#The Midlanders are coming! (Yet again!)

25/01/14

The opening month of the year is always an exiting one for me! And it was with great excitement when 3 of the 'crew' from our last #TheMidlandersAreComing expedition exchanged plans to thrash the North Norfolk coastline. Any birders dream!

 

So, around 4am, the journey started from deepest Worcestershire, and having met the other 2 of our crew, Gert, Neil, Mike and me started burning up some rubber eastwards!

 

Our first destination was one of Royal stature, as we pulled into the small, country roads of the Sandringham Estate. Needless to say, the shady atmosphere was on heightened by a number of cars being parked at awkward angles on the verges and the regular slow drive pasts of a number of similarly shady looking vehicles, with many occupants gazing anxiously down the roads.

Our reasoning for being there on those country roads, surrounded on all sides by large rhododendrons was perhaps no less shady. We were in search of a glimpse of the gaudy Golden Pheasants which inhabit the area.

Having sat in the car for 30 minuites, the sun now up high in the sky, and with no sign of anything 'Golden' we decided to leave, as, if i am honest, the sight of lines of non-native hedgerow were boring us.

So we drove up to the coastal 'resort' town of Hunstanton, where there was significantly more in the way of wildlife!

Our arrival was greeted by thick fog, but from the car we spied 2 Dark-bellied Brent Goose on the beach, as well as Redshank and Bar-Tailed Godwit.Having found a suitable parking spot however, we walked the promenade north, where we were greeted by the presence of a stunning flock of around 150 Dark-belled Brent Goose, with their evocative call piercing through the fog!

 

 

 

From the far north end of the Promenade, we quickly found at least 5 Fulmar on and around the cliffs, but we quickly became distracted when the fog started to lift by the sea. Around 30 Bar-tailed Godwit were feeding at various points along the tideline, as were numerous Sanderling, Redshank, Oystercatcher and Turnstone. A single Ringed Plover flew past, and Dunlins were also moving through.

 

With the fog having now, we were able to scan the sea, and soon our list of ' desirble' birds was increasing. 20 RED-BREASTED MERGANSER were feeding offshore, as were a few Great-crested grebes. Good numbers of Teal and Wigeon were flying past distantly, and these included 4 Shoveler, a single Goosander and oddly, 2 Mute Swans! Certainly the latter i was not expecting on a seawatch!

 

Next up, it was further north east along the famous coast road. Holme Dunes.

 

On the pool immediately opposite the car park a Greenshank was feeding, a species i have never previously caught up with in January! The pool also hosted healthy numbers of Little Egrets, Redshank and a couple if Bar-tailed Godwits, with more on the tideline. A wisp of 4 Snipe flew over us and our first Grey Plovers of the day were feeding from the wet sand.

 

 

Hundreds of ducks and geese were feeding in the fields behind the beach, mostly comprising of Wigeon and Teal. The Greylag flock held a single Pink-footed goose, but my main highlight was getting decent views of at least 3 MARSH HARRIER, including one pristine, stunning male! In my opinion, Marsh Harrier are one of the best breeding birds we have in Britain, and i still always get that moment of excitement when i pan onto one!

Bring on the day they're breeding in the midlands!

A single Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and a fly through Peregrine completed the bird of prey list for the site!

Next it was onto the site of our first twitch. Burnham Ovary, where a certain Buzzard was currently in residence. It felt somewhat blasphemous driving past Titchwell RSPB without stopping, but our plan was to take shape!

Our scanning for Buzzards was fruitless, with only 4 Commons seen, but it was more than made up for by 2 stunning RED KITE which drifted in and hunted over 'Gun hill'. In common with the aforemented Harrier, Red Kite must go down as one of the most graceful birds to watch, gracefully swaying its tail from side to side to adjust its trajectory as it sweeps low over open fields, and this time having a backdrop of the North Sea!

 

 A single Barnacle Goose was feeding in the fields, as was a large flock of Brent goose,but with time wearing away, and with their being no sign of our main target, we took a unanimous decision to head inland.

Why?

A long staying party of PARROT CROSSBILLS have taken up residence in a wood just on the edge of Holt country park. However, before we had gotten to far from Burnham we drove past Holkham, where we managed to 'tick' Egyptian Goose for the day without even slowing the car!

