Norfolk birding (16 Viewers)

Darren Pearce said:

Hi Jason,

I was the bloke you chatted to not seeing any Hen Harriers at Warham Greens on Saturday eve. We did see a nice close Barn Owl though.

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I remember. Glad you enjoyed your stay.

Jason

Norfolkbirder said:

Hi Connor,

Not managed to get up to Holme in the last few weeks so not bumped into you, but will no doubt catch up soon. Been seawatching & had couple of great days at Sheringham & Cley, also been chasing the Lap Bunts at Salthouse with the camera.

ATB Chris

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Hi mate, wondered whether you'd been around. Saw the Lap photos-very nice.

Cheers, speak to you soon no doubt,

Connor

Quacker said:

Can any of you Norfolk birders point me in the direction of a site, blog, anwhere that might have/keep daily records of the Titchwell Reserve? - Thinking of visiting in the next few weeks and would like to know what is around apart from the birdguides pages.

Thanks in advance

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Hi Quacker

There is not a daily blog or birdlist produced by the Titchwell reserve apart from the information in the reserve sightings book in the visitor centre. If there is anything of interest going on here I tend to put sightings out on BirdForum which usually get picked up by the pager services. I also produce a recent sightings sheet for the local RSPB group who put that information on their website - just type in West Norfolk RSPB group into a internet search engine and you will get it. It is the highlights from the previous week but will give you a flavour of what has been happening. It also gives the tides times for the current week.

Of interest recently has been the return of an adult black brant with the brent flock commuting between the lagoons and local farmland, good numbers of snow and the odd lapland bunting on the beach and a good evening roost last night including ringtail hen, 6 marsh harriers, merlin, 4 sparrowhawk and a barn owl.

Elsewhere locally, a Ross's goose (of unknown origin!) is commuting between the roost at Snettisham and feeding in sugar beet fields by the minor road between Heacham and Ringstead (TF 686386). It was present at 8am this morning with 20,000+ pinkies.

Paul
Titchwell warden

I know someone was asking about Shore Larks in Norfolk on another thread recently, so thought I'd just mention that 2 were reported today on the saltings at Holkham - south of the dunes, just east of the gap. This is their usual wintering area, so with luck they'll hang around and be joined by a few more in due course.

Also an Iceland Gull has been seen at Edgefield Tip (2miles SSE of Holt) for the last few days; worth a look for anyone in the area.

Cheers

dbradnum said:

Also an Iceland Gull has been seen at Edgefield Tip (2miles SSE of Holt) for the last few days; worth a look for anyone in the area.

Cheers

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Pics on surfbirds.

Connor

Paul Eele said:

sugar beet fields by the minor road between Heacham and Ringstead (TF 686386) 20,000+ pinkies.

Paul
Titchwell warden

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Thanks Paul - very useful

Steve

Nipped down to the cliffs after the school run this morning but things were very quiet; the Scoter flock had drifted down the coast a bit and I had to relocate to Cart Gap to see them at all well. They numbered about 1000 and consisted entirely of female/imm. types, not a single adult drake with them. There was however one female Velvet Scoter amongst them and 2 each of Pochard and Pintail joined the flock briefly. In the short while I was there some 20 Gannets headed south/east and a single Red-throated Diver was noted too.

James

A few bits reported on the sea across the county today with Sooty Shearwater past Holme NOA and Little Auk west through Holkham Bay of particular note. The forerunners perhaps...?

Cheers,

Connor

first seawatch as a sheringham local was productive this morning - mini version of the events in last couple of weeks -

Leach's Petrel
7 Poms
10 Little Auks
GND
2 Bonxies
intersting RTD's of varying sizes.
had a Yellow-legged Gull from the 'office' window yesterday but missed a ringtail hen harrier

Pom in Cley area last seen on Tuesday flying about looking for food but it and the Gulls seemed to have taken care of most of the dead fish.

