Norfolk birding (1 Viewer)

[Cortonbirds]

Jimmyg Wednesday was the day predicted to have rain front moving in over Norfolk thus grounding birds coming south on the NE wind=fall...however now the forecast says the rain will only come up about as far as Landguard, Suffolk. Tuesday does indeed hold as much promise now as it doesnt have to rain and the chart looks right...so good chance of a tues afternoon fall into Norfolk (all big falls have first appeared in afternoons-I wont go into the logistics..) Thus Wednesday should have birds to see reinforced by continuing arrivals. Then on the weekend there is a lighter easterly bias perfect for observing..as the next big high drifts further east....so common migrant fall possible Tues/Wed despite no rain then higher chance of rarer stuff like Sibes on Sat.

 

[jimmyg]

Thanks, that makes more sense. Would have preferred it the other way round though!

 

[stuart white]

Another productive Sea watch

All 4 skuas seen off sheringham this morning. (by 11am)
2 LONG TAILED SKUAS within 10 mins of each other around 7.30 both west, and an Adult Pomarine Skua
Divers as big as geese were seen in the shape of Great Northern
25+ Manx Shearwaters, very brief views of a probable Leach's Petrel plus another one definitely seen. Lots of Puffins, very few Kittiwakes compared to yesterday. Most bizarrely a Bat flew past at one point!

Then time for some "Pagering". Wells woods produced 2 Pied Flycatchers, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs & Treecreepers. Only one of our party managed to see the Icky and despite intensive pishing, searching, undergrowth crawling etc. the rest of us failed.

Oh well there's always tomorrow

 

[charlietuff]

I thought i was going mad, i was having a little seawatch off the East Bank today when a bat flew past me too! about 11:30ish

 

[Penny Clarke]

Thanks, that makes more sense. Would have preferred it the other way round though!

Yes so would I, now I have done some creeping and bribed my team leader with the new Kitkat chunky caramel in order to book 2 hours off on Wednesday, resulting in me finishing work at 2.15pm and then not back to work until Monday 28th September!!!:t:

Went to Hunstanton Cliffs this evening, but got there too late for any sea bird passage. Watched a coastguard exercise which was fascinating to watch - doing a rescue over the cliff top:eek!: went to parents and when I came back they were still doing the rescue at 9.45pm!!!

By the way, does anyone know anything about the beautiful area/low valley adjacent to Holme Golf Course (seaward side - left/west of the main Holme beach gap) (which had a rock thrush in many years ago) which now has a PRIVATE DO NOT ENTER sign in the area now. My mother is getting quite hyper about it all and thinks they may be extending the golf course which would be dreadful - this area is very, very good for birds and is a good spot for turtle doves, wheatears, whinchats etc etc????!!!!:-C:C


Best Wishes Penny:girl:

 

[postcardcv]

great shear through Sherringham and then Cley this morning... why wasn't I out birding. I'm off to sit in the corner and mutter to myself for the rest of the day, I think that will help.

 

[sacha]

Sherringham this morning

great shear through Sherringham and then Cley this morning... why wasn't I out birding. I'm off to sit in the corner and mutter to myself for the rest of the day, I think that will help.

The Great Shear was VERY distant - Could see it was a 'large' shearwater and flight pattern pointed more to Great than Cory's but you would have to be brave (or much more experienced than myself with distant seabirds) to claim it!

The number of birds was not huge but the quality was amazing! I saw the following between 7am and 9am:

2 Cory's - one close enough to see plumage well and one distant - one east one west.
The above large shear (probably Great) going west
1 adult dark phase Pom (with spoons)
4-5 Sooty Shears
1+ Manxie
1 Leach's petrel (plus others saw one other briefly)
3-4 Arctic skuas only
5+ Bonxie only
2+ Puffin (others called)
2 Arctic tern
1 Com tern
1 Kittiwake only
20+ R t divers
and smaller numbers of Gannets than the last few days but still plenty going past along with a few scoter, teal etc etc

Cory's was a long awaited bogey bird for my UK list having seen/found loads of Greats from pelagics and off Scillies/Ireland ..
Considering that i only have about 2-3 UK ticks a year these days i am very happy! B

Next few days are looking good for the likes of Greenish Warblers, Wrynecks, Icky etc in Norfolk ... if Kent doesn't get all the passerines .. I will be ignoring the sea and concentrating on bushes instead.

 

[Paul Eele]

Titchwell September 15th

Today's highlights

Pomarine skua - adult offshore
Arctic skua - 6 offshore
Great skua - 14 offshore
Wheatear - 3 on beach
Green sandpiper - 1 on fresh marsh
Common sandpiper - 1 on fresh marsh

Highlight of the day - Clifden nonpareil moth found on the servery wall this morning was the 1st record for the reserve.

Paul

 

[rob lee]

I thought i was going mad, i was having a little seawatch off the East Bank today when a bat flew past me too! about 11:30ish

Interesting ! Remember last year when when a Bat was seen to come in off the sea at Kelling & fly straight into a pillbox to roost, where it was subsequently I.D`d as a Parti-coloured Bat. Both that species & Northern Bat are known long distance migrants with a north/eastern European distribution. Looks like these winds could be bringing more than just avian migrants. I see Clifden Nonpariel (rare migrant moth) was also recorded at Titchwell today.

 

[Penny Clarke]

My goodness there's been some MORE MEGA seawatching from Norfolk Coast today!!!!!!
:eek!::eek!:

Advice please?

When I leave off work at 2.15pm tomorrow should I fly to Sheringham Shelters/Cley Coastguards or be mad/brave and do Blakeney Point? (need/want puffin, pom s. storm p. and Leach's etc for my year list!) I suppose that answers my question really!!!

