Spurn and Suffolk

This year's autumn trip was reduced to two nights at Spurn with Dave Craven - instead of 2 weeks on Shetland. Given how cr*p this autumn has generally been, hitting a productive period of weather was always going to be a long shot, and so it proved, with winds continuing to be from the SW or W (going N/NNE for a short period) during our stay - birding in bright sun in a t-shirt never feels promising at this time of year... Hey ho. That said, it wasn't a complete disaster! 

Our first day (Monday 24th Sept) was actually our best. Whilst doing a bit of seawatching at Numpties in the morning (god I am out of practice...), Spurn's first Yellow-browed Warbler of the autumn started calling just to the north - for a moment I thought it was going to be someone playing a call on their phone, but there it was, in classic YBW habitat - a scrappy little sycamore. Very nice.

Yellow-browed Warbler - pic by Dave Craven

15 minutes later, and a thin 'seee' call overhead had us looking upwards. It took a moment for the penny to drop, but after the bird uttered a 'pix' call, and revealed itself as a chunky finch with big white wing flashes things clicked into place - 'Hawfinch!'. Also nice! And a few minutes after this, a Common Rosefinch was found within spitting distance at the Warren, feeding unobtrusively in amongst the Good King Henry (or something similar). And in fact, there were two. So, a good 40 minute spell.

Common Rosefinch - pic by Dave Craven

Things went a bit flat after that. There were few migrants around generally, although vis-migging at Numpties was fun, and produced a few bits including single Brambling on 25th and Lapland Bunting on 26th, amongst the Linnets, Meadow Pipits and Tree Sparrows, and seeing the likes of Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Skylark and House Martin coming in-off was also fun. And back to seawatching, I had almost got my eye back in at the end of a couple of sessions - which produced small numbers of Manxies, Arctic Skuas, Bonxies, Red-throated Divers, 2 Little Gulls, and small numbers of Common and Sandwich Terns etc.. 

Sunset over the Humber - pic by Dave Craven

So that was Spurn. This weekend just gone, and we were back in Suffolk visiting my parents. I had planned to have an early morning session birding at Landguard on either Saturday or Sunday morning, plumping for the latter, with Northerlies forecast. Two hours really wasn't long enough, and best was a 1st W male Ring Ouzel.  

How my mum almost found a Red-rumped Swallow

Easter for me normally means a trip back to Suffolk to visit my parents, and this Easter is no different. They had booked us a meal out at lunchtime today, but had left it too late for their first choice in Southwold, so we went to Orford instead. The table was booked for 12:15, earlier than they'd wanted, but this meant we got out onto an afternoon walk earlier than we otherwise would have done. Various options for a walk within the vicinity of Orford were discussed, including Staverton Thicks, but I'd managed to steer us towards Boyton Marshes (in the hope of some migrants).

Upon arriving I had very brief and frustrating views of a ringtail harrier as I rounded the end of the barns by the parking area at Boyton, just before it flew over a hedge and dropped out of sight. My impression was that it looked quite narrow winged, but the views were such that I couldn't ID it. It had been heading NW, so when we reached the sea wall I requested that we turn left, in that direction. Had we arrived a few seconds later, and I'd missed the harrier, the plan had been to turn right...

But turn left we did, walking as far as the foot ferry, turning back inland towards Butleyferry Farm, and then retracing our steps. Just before getting back to the sea wall, my mum asked 'is that a Swallow?'. Raising my bins, the bird I saw was indeed a swallow - a Red-rumped Swallow! It cruised overhead, no more than 20 feet up, before drifting south. It then became apparent that my mum was watching another bird - but her's was House Martin, and in checking it out I lost the RRS - but at least it meant she hadn't beaten me to a self-found tick..!

This was at about 15:30. Lack of mobile signal meant I couldn't get news out straight away, but 10 minutes later the bird reappeared, heading north with a handful of Swallows and House Martins, and I scoped it until I lost it over Burrow Hill. This time I managed to find some signal and tweeted the news out, although getting my geography slightly wrong in the excitement (and autocorrect on my phone amusingly changing rumped to 'rumpled'). Unfortunately there was no chance of digiscoping it.

