Norfolk birding (25 Viewers)

Louisfh...
Got back yesterday from having two smashing days up in Holt.
First day went to Titchwell Marsh for the first time, (forgot to pay parking, but no ticket when I got back)!! Friendly people in the shop, joined RSPB and found out about the rebuilding 'Project'. Smashing 'Bacon Baps' in the cafe!! Enjoyable walk to the beach, lots of birds/ducks, in all we were there for about 4 hours.
Second day, pouring with rain, went to Cley reserve, went to the observation window and just sat and ate/drank for a couple of hours. That North Norfolk area is a dream.
TC

Titchwell October 2nd

Today's highlights

Lapland bunting - 7 west over reserve, 2 on brackish marsh late morning
Teal - 846 on fresh marsh
Little stint - 2 on fresh marsh
Golden plover - 393 on fresh marsh
Short eared owl - 1 on saltmarsh
Peregrine - 1 hunting over reserve
Redstart - 1 in bushes on brackish marsh
Snow bunting - 1 on brackish marsh

Paul

Still a fair amount of migrants hanging on along my regular walk, 6 Redstart (including the stunning male from two days ago) 6 Wheatear, 2 Whinchat, but Song Thrushes now down from 100's to 1.

Wilson's Phalarope showed quite nicely at Welney WWT this afternoon. It was on the main lagoon in front of the main hide. Also 2 Little Stints and a Barnacle Goose here. Short-Eared Owl showed well further up the reserve and everywhere there were hundreds of Teal, along with plenty of Snipe etc.

A Wheatear flew along the road in front of the car as we drove back - obviously another migrant that's filtered inland.

9 Siskins, a Redwing and a Meadow Pipit flew over the house today too.

Melodious Warbler ?

stuart white said:

Melodious Warbler ?

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We arrived at the north end of Lady Anne's drive at about 10:54 and there was a small group of birders watching a warbler south of the path and getting good scope views. The running commentary was of "an Icterine perched on dead wood in front of the ivy".

I did not have my scope with me but I could see the bird with grey legs and orange feet - see photo. However, I could also see the bird regularly flicking its tail down like a Chiffchaff and it was similar size to a 'genuine' Chiffchaff that passed by. The prominent eye stripe and dark lores did not detract from the ID of Icterine so we left and went for some nice views of Yellow-browed Warbler near the cross tracks. *It's been pointed out that this paragraph could be interpreted as me believing that this is an Icterine, Doh! My money is on Chiffchaff.

Maybe this odd-looking individual gave rise to some of the pager reports OR maybe there were 2 or 3 other better birds in the area.

Dave

stuart white said:

Melodious Warbler ?

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Weren't you there this afternoon?!?
You tell us!!

Blyth's Reed Warbler?

davethebird said:

Maybe this odd-looking individual gave rise to some of the pager reports OR maybe there were 2 or 3 other better birds in the area.

Dave

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Not that odd-looking is it, really?
But I think you are probably right with the first part of your statement!

I was there all day !!

and yes the blyth's reed was lovely

David Norgate said:

Not that odd-looking is it, really?
But I think you are probably right with the first part of your statement!

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Not that odd but the grey legs and yellow feet stood out well in the sunshine.

Dave

davethebird said:

Not that odd but the grey legs and yellow feet stood out well in the sunshine.

Dave

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True, those feet are quite impressive!

Hippo at Holkham

I joined the birders at the end of Lady Anne's Drive Holkham before 10am.

No sighting of reported icterine warbler by the north end since 720am. Par for the course having dipped the Walsey bird three times.

A strange looking bird was picked up near two ivy-covered conifers with plenty of cover. Larger and leaner than the two chiffchaff present. Harder to see than them.

Did not see a clear eye-stripe on the bird. Not the willow warbler which was around.

Bird has too large a bill for willow-chiff. Yellow-green so not the reed warbler which showed from time to time.

Legs greyish. No obvious wing panel.

Looked promising for a hippo warbler and the small crowd happy it was the icterine warbler seen first thing.

Good birding from west end of the pines.
(a) a male bearded tit, well away from reeds at the east end of Burnham Overy Dunes
(b) a dull chiffchaff reported as a possible Siberian seen with other chiffchaffs. Not convinced it is a tristis myself
(c) jammed the elusive wood warbler by the path
(d) hear but do not see the yellow-browed warbler at the crosstracks.

