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Norfolk birding (30 Viewers)

Moving experiences

Several hundred Blackbirds in off the sea from the NW, moving E along the coast, at WRunton (thanks, Ian) this evening. Redwings, Fieldfares, Song Thrushes and a Mistle Thrush accompanied. I may have glimpsed a Ring Ouzel with them. Some were extraordinarily high, most just specks (with the naked eye).

A smart male Redstart (thanks, Dave), with 2 Black Redstarts- tomb it may concern.
 

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Evening guys,

Can only echo the words of others in regards to the enjoyment of today. After the events of the last couple of weeks, I'm sure people will be going into work a little brighter after some good birds and weather.

Managed to successfully twitch Firecrest, RFBT and the two LEO's, with the only miss being Nash's Iceland Gull early doors.

Moving between north and east didn't leave too much time for bird finding but, we did manage our own brace of Black Redstarts (both fem types) and a minor surprise in the form of a male Common Redstart. A late search for Wagtails produced a definite pair of White Wagtails on the Eye Field and a possible third.

A constant eye of moving Swallows and Martins did not produce a desired vagrant and I am sure my money would have been on a Alpine rather than a Common in the Swift stakes today.

Peace
 
A walk out at Stiffkey marsh produced very little, although the wind probably kept any passerines well hidden if there were any.
Cley gave me some spring species with Sandwich Tern, Swallow and House Martin seen moving west. The Purple Sandpiper continued to show well and near the sluice further down a Lapland Bunting was claimed but I was not fortunate enough to see it, just Meadow Pipits here.
The highlight of the day was a Hobby flashing through over the west bank mid afternoon and away towards Blakeney Point, it didn't seem fussed about stopping.
There was also a Wheatear in the eye field.
Kelling water meadows produced good numbers of hirundines, including the first sand martins of the day, but not much else. Muckleburgh hill had a couple of chiffchaff singing and a female adder basked in the late afternoon sun.
A male Blackcap in my garden finished the day off.
 
Out from dawn 'til after dark today.
Patching, coastal birding, twitching...
Great company, great birds (even a couple of finds).
Great meeting up with plenty of 'old' faces and a few new ones (nice to meet you, Keith!) - although there were a couple of unexpected ones at 'the' twitch!
Great sharing and receiving directions and news of finds and other stuff...
Shame some people only see this as a one way street,
Oh well, each to their own...
 
ben_lewis said:
Not quite as much in the way of quality as coastal areas yesterday, but I had a great day in the Mid Yare. Starting at 6 at Cantley and making my way to Strumpshaw I had- 2 LRP displaying to each other, ~70Ruff, 40+ Dunlin, 25 Avocet, Willow warbler, sedge warbler, KNOT, med gull, WOODLARK, those in capitals are very good birds for the yare, at least they are new for me!
Then in the late afternoon when the rain came I sat in Strumpshaw Tower hide for a bit (having still not seen a single hirrundine!) and watched as 100's of swallows and sand martins were zooming east, there was a good stream moving for at least an hour while I was there.
A 9 yeartick day is always good, especially when I work on the reserve everyday!
So that's the floodgates open....
Click to expand...

Hi Ben, it must have been you we were chatting to in tower hide on Saturday evening. Shortly after you left a bittern flew in low from the direction of fen hide and landed in the reeds beyond the tower hide pool. P.s any luck with spotting our furry friend?
 
Some fabulous posts here - great reading what everyone has seen – sadly I have been at work all day, but looking forward to my dawn 'til' dusk day's holiday tomorrow;)
 
Seemed that the road from Horsey to Winterton was well trodden/driven today. Didn't get photos of the Bluetail (but the views were plenty good enough) but did get perfunctory image of both of the LEO - here - thanks to all for finding and directions, cracking day out.

And bizarrely, perhaps, there were a couple of Siskins flying along the sea wall at Walcott.
 
Great day out some super birds & sum nice friendly people , at about 7pm there was a load off Fieldfare's that flew out to sea at Winterton some off them were very high up , nice to see lots off Swallows flying about as well .
 
