Norfolk birding (2 Viewers)

[firstreesjohn]

confusion re Black-headed/Grey-headed came from as I don't think I have seen a Grey-headed with such a dark head and no white on the throat/submoustachial stripe.

More gripping photos- from you, now, Dave ! I can’t take much more of missing all these waggies.

BTW, one of the West Runton birds (from 13 May 2006) was almost exactly the same. (Poor photo below.)

At the distance I originally saw it, and in the rush to put out the news, I’d wrongly called it feldegg, too.

 

[James Emerson]

Also, forgot to say - had a cuckoo singing at 3.30am this morning in the Golden triangle (College Road) in Norwich. Do cuckoos normally sing at night? and what this bird was doing in the middle of Norwich...

Last week there was a Cuckoo at Whitlingham that was still singing as it got dark. There is also an article on night-singing birds in Birdwatch magazine this month that mentions Cuckoos singing through the night during May.

I had something this morning while driving into Norwich. Just come off the acle roundabout heading to Norwich at 8:40 this morning and there was a raptor in the sky. Very long tail, slim pointed wings. It was against the sky so no plumage details but appeared to have uniformly dark brown undersides. It was heading towards Breydon. fairly sure it wasn't anything usual - are there any escaped falconer's birds about?

There has been either a Lanner or hybrid resembling one in the Yare Valley this winter & spring.

The view was very brief and the light levels not paricularly good but the broad black wing tips and it's generally brownish plumage convinced me that it was a Marsh Harrier.

I was wondering if anybody else has recently seen Marsh Harriers in this location and how common a visitor they are? Certainly the first one that I have seen here.

Marsh Harriers still aren't common in that area, but one has been seen over Thorpe and Whitlingham fairly regularly this spring. I spoke to someone at the weekend who had seen one last week, so there is one still visiting the area.

 

[davethebird]

Red-rumped Swallow

Yesterday I had an appointment at 5:30pm so couldn't react to the report of a Red-rumped Swallow at Cricket Marsh Cley. As soon as I finished I got into the car to go to Cley, the pager went off just as I was going and a quick glance revealed the swallow was still around.

I got to Cricket Marsh and there were no other birders around. I scanned the marsh to no avail. I then checked the pager and the report I had skimmed was for Blakeney not Cley - so I had driven past the correct location.

Back to Blakeney and all the birders were leaving saying the 2 swallows had flown towards Cley. I still trudged to the east end of Friary Hills and after about 10 minutes a Red-rumped Swallow appeared overhead, over the course of the next hour or so there were 2 birds at times.

 

[QuentinDupriez]

Hi all,

Please anyone could give me more informations about the White-rumped Sandpiper in Cley (which marsh?) and about the possible Pacific Swift in Buckenham ?

Thanks !
Quentin

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Which Specific Swift?

Does anyone know if this ?Pacific Swift has any connections to Wednesdays
?Little Swift.

Have they/it been seen by the same observer(s)?

Has anyone seen more than a Swift with a white-rump, if so what?

Intrigued!

GH

 

[Mark Batten]

The new spurn!!!

 

[Shaky09]

Visited Thorpe Marshes on the way home from work today during a break in the rain.

Saw at least 4 Whitethroats and a pair of very noisy and highly visible Reed Warblers. As I walked from the marshes towards the cattle pen my eye caught the vivid red of a Great Spotted Woodpecker as it worked it's way up the wooden gate post.

I was getting a great view of this through my binos as it flew onto the cattle pen but as I watched it my attention was suddenly drawn to a large bird of prey as it rose up from the marsh behind the flooded scrape and flew off in the direction of the railway pedestrian bridge.

The view was very brief and the light levels not paricularly good but the broad black wing tips and it's generally brownish plumage convinced me that it was a Marsh Harrier.

I was wondering if anybody else has recently seen Marsh Harriers in this location and how common a visitor they are? Certainly the first one that I have seen here.

Hi Paul ,
I've had a marsh harrier over ( not actually on the ground) the marsh 3 out of my last 5 visits over the last 11 days . Spring/summer last year I regularly had a Marsh Harrier (male and female) over the marsh and on 3 ocassions having seen them hunt over the marsh along side Bungalow lane and the other side bungalow lane. But my best experience ( although not for the coot)was of a female dropping into the reeds to take a young coot from its nest. I watched it take off with the young along with a couple of mobbing covids. I would say that regular visits here will usually give u a Marsh harrier and too a common buzzard which ive had soaring over the woods on whitlingham side of the river.
Also the reed warblers showed well for me too on bank holiday Monday - very nice.
Happy birding ,
Shaky

 

[ben_lewis]

Ahhh! whats going on with swifts at the moment!
The possible pacific swift is almost certainly an odd plumaged Common Swift, if it is the same bird that was photographed this morning.
It is an interesting swift all the same and shows a thin white band on the (upper) rump which is reminiscent of the underside of a WT needletail but on the top (it is not this species either!).
It also sounds as if it could be different to the reported Little Swift earlier in the week!

 

[firstreesjohn]

Me and the wags

Please anyone could give me more informations about the White-rumped Sandpiper in Cley

I’m reliably informed it was a Sanderling ! The field guide employed should immediately be pulped. In another month, the same bird will probably ‘be’ a Red-necked Stint.

One would have thought the sign below was sufficient. Not so ! I was furious, when some dog people let their Dalmatian and some indeterminate creature, loosely related to the canine family, bound freely over the field at Beeston Regis, just as I got on to the small flock of waggies (one with an interestingly dark head). They flew- I flew into a rage. Despite the grey skies, the air became blue.

