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Norfolk birding (42 Viewers)

Response to EastNorfolkBirder.

Why does everyone hide behind these handle names, Norfolkbirder, EastNorfolkBirder? My name is Kieran John Robert Nixon, I saw a BTD off Winterton and some people are not very happy. There I said it. If anyone wants to approach me in the field and patronize me face to face. I am 5ft 10 and about 15 stone, i have a ring threw my bottom lip and the end of my scope is taped with red electrical tape, I wear a sandy coloured coat and a pair of basketball trainers. Often unshaven.

Again I have had comments on my site from a forum reader lording there hours of experience on me, the amount of BTD's they have seen off Norfolk and the likes. All in a very unflavored manner and I am the one who has been labled Cockey by Pomskua, a man who neither knows me or has any evidence in which to make such comments.

What was wrong with people saying: Hey Kieran, well done on the BTD. It's not an easy bird to get in Norfolk and some RTD in moult can pose a challenge for even seasoned birders, so make sure you take great care when ID'ing these birds. But if you are happy with what you saw and by the sound of it had very good views then fair play to you lad................ERRRRRR NO!!!

Negative, negative and more negative. Not to mention Pomskuas wild story telling about me. You should get your own show mate, i'd tune in at least once a decade.

It's not even a description species for crying out loud, I didn't claim a Pacific Diver. Nor have I claimed anything radical in the past.

I care little what this sighting or my outburst has done for my reputation in this community.

Regards Kieran or is it Oliver? oh no we are the same bloke with two heads and, oh wait yes I am Olivers alter ego is it? no thats right we are Siamese twins. No wrong again I am Spartacus.
 
Locostella said:
What was wrong with people saying: Hey Kieran, well done on the BTD. It's not an easy bird to get in Norfolk and some RTD in moult can pose a challenge for even seasoned birders, so make sure you take great care when ID'ing these birds. But if you are happy with what you saw and by the sound of it had very good views then fair play to you lad................ERRRRRR NO!!!
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Blood out of a stone and all that!

Also for anyone else that is basing their claims against Kieran on the fact he knows me, here is a blog post by someone else who saw Cory's shearwater on the evening I did....Seems I may not have been talking rubbish after all!

http://letterfromnorfolk.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/some-you-win-and-some-you-lose/
 
Yellow browed warbler still on the Meadow Trail at Titchwell yesterday afternoon. It was mega elusive but I did hear it calling several times while I was working on the main path.

Paul
 
Good map mate - very useful.[/QUOTE

Thanks for that.

If anyone has sites within the wood they consider should be incl. please advise.eg there is the pit 100yds North of the old firesign where the Indigo Bunting was seen / or 150yds south of huge dune but there again the map should allow the location to be established easily from these directions taken from the map anyway.
 
Black-Throated Diver debate

To follow on from this discussion I found one very poor picture I took on Tuesday of the Black-Throated Diver.
Included are the original then 2 crops I have done of it, bare in my mind the quality is awful. Also a picture of one of the juvenile Red-Throated Divers is attached for comparison.
Everyone can make their own minds up.
 

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Everyone can make their own minds up.[/QUOTE said:
Hi Oliver, very difficult to debate much further to reach a positive id one way or another - as you say it is extremely difficult to call with the photos, even though heavily cropped. Have you or Kieran aged this bird at all on the viewings that you had? Have you any field notes that may assist - I guess you would have checked these, sorry. Had a glance at some literature (to refresh my ageing memory) and it doesn't seem to be as dark/contrasty enough for a b.t.d. ( crispy, almost auk like) but we're going on just one photo - never as useful as having had views of the bird in the field.

All the best and good birding
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Maybe it has been a long day (term) but I am really bored of this. I have not posted updates on here as much as I used to, for fear that they will be swallowed up by some of the rubbish on this thread. I notice a few other (formerly) prominent posters are also a bit quiet of late; perhaps they feel the same, perhaps I am reading into the situation a little too deeply. Without wishing to sound holier than thou, there was a time in the recent past when the Norfolk Thread was a great source of information and a forum for debate. Sadly, that time seems to have past. It seems every time I log on, I have to sift through a whole load of (often personal) rubbish to find the good stuff ie Pomskua, Frootshoot, CortonBirds. Guys, you know who you are, please keep posting the good stuff!
In an attempt not to be too pessimistic, I will add my two-pence worth to get the thread back on track!
I began my monthly Harrier roost survey at Surlingham Church Marsh last weekend. No Harriers, but a beautiful evening all the same. Small roosts of Mistle Thrush and Magpie building up. Looking forward to some more time on the patch this half term.
Now that the Short-eared Owl influx is seemingly over (going by the news services there, do correct me if wrong) are we in for a classic Owl winter? Is this the year to get a Short or Long-eared Owl on your patch? An unprecedented number of birds have arrived on our shores, I wonder how many survived and how many are quietly going about their business on an inland patch.
Cheers,
Jim.
 
jimbob said:
Now that the Short-eared Owl influx is seemingly over (going by the news services there, do correct me if wrong) are we in for a classic Owl winter? Is this the year to get a Short or Long-eared Owl on your patch? An unprecedented number of birds have arrived on our shores, I wonder how many survived and how many are quietly going about their business on an inland patch.
Cheers,
Jim.
Click to expand...