It just goes to show how much chance can go into finding a decent bird. Who knows what I may've found had we had a table booked in Southwold at 1pm and then gone for a walk on the Blyth... probably nothing at all.

Xmas birding

For the first time in a long while, I didn't spend Christmas back in Suffolk, meaning I missed out on one of the birding highlights of my year - a Christmas Eve hike along the Stour and Orwell. However, a trip back for my grandma's 103rd birthday on the 27th allowed me to snatch two brief trips out, bagging a Great Northern Diver and 3 Slav Grebes at Holbrook Creek and a Common Scoter on the Strand. Back in Newark, a Chiffchaff in a neighbours garden on Boxing Day was the best I could muster!

Today was a last day of patching for 2016. I had planned to go out yesterday as well, but as the fog didn't lift all day I power-washed the patio instead... Not expecting to add anything to my total (but remainign vigilant in the hope of a Merlin), I did some light reccy'ing for tomorrow, with a redhead Smew on Ferry Lane Lake best - hopefully it will stick!

A swallow less ordinary

After dithering for half the morning, I finally decided that I had to twitch the Cliff Swallow at Minsmere, instead of spending a full day on the patch as I'd planned... This did, however, prove to be the correct decision. The bird showed superbly at times (although did go missing for periods), and there was confusion at times from some quarters when the Ordinary Swallows were showing distantly (I though they were called Barn Swallows?). It was also good to catch up with friends from Notts, Suffolk, and off of Twitter. 

So, patch tomorrow. Waxwings would be nice, but maybe too much to hope for; although I did have a group of 10 or so sat in my neighbours tree whilst working at home on Friday, which was a nice bonus!

The Waxwing tree (minus Waxwings)

Swampy

I couldn't resist twitching the Purple Swamphen on Friday at Minsmere; I took the day off and we heading down in the morning, getting to Minsmere at 11. The bird showed nicely at the back of South Girder; job done. And what a good decision it proved to be, as there was no sign o fit the following day - or the day after that. 

Swamphen

Friday afternoon was spent on the beach at Aldeburgh, and in the evening we caught up with Suffolk birder David Walsh over a meal at the Butt and Oyster. Suffolk was looking lovely, and this rounded off a fantastic day.

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

July keeps giving

After a nice long weekend in Suffolk (a bit of local birding produced a few waders, but nothing out of the ordinary), I'd been back about half an hour when I had a call from Mark Dawson to say he'd got a Garganey at Mons Pool. As a patch yeartick, I headed up there immediately to see it, also bagging my first patch Greenshank of the year, a nice fresh juvenile. 

Mark had already noted that the Garganey was a bit odd, in that it appeared to have white outer tail feathers - and actually more extensibe than on a female Teal... but in all other respects, it looked like a Garganey (Mark had seen the speculum), seemingly an adult (with rather brown and worn looking primaries and tertials). So presumably just an aberration. 

Spring comes, then goes

Friday morning and I was down to Collingham for my first patch birding for a while; it was almost warm out of the wind, and the birds had a distinct spring taste to them - my first Sand Martins (4) were over the western side of Ferry Lane Lake, a Chiffchaff sang briefly from the patch of woodland next to the Parish Field, and a pair of Ringed Plovers on Mons Pool looked like they had already got a nest scrape. The Oystercatchers had increased to four, and other stuff included 5 Redshank, 2 Curlew, 2 Egyptian Geese and 4 Goosander. 

Saturday and most of Sunday were spent back in Suffolk, battling a bitter cold wind, with no migrants to be had; best were a couple of Woodlark at a site in the Sandlings. I wrapped Sunday up at Hawton Works Grassland, in another attempt for Short-eared Owl (with one reported in that area earlier in the week); there was no sign, but two Barn Owls put on a good display. 

A tale of two rivers

This morning I had a look at the upper reaches of the Orwell; first from Stoke Sailing Club, then Foxes Marina, and then Bath Lane. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but the Peregrine was sat on its box on the bridge, and there were good numbers of Red-breasted Mergansers, with 22 in view from Stoke Sailing Club.

