian Spoonbills were on the scrape and actually woke up for a while and started feeding (see below). Also on the scrape were 2 Little Stints and 2 1st-summer Little Gulls.

Next it was along to Thornham to have another look at the Black-winged Pratincole. It was in the ploughed field by the reservoir, but the light wasn't too good and I only got one half-decent photo of it.

Then, finally to Titchwell. It hammered it down with rain after I got to Parrinder Hide, but other than about 500 Common Swift pushed down by the rain, not much else was on show. 5 Little Gulls and a Ruff were the only thing of note. A quick dash to the car between rain showers and that was the end of the day.

Farne Islands and Scotland - 26 - 31 May

2009-06-02T19:18:00.009+01:00

A family holiday, culminating in Angela running the Edinburgh Marathon, was taken last week. The main birding spots were The Farne Islands and Fowlsheugh (an RSPB seabird reserve, just south of Stoneheaven, at Crawton). Nearly all the seabirds we saw either had eggs or were preparing nest sites.
The best of my photos are shown below.

Arctic Terns

Puffins

Razorbills

Kittywakes

Common Eider

Shag

Fulmar

Guillemots

3 May 09 - If you're asking, I'm dancing!

2009-05-10T19:12:00.003+01:00

I found this pair of Cranes displaying next to Horsey Mill today, trying to drive off a couple of immatures (last years young?). Enjoy...

American Golden Plover

2009-04-13T20:22:00.005+01:00

I went to see the AGP on Breydon Water, Great Yarmouth today. The bird was showing really well, on the near grassy sandbank west of the bird hide. At one point it did a full side-on wing stretch and showed off it's grey underwing very well. I've captured it doing another wing-stretch, slightly at an angle, but the grey axillaries can still be seen. The bird's starting its body moult now and a few dark marks can be seen on the belly.

18 Jan 09 – Los Angeles, California

2009-01-19T20:36:00.005Z

As I had 5.30pm flight out of LAX, I had plenty of time to do some birding during the day. Andy Birch had kindly offered to take me birding for the morning, despite having quite a hectic home life with his 3-month-old baby girl. He picked me up from my motel and we headed down to Marina del Rey to look for gulls. There’d been a couple of Thayer’s Gulls around, but they were not on show and the only gull of any note was nice 3^rd-winter F1-looking hybrid Glaucous-winged x Western Gull. There were a few nice birds around the marina area though, in the way of a couple of Pacific Divers, Horned (Slavonian) Grebe, Royal Tern, c30 Surfbirds and a single Black Turnstone.

Next we headed off to the South Coast Botanic Gardens, where a Thick-billed Kingbird had been seen regularly recently. We headed down to the lake where the bird had been seen and were soon watching it perched on an exposed branch at the top of a dead tree overlooking the lake. The bird moved around and we bumped into it a couple of times as we birded other areas around the lake. There had been a couple of Varied Thrushes reported in the more overgrown areas, but investigations of scratching noises produced only a couple of Hermit Thrushes and a Pacific Fox Sparrow. There were a few other birds of interest around the gardens though. Bell’s Vireo was probably the best bird we bumped into, but Red-shafted Flickers, Red-shouldered Hawk and Red-tailed Hawk all added to a nice ‘red’ theme and Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Robin and Townsend Warbler all added to the variation.

And that’s the end of my California ‘business’ trip. I love California. It’s a great place, with great weather and great birds. I look forward to my next visit.

Hybird 3rd winter Glaucous-winged x Western Gull

Salton Sea, California 17 Jan 09

2009-01-19T20:35:00.015Z

This was mainly a travel day from Salton Sea to Los Angeles, but I decided to have a quick look at the successful Sprague’s Pipit field again and see if I could digi-scope some pipits. I headed straight for the shorter grass and within a few minutes I’d found my first Sprague’s Pipit. Unfortunately, the bird flushed before I saw it and it flew up calling (similar to a the liquid “shreeep” call of a Richard’s Pipit, but weaker and often given twice). It gained height and flew off east until it was a speck in the bins and then eventually disappeared without any sign it was going to land any time soon!