If anyone is interested and in the area James McCallum is showcasing his artwork at Holkham this evening - his new book of watercolours of arctic wildlife is now out.

pomskua said:

first seawatch as a sheringham local was productive this morning - mini version of the events in last couple of weeks -

Leach's Petrel
7 Poms
10 Little Auks
GND
2 Bonxies
intersting RTD's of varying sizes.
had a Yellow-legged Gull from the 'office' window yesterday but missed a ringtail hen harrier

Pom in Cley area last seen on Tuesday flying about looking for food but it and the Gulls seemed to have taken care of most of the dead fish.

If anyone is interested and in the area James McCallum is showcasing his artwork at Holkham this evening - his new book of watercolours of arctic wildlife is now out.

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Hope the job's going well J.

seawatching could well be good over the weekend - still need to find me a Leach's for the year...

RL Buzz still around marshes back of halfords on Gapton Hall Ind Estate

Got a bit of a backlog of birding to report, from the 20th. Sorry, as I'm sure you've all been thinking "oh, I wonder what Jason has been up to, as I haven't heard from him for 3 days. I always enjoy reading his wonderful in-depth reports, and he always finds such excellent birds." Well, here you are;

20th Nov.

Wareham saltmarsh from 14:00 produced a distant fem. type Hen Harrier, a flock of 40+ Fieldfares feeding on Hawthorne, 1000s of Pinkfeet coming to roost at around 16:15. 1 group of c220, and then a huge flock of 1000+ birds all came from the direction of Stiffkey. Also Several groups of Little Egrets coming to roost throughout the evening.

21st Nov (B-Day)

1st winter Iceland Gull present among the gull flock, commuting between the tip and the winter barley field opposite. Had done alot of research on Caspian Gulls the night before, in the hope of picking one out among the flock. Did have a promising bird, though it was distant, and couldn't pick out the p10 markings as it flew. Structure-wize though, it looked good.

Snow and Lapland Bunts still at Salthouse. 1 Kingfisher along dike that runs under Beach Road.

22nd Nov.

Blakeney freshes from Friary Hills for an hour during lunch break. 3 Marsh Harriers; 1 fem., 1 normal Juvenile, and another melanistic juv. with an all dark head. Also 2 Sparrowhawks; 1 male and 1 fem, being mobbed by Magpies whilst trying to hunt along Friary Hills, 1 fem Kestrel, several Siskins, 1 Brambling and one Water Pipit over. Also 55 Pink Feet briefly on one of the newly mown fields and the usual Curlews, Black Tailed Godwits and Herons, etc.

Today.

Seawatch at Cley Coastguards. in 2 hours had:
10 Little Auks
2 Pomarine Skuas
Several Skua sp.
2 Red Throated Divers
1 Diver sp. (big one, either BT or GN)
Also had a Little Auk on the pool opposite Cow Hole. Very cheerfull little chap, swimming and flapping about. Also a dark Juv. Skua sp, which passed me very closely. Was very slight, and fit Arctic Skua perfectly on structure. However, it clearly showed the double underwing flash of a Pom. I decided it was probably just a slender Pomarine, or I misjudged the size, due to me being buffeted by the wind.

The Snow Bunting flock as grown as well. Theres deffinitely more than 60 now. I managed to roughly count 80, but there were still more in the flock that I didn't manage to get.

Also saw a Greyhound that resembled Tim's Mr Allwoods Were you about, or ad your dog done a runner?

Jason

J Moss said:

Also saw a Greyhound that resembled Tim's Mr Allwoods Were you about, or ad your dog done a runner?

Jason

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I was working I'll have you know!

took a trip around some beet fields a few miles further north and found the Ross's that had flown over our house early morning! Also a Pale-bellied Brent in the Pinkfeet flock.

A gorgeous salmon pink Goosander in the scoter flock on the sea off Eccles but i missed a Slav by seconds...

Tim

Hi connor
sorry for the late reply a great day in norfolk last sunday picking up some yearticks and a lifer which was the Laplands at salthouse others included the pom,rb mergansers,hen harrier & grey partridge that are now rare in warwickshire photos on my website
Regards Richard
http://www.richard-dawkins.fotopic.net

Desert Wheatear reported north-east of end of Nelson's head track very late afternoon, near portable toilet. I will go for first light and put news out if the bird is present.

