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punkbirder
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General sightings, activities and crap record shots from the creme-de-la-menthe of norfolk birding - First With Our News Most Of The Time!
Glorious past events:
2009 January-February, March-April
2008 January-February, February-April, May-July, Spring Review, August, September, October-November, December
2007: November-December, October, September, August, June-July, April-May, March-early Apr, January-Febuary
2006: October - December ¦ September | August part II | August | July
23rd May - 30th May
Unst (RA, JG, RMa, AL)
More on this misadventure in due course, no highlights, but we found a Frankin's Gull, 3 Icterine Warblers and, well that was about it. Remember folks, always go on holiday for two weeks.......
25th May
Gun Hill (RDM)
A brief and brown Common Rosefinch provided the highlight, also Spot Fly, Yellow Wag, singing Reed Warbler.
What a beauty!
Unst (the others)
JG bags his Franklin's Gull pics.
24th May
Unst (the others)
JG hits big with an adult Franklin's Gull but couldn't wipe the sick away from his mouth fast enough to pick up his camera.
21st May
Broads Diary (RDM)
Lounging on my backside mid-morning, waiting for a lizard to return, produced startling results as I followed a gallavanting crow, hell-bent on mischief, as it flew towards a brace of Honey Buzzards, one light, one middling. They towered upwards then drifted north towards West Caister. A Common Buzzard and what was presumably a Kestrel were in orbit in the afternoon. In addition, a 1st summer female Pallid/Monties, probably the latter, hunted it's way west along the riverbank, hopefully it will be about on the morrow and I can obtain some better views and some pics.
21st May (JB, AS, SMi)
Girton, Cambridge
Morning cake was interupted by Red Kite over the BirdLife International head office in Girton, Cambridge at 11 am. Ade Long delivered the goods so no points for the pb showing.
17th May (RMa & JG)
Blakeney Point
All round poor showing. At beach car park by half six with Cley already well populated with birders having a great time seeing the various pieces of pre-arranged entertainment on the marshes. However the point was deserted leaving it wide open for easy collection of the surely guaranteed spring beauties. Biting easterlies with squally rain maintained hope but sapped energy. With a couple of hours sleep between us in the previous few days we were zombies by Halfway. A male Redstart at the plantation, a Cuckoo, Whitethroat, a couple of Chiffs, that mad Lt Duck and (eventually) a couple of Wheatear was the haul, but surely there had to be a bluethroat somewhere.
15th May
Kilvington, Notts (AL)
30 second scan of the main lake on my way to my parent's home/airport produced 2 Black Terns, a Little Egret and a Sanderling.
The Hills (JG)
Early start, hopes were high but things seemed very quiet in the heavy rain. I was almost on the verge of sacking it early on, but an extra-loud pishing effort eventually came good with a fine pair of Pied Flies. I kept going and once the rain relented it was pretty busy - two Redstarts, two Spotfly and another Pied, two Gardens, three Whitethroat and about a dozen phylloscs. It was strangely quiet in the open areas, just a single Wheatear and no Whinchat or anything else interesting. Busy overhead though, with a constant stream of hirundines, a handfull of flavas, a single Tree Pipit, several Redpoll sp. plus the usual raptors/owls. Also stacks of wader movement, including singles of Little Stint and Curlew Sand. Frustrating moment #1 came in the form of a very brief burst of hi-tempo Europop warbling coming from some of the heaviest cover. Seemed to be loads of squeaky repetition delivered super fast, very Ickyish. Sadly it promptly shut up and after a couple of hours fruitless searching I had to give it up. Frustrating moment #2 was perhaps worse, hearing an odd-sounding heron coming high in-off whilst I was deep under the trees. I crashed my way out into the open, but wasn't sure which way it was going, lost my cool and never saw the bird. Probably just a Grey with a cough but it did sound a little bit "kwak"... Final frustrating moment came when I fired up birdguides this evening, discovering I'd been a stone's throw from a Black Kite and a Collared Prat. Crap.
14th May
Whitlingham New (JG)
No terns and nothing much grounded, but some proper fly-thru excitement: three Whimbrels and a flock of eight tundra Ringos. Shame none of them fancied the new habo'. (Although newbie Jono L had a single Whimbrel grounded there in the eve, so perhaps one of them changed its mind).