 

 With some excellent map reading skills from Mike, we arrived at the location of Edgefield woods without any problem!

 

A short walk later and a small crowd appeared staring into the tops of pine tree's. It took a matter of a few seconds to realise where the birds were, and soon after, we were all getting decent, if often obstructed views of 4 PARROT CROSSBILL as they fed in the tops of the tree's

 

 They really were quite a pain to get a decent view of! Looking almost vertically to see a bird jump from one branch to another! Occasionally however, the birds would appear in the open, showing off their massive bulk, which, even though there were non for direct comparison obviously dwarfed Common Crossbill (2 flew over calling)

 

Having all been satisfied with this life tick, and having got decent views, it was time to head off again. We had to pay homage to the Norfolk birding gods.

Titchwell here we come!

We rushed straight to the beach, which was sadly looking very different to the last time i was here! The recent tidal surge had all but destroyed the dunes, so much so that it is not an exaggeration to say there were non! The power of the sea!

Luckilly however, the surge did not damage the main reserve, unlike the fate of many other reserves along the coast.

 

The sea was practically dead. Around 100 Common Scoter could be seen offshore, and 30 Goldeneye in nice and close, but otherwhys it was painfully hard going.

 

We started walking back towards the Parrinder hide, birding as we went, and the birding soon picked up! A good selection of waders were present, including Oystercatcher, Avocet, Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Sanderling, Turnstone, Dunlin, Redshank, Black and Bar-tailed Godwits, Curlews and a very good sized flock of Ruff (28!). A single Knot joined the Lapwings on the freshmarsh briefly, but nothing could prepare us for the next 10 minutes.

 

We were guided onto a female SCAUP, and soon after one of our group picked out a nice 1st winter MEDITERRANEAN GULL on the islands.

 

 

Marsh Harriers were circling over the reedbed looking back towards the south, when all of a sudden, the hide was lashed by horizontal rain!

 

 

 

In the distance, a huge flock of around 6000 Pink-footed Goose battled past as the storm grew ever worse, and it was only a few seconds before the first lightening bolt struck the floor, illuminating 9 roosting Marsh Harriers as they were spooked from the reedbed.

 

It was surreal to be watching these gorgeous Raptors battling against the wind and rain, and to often share the same field of view as a lightening bolt striking the floor, a memory that I'm sure will stay with me for a long time! Absolutely amazing!

 

However, just as quick as it arrived, the storm had moved east, and we were again treated to gorgeous clear weather, and a stunning sunset.

 

 

Stunning isn't it,

 Look at those stripes on that hat!

 

If you would prefer a version without the addition of a 'Suited birder', see the additional option below.

 

But no!

 

It didn't end there, we moved down the track slightly, to where the reedbed joins the path, and we stopped and scanned. And its a good job we did, as soon after, our model from the above photo was calling out the presence of a stunning ringtail HEN HARRIER! In the fading light, its pale rump patch stood out like a beacon, and as we watching this gorgeous, rare, and sadly persecuted bird of prey, a BARN OWL flew across and started hunting in the same field of view!

 

This is what Norfolk is about folks!

 

What a way to end the day!

 

With the sun now set, a cheeky Suffolk cider in a nearby Thornham pub finished the day off nicely. 98 species, great company, and great location. That's what birding is about!

MB

Twitching with the Next Gen Birder's + Some days in between.

8/12/13

Having being part of the Next Generation Birders since its foundation last year has come with many bonuses, meeting like minded folk of a similar interest from around the country, nearby and also good dose's of banter, humor and information!

In fact, i have been part of it since before its foundation having also been part of the group since it's precursor 'Young Birders' which remained an outside public view group of young birders for its duration.

Back in early December, i received a message from two of the members of the group who were going up for the drake Baikal Teal near Southport and wondered if i wanted to join them. After a little planning i agreed, as the bird looked a good candidate for a wild bird.

So at an early hour in the morning, the 3 of us, Sean from Portland (our driver) and Espen from Hereford set the sat-nav for Marshside!

