A slow end to summer and then some Caspian Gulls

After the Great Knot, July was dominated by moths not birds.  Mothing activity went crazy leaving little time for birding, so not much to report here for July.  Highlights were:

• singing Corn Bunting at Ringstead on 6th;
• Green Sandpiper, 2 Greenshanks and Whimbrel at Brancaster on 16th (when looking for moths);
• a superb adult Hobby carrying prey back to where I presume it was nesting, and then another or the same bird heard calling and seen again;
• a Nuthatch added to the house list - heard then seen in my neighbour's garden (while I emptied the moth trap early on 18th);
• 2 Common Terns over the house on 24th & 26th;
• A Skylark over the house on 29th;
• various Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Treecreepers at different places either at home or in my lunch breaks.

Red-legged Partridge, Beacon Hill, 20th July

August kicked off with a Hobby near Horningtoft on my way to work.  Then on 4th August I joined up with Pete Wilson and Dawn Balmer for some gull-watching in the Livermere area.  I'm keen to sharpen my skills in gull identification so am always grateful for opportunities to spend some time with gull gurus.  It proved to be an excellent evening with at least 4 Caspian Gulls the highlight, along with a likely 5th bird, a juvenile bearing a yellow ring, that was too distant to be quite sure about.  Also a probable Caspian Gull x Herring Gull hybrid and at least 28 Yellow-legged Gulls.

Caspian Gull, Great Livermere, 4th August

Yellow-legged Gull, Great Livermere, 4th August

Yellow-legged Gull, Great Livermere Lake, 4th August

There was also a Barn Owl by Great Livermere village hall and a Grasshopper Warbler could be heard reeling at the lake for most of the time we were there.  Also at the lake Barnacle Goose and Common Sandpiper.

A moth event at Claxton on 6th produced Barn Owl, Tawny Owl and what looked like a Hobby in addition to moths.  A Red Kite near East Rudham was growing its outer tail feathers making it look very weird.

Then on 11th I returned to Livermere with Pete for more gull learning.  We saw 5 Caspian Gulls - an adult, a 3rd calendar year, 2 2nd calendar years and a juvenile.  Also a possible Caspian Gull x Herring Gull hybrid and at least 34 Yellow-legged Gulls.

Caspian Gull, Great Livermere, 11th August

A third go on 18th produced 6 Caspian Gulls and about 25 Yellow-legged Gulls.  Excellent stuff, and really grateful to Pete for his help.  Still tonnes to learn though!

The local patch produced a juvenile Shelduck and 2 Mandarins on 21st August, along with Common Sandpiper, 4 Green Sandpipers and a Snipe.  Next day 3 Green Sandpipers were still present.

A Willow Warbler heard singing and then seen while I was emptying the moth trap at home on 23rd was an unusual record for here.  Also Bullfinch and Green Woodpecker heard that morning.  Next day a Turtle Dove was on wires at Wighton and a Common Sandpiper was on the local patch.

25th August saw my first trip to Burnham Overy this autumn.  A Peregrine was carrying something big away over the saltmarsh as I arrived.  Walking down to the dunes I saw 6 Spoonbills on the saltmarsh over towards Burnham Norton and a Water Rail preening on the edge of the reedy pool.  Whimbrel and Greenshank were heard calling, Common Sandpiper seen and 60 Golden Plovers flew over.  Later a Green Sandpiper flew over having come up from Holkham Freshmarsh.  A flock of 16 Common Terns flew over relatively high.

Common Tern, Burnham Overy, 25th August

Marsh Harrier, Burnham Overy, 25th August

At least 2, probably 3-4 Whinchats were in the dunes along with at least 6 Stonechats and 2 Wheatears.  Other migrants included various common warblers (all in low to middle single figures) and a Hobby was seen.

The last few days of August and start of September got me Little Owl calling at home, Nightjar heard calling on a central Norfolk heath, a couple of Tawny Owls from the car and live Badgers near Reepham and at Old Beetley.  Also a migrant Wheatear inland at Marsham Heath on 1st September.

Wheatear, Marsham Heath, 1st September

Breckland Gulling

Driving into the Brecks on Saturday morning I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to stop by at a well-known top-secret site for Goshawks.  After a while a juvenile Goshawk appeared low over the field just in front of us, dropping to the ground momentarily before steaming off again.  A bit later I picked up a bird displaying much further away, which may have been the same bird. No sign of any Woodlark here today but a Bullfinch was nice.  Also in the Brecks was this Red Kite:

Red Kite, Cockley Cley, 30th January

A regular site for a finch and bunting near the Arms seemed to be quiet at first but further down the road I discovered a small flock including several Bramblings and at least a couple of Lesser Redpolls.

 Bramblings, The Arms, 30th January

Lesser Redpolls, The Arms, 30th January

I've been keen to spend some time looking at gulls with someone who knows what they're looking at - and Pete Wilson kindly agreed to spend the afternoon gulling with me in Brecks.  At the first site we saw 7 Red Deer as we arrived. 

 Red Deer, Tuddenham, 30th January

Turning to the gull flock Pete locked straight on to a Caspian Gull, a really interesting bird to study.  Also 2 adult Yellow-legged Gulls here and an equally interesting Herring Gull x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrid.

Caspian Gull, Tuddenham, 30th January

My first attempt to photograph the Caspian Gull failed as I moved the scope as I placed the camera on it, but when I brought the resulting image up on my laptop the next day I was surprised to see a first-winter Mediterranean Gull slap bang in the middle of it!  Had completely missed that.

