All five divers

Cotham Landfill produced a juv Glauc on Friday (the big oatmeal coloured bird), plus three different 1st W Caspian Gulls. 

Glauc

Casp 1

Casp 2

Casp 3

 
 In addition, there was a somewhat Viking-esque Gull (i.e. Herring x Glaucous Gull, with pale primaries and with a pink, black-tipped bill), plus the odd 'white-winged' gull that's been around for a while now.

Viking(?) Gull

Viking(?) Gull

'White-winged' gull

A quick look at Collingham on Saturday afternoon produced a Black-wit on Mons Pool plus 4 redhead Smew on Ferry Lane Lake, but no sign of the Slavonian Grebe, However, the Grebe was there again this morning (as were the 4 redhead Smew). Two Oystercatchers on the Trent were new for PWC2017. 

Prior to that, I'd been to Hoveringham to see the Black-throated Diver; partly because it was a Notts tick, but mainly to bag all five Diver species in the space of 3 weeks! Also present was the Black-necked Grebe and a very sickly looking Glaucous Gull, which apparently hadn't moved off the island for a couple of days (although it did at least stand up whilst I was watching it). 

Awful pic of the BTD

And not much better of the BNG

Glauc

Black Swan

A river monster

A few pics of the Lincs White-billed Diver from today. What a beast!

Gulls and patching

Having spent a long weekend in Spain last weekend (on which more in another post...), I headed to Cotham Landfill this morning, my first visit in two weeks. With 3 juv Glaucs and an Iceland Gull in the roost at Hoveringham for the last couple of nights, I had high expectations...

I quickly located a juv Glauc, and then the Iceland Gull. From a distance, the Iceland Gull looked like a juv as well, but on closer inspection it had a pale iris and grey mantle, so was a 2nd winter. However, I couldn't find any other white-wingers, making do with the 1st winter Caspian Gull that has been around now since at least the 6th. A kronking Raven added some non-larid interest.

Juv Glaucous Gull

Juv Glaucous Gull

2nd W Iceland Gull

2nd W Iceland Gull

2nd W Iceland Gull

1st W Caspian Gull, doing the 'albatross long-call'

I then headed to Collingham, which I last visited on the 15th. A Slavonian Grebe had been seen on 21st and 22nd, whilst I was away, but I wasn't really expecting it would still be present. Present it was, however, and showing closely along the southern shore of Ferry Lane Lake. Also present were two redhead Smew (and a pair of Goosander), whilst a Stonechat was at Mons Pool, where a small party of Golden Plover flew over - so four additions for PWC 2017. 

Slavonian Grebe

Redhead Smew

A gull, some wildfowl and a diver

I got to Cotham Landfill on Saturday a bit later than planned, and had already missed the mornings waste arrivals; there were few gulls around, but one of them happened to be the juv Glaucous Gull, so it wasn't a complete washout. 

Glauc, into the sun as usual

On to Girton, and the 7 Eurasian White-fronts, 2 redhead Smew and juv GND were all present and correct on the Sailing Lake - not a bad haul. Spalford Pit held a whopping 28 Shelduck, plus a Dunlin amongst the Lapwings.

The White-fronts

Redhead Smew

GND

Today, and a session at Meering produced 3 Goosander, but little else, perhaps not helped by a gang of guys with spades and dogs (rabbiting). A brief look at Ferry Lane Lake was similarly unspectacular. 

A nice end to the day

Rather embarrassingly, I haven't seen a Serin in Britain; and despite several hours at Fen Drayton today, I still haven't seen a Serin in Britain... Basically, I spent three and a half hours on site, arriving 20 minutes after one sighting, and leaving an hour before the next. Hmmm. 

I spent the last half hour of daylight at Girton. Mark Dawson had found a Great Northern Diver here earlier, which I relocated on the sailing lake. However, there was no sign of any non-Greylag Geese; the 7 Eurasian White-fronts had been here earlier, and 3 Tundra Beans had also been reported. Confusingly, 3 White-fronts had also been reported from Smithy Marsh - and no Pink-feet. 

A great Starling murmuration rounded things off, maybe 10,000 birds or more strong, wheeling and morphing, and reminding me what it's all really about. 

Bye to Suffolk, and back to Notts

I managed one further, brief, birding trip out in Suffolk, on 27th, in a third bid for Slavonian Grebes on the Stour; I managed to locate 2 off Holbrook Creek in much calmer (albeit rather misty) conditions. Yesterday, a family walk up at North Warren/Thorpeness was largely non-birding, but a quick peer at the geese produced several White-fronts amongst the Greylags and feral Barnies.

