The Thing

A morning walk in the wind at Winterton was fairly quiet, however I did see the female woodchat shrike on the fence posts North of beach rd. It is the first female I have seen and although not as attractive as the male it was still a bit of a looker. It was struggling to hunt with the wind,  the dog walkers and a few birders walking by so I gave the bird some space and watched from a distance rather than trying to get a good picture.

While looking in the dune slacks I came across this rather interesting x creature. I have no idea what it could be and has me quite intrigued. It seems to have teeth all over it but not in a conventional way, it looked as if it had come from the sea by its bobbley skin but was a good 150m from the dunes which are 100m from the sea at best. There was something very other worldly about this thing. Can't for the life of me think about what it is. Any ideas???
EDIT: it appears to be a male Thornback Ray, quite deflated, how it got there I dont know. You can just about make out the eye between the bottom left 'thorn and the 2 thorns above it.

Hat-trick!

Well as I have been asking, will I get a third find for May to continue a fortunate streak.
As it happens I have! Yesterday morning I managed to find a Marsh Warbler at an undisclosed location in the Broads.
I picked the bird up singing from a very dense bit of vegetation but it was extremely difficult to see, I managed a couple of fleeting glimpses, enough to see that it was an acro and it was also evident that it was quite a pale hue, unlike the warm brown of a Reed Warbler. The birds' song however was the real clincher and like most Marsh Warblers it went through a good repertoire of mimicry as can be heard from the video below, its best from 30secs in and the bird itself does not feature in the clip.

Last year I failed to find anything to really shout about however this May I have managed to self find RR swallow, Savi's and Marsh Warbler (290)....still no Icky but a fair compensation!

Enough of a buzz to give a good old fist pump, the double of which is well demonstrated by this Cockchafer!

 Bring on Summer, I'd be quite chuffed if I can manage Red Veined Darter, White legged damselfly and better views of Downy Emerald, here's hoping.

quick catch up

Lots going on at this time of the year so have not had the energy to get in and update the blog. Here is a brief catch up on some of the species I have seen over the past few weeks.

To start with a fantastic moth- the Broad Bordered Bee Hawkmoth, two were seen well at Holkham. These creatures fly much like heavy Hummingbird hawkmoth but they use their legs to rest on the plants while taking nectar rather than just hovering. A very attractive macro moth. 

 This Spotted Redshank pleased many visitors at Titchwell, what a stunner!

 This is a new taxa for me, I found this little guy in the moth trap, it is a pseudo scorpion. It looks just like a normal scorpion minus the tail but is only 5mm long! Its amazing what is out there when you start looking!

 This fine micro moth is Phtheochora rugosana, a very attractive little beasty

 This dune tiger beetle was running about on Titchwell beach, its the first I have seen since carrying out the survey at Titchwell 5 years ago and was a welcome sight.

 An unusual White Ermine showing far more black than usual, particularly on the wing tips, these are usually white.

As well as these species photographed I managed to see the female Red Footed Falcon from Buckenham, which is a Mid Yare tick for me and the first I have seen for a couple of years, a nice, if a little distant bird.

like busses... another self found tick

Stunning (joke) pic of the Savi's (!!)

On 4th May two days prior to the Red Rumped Swallow find  I was conducting a waders and wildfowl survey at Strumpshaw, this involved a semi early visit to the fen. It was a fairly quiet day with not as much bird song from the reeds as expected in early May, although seemingly normal for this spring, still plenty of wildfowl to keep me occupied which was good. On exiting the Tower Hide I caught a very brief 1-2 second reeling from the fen, immediately I knew it was not a grasshopper Warbler but the song belonged to one of the top birds on my hit list- Savi's Warbler. I hung around for a further 20mins or so to see if it would call again but alas no joy, it didn't even perform at all that evening either. I was left being 99% sure that I had a new self found world tick but all too brief an identification! I would have to wait until the following Wednesday, 5 days later before I received a text saying it was singing from exactly the same position from TH, I dashed down to the hide and sure enough the deep buzz of a Savi's was gracing my ears at long last. In the following nights/weeks I have been back quite a few times and have been lucky enough to see the bird fairly well, all be it fairly distant.
What a cracking species though, all the better for the self find, its still present at the moment too 14 days later so it seems to find Strumpshaw to its liking!
That's two good self finds in three days, they say luck comes in threes so hopefully my Icterine Warbler will be a nice little self find at the end of the month, that is now my final 'easy' to get species!

Also managed a smart plumaged Pec Sand yesterday at Buckenham, another Mid-Yare tick.