I also wondered this. Presumably there is the possibility of large roosts like those reported at Halvergate in the past, or birds spread out across the county in areas where they are not annual. Does anyone who posts on here regularly visit Wacton Common anymore? I remember seeing a SEO there when looking for the Dark(ish) breasted Barn Owl a few years ago.
 
PYRTLE said:
Hi Oliver, very difficult to debate much further to reach a positive id one way or another - as you say it is extremely difficult to call with the photos, even though heavily cropped. Have you or Kieran aged this bird at all on the viewings that you had? Don't suppose you took any notes per chance to help. Had a glance at some literature (to refresh my ageing memory) and it doesn't seem to be as dark/contrasty enough for a b.t.d. ( crispy, almost auk like) but we're going on just one photo - never as useful as having had views of the bird in the field.

PS. Who's Joseph?

All the best and good birding
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Pyrtle (Sorry again real name escapes me), thanks for your response.
From what I remember, which isn't a lot as Kieran has far more info on this bird than myself, age wise it would be an adult in winter plumage from my memory, but as I said my memory of the bird is a bit vague now.
The best I can remember is that there were 2 Juvenile RTD's present and one summer plumage adult RTD, with this BTD a little way from this small group.
With regard to contrast I would argue that BTD would show more contrast than a RTD? My, very bad, picture shows a bird with dark colouring on the back, a very pale (white) throat and neck and what looks like a grey crown area.
I would say, again based on memory and my poor photo, that the back is too dark to be RTD, but of course this could be a photo trick.
I think what is more key than any other feature is the apparent size of the bill. The bird photographed appears to have a very large, thick bill, and overall the bird appears rather stocky in comparison with RTD.
As I said Kieran will be able to provide you with a better ID description of the bird as he paid very much more attention to it than myself, my main aim was to try and photograph the bird but due to conditions on the sea it was not possible to get any decent shots.
I am happy for Kieran, and myself, that we saw this bird, my only regret is not getting better photos!
 
jimbob said:
It seems every time I log on, I have to sift through a whole load of (often personal) rubbish to find the good stuff ie Pomskua, Frootshoot, CortonBirds. Guys, you know who you are, please keep posting the good stuff!
Click to expand...

It was Pomskua's wild story telling that started this whole debate in the first place.

Oh and just to throw another stick on the fire, a BTD was reported off Walcott, a mere 15 miles from where I saw mine at Winterton.
 
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jimbob said:
Hi Jim,

nice to hear about your patch though - I always enjoy a walk around Surlingham.

First ringing session went well at UEA - handling a nuthatch was great :t: I managed to learn a fair bit about the finer details of sexing some of our common birds etc.

Still plenty of winter thrushes roaming about between UEA and Costessey.
Click to expand...
 
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Johny121 said:
jimbob said:
Hi Jim, I agree with your post, though not an avid poster myself - this seems to have become a kind of soap opera of late.
Click to expand...

I don't see how it has become a soap opera? Speaking for myself I have tried to answer any questions regarding the Black-Throated Diver as best I possibly can. I did not get the finer details of this bird as my main aim was to get photographs due to knowing exactly what would happen if we claimed this bird and I didn't have any.
Seeing as there was two of present I felt Kieran was able to get enough detail on the bird to build a decent description, combined with that of my own and the poor picture I have.
Frankly, as Kieran says, we shouldn't have to face up to the tirade that he has been subjected to in this case, and previous cases from my own experience. Likewise the punkbirder guys shouldn't have gotten the flack that they did for their finding, I admit I made a couple of comments with regard to timing (mainly born out of frustration that one of my patches had bought this up on one of the few days I am not there) but once hearing all the evidence I apologised on the relevant thread.
It only becomes a soap opera if people make it one.
Click to expand...
 
It’s there in black and white

A trip to Friary Hills NT this afters resulted in this distant shot of the Cattle Egret, in suitably bovine surroundings. It flew around a couple of times, but quickly returned to its mooing companions.

No sign of the GGShrike, but a male Stonechat flicked about, far out on the freshes.

It was with some misgivings I actually called in, as it was when I was last here a week ago that I missed two calls from someone at The Robin.

Oliver: by repeatedly rising to the bait, you are prolonging the ‘soap opera’- “A Tale of Fishing Folk”, as a subtitle, possibly ? You are just making a rod for your own back, rather than your catch- to mix a whole array of metaphors.
 

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