I hunted around for about 5 minutes more, when I flushed another bird. This time it only flew about 30 metres and landed back in the field. I walked around to get sun-side of it and soon found it wandering around in the grass with a second bird nearby. I spent the next 2 hours with the bird, slowly walking it to the end of the field, letting it stop and feed every few minutes until it seemed relatively happy with my presence. I stopped to digi-scope it at every opportunity, until the bird reached the end of the field, much of which was devoid of any vegetation. Although it hesitated to go out into the open, I finally coaxed it out and it showed really well, occasionally running up the sandy bank of a drainage channel wall which bordered the field.

After a while I left the bird and spent a short while walking another part of the field. 5 Chestnut-collared Longspurs where a nice surprise – a bird I haven’t seen for about 15 years, on the Canadian Prairies. Also a flock of 30 Horned Larks flew around the field, one of which landed quite close and provided a good photo opportunity.

And so my trip to Salton Sea came to an end. I drove back to the motel, packed up my stuff and headed off to LA.

The usual view of Sprague's Pipit

With some patience, some good views of Sprague's Pipits can be obtained

Horned Lark

Salton Sea, California 16 Jan 09

2009-01-19T20:33:00.018Z

I started off just after dawn at another site for Sprague’s Pipit, this time a bit closer to the prison. From Wiest (which runs north-south, just east of the prison) I took Peterson road west. When the bushes that line the road stop and there is a single tree to the north of it, park safely to the side of the road and check the field on the south side of the road (you need to cross the drainage ditch by going over the sluice). This time I was in luck. The grass in the east side of the field is quite long, but this thins out and in this shorter grass I managed to get views of at least 3 Sprague’s Pipit (see my article on finding these birds HERE).

After finishing at the field I headed off to Red Hill Boat Launch. There were lots of waders roosting in the bay on the right long Garst Road, mainly American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts and Ring-billed Gulls. The wires on the side of the road had lots of Barn and Tree Swallows and the area of mud and sand at the end of Garst Road had lots of waders and ducks, but unfortunately, lots of hunters too.

I headed off to the boat launch and stop at a couple of sites along the eastern and western side. Yellow-footed Gull was the best bird I saw here. There was an adult mooching around with a bunch of cormorants, plus a bird which could have been a first-winter, with white head and underparts, but it didn’t move around much, so I couldn’t get much more on it. Lots of Brown and White Pelicans on the water here too.

Next stop was the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge Headquaters (what a mouthful!). This was the first place where I’d seen Snow Geese in any large numbers (about 5000), but they were feeding in rather distant fields, not close enough to pick out any Ross’s Geese in them. When the got up and flew around I could pick out two blue-phase birds, one an adult, the other a juvenile. The area around the visitors centre was good for a number of birds; Gambell’s Quail, Verdin and Abert’s Towhee were all seen around this area. Obsidian Butte was the next stop. There had been Lesser Black-backed and Yellow-footed Gull reported at this site recently, but the number of gulls was quite low and only Glaucous-winged and Herring Gulls could be seen.

Next I thought I’d look for Mountain Plovers in the burned fields dotted around south-east Salton Sea. The first burned field I found was at the junction of West Rutherford and Brandt. This field had a small flock of 33 Mountain Plovers in, but the best flock I found was a flock of ~200 birds just south of the junction of Kalin Rd and Sinclair Rd.

I finished the day at Unit 1, which was full of birds! The rarest bird was a male Eurasian Wigeon, feeding on the ponds between the observation tower and the Salton Sea. Other birds seen from the observation tower were Northern Harrier, White-tailed Kite, White-faced Ibis and Yuma Clapper Rail (heard).There were about 150 Sandhill Cranes feeding in the fields along the approach road, along with about another 5000 Snow Geese. Many of these birds were close enough to examine closely and I could make out quite a lot of Ross’s Geese in them. The wader pools to the west of the approach road were particularly good. Lots of Long-billed Dowitchers, Least Sands, Semi-p Sand, and this was the only place I saw Stilt Sandpipers (about 20 in total). A good end to a memorable day.

