Two cracking ticks with awful pics!

So I have finally reached my 400 BOU birds for the UK!! Its taken quite a while, but with this years excellent offerings (+5) I have managed to reach the magic marker.

My first ever proper twitch was a Red Breasted Goose at Old Hall in 1993, I remember this bird well and I even got bought a photo of it from dad (remember the days of photos on sale at twitches? if not where were you in the 90's lol, its all changed now!
Since then I have added a lot of species to my list thanks to my father, I was lucky enough to be interested in birds at a time when he was twitching quite regularly so got to go to all sorts of places and see a lot of good birds, as well as regular trips to Scilly! I also missed quite a few absolute crackers due to being hungover/going out with mates (red throated thrush is a good example!). Anyway, a special nod to my father for getting me into birds at a young age and getting me enthused enough to become a warden, now I work on a nature reserve and see wildlife all the time as well as doing my bit for nature. 
...But I still have not seen a countable Icterine Warbler, I really wanted to find my own to rack up the 400, but it wasnt to be



So the final bird to reach the mark was Masked Shrike (ironically dad still needs it...sorry!). I was offered a lift and thought why not, we left Brundall at 4am and were back by 3pm! The bird showed well through the scope but a bit distant for photography. It had an odd charactor for a shrike, with its long tail and the sun gleaming from its pale front as well as fast jittery flight it reminded me of an oversize long tailed tit! We watched the bird for about an hour taking in all the plumage details and then had a walk around the local area, before heading back.

Not sure the BBRC would accept this photo as sole identity!

I admit I was so intent on looking at the shrike that I told Ian 'it's on the fence just right of the cow!'

This morning I was lured by the Little Crake at Minsmere. I woke up at 5.15 and thought to myself....if I were to see it before work I'd probably leave about now.... and with that I got up grabbed my bins, scope and camera and got in the car!
I saw the bird within 10mins of entering the hide but it was half light and through the tops of swaying reeds, it was countable but not very satisfying. I told myself that I had until 7.30 then had to get to work. It got to 7.30 without another view but I couldn't go just yet (the amount of times I leave and the thing I want to see shows well is annoying!) Sure enough 5 mins later the crake reappeared right out in the open. Like the shrike, it showed superbly through the zoom lens on my scope so that all plumage detail could be seen, but not so good for the camera.

So whats next??  My money is on Steppe Grey Shrike if it hangs around 'till my day off on Wednesday! Other gaps which can be filled include;

Boneli's warbler
Bonapartes Gull
Franklins Gull (grr missed the one up the road this yr!)
Humes Yellow Browed Warbler
Ickky
Lancy
Paddyfield warbler
PG tips
Pallid Swift
Red eyed vireo
Ross's Gull
Rustic Bunting
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Siberian Stonechat

This list is more for me but it may be of some interest for you?
So apart from a few tarts ticks they are all pretty rare!

If you go down to the fen today....

You will be rewarded with fantastic views of 40-60 Bearded Tits at the river end of sandy wall, Otters have been seen regularly and Kingfishers are feasting on the small Rudd congregating by the sluice.

I don't think I have seen so many people enjoying the wildlife at the fen as I did this morning. Lots of nice positive comments too, including one person saying 'we now know where the best place to be in Norfolk is today! fantastic stuff- the one problem is that the bearded tits gathering symbolises their eruptive behaviour so while its great to see them, it probably means that we are 'losing' many of this years' young as they go and colonise other areas of reedbed. Still a great sight after their demise a couple of winters ago!

The lower image shows a male and female preening each other- Now thats something I have never seen or even ever heard of, but was nice to see this sort of behaviour at close range

Following the herd

After doing the point a few times and heading to the east coast a number of times recently I decided to have a look at some rare birds which I knew were there... yes I was a bit of a sheep and went to Burnham Overy Dunes, there I've said it I went and twitched some scarce migrants and I enjoyed it.

I headed up the BO dunes path in pitch black at 06.00 with a mist and light drizzle hitting my right cheek, something that many a birder walking north on the north Norfolk coast gets excited about! I arrived at the end of the track and immediately heard a Yellow Browed Warbler closely followed by a red breasted flycatcher, not a bad start. It was still too dark to really see the birds so I headed for Gun Hill.

I got about half way to the hill when I saw an odd looking bird fly in off and flew in front of me at about 30m... the unmistakable oddity that is Stone Curlew! This continued inland (07.06) and into the murk, it was certainly not a bird I was expecting to see on a misty morning in late September but I was pretty chuffed with that. Heading on further a few waves of song thrushes and Robins came into the scrub adding their seeping calls to the huit of the many redstarts that were also present. A few willow warblers showed themselves along with small numbers of goldcrest too, one of the WW's had a really clear yellow throat with sharply marked white underparts, given brief views my mind was thinking Wood, Bonellis etc, but it turned out to just be a willow (pictured below). Things were certainly arriving especially wheatears, redstarts, then a spotted fly hopped into view followed by a pied fly, whinchat, Garden Warbler and redstart, my kind of birding indeed (and I still had the place to myself!). I spent an hour wandering about adding to my growing tally of migrants.