Fantastic day of viz-mig, with plenty of birds both arriving & departing. Started just after dawn on the clifftop near Weybourne, where there was a steady flow of birds moving west with a few goodies sprinkled amongst them. Sandwich Terns now seem to be back in numbers offshore & Hirundines of 3 species moved through steadily, with the movement picking up from late morning onwards. The bird of the morning was the 1st year Iceland Gull that went east at 07:14 before turning round at Sidestrand (per A.B.) & coming back west past us again at 09:22, then seen at various other points west. A really pale individual resembling a giant Med Gull almost (3 pairs of which we had move west). The hoped for raptor bonanza did`nt happen but we did manage 1 Red Kite & 2 Marsh Harriers west as well as a Little Egret & 2 brief Common Sandpipers on the beach. The real spectacle was this evening though, with the aforementioned Thrush movement. Being alerted to it by a friend of mine, I watched from Cromer lighthouse between 19:00-20:15 & counted 1396 Blackbirds, 371 Redwings & 10 Fieldfare all moving off east. Whilst not in the same league as the Redwing movement over Lowestoft this evening, it was an amazing sight none the less. Speaking to my friend afterwards who had first noticed the birds around 16:00 from his garden, we came up with a figure of 5000+ Blackbirds. Oh well, thats the fun overwith, back to work tomorrow.
 
A look out of my kitchen, early windows, alerted me to the lovely beast below (Black Redstart), flitting up and down The Esplanade, Sheringham.

WRunton had 5 Wheatears on the cliff edge, with flava Wagtails and a Tree Pipit (my FoY), over W.
 

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Beeston 7-8am 5 Wheatear, 92 M.Pips, 55 Linnet, 29 Goldfinch, 14 Redpoll, 3 Yellow Wag, 56 Swallow, 3 alba wag, 1 Mistle Thrush, 5 House Martin, 7 Sand Martin, 2 Siskin, singing Sedge Warbler, 1 Stock Dove all west. Also on the move minimum of c.70 Woodpigeon west majority over the sea.
 
firstreesjohn said:
Several hundred Blackbirds in off the sea from the NW, moving E along the coast, at WRunton (thanks, Ian) this evening. Redwings, Fieldfares, Song Thrushes and a Mistle Thrush accompanied. I may have glimpsed a Ring Ouzel with them. Some were extraordinarily high, most just specks (with the naked eye).

A smart male Redstart (thanks, Dave), with 2 Black Redstarts- tomb it may concern.
Click to expand...
Great pictures of the redstart there. I've not managed to get to coast for a while ( actually I've struggled to get out much full stop!)
But have managed some movement here in Norwich at my patch this week with a red kite ,swallows and house martins.
I Echo penny's words when I say I've too enjoyed reading through what u guys have all seen this weekend, keep it up!
Happy birding
Shaky
 
Many thanks to David (good to meet you on Sunday!), Archie, Penny, Leigh etc. with your very kind comments on my Cetti's photos, it really was a wonderful sight!

I had limited time to get out yesterday, with other commitments taking up most of the day, but the quality of birds was just superb :t:

Managed good views of the Bluetail, although it was quite elusive whilst I was there (and my photos are rubbish :-C) but the two LEO's were cracking birds, being a lifer for me! In 30 years of birding it's one of those species I had never managed to connect with, they really topped off a fantastic weekend.

Good birding to those who can get out during the week, roll on next weekend!!

Keith
 
Just heard my first Willow Warbler of the year in the unlikely setting of Beach Road, Gorleston. There were one or two little birds flitting about in the tops of the trees to the west of the Cliff Hotel but I didn't have my bins with me so couldn't tell what they were.

Ron
 
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Migration

One of three (perhaps as many as five) Red Kites south at Horsey early am. Plus Tree Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Brambling plus many finches & hirundines moving south, but ground to a halt about 8.30am.
 

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Titchwell April 15th

Today’s highlights

Wheatear – 2 on grazing meadow
Willow warbler – 2 around carpark/Meadow Trail
Red kite – 1 east
Sand martin – 20 over fresh marsh
Swallow – 20+ over fresh marsh
Swift – 1 west
Yellow wagtail – 6 on fresh marsh
White wagtail – 11 on fresh marsh
Common tern – 1 offshore
Long tailed duck – female still on fresh marsh

Paul
 
robinchittenden said:
One of three (perhaps as many as five) Red Kites south at Horsey early am. Plus Tree Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Brambling plus many finches & hirundines moving south, but ground to a halt about 8.30am.
Click to expand...

Robin

Too late for the kites but walk from Horsey to Winterton today did produce Hen Harrier and Peregrine together plus parties of cranes showing on and off in the distance in flight (parties of 2, 3, and 5 respectively).
Also a good count of 21 Wheatears in a relatively small area north of the 'totem pole' mid-afternoon but no sign of any supporting cast such as Black Redstart or Ring Ouzel which was a bit odd.

Mick
 

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