Norfolk birding (6 Viewers)

[Songkhran]

Between dipping birds at Holkham today took a short stroll along the tideline (half in hope for some dessert) . In a couple of hundred yard stretch we counted double figures of blackbird carcasses, half a dozen each of fieldfare, redwing, song thrushes, plus a few unidentified passerines, kittiwake, guilly etc. this is a week after the mass arrival, wonder what was there at the start of the week and along the length of the east coast of uk, how many deaths... Tens of thousands!

Best not dwell on it too much, but if you're after dessert look no further 3

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=215966&highlight=dessert+wheatear

 

[GYBirder23]

No corpses in Great Yarmouth Beaches, as with live birds we seem to get missed.

 

[rob lee]

[QUOTE wonder what was there at the start of the week and along the length of the east coast of uk, how many deaths... [/QUOTE]


On a similar note i wonder how many birds were killed due to collisions with the newly installed Sheringham Shoal wind farm as well as other wind farms along the length of the east coast due to the poor visibility, I guess we`ll never know as most corpses will either be predated or sink without trace. As proponents of wind farms say " there is no evidence that offshore wind farms kill birds" !

 

[firstreesjohn]

A salutary tail- or Trivialis Pursuit

Gramboro’ was slightly busy, with 4 Robins, Blue Tit and invisible Goldcrest. I was told that the Shorelark had been flushed by children; I suppose it makes a change from dog-people.

Warham Greens had obviously been invaded by more Blackbirds; there were quite a few Fieldfare and fewer Redwing.

A period of excitement was had towards dusk in the Dell, at Wells Woods. On my entry to this sacred grove of birding, I flushed several birds. One flew up into a tree and sat there, regularly pumping its tail; it was a pipit. The light was failing, it had just started to rain, it was obscured by a myriad twigs/branches and my specs were misted up. Apart from this, everything was fine !

I’d only managed a few (very) poor shots (by far the best is below), when it flew higher and to the edge of the trees, where it was in silhouette. It continued its tail-pumping. At my endeavours to obtain a better position, it vanished further into the darkest abysses of the Dell.

One birder was able to aid me in the search, but we were unlucky, seeing neither hide nor hair of it. (This is unsurprising, as it’s a bird.) On return to the car and, in the cold light of torch, we were able to confirm the ID as a Tree Pipit.

News Update: Just seen the news that 12,000 Pine Grosbeaks are (possibly) heading our way thru Finland. On the top of your nearest conifer . . .

 

[Stratton Birder]

An hour and a halfs sea-watching at Cley this morning was fairly rewarding and produced one Little Auk on the sea, two Shags, 130 scoters, c100 Lapwings and 71 Skylarks west. The two main highlights though were a Carrion Crow bulleting its way in from well out to see with its wings angled back against its body presumbly to reduce drag from the south westerly - and my first ever record of an in-off Pale-bellied Brent Goose which flew straight over the shelter. This was probably the bird that was on the Eye Field in the afternoon with several hundred Brents (inc a leucistic bird). Three or four Chiffies were in the trees and bushes outside Dauke's and around 8000 Starlings gathered at dusk. Three bats were flying around at the junction of Old Woman's Lane and Anderton Hill. Can anyone help me out as to what species they are. Looked too large for Pipistrelle, not big enough and too low down for Noctule. One was out quite early and appeared to be pale brown and had noticeable ears. Any help with this would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[Songkhran]

An hour and a halfs sea-watching at Cley this morning was fairly rewarding and produced one Little Auk on the sea, two Shags, 130 scoters, c100 Lapwings and 71 Skylarks west. The two main highlights though were a Carrion Crow bulleting its way in from well out to see with its wings angled back against its body presumbly to reduce drag from the south westerly - and my first ever record of an in-off Pale-bellied Brent Goose which flew straight over the shelter. This was probably the bird that was on the Eye Field in the afternoon with several hundred Brents (inc a leucistic bird). Three or four Chiffies were in the trees and bushes outside Dauke's and around 8000 Starlings gathered at dusk. Three bats were flying around at the junction of Old Woman's Lane and Anderton Hill. Can anyone help me out as to what species they are. Looked too large for Pipistrelle, not big enough and too low down for Noctule. One was out quite early and appeared to be pale brown and had noticeable ears. Any help with this would be appreciated, thanks.

Alright mate,
been reading the Norfolk bird report and Long-eared Bat is the second commonest bat recorded in Norfolk and there is a roost at Field Dalling (near Langham)
Of note since there seems to be increasing interest in bats on this thread when I lived in Norwich there used to be good numbers of Daubentons Bats that hunted under Dolphin Bridge http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?...ad,+Norwich,+NR2&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf. They would be lit by the street lamps skim over the water then fly directly towards you almost bouncing off you with their sonar - was definitely a really great alternative Norwich experience!

 

[Bittern2010]

Three bats were flying around at the junction of Old Woman's Lane and Anderton Hill. Can anyone help me out as to what species they are. Looked too large for Pipistrelle, not big enough and too low down for Noctule. One was out quite early and appeared to be pale brown and had noticeable ears. Any help with this would be appreciated, thanks.

Hi Stratton Birder,

Sounds like you had a good day at Cley.

The bats are probably Brown Long Eared Bats. They are slightly larger than Pips and fly fairly low and have large ears (about three quarters size of head and body). They usually come out after dark though.