Male Gambell's Quail

Female Gambell's Quail (left) and Burrowing Owl (right) with pellets.

Part of a Snow and Ross's Goose flock (left) and 1st-winter Ring-billed Gull (right)

Salton Sea, California 15 Jan 09

2009-01-19T20:31:00.001Z

Arrived in Salton Sea and stayed at the Brawley Inn, on the west side of Brawley next to Hwy 86. I headed straight off to an area near Calipatria State Prison, at the junction of Blair and Montgomery, where both Sprague’s Pipit and Chestnut-collared Longspur had been reported recently. I spent the last 1 ½ hours of light walking around the fields looking for Sprague’s Pipit, but to no avail. The only birds of note that I did see was Horned Lark (fly-over, calling) and a bird which might have been a Red-throated Pipit. It was in the field to the north-east of the junction and then after watching it for about 10 seconds it flew off over a drainage ditch to the field south-east of the junction. The bird was feeding with numerous Savannah Sparrows. It had a heavily streaked back with white ‘tramlines’ running down its back (with an olive background), with white underparts, boldly streaked black. The face and ear coverts were plain olive with a faint creamy supercillium and it had a thin, pipit-like bill. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay very long and flew off without calling. As I still needed Sprague’s Pipit and it was a long way round to entrance to the field it had flown to, I decided not to pursue it. As I got crippling views of Sprague’s Pipit the next two mornings, I wish I had gone after it now!

Finding Sprague's Pipits at Salton Sea, CA

2009-01-17T05:05:00.014Z

Sprague's Pipit has been found increasingly in the Salton Sea region

After spending a whole afternoon failing to see Sprague's Pipit and then finding them the next morning, I thought I'd write a note about how to find them. Sprague's Pipits occur in dry fallow fields in the agricultural areas on the south side of Salton Sea. I saw them near Calipatria State Prison, on the south side of East Peterson Road, about quarter of a mile east of the prison. From Wiest (which runs north-south, just east of the prison) I took Peterson road west. When the bushes that line the road stop and there is a single tree to the north of it, park safely to the side of the road and check the field on the south side of the road (you need to cross the drainage ditch by going over the sluice).
The field the birds were in (at least 3 of them) was quite different from the fallow field I'd tried the night before. It had lots of small furrows running down it with narrow 'ridges' of higher ground which were slightly more overgrown than the lower areas flanking them. The furrows were very small furrows, not deep ones, but just deep enough to make it a bit awkward to walk on. The field appeared to have plenty of weeds and native grasses growing in it. The most easterly part of the field had a lot of long grass (about 1 foot high) which contained lots of Savannah Sparrows, but the pipits preferred the more open area on the west side of the field. When flushed, the birds would frequently fly to the overgrown ridges. The key in seeing them on the ground is to watch where the birds land, then move round with the sun behind you and walk slowly towards the point where the bird landed. Scan the ground about 30 metres in front of you and look for the birds creeping around in the furrows. The Sprague's Pipits that I saw seemed to prefer to walk away from me rather than fly and I obtained quite good views of the birds because of this.
One note: I spent a total of about 6 hours in total walking around fields near the prison and was never bothered by prison staff or farm workers.

Sprague's Pipit habitat

14 Jan 09 - Formosa and Tijuana Sloughs

2009-01-16T05:54:00.007Z

The main aim of today was to stake out Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow on the high tide in Mission Bay, but the tide didn't seem to be high enough and I drew a blank.
I started off at first light at Formosa Slough. There were plenty of shorebirds there, mainly dowitchers and Semi-p Sands. The best birds were two female Hooded Mergansers on the relief channel between the lake and the flood control. There were also 3 Little Blue Herons (2 adults and 1 juvenile) and Hermit Thrush.