A few hours later, we found ourselves scanning thousands of Wigeon and Teal moving up the 'coast road' adjacent to the estuary looking over towards Blackpool tower. Pink-Footed Goose were flying around and calling everywhere, but our main focus was admittedly on the ducks. We located a since drake Pintail on the saltmarsh side of the road but our main target eluded us and negative news was emerging.

Oh no!

We walked a fair distance along the road until we saw the twitch on the seawall. From here there was lots of activity, hundreds of Golden Plover, Lapwing, Wigeon and Teal, with smaller numbers of Black-tailed Godwit, Dunlin and a single male Ruff.

In the distance i picked up a GREAT-WHITE EGRET, but when i say distant, i mean distant, but its yellow bill made it stand out quite well.

The crowd on the sea wall was becoming restless. Only 1 person had claimed the bird and that was a lot earlier. At this point it was somewhat surprising to see my two recent stalkers, Martyn (Now back into the Blogging scene) and Kay who had apparently 'missed' their turning for Cannock Chase and  turned up at Southport! Bit of an overshoot there!

Having been battered by rather heavy winds for only around 10 minutes, Martyn came up to me and proclaimed it had just been pagered as being seen on Marshside, where we had just walked from!

A mass exodus occurred as the scrum walked, jogged and ran back to Marshside.

A seemingly long walk had us arriving at as relatively small gathering of Twitchers scanning a flock of Wigeon (One of the flocks that were too distant from our earlier point of view) and were quickly guided onto the bird, which proved a little difficult to pick up at first glance, but soon, everyone settled down to enjoy this stunning Siberian duck.

No doubt absolutely shattered from its long flight, the bird spent all but around 20 seconds of the time we were watching it asleep. Drake BAIKAL TEAL must surely be one of the best looking of the worlds wildfowl, with that stunning black, green and yellow  head pattern and those stunning drooping orange back feathers.

After our fill, we bode farewell, but it would have been a shame to have not gotten a crowd shot, so we did.

15/12/13

A true failure of a twitch down to Severn Beach, the Desert Wheatear had left overnight, and a distant, flying silhouetted, no calling view of 3 Finches flying from the Saltmarsh were about as close as we got to the Twites, but there is no way i would claim them on that sort of view. A pair of Stonechats were about the only things about.

21/12/13

News of a GREAT-GREY SHRIKE emerged from Hopwood, and we duly headed over there, to get distant views of it perched in the field behind the first field from the road. Not at all good views, but my first in county Shrike so worth the effort for one of these wintertime specialties.

From here we did the roost at Bartley, which was very quiet, with no rare gulls despite a fairly large roost. The 2 long staying SCAUP (1W Drk + Fem) were compensation though for the freezing fingers and the dog crap on my Converse.

22/12/13

The next day we, (that being a selection of the Next Gen Birders) had planned to head up to the Mynd, but having returned from my birding foray the previous day the day plan changed somewhat! 

Yorkshire was the destination. Why? One of the very elite of Gulls. One of that band of 'ultra' Gulls which stand head and shoulders above the rest. Most of which live in the far north.

A band of Gull's so sexy that only the likes of Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis rival them. Yes folks! Really. That good!

So, having being picked up by James and Espen we headed over to the home of Matt, the voted chairman of  the NGB's and then set on our way to Patrington!

A big set back on the way up followed, when news came though that the bird WAS NOT present....

Errm, really not good!

However we failed to let our driver know in fear of turning back so we plowed on Patrington bound!

Just before Humber came into view a quick check of RBA revealed the bird to have been found somewhere near Spurn Point, no doubt feeding on one of the many Seal carcasses that would have been washed ashore following the Tidal Surge that destroyed the Eastern coastline.

Soon after it flew off westwards and arrived for the waiting crowds at Patrington.

We were soon parked and the walking began.

 Walking out to the water building and then overlooking the Humber we were led onto a bright white IVORY GULL sitting on the rocks! Awesome! Sadly, with the freezing and strong winds we struggled to see much more than just a completely white Gull as it sat preening on the rocks.