This afternoon, after going out for lunch to celebrate my grandma's 101st birthday (impressive) in Stutton, we had a family stroll, and I suggested we go down to Stutton Ness. From the Ness, the Surf Scoter was a couple of hundred yards upriver, along with the Red-throated Diver, whilst just down river, at the western end of Holbrook Bay, I located the juv/female Velvet Scoter (which I somehow missed on Christmas Eve), and 2 Slavonian Grebes. A good little haul.

Velvet Scoter

A slightly better shot of its head pattern

Christmas Eve

It's good to be back in Suffolk. As has become customary for me on Christmas Eve, I hiked along the estuaries near my family home to see what I could see. I began some way further up the Stour than usual, at Stutton Mill - I rarely visit this area, and had forgotten how birdy it is - loads of Shelduck, good numbers of Red-breasted Mergansers, and 6 Avocets, plus a juvenile Red-throated Diver off Mistley.

Surf Scoter

Developing its white nape patch

Onwards to Stutton Ness, and I bagged the 1st winter drake Surf Scoter; never close enough for a decent photo, I think my pictures are even worse than those I took of the Holkham bird in the autumn... still, it was nice to see, and it's beginning to get its white nape patch, but the bill is still subdued; and of course a Suffolk tick. Also off Stutton Ness was a Slavonian Grebe, feeding just yards offshore - which makes a change as they're usually miles away when viewed from Holbrook Creek!

Slavonian Grebe

By the time I reached Holbrook Bay, it was pretty much high tide, the sun was out (I had to strip down to my thin jumper and roll up my sleeves, it was so warm), and the wind had picked up, making the river rather choppy. Two more Slavonian Grebes were in evidence, but I failed to find much else, including the Velvet Scoter which had been seen earlier. A Kingfisher in the creek was the first of three seen during the day.

Holbrook Bay

RHS

Erwarton Bay produced the first sizeable group of Brents of the day, with maybe 400 feeding in the Spartina - no Black Brants though. A Peregrine scattered the roosting waders, which included a good sized flock of Bar-wits, and a fine male Marsh Harrier was quartering the saltmarshes, scattering the Teal and Wigeon each time it passed. 

Reaching Shotley Gate, there were, unusually, no Med Gulls to be found, and the remainder of the walk up the Crane's Hill was uneventful. I reached Shotley Church at half four, after 8 hours and 20 kilometers. My legs are feeling it now... 

Felixstowe docks

All in all, and enjoyable day, although not quite up to 2013's standards. Still, there's always next year!

Suffolk Days 4-6

More Corn Bunting action around Chelmondiston; a brief reccy on Tuesday confirmed that there were several singing in fields south of the east end of the village, so on Wednesday I got up early and surveyed most of the area, coming away with at least 9 singing birds. Add to this a couple seen elsewhere this week, I reckon that's at least 11 immediately around Chelmo. I'm sure more surveys over a wider area would reveal more, but perhaps that's someone else's responsibility now.

Corn Bunt

The remainder of Wednesday was spent up the coast, and included a nice walk round Minsmere (where I banned the whistling of the Springwatch theme tune in our group). The scrape was full of breeding birds, but a single Bar-wit seemed to be about the only passage wader. There were at least 25 Kittiwakes present as well, not a phenomenon I remember, but I guess they'd not had to come far from Sizewell Rigs. The only notable bird was the female Red-backed Shrike in the dunes south of the Sluice; seen too briefly and too distantly for a photo. 

Kittiwakes

Thursday was our last full day, and again didn't involve any proper birding, but canoeing on Thorpeness Mere produced a cuckoo and two singing Nightingales in the south-east corner.  

Swan family

Suffolk Days 1-3

I love Suffolk; I'm biased, but it is great. On Sunday night we took a trip out to Dunwich Heath, after fish and chips in Aldeburgh, to look for Nightjars. We had our first one strike up at 5 to 9 - it was barely getting dark. We then had some great fly-bys, and one bird churred incredibly close to us. Add to that two singing Dartford Warblers, a Cuckoo, and both Bittern and Stone-curlew audible in the distance, and it was a super evening. 