I then headed off to Mission Bay where I spent an hour either side of high tide failing to see the Nelson's. There were plenty of other birds around though, including Belding's and Large-billed Sparrows, 4 Violet-green Swallows and Clapper Rail. Then it was off to the South Bay Marine Biological Study Area (what a mouthful that is!). Great place though with loads of birds. 30 White Pelicans, 15 Bonaparte's Gulls, 200 Black Brants, 20 Royal Terns, 100 Forster's Terns, American Herring Gull, Osprey and Red Knot.

The mouth of Tijuana Slough was good, with the highlight being 3 Pacific Golden Plovers. Also in the area was 30 Royal Terns, Caspian Tern, Greater Yellowlegs, 15 Surf Scoters, Whimbrel, Red-breasted Mergansers and 4 Buff-bellied Pipits.

Pair of Hooded Mergansers, male left, female right

Black Brants

Buff-bellied Pipits

Pacific Golden Plovers

13 Jan 09 - Mangrove Yellow Warbler

2009-01-16T04:51:00.013Z

California's first twitchable Mangrove Yellow Warbler turned up just down the road from my hotel today, so I headed off to see it. It's a fantastic looking bird, a full male. I managed to get some photos of it, but they weren't very good, so I've included some linked photos taken by photographers that were there at the time.

Mangrove Yellow Warbler (photo taken by Tom Lindner)

A juvenile Coopers Hawk was also good value, eating a Mourning Dove in one of the trees in the car park.

Juvenile Coopers Hawk

11 + 13 Jan 09, Mission Valley, San Diego

2009-01-16T03:36:00.007Z

The San Diego river runs behind the hotel and has some great birds in the trees which line the river and reedbeds along it. A map of the area can be found HERE

It takes about 2 - 3 hours to do properly, and I've managed to get out and do the area twice during my stay. The best bird I found was a Tropical Kingbird, probably the same bird that Paul Lehman had seen in December but hadn't got good enough views of to identify safely. Other birds over the two visits included 2 Black-throated Grey, a male Wilson's and Townsend Warblers, California Towhee, Downy Woodpecker, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American and Lesser Goldfinches, Cedar Waxwings, Hutton's Vireo, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Spotted Sandpiper, Red-shouldered Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Osprey, Belted Kingfisher and Nutmeg Manikin

The nearby Riverwalk golfcourse also had 17 Greater White-fronted Geese, Cinnamon Teal and an escaped Ruddy Shelduck.

Female/juvenile Black-throated Grey Warbler

Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk

Winter plumage Spotted Sandpiper

Three photos of the Tropical Kingbird showing the long bill, brown tail and pale edged tertials, typical of this species.

Orange County, California, 9 Jan 09

2009-01-10T06:23:00.016Z

I've finally escaped the chill of the British winter and am out in Californ-I-A for some lovely winter-sun birding. Oh, yeah, and the conference that I'm going to in San Diego to. I drove down Hwy 1 from Los Angeles to San Diego today and stopped at a couple of sights on the way.
First stop was Bolsa Chica Conservancy Reserve. There were lots of waterfowl and waders around, many I hadn't seen since my last visit to the US nearly 9 years ago.
As I'm a bit jet-lagged and want to get to sleep, I'm going to be brief, but the better birds I saw were: 1st-year male White-winged Scoter; 4 Surf Scoter; 3 female Greater Scaup; c200 Lesser Scaup, 1 Horned, 20 Eared, 5 Western and 10 Pied-billed Grebes; 50 American Wigeon; 150 (mainly) Long-billed Dowitchers; 30 Least Sands; 500 Semi-p Sands; 100 Semi-p Plover; 50 American Avocet; 2 Greater Yellowlegs; 1 Lesser Yellowlegs; a few Red Knot; 5 Dunlin; Perigrine and lots of Belding's Savannah Sparrows.

Belding's Savannah Sparrow (left) and 1 of the 3 female Greater Scaup (right)

1st winter male White-winged Scoter

Further down the road at Dana Point there must have been at least 10,000 gulls roosting on the beaches and the mouth to the San Juan Creek. The best was a juvenile Glaucous Gull, but other birds included a couple of juvenile Thayer's Gulls, c4 Herring Gulls and some rather smart Heermann's Gulls.