Whit blocker?
North Norfolk (AL, SMi)
Deja vu all the way to the Hood, Mitchell, having left with the highest hopes was considering giving up birding by Half Way. A Chiffchaff at the Hood was new as was a Common Whitethroat and by the time we made Yankee Ridge things were looking up with Lesserthroat, Whinchat, Common Whitethroat and an unseasonal Robin. Other bits and bobs included the mad Long-tailed Duck and a Black Tern through the harbour, hundreds of Arctics were still on the move too. Arriving at the Plantation, birds seemed to be filtering in as we sat there, after an hour there was a Whinchat, a Spotfly, 2 Willows, a Reed and a Garden. Micro-fall! More thrashing around didn't deliver the scarce though, although SMi had a probable Common Nightingale that couldn't be refound, so we limped back to Cley where SMi used Jedi mind tricks on AL to get him to go on the reserve. We managed to see the KP, 2 Tems and the Citwag, overflown by Black Terns from Daukes, where we were treated to a sage reminder of the state of British birding.
BP Grounded migrants: 4 Wheatears, 2 Whinchats, 1 Robin, 1 Reed Warbler, 4 Common Whitethroats, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Garden Warblers, 6 Willow Warblers, 3 Chiffchaffs, 1 Spotted Flycatcher.
13th May
North Norfolk (AL)
Another pre dawn start and from thence down the point, initial omens were good, a Chiffchaff, practically in the carpark formerly known as Coastguards. Didn't see another proper migrant till a Willow Warbler at the Hood, although a Wood Sandpiper went high west. A Whitethroat on Long Hills raised expectations (!) and then whilst waist deep in suaeda a flock of seven Black Terns briefly encircled me as they headed off east (to form the nucleus of the Cley mega-flock). A further thrash round produced another Whitethroat, a White Wagtail and a Cuckoo but on my own and in the big easterlies it was really tough to keep tabs on migrants. Limping back to Cley, I scoped up the scrapes from the vis centre, 39 Black Terns were hawking over a scrape full of waders, magic. Blasted over to Stiffkey where 32 Black Terns were whizzing round and then tried a couple of places up coast but returned empty-handed. Still there's always the morrow... cheers to Golden Holden for gen updates....
Fen Drayton (JB, AS, SiMi et al.)
A quick bolt up the road at lunch yielded a handful of the Black Terns that were reported this morning and several Arctics but no score. With Birdguides inflicting more pain than a Chelsea smile at the moment tomorrow had better see some improvements. Still, it was nice...
Cart Gap - Happisburgh (JG)
Tempted by the winds into an early start for a pre-work coastal bash. After two hours the grounded-migrant haul stood at one wheatear, with a vizmig haul of one common swift. Eventually I managed to eek out some value in the form of three cracking Dotterel - two lady-drakes and a dullard - in a distant sugarbeet field. They looked super-skittish so I had to sprint to the car and then hoon down the lane to get near enough for a record shot. Fortunately they posed long enough to fire off a couple before a dog-walker appeared and sent them over the horizon.
A pleasing mini-trip (is that called a buzz?), shame they were miles away, and then they flew away.
12th May
Burnham Norton (RoMa)
Post bbs birding; 1 Wood Sand was much more obliging than James' sounded, either that or he couldn't work out which dslr to turn on... Called in at Stiffkey Fen in case I could add to the tally of Temms, but still just the one there for now, with one 1st yr Little Gull. Clearly should have gone for the point this afternoon.
Whitlingham (JG)
Limited colour, but a Wood Sand was on the new works early am. Unfortunately it towered off east before I could get the camera fired up. Also little egret, greenshank, mandarin and a stunning drake Garganey X Shover hybrid down there in the last few days.