Park sensibly, not blocking the track or field entrances...
note, there are very few spaces to park so i would recommend parking at Horsey NT car park (much more space) and then walk south for about half a mile to view

and wrap up warm as it's bitterly cold out here!

Desert Wheatear 1W male still present north of end of track

showing amazingly well down to a few feet. also 2 Snow Bunts over and 5 Goosander north

very muddy and no parking spaces on Nelson's track when i left.

most people have parked sensibly but thanks to the tosser in the white vauxhall estate who parked on the opposite side to every one else and blocked the end of the track to any large cars or any farm vehicles. You're a knob jockey.

Good day out. Popped down and saw the Desert Wheatear stuffing its face full of meal worms, but still looking cold and dejected. Cracking bird though. Half an hour of seawatching produced 2 flyby purple sandpipers, a few red-throated divers, 1 little auk and a very distant probable skua.

Went to sort out the American Goldie one way or the other, but other it turned out to be. 452 (give or take 5) goldies in the field to the east of the road just south of Waxham (all of the ones in the area I reckon) and one distinctly greyish one. Lacking a distinct white supercilium and structurally wrong for AGP and almost certainly not one. Anybody know more on this? I strongly suspect a case of mistaken identity.

From there to Walcott. Excellent seawatching. In 35 minutes had a 11 little auks, flying really close and periodically landing (poor things looked knackered) and 3 grey phalaropes zig-zagging along with the little auks! Also one moribund looking chip shop on the seafront.

Went to try and find the geese around Paston after that, but despite driving around in circles for almost an hour, I failed. Zipped up to the rubbish tip near Holt and after a bit of searching found the Iceland gull in a field about ½ a mile from the tip back towards Holt – it didn’t stay long – I suspect it went off to roost.

ps. Sorry Tim. Would have given you a ring, but left the phone at home by mistake

Superb day in (mostly) Norfolk today:

Glauc in Lowestoft harbour early morning
RL Buzzard showing pretty well from behind Halfords in Yarmouth shortly afterwards
Stunning views of Desert Wheatear (will post some photos later)... apparently this bird was running between birders' tripods later on the morning!
16 Cranes just up the road
Iceland Gull at Edgefield - commuting between the tip and the field opposite
about 16 Lapland and 6 Snow Buntings showing really well at Salthouse
plus various other bits and bobs, incl thousands of Pinkfeet all over the place and a couple of excellent Barn Owls

... and back home before the Sunday night rush! Also nice to see a number of people again that were in Fishguard with me on Thursday...

edit: oh, and I agree about the white Vauxhall.... shame it's so sadly predictable.

dbradnum said:

edit: oh, and I agree about the white Vauxhall.... shame it's so sadly predictable.

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Hi Dave
yes, very predictable - don't know why some of them are so selfish - you can imagine the hassle we'd get around the back of Sea Palling and Eccles though...

good to see you again today (and several other friendly Norfolk faces) - did your old man not fancy it today?

went home for a Champagne breakfast (other half's birthday) then sauntered around Eccles and Sea Palling. Long-tailed Duck and Two Velvets off Eccles, Barnacle still around Waxham - expect the Ross's is knocking about in fields nearby too...

Decided against going for the Desert Wheatear today and so stomped around Holme. Highlights included a total of eleven Lapland Buntings, a single Waxwing, a few bits and pieces on the sea, such as a single Little Auk and 4 Pom Skuas, while 2 Twites and 14 Snow Buntings were also seen. A probable Mealy Redpoll was observed on the NOA reserve. For pics and full trip report visit my site.

Cheers,

Connor

A half-hour, late morning look from Happisburgh over the very cold looking sea saw two parties of Little Auk (3 NW & 8 SE) and 2 juvenile Pomarine Skuas SE. 390 Golden Plovers (all EGP's!) shared a field with 127 Lapwings and 9 or so Turnstones this afternoon and a scan over the sea again saw a couple of Eider and 2 Velvet Scoter (same as Tims I guess) offshore...

James