And today, it was back to Notts. I decided to ignore the patch and have a look at Cotham Landfill in the afternoon. No Glauc again (one was seen at Kilvington yesterday, and in the Hoveringham roost tonight), but there were 2 Caspian Gulls: a bird I initially aged as an adult, but with dark on at least one tertial this was presumably a 4th winter; and a nice 3rd winter.

3rd winter Caspian Gull

3W Caspo

3W Caspo

Boxing Day birding

This morning we had a family walk on the Stour, down to Stutton Ness and along to Stutton Mill. There were literally no birds on the river from the ness; ok, there was one apiece of Goldeneye and Great crested Grebe, but that was it. Certainly no Slavs. There was more at Stutton Mill, with loads of Shelduck, a few Brents, roosting waders, and 3 Black Swans.

Black Swans...

After lunch I went over to Alton Water, deciding to check out the dam end first in hope of a diver. There were plenty of Great Crested Grebes, and amongst them, a Red-necked Grebe. Assuming its the same bird, this hasn't been seen/reported/looked for since 9th December. Maybe no-one goes to Alton any more?? A quick check of the Wonder /Larchwood produced nothing of note (with very few wildfowl present). 

Red-necked Grebe with a Great Crest

RNG

Christmas Eve

Another Christmas Eve, and another hike along the Stour and Orwell. It was hard going this year, with a strong south-westerly making scoping difficult, and the Stour very choppy. However, I located a Great Northern Diver between Stutton Ness and RHS, drifting upriver; presumably one of the birds that was on the Strand yesterday, given that only 2 were reported from there today. 

Grainy phonescoped GND

I recorded a total of 1305 Brent Geese; the bulk of these, 1050, were on Shotley Marshes. No Black Brants this year, and just 11 juveniles across all thirteen hundred birds - a worryingly low proportion!

Three of eleven juv Brents

Other stuff included a total of 10 Rock Pipits, an adult Med Gull at Shotley Marina, 2 each of Marsh Harrier and Buzzard, 4 Bar-wits in Erwarton Bay, and 29 Pintail in Holbrook Creek. Wader numbers included the usual stuff, but numbers seemed a bit low, and certainly the numbers of seaduck and grebes on the Stour were well down from usual, with just a handful of Goldeneye, two small groups of Mergs (totalling 11 birds) and few Great Crested Grebes (I couldn't see any Slavs, but conditions didn't help). I guess the mild weather hasn't helped on this front.

Med Gulls, the best of all the gulls

So, a bit disappointing when compared to recent years, but still fun. 

Dusk over Felixstowe

Most of December

So, it's been a fairly quiet month on the patch. Best has been Jack Snipe, an addition for Patchwork Challenge, at Meering; one here on 13th was bettered by two in the same spot on the 22nd. Hopefully they'll stick into the New Year, as it would be good to get them early on in 2016...

Elsewhere, a quick look at Kilvington near the start of the month produced the redhead Smew, and on the same day (the 6th), 2 Short-eared Owls were hunting over rough grassland just south of Balderton, at the eastern end of Staple Lane (where the new Southern Link Road will join the A1).

I've also finally managed a couple of weekday visit to Cotham Landfill, on 21st and 22nd. Despite very low gull numbers for this time of year (only a couple of hundred Herring and GBB Gulls), 2 adult Caspian Gulls were present on the 21st, along with 2 Lesser Black-backs. I could't locate either of these the following day, but had brief views of what was probably a 3rd W Caspo; this promptly walked out of view, and then the whole lot were flushed and didn't return. 

And now I'm back in Suffolk for Christmas. Some leisurely birding on the Orwell with David Walsh produced not two, but three Great Northern Divers - a nice start!

GND no. 1

GND no. 2 and 3

The GND remains

Saturday, and I had a first look of the winter at Cotham Landfill. No tipping was taking place, which is always a killer; as a result, there were only a couple of hundred large gulls present, all GBBGs and Herrings; certainly no Glauc (which roosted again at Hoveringham, as it had the previous two nights), or any Caspos. A bit frustrating - a mid-week visit will need to be scheduled somehow... I spent the rest of Saturday, before a later afternoon hockey match, at Hawton Works Grassland. No SEO's, but a Woodcock, several Snipe, and 13 Grey Partridge. 

Today was spent on the patch; the highlight was the juv Great Northern Diver which dropped into Mons Pool from the East; it then cruised the channel to the south of the heronry island, but was typically elusive. This is doubtlessly last Friday/Saturday's bird, which has then gone undetected at the site until today! Unfortunately I failed to get picture today, despite it being nice and close at one point. Other stuff included a drake Pintail also on Mons Pool, but little else of note, at Collingham or Meering. 