I then decided to check out the East side of the dunes and soon heard another RB fly takking in a small gully, this one was pretty hyper and would not sit still for a second and when it did a fine male redstart would chase it off!... onwards slowly, again more of the same migrants, onto Holkham crosstracks and another tit flock contained more warblers and crests but not the biggy I'd hoped for.

On returning to the dunes in the large hollow next to the pines I heard a loud harsh jjiickkk x3 (like a harsh ZIT), no idea what it was at all, I also saw that 2 people were also looking perplexed, they say that they saw a large pale yellow warbler make the call and fly into the sycamore, after an hour of searching, sitting, eating lunch etc the bird was not relocated. No idea what it was, but it sounded strange and if a large warbler I hate to think what it may have been...not my fabled Icterine warbler again I hope!

Heading back towards the boardwalk a Barred Warbler decided to briefly show itself before flying into a better spot. I have not seen a Barred for ages so was great to get a decent look at it, it was even in a bush with a garden warbler for an excellent comparison, it was a monster! Very difficult to photograph but I think I got all necessary parts in 3 photos.

Back at the boardwalk bush I spent a bit of time sitting and waiting to see what was there, I was rewarded with some very nice views of the Yellow Browed Warbler (finally being able to take my first semi acceptable shots of this lovely sprite, if only it wasn't such a dull day my new camera would have performed better) as well as the red breasted flycatcher. There was also a slightly interesting looking Lesser Whitethroat present in the bush too. It had a very contrasting white throat compared to its darker almost buffy underparts, had a slightly browner mantle and wing to the others I had seen that day, however the head is a typical blue grey rather than sandy brown colour I was hoping for!

Totals for the day
Stone Curlew- 1 S @ 07.06
Wheatear- 17 (many Greenland types)
Spoonbill-3 flew over West
Redstart- difficult to accurately say I recorded 17 but believe there were many more (25+)
Yellow Browed Warbler- 1
Red Breasted Flycatcher- 2
Spotted Flycatcher- 2
Pied Flycatcher- 3
Whinchat- 4 (a lot less than the day before)
Tree pipit- 2
Garden Warbler- 17 (a personal day record surely)
Barred Warbler- 1
Lesser Whitethroat- 3

Wow what a great day, I don't usually twitch the more common scarcities (if you see what I mean) but given that I had the day off and have been trying to find my own stuff for the past few weeks I'm really glad I treated myself to what was on offer at a site that was clearly in form (strange how patchy the bird distribution was on Friday!). I don't think I have ever seen so many Garden Warblers at one location and the bird life, especially first thing in the morning was really quite fantastic, I'm glad I made the early start as I was rewarded with a Stone Curlew and the sights and sounds of many birds passing through. Waxham and Blakeney point will be next on the menu as seems to be pretty standard practise for me... with a little Yarmouth Cemetery mixed in of course just for variety.

Catching up with the drifters

A couple of days off, an easterly wind and a high all the way to Russia, needless to say I was out both days as much as I could be!

On thursday I walked up Blakeney Point. I had a very enjoyable day, its always a nice walk and quite a different setting to the fen that is more 'my' usual habitat! I managed to walk just about every inch of the place including yankee ridge, near, mid and as far as you can go on far point, I forgot how much further the real point was from the plantation, it was deserted too which was nice.
Totals for the day included
Wryneck-1
Pied Flycatcher- 6
Whinchat- 19 (probably many more!)
Wheatear- 12
Willow Warbler- 7
Redstart- 5
Spotted Flycatcher- 3
Garden Warbler- 2

Not a bad result of more regular drift migrants and plenty to keep the spirits and expectations high. I missed a Bared Warbler which was reported on the pager as 'in bush in dunes' I decided not to try too hard to find said bush and all bushes were thoroughly checked anyway, a better description may have helped!

Garden Warbler (David B you can see why I suggested GW for your bird photo?)

Friday I decided to head to the East coast and headed to my usual autumn spot- Waxham area. I walked south about a mile and then North to Sea Palling.
As is usual at Waxham it appeared quiet but sitting still, patience and a bit of local knowledge soon saw a few birds creep into the notebook.
Totals included
Pied flycatcher- 3
Whitethroat- 6
Blackcap- 3
Lesser whitethroat- 1
Whinchat- 2
Red Backed Shrike- 1 (1st winter)
Tree pipit -1 S
(hybrid?) hooded crow- 1
Adder- 5

I was particularly pleased to find the shrike- as far as I know it is a self found bird (at least I was not aware of it before I set out, but upon reporting the bird I have been told that there was a 1w at horsey a few days previously) There was a different bird seen at Happisbough at the same time as well as a few others down the coast. It is almost 2 years to the day since I found one at Winterton, so clearly a good time for shrike finding!
While watching the Shrike a Tree pipit flew south overhead, this was a bit surprising seeing as there was no other pipit passage during the time I was there, but no doubts as to the id!
I suspect I usually go to Waxham when it is cold windy and later in the season as I have never seen Adders in the dunes here before. It was a warm and partially sunny day (not my usual birding weather) so I was very pleased to see the Adders, although the 1st (large) one I disturbed as I sat down to look at the bushes reminded me to be careful!

probable hybrid Hooded Crow

All in all a pleasant couple of days with plenty of drift migrants to look through (but still no Icterine Warbler :(