Juvenile Glaucous Gull

2nd winter American Herring Gull

Juvenile Thayer's Gulls

There's no(w) Bunting in Cornwall

2009-01-03T11:14:00.011Z

The British Press's faces have been left as red as a Robin's breast after publishing photos of what they claim to be a 'rare' Snow Bunting in Helston, Cornwall. The photos of the bird (pictured below), where published in the national press and online news sites, were spotted by birdwatchers who quickly re-identified the bird as a partially albino Chaffinch, one of Britains commonest garden birds. The bird turned up in the Cornish garden of 58 year-old Janet Davies, who had recently returned from an organised birdwatching tour of Norway, where she failed to see Snow Bunting. But upon returning home to Cornwall Mrs. Davies spotted the bird in her garden and mis-identified the abnormal Chaffinch as a Snow Bunting, a bird that would be a very good find in Cornwall, but one that can found quite easily on the east coast of the UK in winter and quite regularly in other coastal locations around the rest of the UK.
The story of the 'rare fine' caused a flurry of activity in the nations press, but some websites, notably the Daily Mail, have as yet refused to post readers comments that point out their glarring mistake.

That's no Snow Bunting! Photographs of the albino Snow Bunting published by the press (right, Times online, left Daily Mail online)

The news items can be found here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1103853/The-birdwatcher-travelled-Norway-spot-rare-bird--Cornwall-garden.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7808915.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4060327/Birdwatcher-makes-fruitless-journey-to-Norway-only-to-find-snow-bunting-in-her-garden.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5430044.ece

2008-12-12T11:49:00.001Z

Found this on You Tube the other day. It's right good!

I hate Carmarthenshire!

2008-10-25T22:16:00.001+01:00

Not for the first time in my life (Glaucous-winged Gull) I found myself spending all day staring across that blessed Gwendraeth Estuary in Carmarthenshire , seeing absolutely bott-all, this time for Britain's first Little Blue Heron. Loads of mega distant Little Egrets didn't make the job any easier and we left the site at dusk thoroughly pissed-off. It's a pity really, as through the day I saw Hen Harrier, 3 Pergrines, 2 Little Stints, Green Sands and 50+ Little Egrets, but they stood for nowt after not seeing the LBH. I wonder if I'll end up there next weekend?

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Fair Isle post-script

2008-10-17T12:03:00.003+01:00

All ended well with the flights. Mark managed to get off Fair Isle on the Saturday flight and we had a good 24 hours birding round Shetland. Saw Ring-necked Duck, Little Bunting, Yellow-browed Warbler, a few summer plumaged Great-Northern Divers and Long-tailed Ducks and caught our flight back to Heathrow on the Sunday afternoon.
All in all, it was a great trip, despite the lack of easterly winds and I'd definitely head back for another visit. It's been 24 years since I last visited Fair Isle and not that much has changed to be honest. The crops around the crofts are much smaller nowadays and more people have cars on the island, but I'm struggling to note many other changes over the last quarter of a century. Hopefully though, I won't leave it that long until I pay my next visit.

Fair Isle - Eviction day in The Puffinn Household

2008-10-10T23:25:00.001+01:00

It all happened rather quick really. I was just about to head out into the field when I thought I should check on the status of tomorrow's flights. "Not looking too promising" was Sandra's reply (the lady from Direct-Flights), "are you interested in a seat on today's?" Mark and I both agreed that this was a good idea. We had on confirmed seat and on "90% certain" standby seat. Unfortunately, when the plane arrived, the 90% certain seat became a "no chance" seat, so Mark was left on the side of the runway, bag in hand. I really felt bad taking off from Fair Isle. Not because I was sad to leave such a lovely island that I'd spent 12 great days on, but because I'd had to leave my best mate stranded, helplessly not knowing if he was going to get off the island either today OR tomorrow! Hopefully the wind won't pick up too much tomorrow and Mark will be on the 11am flight.

