North Norfolk

Made my fist visit of the winter to north Norfolk today (I know, it's almost spring!). It was a lovely sunny winters day, with temperatures pushing double figures. I started off at Titchwell RSPB, where a couple of Water Pipits and some nice photos of Brent Geese were had. The best birds though were on the sea. When I reached the beach I headed over to some birders using the largest dunes as cover and the told me they'd had 18 Velvet Scoter, all of which were shifting west in small flocks along with the Common Scoter. I joined in their count and within about 30 minutes the count had reached 39. This included seven birds that were sat just offshore, feeding with some Common Scoter. I don't know what the record count of Velvet Scoter is in Norfolk, but I'd imagine this might be close, especially over the past couple of decades.

It was then off to Stiffkey Fen to look for divers in Blakeney Harbour. Unfortunately, one of the seal boats had been through the harbour 15 minutes before I arrived and had pushed most of the divers up a channel, which wasn't visible from the coastal path. After about 30 minutes though, some of the divers emerged, with around 6+ Great Northerns and a Long-tailed Duck moving back out into the pit.
As well as the divers, there was a nice adult Black Brant, a Black Brant x Dark-belled Brent hybrid, a few Water Pipits flying around, Yellow-legged Gull and quite a few Med Gulls.

Drake Gadwall, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Stiffkey

Hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Stiffkey

Hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Stiffkey

Hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Quck venture out

So it's finally stopped raining and the wind has died down enough below hurricane-force that I feel it safe to venture out into the field. In fact the sun was actually shining! So, I headed out to east Norfolk to have a mooch around Martham and Horsey to see what was around. Martham Broad was pretty quite, with about 30 Tufted Duck, 20 Gadwall and a Eurasian Wigeon being the only thing of note there. Four Common Cranes (2 pairs) were feeding in the fields just east of the coast road between Somerton and Horsey and the Black-throated Diver was swimming around in the middle of Horsey Mere. There's no access to Horsey Mill and hence the footpath past it to go around the south side of the boat mooring, so you need to head around the north side of the broad to view it. The bird was viewable after about 200 metres walk from the car park.

Finally, I did a late afternoon visit to see the Glossy Ibis by the river at the end of Cess Rd. The bird is very approachable and poses quite nicely for photos.

Two Staffs ticks

I headed out to Aqualate Mere this morning to see the female Velvet Scoter that was seen yesterday. Most of the birds were down the far west end of the lake, but after scoping the birds for almost two hours I finally found it feeding quite actively, along with a nice redhead Smew. The Long-tailed Duck had also been seen earlier in the morning, but that seemed to have disappeared by the time I got there, although there were hundreds of birds there, so if it was feeding I could have easily missed it. Both Marsh and Willow Tit were visiting the feeders in front of the hide.

After I'd finished at Aqualate I dashed off to Gailey Res., where a Great White Egret, another Staffs tick had just turned up. Although it was hammering it down with rain when I got there, the bird was easy to see as it sat on the bank of the reservoir next to the A5 in the open. A Great Northern Diver also showed well in front of the sailing club.

Willow Tit, Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Willow Tit, Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Willow Tit, Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Willow Tit, Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Marsh Tit, Aqualate Mere, Staffs

Great White Egret, Gailey Reservoir, Staffs

Great White Egret, Gailey Reservoir, Staffs

Great White Egret, Gailey Reservoir, Staffs

Great White Egret, Gailey Reservoir, Staffs

Great White Egret, Gailey Reservoir, Staffs

Chasewater roost

I headed down to Cannock tip and then the Chasewater roost today. There were thousands of gulls in the roost with many more coming in whilst it was too dark to bird. The highlights were a juvenile Glaucous Gull and a juvenile Caspian Gull. There was also a redhead Goosander by the dam and about 30 Lapwing on the jetty.

Juvenile Glaucous Gull

Lapwings

500!

The Dorset Brunnich's Guillemot had been very obliging and lingered until 30 Dec, so I decided to head down there on New Years Eve on my way to spending New Year in Stoke. I headed off at 4am and arrived at Portland Harbour at about 8.30am. After getting the run around for about half an hour I finally managed some decent views of it and then later in the morning it showed really well where I got some nice photos and video of it. It only dawned on my when I entered my tick into BUBO that this was my 500th bird (under UK400 club rules, I'm only on 480 for the proper BOU list).
An added bonus is that this morning (1 Jan 2014) the bird has not been seen. Talk about leaving it late!
There were plenty of other birds around the harbour, making it a very enjoyable day. 6 Black-throated and 5 Great Northern Divers, Black Guillemot, Razorbill, Common Guillemot, Red-necked Grebe, ~100 Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Eider and a Glossy Ibis at Radipole were all really nice to see.

Glossy Ibis, Radipole

Post-christmas birding - 29 Dec 2013

Had a great day out at Great Yarmouth, where I ended up taking more than 2000 photographs, mainly of Med Gulls and two Shorelarks that I found in the dunes behind the boating lake.
I started the day with a quick stop at Buckenham Marshes where there were still at least 25 Taiga Bean Geese still present, best viewed from the east end of the railway platform (view only from the station - don't venture beyond the platform, along the track).

Then I headed off to Gt Yarmouth with a loaf of bread and spent an hour of so photographing the Med Gulls just north of the Wellington Pier. After that I headed to the north denes to check out the boating lake which often holds good numbers of gulls. There were plenty of gulls there, but nothing to set the heart racing! A really nice surprise was two Shorelarks which I saw in flight over the dunes behind the boating lake for a few seconds, which then appeared to land. I spent about 20 minutes hunting around for them, but no sign. I decided to phone the birds out to RBA anyway and whilst I was I was leaving the message they both flew in from the north and landed in the dunes by the cafe. I spent the next two hours carefully stalking the birds and taking photos of them. With a little patients and fieldcraft I managed to get some really nice shots!

I finished my day off at Horsey where there were 4 Whooper Swans midway between West Somerton and Horsey and a Tawny Owl at Waxham. The Tawny Owl was presumably flushed from its roost as it flew out of the trees north of Shangri-la and into the large conifer in the SE corner of Shangri-lar garden. I've never heard Long-tailed Tits go so mental!!

Shorelark, Great Yarmouth North Denes

Mediterranean Gulls, Gt. Yarmouth

Tawny Owl, Waxham