Any thoughts of seeing the yellow-browed vanished when the icterine warbler was seen again but was now a melodious warbler. One of those claiming the melodious said he watched it in his scope for two minutes.

Never saw the bird seen this morning during the afternoon. As on a seawatch bird sightings were shouted before their ID was confirmed. Willow warbler, reed warbler and chiffchaff all seen. No sign of any hippo type bird.

I believe the bird I saw was a hippo. not 100% sure. Assuming the bird was a hippo I cannot tell whether it is icterine or melodious.

Someone may produce good photos of the bird I saw. Or the bird is seen again and identification confirmed.

Until then the bird will remain unidentified.

At least the ice cream showed well

Starting in Sheringham, it was obvious that not a lot had arrived, even though some of the night had been clear.

Gramboro’s Barred Warbler continued to delight, with more sagacity shown by its viewers today. However, a dog-couple with a pair of bins spoiled everything by, firstly, looking at it and then walking right past the brambles where it was feeding, scaring it back into the bush. Amazing !

There was also a record number of (4) Dunnocks, a Blue Tit and Goldcrest present in the 'bowl'.

The end of the westernmost Track at Warham Greens had a nice male Redstart, loadsa Red Admirals, Comma, the same fadedest Painted Lady and the attached Small Tortoiseshell.

For some reason, I spent a long time at the north end of Lady Anne’s Drive, in company with lots of others. Perhaps I was building up my appetite for the excellent, if horrendously overpriced chocolate ice cream.

A (heard and distinctly not melodious in tone) Yellow-browed Warbler and 2 Shorelarks were some compensation. Later, Short-eared and Barn Owls were at the west end of the (Holkham) pines, where we morosely searched in vain for Woody the Warbler. A squeaky noise had me going for a little while- until I realised it was a squirrel.

Melodious Warbler- similar experience to the above, I was hoping to see an Icterine and turned up at 10ish to see 3 people, one photographing 'the' bird enthusiastically, it was clearly a yellow juv willow warbler. On the way back to the car a message came through saying that it was showing again, once I got there, there were various mutterings that the bird looked slightly larger than chiff etc, but as soon as all the birders turned up there was no sign. Not accusing anyone of stringing but it seems odd that the bird was present for 6hrs but then disappeared when birders went to see it. It does happen and if this is the case I bet the finder is annoyed, but it looks as if this may be a dodgy record, a photo would nicely prove otherwise though!

firstreesjohn said:

For some reason, I spent a long time at the north end of Lady Anne’s Drive, in company with lots of others. Perhaps I was building up my appetite for the excellent, if horrendously overpriced chocolate ice cream.

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ben_lewis said:

Melodious Warbler- similar experience to the above, I was hoping to see an Icterine and turned up at 10ish to see 3 people, one photographing 'the' bird enthusiastically, it was clearly a yellow juv willow warbler. On the way back to the car a message came through saying that it was showing again, once I got there, there were various mutterings that the bird looked slightly larger than chiff etc, but as soon as all the birders turned up there was no sign. Not accusing anyone of stringing but it seems odd that the bird was present for 6hrs but then disappeared when birders went to see it. It does happen and if this is the case I bet the finder is annoyed, but it looks as if this may be a dodgy record, a photo would nicely prove otherwise though!

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I also spent too long at the north end of Lady Anne's Drive. No ice cream as the parking machine had eaten all my change! First time I had paid to park at Holkham for years. Able to travel light as the car park was quiet when I arrived.

I doubt the bird claimed as a icterine or melodious warbler was a willow warbler. Remain unsure if its ID, but it wasn't a reed warbler!

Bit of an error checking the net for bird news before departing for Waxham and the patch. The lure of a Melodious was too much, and my experiences sadly mirror those of the above. Certainly a lot of negative feeling surrounding the sighting from people I spoke with, and I hope for the finder's sake a picture was taken! Seriously though, as James was telling me on site this is a very rare bird for Norfolk, so if someone has found one then hats off to them.
I spent my time at the cross-tracks, picked up some nice common migrants. Chiffchaff, a very yellow Willow Warbler (easy there), Blackcap, Bullfinch and a small flock of Siskin. Plenty of Goldcrests mingling with the Tit flocks. Finished with cracking views of a Barn Owl, but gutted I missed out on the Shortie that Firstreesjohn saw!
Cheers,
Jim.