I must say though, i became distracted by the many thousands of waders that were present out on the mudflats! Being bad at estimating numbers i generally underestimate, so 100 Oystercatcher, 50 Grey Plover, 1000 Golden Plover, 1000 Knot, 1000 Dunlin, 300 Redshank, 40 Bar-Tailed Godwit and single figure numbers of Ringed Plover, Turnstone and Black-Tailed Godwit represent absolute minimums among a decent number of Lapwings!

Despite the IVORY GULL being stubborn, the crowd refused to  leave, and once everyone had passed the threshold of freezing (like the point when you would be seriously be considering a trip to the hospital for treatment of Hypothermia or missing body parts!) most took shelter behind the buildings.

It took a long time, but when it did everything came clear, and the IVORY GULL flew towards us, and the crowd fell silent. The bird just seemed to hang in the air above us for an age, seemingly in no rush to do anything. It teased us to a few low flypasts, but refused to land until the 4th circuit.

But when it did, it was straight onto a nice piece of rotting Mackerel.

Yummy!

After around 10 minutes feeding, and not doubt stinking of rotting fish, the Ivory Gull decided to reinstate its sexy status, and after a good drink, Off it flew back out to preen and wash on the Estuary. 

(Nearly done now folks, stick with it a little longer)

27/12/13

I dropped into Eyemore in an attempt to find a rare Worcestershire Crossbill, which failed quite miserably, with not even a Common Crossbill seen. So it was down onto Trimpley, where 12 Mandarin, 8 Goosander, 8 Tufted Duck and a Peregrine flew over.

28/12/13

Despite my failure the previous day, i quickly found the 3 TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL'S around Postemplain, which were calling occasionally and were seen in flight, but proving very elusive!

The Common Crossbills in the area though were showing well!

31/12/13

The last day of the year was taken up with a twitch for the Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll on the other side of Stourport. Sadly, i arrived about 30 Minutes to late, and following a 6 hour search i didn't see it. 5 MEALY REDPOLL were nice compensation, particularly a strikingly pale bird! Around 50 Lesser Redpoll were around, and a Yellowhammer and a Brambling were also seen.

And that was it folks! The end of 2013!

Next post will be my summary of 2013, so it will be a few days before it will be completed!

MB

Slimebridge produces the good's!!!!!!!!!!

27/08/10

(YEAR TICKS- GREEN

LIFE TICKS - RED)

I had no idea what toexpect as i hadent had or seen any news on slimbridge for about a week, but the day dawned bright and set to be a good, we coencided our arrival with high tide, but all the waders were just out of sight on the saltmarsh, nevertheless, we ticked flying DUNLIN and RINGED PLOVER, CURLEW and multiple COMMON GULL, a juv WHEATEAR was flying about the flash in front of the hide and a few YELLOW WAGTAILS were flitting back and forth among the grazeing cattle, among the numerous gulls and lapwings.
Then over to the south lake..............

Although one of the best places on the site for views i hate here for the simple reason of joe public who randomly stroll into the hide, run around, make general noise, then leave.

But there was a few nice birds....

I imidiatly got onto the flock of Godwits and started scanning through, and once again 3 BAR TAILED GODWIT stood there, in a flock of 68 BLACK TAILED GODWIT, a single REDSHANK and 4 GREEN SANDPIPER, a bit of deeper searching got me one of my Highlights a Stunning adult winter SPOTTED REDSHANK hiding behind a godwit, can you spot it in the picture?????

after about an hour admiring the spotshank and godwits we eventually had enough of the public and retired to the most horid hide in the world................

' THE ZEISS HIDE ' dun dun dunnnnnnnn.

Well i really do hate this hide the most out of all the hide's at slimbridge ( followed by holden tower- then south lake etc), but it does have some bloody good birds.

It was nice to drop directly onto a GREENSHANK, which then promptly dissapeared. then i found the 2 RUFF ( an AD male and juv fem), but then i scanned and there was another, then another, then another, and another, and another and another, A total of 8 RUFF!!!!!!!!