The Whitburn side of the Puffinn Crew managed to get a flight off too. Their scheduled Sumburgh flight was bought forward to this afternoon, but was also full, so Mark couldn't even get on to that flight either.

We didn't have much time for birding today. The only bird of note was the Common Rosefinch (above) which we had managed to entice down to the front of the house with some bird seed. It certainly seemed to have a penchant for black sunflower seed. Interestingly enough, Mark and I found a Common Rosefinch on The Scillies a few years ago, and it too was feeding in a sunflower seed crop.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Mark will get off on tomorrows flight - here's hoping.

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Fair Isle - Day 11 in The Puffinn Household

2008-10-09T19:05:00.001+01:00

6.55pm and Brian is in the kitchen. Mark, Cooky, Fos and Graham are in the living-room.
What a contrast from yesterday! After the good birds, light winds and bright sunshine that day 10 brought us, out penultimate full-day on the island proved to be the total opposite. The first hour of day light was lovely, with clear skies and only a light breeze, but that didn't last very long. It was immediately obvious this morning that there had been a big clearout of birds. Hardly any of yesterday's thrushes and warblers could be found and there was a definite feeling of birdlessness. The sunshine didn't last long and by 9am there was 100% cloud cover and a strong wind. The only decent bird of the day for us was a Common Rosefinch feeding next to The Puffin and a Lapwing (island tick) over the south end today.
Tomorrow will be out last full day, but I don't hold out too much hope for anything rare as it's forecast for 25mph southwesterlies. Ah well, you never know….
Mark and I paid an extortionate amount for a Fair Isle hat today (£25 each), but we were not tempted by the £135 jumpers! Terry F-W and Marmaduke were around the Puffin this afternoon, looking to flush more birds. A spokesman for The Puffin is quoted as saying "We think they flushed the Common Rosefinch, a couple of Chiffys and a Woodcock - it's quite a concern, although we obviously can't confirm at the moment whether the Rosefinch was flushed straight into the path of an oncoming Eider".
I'm giving a talk at the obs tonight on 'Birds of Eastern Australia'. At least I'll be able to reminisce over what nice weather feels like.
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Another White’s Thrush Wednesday!

2008-10-08T21:05:00.000+01:00

Hot on the heals of last Wednesdays White's Thrushes, today bought another one which showed really well to the amassed birders and dudes (although Sphyrapicus Steve did an excellent impression of Mr. Magoo, looking up in the air as the White's Thrush flew about 5 metres past his knees and then landed under a van behind him and yet he still didn't see it!).
But, I'm jumping the gun. The interesting birds started on Tuesday night. Fos was having his last fag of the night at the doorway of The Puffinn, when a Brambling flew in to in the reception (above). It obviously wasn't too happy as it flew around in circles and when it did alight it was obviously panting. We switched off the lights and it landed on the ground and after a couple of attempts I managed to dazzle it with a head torch and grab it, releasing it outside so it could make alternate accommodation arrangements.
This morning when I rose, the first thing I did was to check on the Guillemot - it was still alive. I decided that there wasn't much else I could do. It had a good rest overnight and it was time to release it and let it do-or-die in the sea. I let it go in South Harbour (above) and it splashed around fairly happily.
So, now on today's birds….
Well, obviously the White's Thrush was great. It was found by Rebecca Nesquick who was happy-snapping one of the two new Bluethroats at the time when the boy jumped out in front of her. I'm sure her photos are much better than mine! There were a bunch of new arrivals on the island today, and thankfully they were birds and not more clueless birders. There were at least 2 new Common Rosefinches and 3 Yellow-broweds on the island today, plus lots of Blackcaps, Redwings, a few other Pylloscopus and Silvia warblers, lots of Brambling and a Short-eared Owl. A 'strange' bunting at the obs started off as a Rustic, then Pine, and finished as a Yellowhammer.
I really thought there would be something really big today (OK, White's Thrush is pretty 'big' but I was hoping for something even bigger than that). Hopefully there'll be some stuff left on the island tomorrow, or there'll be new stuff in overnight for us to find tomorrow.

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