Evan Atkinson
Always finding a way to go off topic...
I enjoyed writing my previous post about my weekend in Hampshire, so I figured that I would write another one.
Saturday
On Saturday I spent the morning at my grandparents and walked around the golf course that is close to them. I was very surprised to hear a singing sedge warbler in a tiny, but dense, section of reeds just in front of the second tee box. I managed to pick up a nice lesser whitethroat doing its best machine gun impressions, and a great spotted woodpecker flew over. Round at the longest hole on the course, I had a nice family party of long-tailed tits along the hedgerow, as well as a couple of chaffinch and greenfinch. At the end of the longest hole I had either a female kestrel or a female cuckoo fly in between a gap in the hedgerow but the view was not good enough to be able to tell between the two. Asides from that I did not really note much else on the course apart from a linnet on the wires. The main plan for the day was to go and see the bee eaters that had returned to a quarry in Trimingham. We arrived on site, with the raptor tally already with half a dozen buzzards along the journey, as well as a couple of red kites, and I spotted another buzzard as we parked up. I had a good idea of what a bee eater looked like because I had actually found one on Monday. Unfortunately the view was quite poor and only lasted about 10-15 seconds, but I knew that it was a bee eater because of; large, sort of butterfly shaped wings, long, prominent middle tail feathers, curved bill, undulating flight, and bigger than the swifts that it came in with. Regardless, as soon as I got out of the car I spotted one on the wires next to a goldfinch. Unfortunately, I only saw it for 2-3 minutes before it flew off to the north and presumably started feeding behind the quarry but just out of our view. Things got a bit difficult here as I have a notorious habit of changing plans last minute, and the current plan was to see the bee eaters, which I had but not very well, and then head over to Cley Marshes to see the American Golden Plover (a lifer) which would have been lovely to see. However I was not satisfied with my views of the bee eaters so I chose to stay at the site till 3:30 and opt out of going for the AGP. This was rewarded with excellent overhead views over the hour and a half I had with the birds, although we did not get to see all 3 together until about 30 minutes later. From the general consensus, it is thought that there is one pair and a juvenile from last years offspring, although I do not know if the juvenile will help the pair at all. We returned home at about 6pm, and after eating some dinner we headed out on the dog walk. My dad had told me that he had seen an increase in swift numbers to about 40 birds in the evenings, so I thought I would join him to see if there were more than it seemed. Living in Littleport we are fortunate enough to have a small population of swifts, with I think about 5 pairs around the town. I am not quite sure where the other birds come from but presumably they come in to roost after feeding. Anyways, on the walk I found out that there were actually about 70 birds in 2 different flocks. They seemed to be ranging significantly but I am fairly sure that there could have been close to 80 in the sky at one point. The golden light was spectacular in the right part of the field but it quickly disappeared. As we got back into the house we saw at least 400 mixed corvids erupt from the tree line where they nest.
Sunday
I woke up very early at about 5:25 in the morning and was greeted with some lovely golden light. It was still silent outside but I wanted to see if the swifts were still around in the morning so I went downstairs and stood outside for a while. The swifts were very active early in the morning, and after having a few things to eat, I left the house at 6:45am to see if I could snap some photos. I was very unsure as to where the birds would be, and I was also very aware that the majority of the town was still sleeping. I picked up the majority of the birds about a minutes walk away, and the sound of screaming swifts could not get any better. It was clear that they were trying to find some places to nest, but with people being unaware of the decline of this precious species, many traditional nesting sites appeared to have been blocked off completely. I was very disappointed to see so many trying to get into the roofs, but I wasn't sure what I could do about it. On the slight upside, I was able to get one or two nice shots of them as they came up and over the houses at head height. The birds did not spend very long there, maybe 10 minutes at most, before they moved off towards the church. I decided to call it there and headed home.
If you read this far, thank you very much, seeing a very positive response on my last post motivated me to write this one, so thank you all.
Evan
Saturday
On Saturday I spent the morning at my grandparents and walked around the golf course that is close to them. I was very surprised to hear a singing sedge warbler in a tiny, but dense, section of reeds just in front of the second tee box. I managed to pick up a nice lesser whitethroat doing its best machine gun impressions, and a great spotted woodpecker flew over. Round at the longest hole on the course, I had a nice family party of long-tailed tits along the hedgerow, as well as a couple of chaffinch and greenfinch. At the end of the longest hole I had either a female kestrel or a female cuckoo fly in between a gap in the hedgerow but the view was not good enough to be able to tell between the two. Asides from that I did not really note much else on the course apart from a linnet on the wires. The main plan for the day was to go and see the bee eaters that had returned to a quarry in Trimingham. We arrived on site, with the raptor tally already with half a dozen buzzards along the journey, as well as a couple of red kites, and I spotted another buzzard as we parked up. I had a good idea of what a bee eater looked like because I had actually found one on Monday. Unfortunately the view was quite poor and only lasted about 10-15 seconds, but I knew that it was a bee eater because of; large, sort of butterfly shaped wings, long, prominent middle tail feathers, curved bill, undulating flight, and bigger than the swifts that it came in with. Regardless, as soon as I got out of the car I spotted one on the wires next to a goldfinch. Unfortunately, I only saw it for 2-3 minutes before it flew off to the north and presumably started feeding behind the quarry but just out of our view. Things got a bit difficult here as I have a notorious habit of changing plans last minute, and the current plan was to see the bee eaters, which I had but not very well, and then head over to Cley Marshes to see the American Golden Plover (a lifer) which would have been lovely to see. However I was not satisfied with my views of the bee eaters so I chose to stay at the site till 3:30 and opt out of going for the AGP. This was rewarded with excellent overhead views over the hour and a half I had with the birds, although we did not get to see all 3 together until about 30 minutes later. From the general consensus, it is thought that there is one pair and a juvenile from last years offspring, although I do not know if the juvenile will help the pair at all. We returned home at about 6pm, and after eating some dinner we headed out on the dog walk. My dad had told me that he had seen an increase in swift numbers to about 40 birds in the evenings, so I thought I would join him to see if there were more than it seemed. Living in Littleport we are fortunate enough to have a small population of swifts, with I think about 5 pairs around the town. I am not quite sure where the other birds come from but presumably they come in to roost after feeding. Anyways, on the walk I found out that there were actually about 70 birds in 2 different flocks. They seemed to be ranging significantly but I am fairly sure that there could have been close to 80 in the sky at one point. The golden light was spectacular in the right part of the field but it quickly disappeared. As we got back into the house we saw at least 400 mixed corvids erupt from the tree line where they nest.
Sunday
I woke up very early at about 5:25 in the morning and was greeted with some lovely golden light. It was still silent outside but I wanted to see if the swifts were still around in the morning so I went downstairs and stood outside for a while. The swifts were very active early in the morning, and after having a few things to eat, I left the house at 6:45am to see if I could snap some photos. I was very unsure as to where the birds would be, and I was also very aware that the majority of the town was still sleeping. I picked up the majority of the birds about a minutes walk away, and the sound of screaming swifts could not get any better. It was clear that they were trying to find some places to nest, but with people being unaware of the decline of this precious species, many traditional nesting sites appeared to have been blocked off completely. I was very disappointed to see so many trying to get into the roofs, but I wasn't sure what I could do about it. On the slight upside, I was able to get one or two nice shots of them as they came up and over the houses at head height. The birds did not spend very long there, maybe 10 minutes at most, before they moved off towards the church. I decided to call it there and headed home.
If you read this far, thank you very much, seeing a very positive response on my last post motivated me to write this one, so thank you all.
Evan