Looking south over Minsmere

Yesterday was biking and barbecuing on the beach, and I counted 5 singing Corn Buntings along Ling's Lane, just south of Chelmondiston. With another bird at Needle Corner in Harkstead, and a bird singing near Hill Farm on Sunday, that's at least 7 locations without really trying. Maybe I'll get up early sometime this week and do a proper count...

Today, zero birding, despite Greenish Warbler and Rosefinch not too far away at Landguard.

A look back at 2013

It’s a bit self-indulgent, but it seems to be the done thing on one’s blog at this time of year; a look back at the preceding twelve months from a personal perspective. 2013 was undoubtedly one of my best birding years to date, for several reasons:

Patch birding

I took part in Patchwork Challenge in 2013, visiting my patch at Collingham and Besthorpe 116 times, and recording 136 species. I had several patch ticks, including Ring-necked Parakeet, Red Kite and Caspian Gull; better still, I found two decent species, first a Pec Sand at the end of September at Meering Marsh (only my second self-found Pec, and another patch tick), which was beaten by a self-found BBRC description species in the form of a Pied Wheatear – a first for Notts, and the first ever inland county-record. My moment of the year was definitely when the bird appeared after a tense wait early in the morning of the 10th November, having put the news out the night before. See this blog post for a full account.

Pec (left) with 2 Ruff

Pied Wheatear

Birding in Notts

I don’t keep a Notts list (or rather I do, but I don’t actively amass a county list...). However, 2013 was undoubtedly an excellent year for county birding. Whilst I regret not going to see the Hoopoe at Annesley (I knew I would), I did see the White-winged Black Tern at Attenborough, Melodious Warbler at Tiln, Glossy Ibis at Lowdham, Parrot Crossbills at Budby Heath,  and the Pied Wheatear at Collingham (did I mention that already?). 

WWBT

Glossy Ibis

Parrot Crossbill

Listin’ and twitchin’

I finally racked up 400 species this year (BOU of course), after far too long, and finished on 401 (nice to have a small buffer for the Dusky Thrush). Additions were:

Rock Thrush (Spurn, 26th April)

Dusky Thrush (Margate, 18th May) 

Pacific Swift (Trimley, 15th June)

Melodious Warbler (Tiln, 21st June)

Little Bittern (Ham Wall, 29th June)

Pacific Golden Plover (Rutland Water, 15th July)

Bonaparte’s Gull (Heysham, 21st July)

Caspian Tern (Rudyard Lake, 29th July)

Great Snipe (Spurn, 15th September)

I guess if I was a hardcore twitcher I would've added a few more in what was a pretty exceptional year – Harlequin Duck, Needletail, Hermit Thrush, Thick-billed, Cape May and Western Orphean Warblers, Mourning Dove, Semipalmated Plover, Brunnich’s Guillemot... and maybe even Serin (I'll get one one day). As well as lots more I've probably forgotten about.

Birding Trips

Once again, I failed to go on a foreign birding holiday this year, but did add two new species to my WP list – Balearic Warbler, seen during a week on Majorca in February, and a quality category C species in the form of Reeve’s Pheasant in France in July (where I failed to see Grey-headed Woodpecker, again).

Balearic Warbler

In this country, a week with friends in Aviemore produced all the Scottish specialities I could hope for except Golden Eagle (and my best ever Capper encounter – as well as a Pine Marten); a long weekend in Somerset in June got me a Little Bittern (and a Large Blue); and I managed a bit of birding in Norfolk in October half-term. Also in October, I joined Carl C and Stuart D on Scilly for a week. Although lacking a quality rarity, it was a good week’s birding and a lot of fun, with Sora the best bird. Hopefully it will deliver in October 2014! I finished the year with a week back in Suffolk over Christmas, finding not one but two Black Brants down on my old local patch on the Orwell.

Capper

Sora

Black Brant