Graham's Birding Blog

Sunday, 2 September 2012

2 Sep 2012 - Finally some migrants...

Headed out to Rush Hills Scrape first thing this morning and then birded Waxham south dunes. Not too much on the scrape - 25 Dunlin plus about 20 Ruff and a few Black-wits, but no too much else.

Although hard work, Waxham turned out to be quite good. A slow moving rain shower pushed quite a lot of hirundines south (about 200 Barn Swallows and a slightly smaller number of House Martins) plus about 5 Common Swifts. The swifts that I saw well enough were all juveniles and one bird showed well, flying up and down the dunes. I've provided a few photos showing a number of features of juvenile Common Swift.

Other migrants in the dunes were 1 Spotted Flycatcher, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Yellow Wagtail (perched on the top of the Hawthorn bushes), 8+ Blackcap, 5 Lesser Whitethroats, plus about 10 Common Whitethroat and 2 Chiffchaff which might have been local birds. Also 5 Yellow Wagtails flew over plus a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

A pair of Chinese Water-deer were a nice distraction on the way home.

Juvenile Common Swift - pale faced appearance and frosty underwing coverts.

Juvenile Common Swift - pale upper wing coverts

Juvenile Common Swift - frosty underwing coverts and scaly vent

Juvenile Common Swift - pale throat and forehead

Juvenile Common Swift - pointed tail feathers gives a 'Needle-tail' like appearance when tail fully closed.

Juvenile Common Swift

Juvenile Common Swift - pointed tail feathers

Juvenile Yellow Wagtail.

Common Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat

Reed Warbler - migrant.

Stag Chinese Water-deer (doe in background).

Doe Chinese Water-deer.

Saturday, 1 September 2012

Summer 2012

OK, I know it's a bit of a cop-out, having a 'summer' post. But you have to admit - nothing much happens in summer, so I've decided just to post some nice photos that I took over the summer. With visits mainly to Waxham and Cley with a few days in the Swiss Alps on a family holiday (and unsuccessfully seeing Rock Partridge), summer has been pretty quiet bird-wise.
I've started with some of the interesting stuff that I saw in Switzerland, and then finished with photos from North Norfolk. If you can identify any of the alpine flowers, please let me know. Thanks.

Convulvulus Hawk-moth, Ilanz, Switzerland.

Nutcraker, Vals, Switzerland.

Alpine flowers 1

Alpine Flowers 2

Alpine Flowers 3

Chamois

Alpine Marmot

Alpine Chough, Eagles's Nest, Berchtesgaden, Germany

Female Shoveler, Cley

Friendly-neighbourhood Avocet, Cley.

Juvenile Marsh Harrier, Cley.

Red Deer, Hickling.

Skylark, Weybourne.

Marsh Harrier food-pass, Cley.

Male Tufted Duck, Cley.

Woodpigeion, Cley.

Thursday, 31 May 2012

30 May 12, Red-backed Shrike, Horsey Gap

I don't often make the effort to go birding out to the coast after work, but yesterday I thought I would. I packed my birding gear into my car in the morning and then headed out to East Norfolk after work. It was a lovely still sunny evening - just what I wasn't hoping for! I'd anticipated a bit of easterly wind and murky skies. I spent the first couple of hours at Waxham, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see a single migrant, so I drove south to Horsey Gap. I had about an hours worth of good light left, so I decided to bird the entrance track and bushes around the beach car-park. The entrance track was fairly quiet; a good mixture of breeding warblers, but nothing else, but when when I got to the car-park one of the first birds I saw was a shrike feeding in the fenced off area to the north-west. The bird was straight into the sun, so I wasn't 100% sure what species it was (although I suspected it was Red-backed). I moved round to the conifer strand to get a better view and sure enough - female Red-backed Shrike. I took a few photos, called Tim Allwood and put the bird out on RBA. Tim popped down for a quick look for the last half-hour of light and the bird was still there at 9pm when we all left.

Red-backed Shrike, female, Horsey Gap 30 May 12

Sunday, 27 May 2012

What has 12 wings...

..and goes "Preeet-preet"?
The flock of 6 Bee-eaters I had flying over Waxham yesterday!
It was really nice to see the Bee-eater feeding from wires at Gladford last weekend, but finding 6 birds over Waxham, even though they just flew straight through, was much better. It had been a fairly quiet day. I'd been stood behind Shangri-la cottage for about half-an-hour looking for a possible Icterine Warbler that I'd heard brief song-snatches off. Listening for the song again I was aware of a "Preeet-preet" call coming from the sky and my thoughts turned immediately to Bee-eater, and sure enough there was the source of the call emerging from behind the nearby trees that were initially obscuring it from me. Just as I was about to lift my bins I noticed another bird behind it, then another....and another! I lifted my bins and sure enough all four birds were Bee-eaters, with gleaming yellow throats and aquamarine underparts. But then another bird flew into view and I dropped my bins to count exactly how may birds there were - six! I enjoyed the view of all 6 birds as they passed by and then tried to grab a couple of photos of the birds. Unfortunately, they were a bit too distant and my auto-focus wouldn't settle on them.

Bee-eater, Glandford, Norfolk, 20 May 2012

Even though I missed getting some snaps of today's Bee-eaters there were a few other photo-opportunities. A Turtle Dove has taken up residence in Waxham dunes and can be heard 'purring'. He sat up in the sun for me for some nice photos. Also a male Marsh Harrier flew uncharacteristically close to me today, obviously distracted by the Oystercatcher that was trying to drive it away from its nest.

Turtle Dove, Waxham Dunes 26 May 2012

Marsh Harrier, male, Horsey 26 May 2012

Monday, 7 May 2012

Spring has well and truly sprung

Actually, spring had pretty well arrived a week ago, with a good arrival of Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Swifts, Common Tern, Sedge Warbler and other common migrants, along with 2 White Storks at Damgate near Acle. Also a Merlin was an entertaining watch as it swooped and dived around Waxham dunes. This Early-May Bank Holiday weekend heralded a further arrival of migrants with Cuckoo, Turtle Doves, Redstart, Yellow Wagtails, lots of Swifts, hirrundines etc. I spent the Saturday at Waxham and today (Monday) up on the North Norfolk coast between Kelling and Stiffkey. Stiffkey Fen was quite good with 8 adult summer Med Gulls, an adult summer and 1st-summer Little Gulls plus lots of swift and hirrundines to look through.