Would like to go to East Hills - never been - will have to team up with Mr F. one day

Best Wishes Penny:girl:

P.S. Just started a Fair Isle thread, plus Deryk Shaw's new blogspot: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=151784

 

[Songkhran]

The Great Shear was VERY distant - Could see it was a 'large' shearwater and flight pattern pointed more to Great than Cory's but you would have to be brave (or much more experienced than myself with distant seabirds) to claim it!
QUOTE]

I'm glad you finally got Cory's dude, lucky i got on it too considering i was still half asleep!

Ok this Great Shear, I managed to pick it up and was watching it for some time before others got on it, it was not possible to really get any plumage on it and all i could see was that it had a quite stiff, very steep and high shearing action, quite unlike the Cory's that we had been watching earlier. It was stiff winged and Manx -like on the upshear then steep and direct with bowed wings on the downshear At the time I didn't really think past Cory's (however in hindsight the flight action was very similar to a Great Shear that i saw very well and close off Blakeney in 2007).

I think birds like this raise that time old debate about jizz and behaviour v plumage. The thing is because i don't list at all so don't 'need' this bird for the year or Norfolk and since birding it all about enjoying birds in the moment I don't really mind what it was but through lack of experience with big shears couldn't put it down as a Great if i did list. However, the two observers who are calling this Great Shear (think of a birder from Sheringham and a birder from Cley and you've got them), have got far far more experience of seeing flocks of Great and Cory's Shears and i would implicitly trust them on any judgement they make. Some people at the top you simply can't argue with! I reckon you can define jizz simply by that memory of what a bird looks like that imprints on your mind so that when you see it again you can call back on that memory and simply know what it is-i.e jizz is simply 'what the bird is'- thats why a lot of birders don't like it cos its so vague and in terms of a scientific explanation - unexplainable.

this bird was cool cos it was a large Shear picked up at range, just a shame people didn't get on it earlier when it was a fraction closer cos i reckon it would have been called as a Great there and then. In terms of enjoyment though it was a boss seawatch, the Pom was the dogs cos it was the first DP adult ive seen off Norfolk and the dip feeding juv LTS was the dogs cos it was a dip feeding LTS!

I take it all back Sheringham is THE place to seawatch

 

[Songkhran]

nothing spectacular but Wheatears arriving all afternoon on The Point, probably around 35 in the end, a few Song Thrushes, Redstart in the Plantation, could be heaqding for the big fall overnight, you never know!

 

[Cortonbirds]

On the Norfolk/Suffolk border on my patch around Corton there was also an afternoon arrival as predicted....but nowhere near as good as I thought it would have been. Strong wind making finding migrants hard tho. I logged 35 Wheatear new in in afternoon, 2 Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Whinchat, fresh in Willow Warbler, and small numbers of migrant Song Thrush and Robins.

Problem is ..who was looking..they would have seen the pager dead in the morning and I bet most that had the time off seawatched all day...

 

[Nottingham Panther]

Evening everyone, thanks for the replies r.e the book recommendations on the subject of migration. Some quality reading for the long dark nights ahead. Wish i had the tough decision of whether to Seawatch or dig out some nice Passerine migrants but unfortunately my paymaster needs me at work this week !!!

Any pics about, of the RBFly at Wells, next to the entrance gate to the woods today. Not much room to manouvere there so some good views to be had? Enjoying the pics on Cleybirds of the delights on the point from Friday including the RBFly there.

Sorry, but another request (will be the last !!) I have just crashed into 21st century technology and have a Blackberry, can anybody recommend an App or another download that has those tricky migrant bird contact calls on, to listen to and learn ?

Steve

 

[jimmyg]

I know its a bit late, but I could do with a speedy answer to this: is there any point me arriving for a seawatch at around 10 tomorrow if I want any of the big birds (including pom)???

 

[jimmyg]

Oh well, think I might give it a shot at Holme anyway; not going to bother with Sheringham given the limited time.

 

[ChrisBish]

3 Redhead Goosander by the Nun's Bridges in Thetford for the last 3 days giving extremely close views sat on gravel about 20 yards (if that) from where you can park the car. Not sure if this is a regular spot but think I would've noticed them in previous winters on my drive to work if it was!

Fingers crossed for good seawatching conditions at the weekend, I'm getting far too jealous of the large Shearwaters being seen, I still need both for Norfolk!!!

Chris

 

[senatore]

Had a very good few days in your fabulous birding county last week.

I live in Warwickshire which is not too good for birding but for once I can report a case when Warks. beat Norfolk : The Pect. Sandpiper at Cley was very elusive and always distant so I gave up after a couple of gos so I was very pleased when I got home to see that one was at Draycote Water and which was happy to pose for pics (see below).

I don't know if this happens often in Norfolk but I nearly had a heart attack when relaxing with a lunchtime drink in the gardens at the front of the Dun Cow (Salthouse).A very low flying jet fighter roared right overhead and the noise was incredible.The lawn was much wetter after it flew over and it wasn't all down to spilled drinks.

A couple of other pics attached.The Hobby was taken at Hickling Broad and the juvenile Gannet was on Granborough hill Salthouse (it looked exhausted I hope it was OK).

Max.

 

[dbradnum]

3 Redhead Goosander by the Nun's Bridges in Thetford for the last 3 days giving extremely close views sat on gravel about 20 yards (if that) from where you can park the car. Not sure if this is a regular spot but think I would've noticed them in previous winters on my drive to work if it was!

I believe there was a breeding record from here a year or two ago (first for the county), so perhaps some of these are juvs?

 

[firefox32]

Does anybody know where in costessey the GWE was seen? Is it still around?

Cheers.
Fox.