• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Norfolk birding (8 Viewers)

So, some say that 31st December 2009 is the end of the decade. So what was the best Norfolk bird or birding moment in the noughties?
Black Lark?

Cheers,
Jono
 
Thanks Andy, I'll have a look at those links!
Tideliner, thanks for that, but don't think I'll be getting over there for a while;). Did you get your info from there or through discussion. Maybe you could enquire about an e-copy of at least a summery, if possible.

Jono, glad to see there are some birds out there. Hopefully BR will tell us of his goose searching, even if it is without any locations.
 
Great days birding today, braved sheringham from 9am-11am saw the same Sooty Shearwater fly past 3 times, a couple of bonxies and a velvet scoter. The Sooty must be a pretty late record ? We then went to the pub for 12, braved stiffkey fen for 5 mins after lunch, no birds and a howling snow storm, back to the pub in morston !! Very productive
 
So, some say that 31st December 2009 is the end of the decade. So what was the best Norfolk bird or birding moment in the noughties?
Black Lark?

Cheers,
Jono

in terms of possibly never to be repeated birding moments, The big influx of Greenish Warblers that was almost exclusively confined to Norfolk in Aug 2007may never happen again, this is not so much that those numbers of Greenish couldn't get over again but the sequence of events seemed very unique, strong NE's early in the season - Andy Stoddart in an article in The Bird Report said that there was a very small opening for them to arrive.
Probably the best seawatching day was the Great Shearwater day on Sept 10th 2007 - doubled the number of Norfolk records in one day, however i think this is more likely to occur again if birds start feeding in more Northerly areas.

Thinking way back I think 2002 was a brilliant Autumn and there were record counts of Pallas's Warblers and lots of Eastern migrants,

If anyone is willing to pour over some bird reports, i think we did have some record counts this decade, Little Auk, Great Skua, Honey Buzzard,

On a different note I'd also be interested to know when the latest ever Sooty Shear in Norfolk was recorded - why wasn't the one today off Argentina?
 
On a different note I'd also be interested to know when the latest ever Sooty Shear in Norfolk was recorded - why wasn't the one today off Argentina?

Moss Taylor notes 3 mid-winter records in Birds Of Norfolk (so up to 1998), 23rd Dec 1986 (Salthouse), 30th Dec 1989 (Hunstanton & Blakeney) and 14th Jan 1987 (Cley). I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to why they weren't in Argentina though!
 
Moss Taylor notes 3 mid-winter records in Birds Of Norfolk (so up to 1998), 23rd Dec 1986 (Salthouse), 30th Dec 1989 (Hunstanton & Blakeney) and 14th Jan 1987 (Cley). I wouldn't like to hazard a guess as to why they weren't in Argentina though!

cheers, so could be some other late seabirds around this week not sure there has ever been a winter Sabs Gull and look out for small Gulls with diamond shaped tails.

Also whatever figures we get for Gannet this year should break the Norfolk record.
 
Barnacle goose with pinkies in fields south of Titchwell RSPB reserve this morning.
Very little else so far apart from plenty of snow!

Paul
 
Speaking of House ticks John, a Grey Wagtail was a very unexpected visitor to our garden this morning! It didn't find much food in the melting snow so took off pretty sharpish.
Fantastic totals from Denver Sluice this morning include 28 Goosander and 24 Snipe. Also saw a Shag there. More details on my website.
 
Some news;
65 Whooper Swans went high west over Thorpe Road, Norwich at c2pm yesterday (Friday). Also, fresh otter tracks alongside the river bank by the Queen of Iceni Wetherspoons pub on Riverside.
Today at Buckenham 11 + 9 Whooper Swans flew west early afternoon, plus Great Northern Diver on the river near the border between Cantley and Buckenham Marshes. Lots of Stonechats, Snipe, Golden Plover around and a couple of quartering Marsh Harriers. Note the roads down to Buck station are pretty hairy at the moment.
Also, 48 (!) Brown Hares in the field at the top of the road to the station. Quite an incredible sight, all strung out in the middle of the field in the snow.
Cheers.
 
A redhead Goosander and a Water Rail on the Little Broad at Whitlingham this morning, with a small flock of Siskin and Goldfinch in the alders. Also a Weasel near the bird screen.
 
Year list total.

Penny. How did you get on with your year list in the end? Have not been in Norfolk for a little while! Did you twitch the Eastern crowned warbler? Are you interested in going to Shetland or Fair Isle at some point!

Regards.

MarkB o:)
 
Usual suspects

Great to see Dave N is back in the field again - do hope you are dressing your daughter up in warm clothes to go seawatching! Josh does not seem to change on his "beyond the fringe" views! However, his recent rant on the values of punkbirding did bring a smile and made some valid points!

Although there are probably too many birders in the county, the number who are active is probably managable! There is space for people to do there own thing even if that does not involve twitching on there own patch!! I do however find choosing to avoid rarities on the doorstep as really odd! However, given that Josh did not get "conned" by the Sib thrush that "migrated" to Norfolk from Yorkshire in the back of a white van, he is probably has grounds have to have a wry smile.

Regards.

Mark
 
Simeon and I had 50 Goosander at the sluice this morning: a site record for us - does anybody know what the actual site record is? May be even more tomorrow... Other decent birds/counts included 33 Snipe, a Little Egret and 8 Bewick's Swans.
 
The Birds of Norfolk (up to 1998) gives 98 along the Great Ouse relief channel between Ten Mile Bank and King's Lynn Jan 1985 and 100+ between Denver and St. Germans Jan 1987 and such large totals, as would be expected, are attributed to cold spells and severe winter weather, with the comment 'far larger groups of 20-40 and even 60 can gather on undisturbed areas' in such conditions. 50 though is a really good total - certainly the highest in the county for a number of years by the looks of the county bird reports.
 
Last edited:
Skylarks westering

Just seen several flocks of 20+ Skylarks moving west along the seafront at Sheringham- flying !

The snow had settled by the morning. Unlike other parts of the county, we'd previously only had showers, which didn't stick.

There doesn't seem to be much moving on the sea. However, I'm only looking sporadically, next to a warm radiator, rather than from the bitterly cold shelter.

Lapwings, too. These continued to move in small flocks, both over the sea and coastal edge.

A (perilous) walk into the town at lunchtime enabled the RH photo, with the prescient sign warning of the self-evident dangers. However, I thought the injunction against going on to the rocks was rather hard on the Turnstones- even if they seem to be heeding it.
 

Attachments

  • P1000750pse.jpg
    P1000750pse.jpg
    154.4 KB · Views: 125
  • P1000753pse.jpg
    P1000753pse.jpg
    196.8 KB · Views: 135
Last edited:
Just seen several flocks of 20+ Skylarks moving west along the seafront at Sheringham- flying !

The snow had settled by the morning. Unlike other parts of the county, we'd previously only had showers, which didn't stick.

There doesn't seem to be much moving on the sea. However, I'm only looking sporadically, next to a warm radiator, rather than from the bitterly cold shelter.

Lapwings, too.

Simeon and I have had Skylarks moving at the sluice too. A few birds yesterday, and Simeon had over 200 a few days ago. Mine were moving roughly south though, don't know about Simeon's. Sounds like they're following the river.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top