Graham's Birding Blog: Autumn hits Norfolk!

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

Eurasian Spoonbill

Pink-footed Geese in flight.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Lapland Bunting

Lapland Bunting

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

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.