8 bloody RUFF, 8 of em, UNBELIEVABLE........

another 30c BLACK TAILED GODWIT were amongst the teal and shoveler, a wisp of 4 SNIPE flew over, another 2 REDSHANK and 2 GREEN SANDPIPER were all in one scopefull with the flock of ruff's ( 2 ad male, rest fem/ juv) and a few LAPWING, check it out (well trust me those species are in that pic)

SO, now it was over to the middle point hide................ (our 2nd visit after 1 at high tide), and a very soggy trudge through the reeds ( was badly flooded) and in trainers :-/

but this was easilly the BEST part of the day;

along the path there we noted a massive 80c YELLOW WAGTAIL feeding in the surrounding fields, a pair of HOBBY gave great views as they swooped on the wagtails and martins, and a PEREGRINE flew over

a massive 2 hour stint was spent scanning from here, as the tide was out and it had amazing results:

after an hour the waders started to flock at a managble scopeing distance and i had about 900 small waders to be dealing with here, so alot of the numbers are estimates, the waders were passing close to the hide from their high tide roost to their low tide feeding point, and latched onto a flock of RINGED PLOVER was a CURLEW SANPIPER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and just a few more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and this was quickly followed by another bird and again in a ringie flock 2 CURLEW SANDPIPERS, result............

3 WHIMBREL were feeding on the mudflats, including one which was quite close and never stopped calling,

right back to small waders, there was lots!!!!!!!!

400c RINGED PLOVER

400C DUNLIN

160+ CURLEW (here alone)

a good grilling of the waders gave me a pair of LITTLE STINT, which looked so much smaller than i remembered ( the one in turkey in april was so close, and was only next to a kentish plover :-D, only next to a kentish plover lol), 8 KNOT ( all juv), 40c SANDERLING and 20c dark TURNSTONES (although one was sum-plum), this gave me a stunning 18 wader species for the day!!!!!!!!!

You gotta say, that is a kickass day, was it worth the £9.50, i think so.

a very nice day

HIGHLIGHTS:

150c SHELDUCK

1 LITTLE EGRET

2 HOBBY

1 PEREGRINE

400c RINGED PLOVER

400c DUNLIN

8 KNOT

40c SANDERLING

20c TURNSTONE

2 CURLEW SANDPIPER

2 LITTLE STINT

6 GREEN SANDPIPER

3 REDSHANK

1 SPOTTED REDSHANK

1 GREENSHANK

100+ BLACK TAILED GODWIT

3 BAR-TAILED GODWIT

200C CURLEW

3 WHIMBREL

4 SNIPE

8 RUFF

8 COMMON GULL

10 GBBG

80c YELLOW WAGTAIL

1 WHEATEAR.

a total of 81 species for the site day.

MB

Grimley new workings

23/08/10

After picking up a new tripod after nearly 2 months without one, i had to do a field test and with a few nice birds at grimley, guess where we headed????

We hadent even reached the 1st pool when i had already ticked a GREENSHANK as it flew onto the bigger pool, we followed the track along picking up LITTLE EGRETS on the way, Green and Common Sandpiper were both represented by singles as was a single snipe and 2 common tern and LRP.

A YELLOW WAGTAIL flew over east (ish)

We scanned from the causeway and BINGO................

2 juv KNOT feeding behind the BHG's with the 2 sandpipers and another greenshank. it was quite amusing to watch the knots reflecting the others movements, say if one turned right, the other would to (note the similar poses on the photo)

a greenshank fed on a spit not far from the causeway...

MB

NATIONAL RARETY

these are the words i read just after typing in my sightings on birdtrack.do you want to know what that national rarety is,well you'll just have to read on and see...............

3/10/09

had an early night the day before so i could watch the F1 quallys and im so glad i did,some nice crashes and loads of red flags,when it was light enough to see i had a quick look at the lickhill fields and one of them held 158 canadian geese.thats it... what you expect more its lickhill for crying out loud.well back in the garden i found a greenfinch,and i am sad to say a dying greenfinch,it had a mite/tick on its head and was very poorly and within an hour it had died.i took a few photos before it had died but dont think its appropriate to put them on here.

on a lighter mood the birding picked up on out way to slimbridge wwt when(somewhere along the motorway) i had a MERLIN fly over,a MERLIN.it was a juv/female bird zooming across the motorway,but what a way to start the day.not to single the merlin out but we also had a hobby over somewhere too but i didnt know where so i didnt pass the news on.

