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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Norfolk birding (5 Viewers)

Abbey Farm, Flitcham

After a 'Monday' at work I needed to escape!

Arrived at Abbey Farm Hide at Flitcham at 6.35pm.

Not too much about really, but I counted exactly 40 moorhens on site! The usual mallards, coots, egyptian geese, pheasant, robin, a few hirundines etc. Then things really started to hot up! A marsh harrier came into roost in the semi darkness and several bats appeared. I had the camera in my hand with the wide angle lens attached, messing about taking rubbish landscape shots, when suddenly a little owl landed on the big fat post no more than 20 yards in front of me!!! I froze. Wow - it was awesome to watch it this close! There I was with the bl**dy landscape lens on the camera and the 300mm sat neatly in the camera bag - hmmmm.... would I be lucky enough to swop it over?...... I moved soooo slowly - the owl then turned and fixed his eyes on mine and I just knew my luck was about to run out... the owl didn't even give me the chance to remove the lens, never mind attach the 300mm lens!!! The owl left the post! As Victor Meldrew says 'I don't believeeeeeee it!'

Its so frustrating now the evenings are getting shorter and shorter but it was certainly worth leaving the house for, even though I only had an hour of light - to see that little owl land on the post was definately the most magical moment of the day!'

Very Best Wishes Penny:girl:
 
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Apparently there's a hobby on the wensum by costessey at the moment. Seen from Marriotts way at 1pm catching dragonflies by one of my recorders.
 
Have a friend in the Wells area at the moment. Which is the best way to approach the "whirligig" area, is it Stiffkey campsite and walk west?

Hi Rob

Thats the way I walked at the weekend - not sure if its the best way though - you can go down one of the tracks before you get to Stiffkey, but I never know which one is the best one!

Best Wishes Penny:girl:
 
Buckenham Marshes this evening. Wigeon, Peregrine and possible Hen Harrier can mean only one thing....winter birding folks!
A fuller account elsewhere.
Cheers,
Jim.
 
in the light that we might be on for a decent seawatch tomorrow i thought i'd share a article from the Glaven Valley Newsletter written by local birder and Point stalwart Chris Wheeler. He's not saying anything new but he sums up the pitfalls and subtle difficulties involved in seawatching brilliantly

''The ID of sea-birds that pass by along our coast is not that easy and the various authorities that have to adjudicate on these records have a very difficult job. A sea-bird passing by is not going to stop or hang around. Unless you are very lucky, it is probably only in view for less than a minute, perhaps disappearing into the wave troughs, the wind may be very strong, the light not that good and it may be very distant. Memorising all the details and having to make a split second decisions can cause confusion and lead the imagination astray. At the end of the day one may be confident in what one has seen, but being able to convince sommeone else is another matter. The one really practical aid is experience and the longer one spends looking at birds both here and abroad the greater chance one has of getting it right. The reason that i mention this is that there have been four reports this year along our coast of sea-birds that are very rare or could be the first record for Norfolk. These include Brunnich's Guillemot, Bridled/Sooty Tern, Wilson's Petrel and Masked Booby, I wish the observers the best of luck".
 
Titchwell September 24th

Today's highlights

Spoonbill - 5 on fresh marsh
Little stint - 3 on fresh marsh

From 8am, Saturday September 25th, the west bank path will re-open from the visitor centre to the beach. Construction of the new Parrinder Hide will start in the next couple of weeks and should be open by early December.

Thank you all for your support and patience over the last month or so.

Paul
 
Excellent days seawatching, as expected a quiet start with just a few Gannets and a fair busy passage of Divers.
Despite this our early start felt justified in that we had got centre seats for the main event and witnessing the quiet period enabled as to follow the compete story of the day - from quiet to the floodgates opening which we anticipated would occur late morning to a steady procession in the afternoon. This is what we were hoping for and for once this is exactly how it transpired.

First signs as the wind gradually picked up and swung round to the North was an increase in Gannets and the first manxie, then about 11 with a heavy front encroaching suddenly everything was in rush to stay ahead of the squalls. In amongst the Bonxies was first a close fully spooned adult Pom, followed by half a dozen more, then Sooties with Manxies, Kittiwakes, Gannets and Bonxies (in flocks up to 25) streaming through. Certainly the most intense part of the day, made more exhilarating by a lot of the birds either going over the beach or close in over the surf. The first Long-tail was picked up - an incredibly pale, lemon-headed bird flashing through at close range. Because of the squalls the light up to about 1pm made viewing difficult and another half dozen Skuas all looked good candidates for Long-tailed but were disgarded as ID couldn't quite be nailed. Terns and a few Little Gulls were moving through the surf and in amongst a couple of Sandwich a superb Sabine's Gull was picked out.

As the initial rush subsided the afternoon stretched out with a constant procession of Bonxies and as we really got our eyes in, more Long-tails. Most were intermediate or pale morphs, one flying through with an accompanying Arctic giving direct comparisons. Evening are generally best for seeing Leach's Petrel as we were eventually rewarded with two flitting and shearing in and out of the troughs. Stuff was still passing as we left and the 627 Bonxies i believe is a new Norfolk record.
 
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Sheringham

A jolly productive day at sheringham
10.5 hours seawatching 6.40am - 5.10 pm
Although the cheeky late comers had the right idea as nothing really happened til 10! Pretty much everything going east

Sabine's Gull - juv
2 Leach's Petrels
5 Long-tailed Skuas all juvs, one cracking pale phase (+4 or 5 probables)
7 Pomarine Skuas (including an adult with full spoons)
10 Sooty Sheawaters
c70 Manx Shearwaters
c80 Arctic Skuas
c600 Great SKuas
5+ Puffin
100+ Kittiwakes
30+ Fumlmar
c750 Gannet
 
five star seawatching

A jolly productive day at sheringham
10.5 hours seawatching 6.40am - 5.10 pm
Although the cheeky late comers had the right idea as nothing really happened til 10! Pretty much everything going east

Sabine's Gull - juv
2 Leach's Petrels
5 Long-tailed Skuas all juvs, one cracking pale phase (+4 or 5 probables)
7 Pomarine Skuas (including an adult with full spoons)
10 Sooty Sheawaters
c70 Manx Shearwaters
c80 Arctic Skuas
c600 Great SKuas
5+ Puffin
100+ Kittiwakes
30+ Fumlmar
c750 Gannet

I saw no point arriving early. It was sunny with little wind when I left home. This soon changed!
On site from 945 to 515.
A record-long watch as was the huge number of bonxies.

I thought the day would be good. Even better than expected.
 
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