Any photos of the Melodious/Icterine/(phyllosc?) from this morning at Holkam; at least we would know that our £2.50's (or £5 if over 3 hrs!) were well spent (or not).

Not what I expected really today, but it was beautiful sunny weather.

I don't often go to Wells as I hate to pay for parking, but today I just thought it would be a good place to start. The ticket man was there, so there was no getting away with not paying, so I reluctantly put my money in the machine (£2.50 for 2 hours). Early on, the place was dripping with birds, blackcaps, robins, hedge sparrows, long tailed tits, blue, great and coal tits, blackbirds, 1 Garden Warbler, goldcrests and best of all a half a dozen Redpolls (got a record shot of one). Also tons of Siskins going over. I spent some time photographing black headed gulls overhead catching flies. Walked all round the Dell and beyond to a pond area. Photographed several different types of mushrooms. Found a few chiffchaffs but that was about it. Several people had seen redstarts and pied flys as well, but I didn't see any! Got back to car an hour over the ticket time and sat and had my lunch.

Wareham Greens, west track. Parked the car on the concrete pad and walked down the track to see absolutely nothing and returned to the car. News of a Melodious Warbler at Holkham changed my plans. I wished later on that I had stuck to my plans and continued to Cley and on to Kelling.

Holkham - parked up on the other side of the main road and walked down Lady Ann's Drive (not paying for parking twice in one day!) to find lots of familiar faces looking at absolutely nothing by the west path. I walked on as couldn't see the point of standing around. Walked as far as the cross tracks and walked down the path left by Joe Jordan's hide and round by the pond area where I photographed a bright yellow willow warbler sitting amongst red hawthorn berries. Also several goldcrests flitting about in the tall pine along with a few chiffchaffs. No sign of the Wood Warbler or Yellow browed Warbler, right of the cross tracks. Walked back and joined other birders to walk from Holkham beach gap east, a very long way, to view 2 Shorelarks at 6pm which I managed to get a distant record shot of. Also a single Lapland Bunting flew over. Watched and photographed 3 large bats! It seemed to take forever to get back to my car.

Flew home!!!!!! Just in time for X-Factor!!!

PICTURES TO BE POSTED TOMORROW ON BLOG.

Best Wishes Penny:girl:

Glad to hear you can still park for free Penny. At £5 to park at Holkam - think of that money they will make when the next 'Red breasted Nuthatch' turns up- at least 3 visits will be needed, so thats 5000 birders x £5 x 3 days..............£75K!

Icterine Warbler - Holkham

Richard "Sam" Hill and I - both from West Sussex - arrived at Lady Anne's Drive just before 7am. Having paid our king's ransom for a three hour stay we intended to walk west to the Burnham Overy dunes.

Taking the path, having already seen a lot of common migrants around the gate, including a surprisingly obliging Garden Warbler, I looked up at the first pine and amongst an expletive declared there was a large warbler with a huge bill there.

It was clearly a "hippo" and the only real decision was Icky or Melodious.

Now before somebody picks up on my amended signature both of us have seen lots of both species abroad, so the next cutting comment was it wishful thinking on our behalf?

We watched the bird for over fifteen minutes feeding vigorously in the pine. It clearly had steel grey legs, but for me it is the agressive look of the bird. I always find that Ickys look evil whereas Melodious have a much more gentle look due to its rounded head.

Having satisfied ourselves that the bird was an Icterine we put out the message to RBA and continued our walk. We returned at 10am to find a number of people searching for the bird, which had clearly not shown since we left it still feeding in the pines at 7.25am

We had an excellent day finishing with a glorious Short-eared Owl quartering the fields at Holme at 6pm and the Tawny Owl flying over the road just south of Hunstanton as dusk fell made it 102 species in less than 12 hours birding - not bad.

Thanks Penny for confirming the route to the Grey Phal.

As a final comment, the pictures of the bird attached to this thread is not the bird we watched.

Ian