11th May
Cambs (ACL)
Called in at the Whittlesey Dotterel pre BBS (0515) to remind me of my failure, tried to hate them, but well, who could hate Dotterel. Tried to rescue the day by driving around and trying for.... Dotterel. Gave up after three hours and did the Nene Washes. March Farmers yielded a Whimbrel, a Black-bellied Plover and some distant Calidrids in the first instance but on the way back to the car I picked up a spanking male Montagu's Harrier heading north, it disappeared behind a wind break so I legged it down the bank only for it to skip over the trees and cross over onto the Washes, leaving me at the bottom of the bank... Ran back up and tried to photo-document, but fly-through harrier in a 25mph wind hand-held in an exposed position is the upper-limit of digi-scoping possibilities (good job it wasn't a Pallid). In failing I tripped and then fell down the bank; apologies to the bovids which were subjected to a tirade of bad language even more colourful than Rich's 'eaters, the like of which has probably never been heard in rural Cambridegshire. Whilst walking back to the car a Cattle Egret flew over heading SE, presumably one of the Doublet Dog birds. Rats. A Garganey at KfB (sev at the Nene) ended the day's unpaid birding, but at least 10 Whimbrel flew over my VP that evening.
Its over now, trippin on you........(AL)
Broads Diary (RDM)
Forget red-letter days, this was even more colourful.....
These beauties were along the River Bure on the north-west side of Yarmouth...It was beyond exciting. James summed it up perfectly via the text...
"Christ on a cake" followed 5 minutes later by "I'm jealous to the power of gutted". They were again present at 3.30pm (along with an adult female Montagu's Harrier which passed through to the north) when I went to pick up my colleague, although they seemed to bugger off once again. If you want to give them a go they are maybe viewable from the other side of the river, the west/south side is closed off due to construction works.
10th May
Muckleburgh Hill and environs (AL, RMa, JG, SMi)
With harriers, red-feet, orioles and drongos viz-migging along the North Coast the day before, we were expecting big things from our long-planned assault on the peak of Muckleburgh Hill. A 0315 start (average for AL & RMa) ensured a pre-dawn arrival. The Great Grey Shrike appeared on the camp with the first tentacles of dawn and we rattled through the usual dross. Flyover passerines were in short-supply, although included Tree Pipit (2), Grey Wagtail, Redpoll sp, and a 'headed' Flava wagtail. Biggest excitement/disappointment came in the form of a pair of falcons picked coming in-off 1km out and 3km east; they looked good for vespertinus but headed away high east, never to be seen again. Otherwise raptors were really slow, just a single adult Hen Harrier which moved west and the local Common Buzzards etc. The sea was pretty quiet, and the Quagg gave nothing better than Little Gull and Greenshank. We stayed as far as early afternoon, but with diminishing returns we quit at 1400 with the last bird #86 an ad Med Gull over the heath, way short of last year. A quick drive round some other places produced very little. Norfolk can be very cruel.....
Its never Breskens (AL)
9th May
Dorset (RA)
Some semi-decent-almost-half-hearted effort between (inclusive) Winspit and Portland produced nothing better than pied fly, a reed warbler at the bottom of Winspit valley, and an awesome strawberry cornetto at Ferrybridge. The day did at least provide some cool stuff to twitch and decent photo opportunities. Have a score to settle with Portland….
No points (RA)
8th May
Broads Diary (RDM)
A Whinchat at Scaregap provided the day's highlight. Also, forgot to say, Becky had 6 Scaup (4 drakes) on the flood dyke at Scaregap yesterday, unusual....
Cambs (ACL)
Bumped into an odd Chiffchaff this am at a private nature reserve, a few images and really bad quality sound recordings here. Obviously doesn't sound like collybita, does look a bit like ibericus (prominent yellow supercilium, bright green upperparts [honestly, light is bad in the images], brown tarsi, white throat and underparts) but doesn't give the classic Ibe riff. Song resembles the Belfeld bird a little, although whether it could actually be construed to be one or is a mixed singer, an intergrade or just a spanner collybita will now be the subject of about 10 minutes research before I sack it off and do some proper work.....
7th May
Broads Diary (RDM)
A bit quiet in recent days although 4 Barnacle Geese flew west near Yarmouth yesterday and 2 Little Terns flew west up the River Bure today. A single Dunlin, Cuckoo and 3 Common Sands were at Whitlingham this morning.
Cambs (ACL)
A big Dottereling day, drove 60 miles between surveys and saw a Wheatear, 2 Bar-headed Geese (sibes!), and somes Oykes and Peewits. Called in at the Nene Washes late on and was genuinely surprised to find the people I thought were looking at Garganey were actually looking at two Cattle Egrets.
photos© punkbirder (unless otherwise stated)
