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!

Penduline Tit find!

Well, the Wheatear has been called Northern, I still think there is slightly more to it than a standard wheatear that is wet, but ill bow to those with more knowledge as there dont seem to be too many people that also think its worth delving into. I must admit a trawl through various places looking at wheatears certainly has not come up with anything with a dark breast and the other features shown on my bird. oh well...nice try!

On Saturday evening I went to Fen hide to see if I could read a red wing tagged Marsh harruer (probably from Sheppy). Unfortunately the harrier didn't show, but a decent storm was brewing in the distance over Norwich. While watching I noticed a very discrete thin seep from the reedbed, I pondered with the idea that it could well be a sound I have been hoping to hear at the fen for quite a few years- Penduline Tit! I heard it about 5 times give the call and also heard what sounded like multiple birds giving the same call at the same time, with no reference or recordings I could not confirm or deny my thoughts. On arrival home I played a few recordings of PT and I immediatly realised that it really was most like the sound I heard, whats more the multiple bird call I heard was actually its alarm call! If I had not of heard the alarm call I may have been a bit more hesitant but feeling quite confident I phoned some locals so that they knew that it was possible.

The following morning I got to the hide before it was light, waited 15 mins without hearing it so decided to play a recording to see what would happen, before the second call on the recording I had immediate response! The bird sounded like it was right in front of the hide, but i could not see it at all, the bird spent at least 15 mins calling now and then in the same area. I had my camera poised at the ready to get the confirmation shots, however I then realised it may not show at all, so decided to try to get a recording of the call so I had some evidence at least! Lucky I did as the bird stopped calling soon after I got the recording.

I also heard the bird call at least three times on Sunday evening, however it was much more subdued, luckily for me, others were also in the hide at the same time.

So, below is the only recording I have of the bird. It is fairly quiet so probably best listened to with headphones or at least turn your speakers up! the bird calls twice 1 second and 8 seconds into the recording. Its quite underwhelming I must admit, but a bit of a major rarity so Im very happy with the find!

Wheatear sp ness point

Here is a quick selection of photos from this afternoon.
The Wheatear stood out like a sore thumb amongst 4 Northerns, it was wet, but I cant believe that accounts for all the plumage details seen here.
-very dark backed
-wings dark
-dark beast with clear cut off from white belly
-T in the tail appears to go up the sides, central stripe fades out
-small pale throat
--pale primary tips
interesting white spot in the fold of the wing just under alula.

Photos are poor but shows most of the features I saw in the dim, dog filled field!

Comments most welcome as I'm a little confused by this bird

a rubbish pic but check out the colour compared to the normal northern wheatear in the foreground!

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