GND on the patch

Having not visited the patch at all last weekend, I was looking forward to spending plenty of time down there this weekend - and even more so when Roger Bennett tweeted a picture of a Great Northern Diver on Ferry Lane Lake on Friday afternoon. A first for Collingham!

I got down there slightly later than planned (I blame my fourth jagerbomb last night...). When I arrived, I couldn't see the bird, and then found Roger and Mark Dawson also looking; Mark had seen it, but it had gone missing. We eventually tracked it down, but it was extremely elusive, hugging the shore and only surfacing for short periods. 

I then headed off, whilst Mark stayed a bit longer - seeing the diver take flight, head north, and drop into Mons Pool, where he found a group of 11 Whooper Swans (which I went to see later after a visit to Meering - 7 adults and 4 juvs). Other birds at Collingham included 5 Goosander, 6 Pintail, and a Peregrine on the pylons. A Green Sand was the only bird of note at Meering (no swans at all on Meering Fields or Smithy Marsh). I also popped up to Girton - plenty of wildfowl, but nothing of particular note. 

The GND puts me on 138 species for the patch in 2015... Just two more to reach my target! Tawny Owl will be one (I hope), but what else..?

Slavs in the rain

It was pretty foul out this morning, and I could only just manage to make out 4 Slavonian Grebes on the Stour from Lower Holbrook - much further away and they would've been unidentifiable. Pretty wet, I headed to Alton Water, where the Great Northern Diver was off the sailing club, but there was no sign of the Great White Egret on a drive-by at Lemon's Hill Bridge.

I see from the bird news services that back in Notts, the Ferruginous Duck has been seen again on Spalford Pit at Girton (although reported as a drake?) - nice the know that it's still there.

Diver duo

Today dawned bright and clear, so I decided to do the walk I did on the 24th, but in reverse, starting at Shotley Marina and walk up the Orwell to the Clamp. It was high tide and I didn't see much to begin with, but upon drawing level with Levington Marina I found a Guillemot, which refused to have its photo taken - it was constantly diving and would move quite large distances underwater making tracking it difficult.

Fortunately I didn't quite exhaust my camera battery (which was running very low...), as a bit further on I came across not one, but two Great Northern Divers. I managed a few hand held shots of the closest with the tiny bit of power I had left before my camera died, and then phone-scoped the two birds in the same shot. I was a bit gutted as the closest bird really was ridiculously close - maybe 40 metres at its nearest, and the light was fantastic! I think might have to order a spare battery as a backup...

One of the two Great Northern Divers on the Orwell

Two Great Northern Divers on the Orwell (phone-scoped)

Finally tearing myself away from the divers, Hares Creek hosted good numbers of roosting waders (until they were disturbed by a windsurfer), including several hundred Curlew, a flock of Avocet, a few Bar-tailed Godwits, and 15 Red-breasted Mergansers, which were joined by hundreds of Knot and Dunlin as the tide fell. In the field behind, a flock of maybe 150 Brents were all Dark-bellied (with only a handful of young birds) - there seem to be far fewer of these around this year than normal.

The walk back across the fields to Chelmondiston from the Clamp was largely uneventful, except for a party of 10 Lesser Redpoll which flew over.

Another good day in Suffolk

This morning I met up with David Walsh, who taught me at school, for a catch up and a quick spin around Alton Water. We began at the dam and quickly had the Great Northern Diver, and then moved on the Lemon's Hill Bridge where the Great White Egret showed extremely well with a few Little Egrets. Finishing off the morning at Larch Wood, we located the 4 redhead Smew and a redhead Goosander.



Great White Egret at Alton Water from Lemon's Hill Bridge

2 (of 4) redhead Smew at Alton Water from Larch Wood

Goosander at Alton Water from Larch Wood

After lunch, I headed out from home down onto the Orwell Estuary, walking from the Clamp downriver towards Shotley. Off the Clamp, a Long-tailed Duck was no doubt yesterday's bird drifting downriver on the falling tide, but more unexpected was my second Great Northern Diver of the day off Levington Marina.

The Orwell looking upriver towards the Clamp

Long-tailed Duck on the Orwell off the Clamp

Great Northern Diver on the Orwell off Levington Marina

Other nice birds included at least 8 Red-breasted Mergansers, several Bar-wits, 2 Med Gulls, a flock of Avocet, and two groups of Dark-bellied Brents on the marshes. Having found 2 Black Brants here in the past I scanned through hopefully for any birds with snowy white flanks, but not today... Beaten by the rapidly fading light I curtailed my walk at Crane's Hill.



Looking towards Felixstowe Docks from Crane's Hill