Karl J
Well-known member
Having been at my local patch of Caister beach yesterday morning, only to miss a Desert Wheatear by a couple of hours and then to be told by my vaguely-interested-in-birding partner Carmen that she & her 7 yr old niece had seen it after i went to work was, to put it mildly, a little galling.
So this morning i was back on my bike and down there double quick ! .... in the cold early pre-dawn under a clear sky and just a few high wispy clouds the rising sun casting its shades of orangey-yellow across the sea was absolutely gorgeous.
And empty. As i transformed from cyclist to birder by exchanging the "see-me-a-mile-off" cycling jacket for dark fleece, and then formed myself into a crowd of one to seek out the bird there was not another soul about. Not really knowing where best to look i figured on it maybe having taken the "safety in numbers" line of thinking and roosted with the Snow Buntings but after finding then searching through the flock of 100+ it wasn't to be seen though it was interesting to see the buntings at roost which i've never seen before, still half buried in their sandy hollows. 2 Little Gulls heading north along the shoreline and a Red-throated Diver sitting offshore were also nice enough. Soon i was joined by 2 more birders before we moved further north along the beach, during the next hour or so adding to the list a single Arctic Tern which i'd never have expected in November, 2 offshore scoter (Common, i assume), 1 Guillemot sitting on the sea close to shore and a couple of seals swimming singly past. Fortunately in the cold it wasn't too much longer until another birder gave a wave signalling a measure a success and heading back the way we'd come it became apparent that we'd probably walked right past it earlier on.
Never mind though as here it was, right next to the path at the top of a gorse bush and then, after being flushed off by dog walkers, some 30m away on the beach sitting contentedly out in the open, where it stayed ... this definitely wasn't one of those flyover "tweet" and someone says it's an XYZ-bird .... this was a "Wow, thats a great view of a cracking little bird"
After half an hour or so and having flattened one set of camera batteries i was getting just too cold so called time at 9 o'clock with a crowd of about 30 birders / photographers present, but i'd now beaten last years UK list total so wasn't about to give in yet
After loading the bike back up i headed back home for a big bowl of porridge and a think ... ... Bean Geese ... missed them in January, and the White-fronts ... that means Cantley. Hmm - that'll do.
After a nice ride along the frosty quiet lanes of Mautby & Stokesby into Acle, and then avoiding the main sugarbeet truck route by going by Freethorpe and Southwood i'd chanced upon 2 seperate Chinese Water Deer, a flyover of c.80 Lapwing, 4 Egyptian Geese and a few other common-enough species before bumping into some more birders at Burnt House Lane in Cantley and had a quick few words; they'd just seen the Bean Geese and were now heading off to Caister for the wheatear.
Because of where the geese were (ie. just about the most inaccesible, difficult place possible) it took me a while to find them even with the insider info i'd just been given but in the end, along the footpath from Burnt House Lane to School Lane overlooking the marshes, i set up scope and while tucking into my jam sandwiches, carton of orange juice and half packet of now-very-broken biscuits spotted 7 birds that i properly identified plus several more possibles / probables with more partly hidden behind the trees, they weren't great views but just enough to be content with. But with an added bonus of a handful of White-fronted Geese, a female Marsh Harrier and the absolute peace & quiet at the end of the lane i wasn't complaining .
The final stretch was through Limpenhoe Lane scattering roosters along the way to Reedham and across the ferry boat, down Ferry Road where c.30 Fieldfare (so often i've found this area south of the river really good for the winter thrushes with flocks in excess of 100) sat in the bare trees along with c.8 Redwing and some Mistle Thrush & Blackbirds round and abouts, on to Thurlton & the lane across Thorpe Marshes where a Green Woodpecker flushed noisily up from the verge before a necessary section of an often busy road, back through the town and home.
A most succesful 42 miles, with the addition of 3 year-birds taking me to the massive 160 for the year
So this morning i was back on my bike and down there double quick ! .... in the cold early pre-dawn under a clear sky and just a few high wispy clouds the rising sun casting its shades of orangey-yellow across the sea was absolutely gorgeous.
And empty. As i transformed from cyclist to birder by exchanging the "see-me-a-mile-off" cycling jacket for dark fleece, and then formed myself into a crowd of one to seek out the bird there was not another soul about. Not really knowing where best to look i figured on it maybe having taken the "safety in numbers" line of thinking and roosted with the Snow Buntings but after finding then searching through the flock of 100+ it wasn't to be seen though it was interesting to see the buntings at roost which i've never seen before, still half buried in their sandy hollows. 2 Little Gulls heading north along the shoreline and a Red-throated Diver sitting offshore were also nice enough. Soon i was joined by 2 more birders before we moved further north along the beach, during the next hour or so adding to the list a single Arctic Tern which i'd never have expected in November, 2 offshore scoter (Common, i assume), 1 Guillemot sitting on the sea close to shore and a couple of seals swimming singly past. Fortunately in the cold it wasn't too much longer until another birder gave a wave signalling a measure a success and heading back the way we'd come it became apparent that we'd probably walked right past it earlier on.
Never mind though as here it was, right next to the path at the top of a gorse bush and then, after being flushed off by dog walkers, some 30m away on the beach sitting contentedly out in the open, where it stayed ... this definitely wasn't one of those flyover "tweet" and someone says it's an XYZ-bird .... this was a "Wow, thats a great view of a cracking little bird"
After half an hour or so and having flattened one set of camera batteries i was getting just too cold so called time at 9 o'clock with a crowd of about 30 birders / photographers present, but i'd now beaten last years UK list total so wasn't about to give in yet
After loading the bike back up i headed back home for a big bowl of porridge and a think ... ... Bean Geese ... missed them in January, and the White-fronts ... that means Cantley. Hmm - that'll do.
After a nice ride along the frosty quiet lanes of Mautby & Stokesby into Acle, and then avoiding the main sugarbeet truck route by going by Freethorpe and Southwood i'd chanced upon 2 seperate Chinese Water Deer, a flyover of c.80 Lapwing, 4 Egyptian Geese and a few other common-enough species before bumping into some more birders at Burnt House Lane in Cantley and had a quick few words; they'd just seen the Bean Geese and were now heading off to Caister for the wheatear.
Because of where the geese were (ie. just about the most inaccesible, difficult place possible) it took me a while to find them even with the insider info i'd just been given but in the end, along the footpath from Burnt House Lane to School Lane overlooking the marshes, i set up scope and while tucking into my jam sandwiches, carton of orange juice and half packet of now-very-broken biscuits spotted 7 birds that i properly identified plus several more possibles / probables with more partly hidden behind the trees, they weren't great views but just enough to be content with. But with an added bonus of a handful of White-fronted Geese, a female Marsh Harrier and the absolute peace & quiet at the end of the lane i wasn't complaining .
The final stretch was through Limpenhoe Lane scattering roosters along the way to Reedham and across the ferry boat, down Ferry Road where c.30 Fieldfare (so often i've found this area south of the river really good for the winter thrushes with flocks in excess of 100) sat in the bare trees along with c.8 Redwing and some Mistle Thrush & Blackbirds round and abouts, on to Thurlton & the lane across Thorpe Marshes where a Green Woodpecker flushed noisily up from the verge before a necessary section of an often busy road, back through the town and home.
A most succesful 42 miles, with the addition of 3 year-birds taking me to the massive 160 for the year
Have had a rather nice bicycle for about two months now, but have to confess that I haven't ridden it more than once round the living room of a friend's flat ...then got told off for doing that and I haven't actually managed to get any further on it 
