Buckenham and cantley goosey goings on!

A bit of monitoring on the wet grassland this morning turned up a few goodies. A five goose day as well as 3 dodgy hybrids (red breast/barnacle, greylag/Canada and the Ross's type)

1-BRENT GOOSE
77-whitefronts
1100-pinks
1250-wigeon
447-Canada's
2 bewicks lost in fog over Brundall early am.

Still no beans but I keep saying next week looks good! looks like some easterlies which could well push them over this way, fingers crossed they will return.

Here is a photo of said Brent, a juvenile dark bellied feeding profusely with the Canada flock shows the size difference quite well. Don't usually see them alongside Canada's!  (hopefully it'll replace my other record shot of Brent's earlier this year!)

Lots of juvenile whitefronts present, I did do a family productivity count a few weeks ago which suggests they had a successful breeding season

Beet factory to Brundall

A day off without a car and with good weather forecast, so I decided to get the train to Cantley and walk back seeing how many species I could see. My main target bird was Taiga bean goose, but I was unsuccessful, shouldn't be long now with some east in the wind this week possibly.
I had a very pleasant day, but there were no additions to the patch year list or any unexpected species, however I did see just about all expected species which resulted in 78 species being logged, not a bad total for an inland area at this time of the year.
I walked around the beet factory (BF) and then through Cantley and Buckenham (still path closures currently in place but looks like it could be reopened soon) then through strumpshaw wood, fen hide and reception before making my way back home.

Highlights;

Green sandpiper- 9 together at BF
Lapwing- 420 BF + 1600 cantley + 720 Buckenham
Pinkies- 540 over river from BF + 950 Buckenham
White Fronts- 18 BF + 38 Buckenham
Stonechat- pair BF+ pair Buckenham
Bearded tit- 15+ at BF + 5 Cantley 
Water Pipit- 2+ BF + 1 Buckenham
Buzzard- 8 in one kettle at Buckenham
Golden plover- 350 Buck/Cant
Ruff- 12 BF + 37 Buckenham
Snipe 16 BF
Marsh Harrier 7+ over reserve inc tagged P3 a new one for me and a bird that was tagged at Buckenham this year, so far this autumn I have seen green tagged birds including DZ NL NN and P3, hope there will be more to see over winter!

That's about it for figures, as I said a very nice selection of birds on view on a nice sunny day...

Wells to Burnham Ovary Dunes- a good day!

A superb day up at Holkham/Wells area today. I walked from Wells right through to Burnham Ovary Dunes (didnt quite make it to gun hill!) Today I semi found all my own birds, meaning I'd have found them all myself had they not have been reported yesterday! (no one pointed out any birds to me)

Yellow Browed Warblers were certainly the theme of the day with a total of 9 different birds seen, with a possible 10th not counted. lots of dudes trying to see ybw, with them calling all around them without them knowing, so just walking on! 

As I got to BO dunes I looked up to see a superb Rough Legged Buzzard come in off and stall over the dunes quite close to me! While watching it a common buzzard and red kite also joined it briefly.  What a fantastic bird RLB is when seen well, this was possibly bird of the day!

I ate lunch and noticed a great white egret flying over the grazing marsh!

On the way back towards Lady Annes road I bumped into a large tit flock, after 5mins of scanning it I managed to lock bins on a superb Pallas's Warbler, my first for years and the best view I have had. It was too high in the trees for photography but it was so good to find the bird after seeing so many ybw's. I managed to get a few people to look at the flock but I dont think anyone else managed to get on the bird at any other point of the day!

I got back to the car and there was a bit of light left so decided to go and check out the Izzy Shrike at Stifkey, I managed to see it for less than a minute before it went to roost!

A brilliant full day out in the field and most enjoyable.

Totals;
YBW-9 (poss10)
Pallas's warbler-1
Rough leg-1
GWE-1
Red Kite-2
Redpoll-12
Brambling-36
Goldcrest- loads!
(poss sibe chiffchaff)

Yellow browed warblers?

Yesterday I used up a days TOIL and headed out to the East coast.
My first stop was Yarmouth Cemetery. It was feeling quite birdy in the cemy at first light with robins and redwings passing over in numbers with the occasional brambling thrown in, chiffchaffs were also more evident than they have been in previous visits. As I walked around the churchyard I noticed a couple of blackcaps, tits, crests and chiffys at the top of a sycamore tree so waited a little while to see what else was in the flock. This decision paid off as I got onto a yellow browed wabler, it was silent and quite tricky to see well, but I managed to get a couple of shots as seen below. It was a shame the bird did not call as it was very much darker all over than the usual crisp look of a ybw, especially the undeparts, the brow was more yellow/buff than yellow and the cheek was also quite a bit darker giving almost a masked look to it, you can also just about make out a slight crown stripe in the images, I didnt notice this in the field. It was not the brightest of mornings so that may have played a part but even so it was a stikingly dull individual. While I dont think it's Humes, I have not seen Humes before but wonder if they can be identified with any certainty without hearing them call?

I continued around the churchyard without getting too much more of interest so returned to the Sainsburys gate sycammores where I saw another Yellow browed warbler, this one was far more yellow and 'normal' looking, it had yellow brow at least!

I then moved onto winterton and then Waxham. Both places held quite a lot of migrants the highlight at Waxham was standing in the wood while a flock of 60-70 goldcrests passed through, quite a sight and sound, again I cant believe that they were all gold crests, but they were!
So after that excitement I picked Lizzie and Toby up and we went to Morrisons...joy!

I have another day off tomorrow so may head up North to do the Wells to Gun hill walk, always pleasant and there have been a few birds in the woods,  hopefully some will remain and even better hopefully new ones will be found... The biggy arrives after the fall...apparently so there is still time for me!