arriving at slimbridge at 11:20 am,there was an air of expectation,well a bloody strong wind anyway,got out the car and the door nearly flew into the estury.after enquiring about the land rover safari,i found out it had been cancled so we had to do everything by out own steam,after looking(and photographing) plastic stuff i retreated to the non-plastic world of the south lake, even the wild bird had been tought well,with 4 female pintail just infront of the hide giving great photo op's.and yes they are wild,look a full set of wings:

over to the left of the hide there was a flock of godwits,wait those 3 on the end look a bit small nd through my scope they were clearly bar-tailed godwits(lifer 193),other than these there was little to mention but:

9 pintail

8 pochard

28 b t godwit

3 barwit.

stopped at the plastic stuff and 'had to' hand feed red-breasted goose,and i will tell you one of my highlights of the trip that was,but can i ask,waht is red-breasted goose doing in the australia area????

next stop zeiss hide,the most activity from here,way more barnacle geese than last time,now 146 of them,and with 5 greylags and 100c canadians there was a lot of goose activity

,went straight in to 'find' those spotted redshanks in there and after a bit of searching,there we go all 3 in one scopefull(lifer 194) and sharing this scopeful was a ruff and my next lifer of the day a knot(lifer 195),yet another blackwit was out there too and i quickly located the 4 golden plover in the lapwing flock,a pintail was scirting the 500 or so teal(make it sound like thats so common),2 snipe zig-zagged over and 5 ravern were on the dumbles,a water rail briefly squeaked from the reedbed in front of the hide:

highlights here are:

146 barnicle geese

3 spotted redshank

1 knot

1 blackwit

3 ruff

1 water rail

4 golden plover

1 pintail

30c redshank

5 greylag geese

2 snipe

500c teal(probs more)

a few wigeon

yet more plastic stuff was photographed on my way over to the holden tower

but when getting to the tower we decided it might be a good idea if we walked out to middle point.well appart from a close but brief little egret about 40 shelduck and about 50 curlew there was little else to note,well untill i found 2 knot resting on some rock further downstream,with the tide this far out what were they doing,just resting maybe and i was happy to see a curlew feeding on a beech on the opposite shore.i was watching a curlew from england in wales,how cool is that.

a check in the holden tower produced another little egret,20c curlew,100c lapwing and 27 OYC,a knot flew across the dumbles upriver,maybe joinging the 2 up by middle point,a 100c strong flock of dunlin was way out on the mudflats and a meadow pipit was on the dumbles,that concludes my visit to slimbridge,or does it?

after earlier getting directions off a warden on how to view the 100 acre fields i was told some directions,we ended up on ryalls lane and my dad stopped near a bridge there,he though there wasent any parking spaces/area on the opposite side of the bridge so i grabbed my bin and went over and checked,but while crossing the bridge i saw white objects in a field further along the track,i ran back to the car,grabbed my scope and said i would phone my dad if you could park over there,nearing the field i could see there was plenty of space to park,and as i neared my subject it became more obvious this is what i had come to see,i reached a gap in the hedge and saw my target:

4 CATTLE EGRET

the egrets(lifer 196)were hunting insects and showingwell around the cows feet and in the tussocks but i found the wind horid,the birds were close(about 40 ft away) but i couldent keep my scope/camera till in the 40mph gusts.this is now the rarest thing i have seen.1 catle egret on its own is rare but a flock of 4,a truily amazing spectacle,a species ment to be in spain and southern france(before the recent events) in windy,rainy england.to be honest i couldent see much better habitat for them,the area was spot on, the jizz was kinda like a litle egret but just a 'dryer' version being in fields rather than in water.a very charismatic species and a welcomed bird.and just to top it off,it was just me,my dad and the egrets,how much better can it get than that??

all 4 birds in this vid

highlight of trip were:

4 cattle egret

2 little egret

146 barnacle goose

40c shelduck

10 pintail

10 wigeon

1000c teal

8 pochard

27 OYC

4 golden plover

4 knot

100c dunlin

30c redshank

3 spotted redshank

29 blackwit

3 barwit

50c curlew

2 snipe

3 ruff

1 common gull

4 mipit

on way down

1 hobby

1 merlin

a really great day and now so close to that 200 milestone

MB