Went down to see if the Black Redstart was still hanging round the Cathedral (nice photo James). No sign of it (unsuprisingly) but saw a Peregrine circle and land on the Cathedral spire.

Cheers

Steve

P.S. Oopps sorry hadn't realised Pom Skua had already replied.

 

[Stratton Birder]

Alright mate,
been reading the Norfolk bird report and Long-eared Bat is the second commonest bat recorded in Norfolk and there is a roost at Field Dalling (near Langham)
Of note since there seems to be increasing interest in bats on this thread when I lived in Norwich there used to be good numbers of Daubentons Bats that hunted under Dolphin Bridge http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?...ad,+Norwich,+NR2&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf. They would be lit by the street lamps skim over the water then fly directly towards you almost bouncing off you with their sonar - was definitely a really great alternative Norwich experience!

Cheers Josh.

Hope you had a relaxing easy trip back to Brighton last night.

Regardless of what species they were, the bats were a joy to observe. If they were Long-eared then that would be great as I've never knowingly seen them before. Am hoping that someones been there with a bat detector and knows the answer. Might do to check at the reserve centre in case they know, I'm over that way again tomorrow. Hope you're back in Norfolk again soon mate.

Steve.

 

[Penny Clarke]

.......If they were Long-eared then that would be great as I've never knowingly seen them before. Am hoping that someones been there with a bat detector and knows the answer. Might do to check at the reserve centre in case they know.....

Eddie Myers said they are brown long eared bats:t:

 

[Stratton Birder]

Hi Stratton Birder,

The bats are probably Brown Long Eared Bats. They are slightly larger than Pips and fly fairly low and have large ears (about three quarters size of head and body). They usually come out after dark though.

Thanks for the feedback. The ears were pretty obvious and I havn't noticed them on other flying bats before but usually its much too dark to note any features when I observe bats. However, unless I hear anything else firmer I'm happy to go with Long-eared.

 

[Stratton Birder]

Eddie Myers said they are brown long eared bats:t:

Thanks Penny. In the Bag!! :t:

 

[Penny Clarke]

Spent the entire day walking Gun Hill, Burnham Overy Dunes and Holkham with Eddie. Hundreds of blackbirds, redwings, fieldfares, robins, few skylarks, 100+ flock of lapwing going west, short-eared owl, woodcock and thousands of starlings. Dipped on the Pallas's Warbler as did most people I think! The highlight of the day for me was watching a hare sunning itself in the grass. Also saw a peacock and a comma butterfly!

Full update and pictures on blog.

Penny:girl:

 

[Penny Clarke]

.....c100 Lapwings........

The same flock I had today over Burnham Overy maybe?:t:

 

[Songkhran]

Anyone know what the Punkbirders have been up to during this fall, there are no updates since the 28th Sept! Are we about get a list of incredible birds that were present on the Hills in the fog...

 

[firstreesjohn]

Are we going batty ?

Penny has an incredible photo of what could be a Brown Long-eared Bat in her #18272.

Anyone know what the Punkbirders have been up to during this fall, there are no updates since the 28th Sept! Are we about get a list of incredible birds that were present on the Hills in the fog...

I was wondering about this, too, Josh. In a selfish way, I hope not.

Attached is another poor pic of The Controversial Redpoll (see Lee’s harrowing account of his massive miss: http://uk400clubrarebirdalert.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/hornemanns-arctic-redpoll-in-north.html). In this head-on shot, it seems almost lion-like and fierce, to say the least. I’d made a comparison with a raptor to someone, at the time.

New Definitions #1: “camera users”- not someone indulging themselves in rather bizarre drug mis-use, but a ‘photographer’. That’s a relief !

 

[Songkhran]

Penny has an incredible photo of what could be a Brown Long-eared Bat in her #18272.

In the whole picture you can see that it is not sitting but flying close to the ground. Clearly a very aero-dynamic animal judging from the position of the ears

 

[Tideliner]

I suspect the mortality of passerine birds will be a lot higher than we realise as since Sunday the wind has been west or south blowing most of the dead birds out to sea and the tides are still growing lifting many of last weeks birds off the previous high tide lines. The one saving grace was that there was there was little wind during the fog so with luck there will have been little movement from the Sherringham Shoal wind turbine blades.

I hope the punkbirders were not the 3 guys I found lost on the sands in the fog last Tuesday. The last I saw of them they seemed to be heading out to sea so you might never see their records.

On a brighter note has anyone noticed the number of short eared owls about. Every time I have been out ( most dawns ) I have seen them on the North Coast and last night at least 4 at a Broadland site along with a single barn owl were hunting all around me with one eating a water vole on a gate post just a few yards away in the moon light seemed to be struggling to swallow it.

 

[GYBirder23]

Still 15 Snow Buntings Great Yarmouth North Beach today 40 Waxwings in off and west over Sainsbury's Car Park Great Yarmouth.

 

[paulptct]

Great White Egret

Great White Egret at Salthouse today, large very impressive.
but a very long way away.

 

[Tideliner]

What on earth is a SB's ? I do wish people would be bothered to write a birds name , after whats the point in posting a species if nobody knows what you mean.

If i had to guess I would think it was a saddle back ( gull ) the local name for great or lesser black backed gulls.