Earlier, something similar had happened at West Runton, when the smallholder (well, it isn’t a very large raptor!) inadvertently flushed the Hobby depicted, which was perched conveniently on a post, as he called the calves for their feed. (As I fed, at Salthouse Beach car park, another Hobby flew directly over my car.)

There had been a few waggies with them, too. In consequence, out of 130 wag-pix shot, the attached is the best. More waggies were briefly in the field with the cattle from Meadow Lane and there should be a fresh bovine load (please do not misinterpret this phrase) on the Blakeney Freshes by now: making two separate herds.

‘Can anyone be more specific
About the reported Pacific ?’
This question was asked,
And I became tasked
With this poem. How simply terrific.

 

[Shaky09]

Had a nice hobby over Spixsworth road in old carton at lunch time today. This was actually my first ever hobby away from water. Also the grey wagtails I've been watching in the city had 2 young fledge . They were clinging on for dear life in the wind on a log on the river - the parents were frantically calling and doing there best to encourage them to a more safer place but to no success. Cracking birds these wagtails!

 

[Paul Eele]

Titchwell May 11th

Today’s highlights (if that is what you can call them!)

Red crested pochard – female on fresh marsh
Little gull – 1st summer on fresh marsh
Common sandpiper – 2 on fresh marsh

Paul

 

[QuentinDupriez]

Thanks all ! A Sanderling and an odd-plumage Common Swift... I am now able to keep my brain concentrated on work

Cheers
Quentin

 

[jimbob]

Evening all,
blatantly missed a trick earlier.

Driving home from Thetford, just over the Attleborough 'Breckland Lodge' roundabout, I noticed a large raptor flying away from me, westward. I realised it wasn't a Buzzard, jizz all wrong and it had a hell of a tale. I assumed this was a Red Kite, and due to the distance and angle I had not got onto the forked tail. A decent bird for the journey list, although a little annoying as I had not really managed a definite ID.
Returned home and had a look at RBA news. 'Possible Black Kite Roudham Heath flew over A11 at 5.10pm'. I drove past at around half 4.
Whoops. That will account for the lack of a forked tail then!
There was no way with that view, driving a car, I could have clinched Black Kite but still this is rather galling! Glad someone else saw the bird in question, which remains a possible I suppose.

Cheers,
Jim.

 

[Lightthiscandle]

Some great birds at Strumpshaw & Buckenham

Well I know the Swift is just an aberrant common and the Hobby is self-evident: but what about the large, all-dark raptor?
Oh: 'our' Turtle Doves were in the garden all afternoon! Bless!

 

[Lightthiscandle]

Turtles

Here they are!

 

[Paul Woolnough]

Thanks all ! A Sanderling and an odd-plumage Common Swift... I am now able to keep my brain concentrated on work

Cheers
Quentin

Here is another one
On Wednesday afternoon I drove from Salthouse beach car park to Cley coastguards hoping to see two temminck's stints. On arrival at north hide I was told there were no stints and that there had been confusion with common sandpiper. One common sand (not two curiously) on view.

Today I was Whitlingham in the morning and having bagged garden warbler amongst the many blackcaps the Strumpshaw swift news came out.
Decided after 1pm to go to Strumpshaw to find my own stuff and find out what was behind the swift report. Aberrant common swift it is then.
News of an osprey along the Yare at 130 led me to walk down to the river and towards tower hide to look for it. The osprey suddenly appeared along the river and flew past me and onto the reserve around 215, showing for the next five minutes or so.

The osprey was enjoyed by many observers.

 

[David Norgate]

Well I know the Swift is just an aberrant common and the Hobby is self-evident: but what about the large, all-dark raptor?
Oh: 'our' Turtle Doves were in the garden all afternoon! Bless!

Loving the swift, David.
As for the raptor, I can't get beyond Marsh Harrier. The forked 'tail' seems to be an artifact caused by the wing.

 

[paul1127]

Hi Paul ,
I've had a marsh harrier over ( not actually on the ground) the marsh 3 out of my last 5 visits over the last 11 days . Spring/summer last year I regularly had a Marsh Harrier (male and female) over the marsh and on 3 ocassions having seen them hunt over the marsh along side Bungalow lane and the other side bungalow lane. But my best experience ( although not for the coot)was of a female dropping into the reeds to take a young coot from its nest. I watched it take off with the young along with a couple of mobbing covids. I would say that regular visits here will usually give u a Marsh harrier and too a common buzzard which ive had soaring over the woods on whitlingham side of the river.
Also the reed warblers showed well for me too on bank holiday Monday - very nice.
Happy birding ,
Shaky

Many thanks for that. Alway good to have a confirmation!

Best Regards, Paul

 

[firstreesjohn]

White-rumped Sand(erling) ? ? ! !

Puzzled to see the White-rumped Sandpiper on the RBA Daily Summary for yesterday.

That is, unless they know something I don't; which is eminently possible, of course.

At the mo, this record inhabits the same altitude of veracity as the flock of 6 or 7 Ortolans recently claimed for Cley. This would be well below sea-level, by the way.

There are currently lotsa Linnets in sum plum (thatsa clue).

 

[BirdBeard]

Bonsoir,

Does anyone know if the Osprey has stuck around at Ranworth? Have in-laws coming next weekend who would be very keen to see it.

Highlights of today's pram-birding included ChiffChaff and Fox in Earlham Crem and 3 Common Sandpipers, loads of Whitethroats, a Willow Warbler and a few Sedge Warblers at Norwich Thorpe Marshes.

Keep your eye on the bird,
BirdBeard