Mediterranean Gull, Tuddenham, 30th January

We tried some more pig fields the best of which held a few more birds of interest.  Pete picked out a couple of big first-winter Herring Gulls belonging to the race argentatus, a taxon I've only ever been confident to identify in adult plumage.  He also picked up on a Caspian Gull x Herring Gull hybrid, a bird I would certainly have overlooked.  Too far for photos unfortunately but really interesting to study.

The gull roost at Lackford was great.  I was impressed how Pete called out so many Yellow-legged Gulls on his first scan and I eventually got to see most of them.  In the light I found picking out the adults difficult but the first-winters were the ones I was keenest to get to grips with.  We had a detailed look at one of these which was really helpful, though I'm still a long way off mastering them!  Pete logged 10 Yellow-legged Gulls in total, I think I saw around 8 of those.  A first-winter Caspian Gull was great to watch - quite a distinctive individual in some ways.   Another argentatus, this time probably a 3rd winter, was good to see but it was getting pretty dark before arguably the best bird turned up - the Iceland Gull (looking like an adult, but probably 4th winter as likely a returning bird that was 3rd winter last year).  Also at least 3 Goldeneye on the lake.

A good day out East

Had a day off on Tuesday but with the wind forecast to move round to the NE in the middle of the day I decided that hunting for migrants might be more productive in the afternoon than the morning.  I started off by heading to the Broads, although news of a Subalpine Warbler at Kelling nearly made me turn round.  That would have been a nice bird to see, but I'm glad I didn't change my plans as it wasn't seen again.  Instead I pressed on to Ormbesby Broad.  Actually I stopped at Fliby Broad first as the bird I was after has been commuting between Ormesby, Rollesby and Filby Broads.  No sign there, but nice to catch up with Ken.  Ken told me he'd seen it at Ormesby Broad the previous day, and the only report so far during the morning was also there, so I headed round.  Scanning over to the back of Ormesby Broad I quickly located the target, a juvenile White-winged Black Tern.  Enjoyed watching it for a while without any other birders present.

White-winged Black Tern, Ormesby Broad, 8th September

Lots of raptors in the air here - mainly Buzzards and Marsh Harriers but also a Hobby over the back of Rollesby Broad (and Sparrowhawk at Filby Broad earlier).

I planned to end the day at Cley so in the meantime Waxham seemed as good a bet as any.  This used to be my favoured stomping grounds, many years ago when I used to cycle out to the coast from Norwich to do my birding.  But since the early 90s I've hardly birded the area - indeed I don't think I'd done the walk down from Shangri-La to the camp since then.  Well I didn't quite do all of that this afternoon, I parked on the road at the double bend so skipped the northern section.  It's changed a bit - some of the paths that I used to walk down have moved - vegetation has grown so thick round their old locations you can't possibly get through now - but it was pretty much like old times, not least for the lack of birds!  By the time I reached the smaller campsite I'd had just a single Wheatear in the way of migrants - it wasn't the afternoon fall I was hoping for!

I glimpsed a warbler disappear into a bramble without getting an ID on it.  I resisted the temptation to walk on despite the voices in my head assuring me it was probably just a Whitethroat.  I've realised that one reason I find so little in the way of rare birds is that I glimpse something that looks interesting, wait a few seconds/minutes without seeing it, convince myself it was something common and walk on.  If I stuck it out every time I reckon I'd have found a decent bird on some of those occasions.  So this time I stuck it out.  Not sure how long I waited - it seemed for ever but probably no more than 20-30 minutes - but a long time staring at nothing.  Eventually it popped out exactly where it had gone in but unfortunately this time my patience was not rewarded - it was just a Whitethroat.  Next time!

Round by the pipe dump things were much livelier - several Blackcaps, at least 5 Stonechats, lots of Goldfinches and a variety of other common biirds making it all feel birdy unlike the walk down to there.

Goldfinch, Waxham, 8th September

I was now standing at precisely the point where I had found my first ever self-found Red-backed Shrike, 22 years ago.  That was part of the reason why I had chosen this stretch rather than the line of trees further north - I fancied finding another and with one found at Salthouse that morning it seemed a realistic possibility.  No sign of one here today though so I moved on.  About 30 seconds later I found myself staring at a Red-backed Shrike!!  Bingo!  Not the easiest bird to get close to for photographs, but giving great views from a little further back.

 Red-backed Shrike, Waxham, 8th September

A few more birds at the campsite, but I turned round once I reached there, pausing to take in more views of the Shrike.  I was surprised to see a Kingfisher heading low along the side of the dunes, nipping between me and the Shrike before continuing south.  Don't know what their status is here, but they're a pretty scarce migrant at other dry coastal stations I'm more familiar with.  A lot scarcer than Red-backed Shrike in fact.

As I headed back north I discovered at least 4 Whinchats along the fenceline north of the pipe dump - I'd looked here on the way down and not seen them, so whether they were new arrivals or just moved round from somewhere out of view I'm not sure.

I'd planned to stop somewhere else on the way up to Cley but time was pressing on and in the increasingly gloomy conditions I figured I had better get a move on.  I was keen to study some gulls - hoping to get some learning in on Caspian and Yellow-legged ID.  Apart from Black-tailed Godwits and at least 75 Ruff there weren't many waders on show.  A single Greenshank was the best and I couldn't pick anything of interest out from among the ducks either.  The gull flock was disturbingly small and lacking anything of note.

Mark and Eddie turned up and with them came a few more large gulls.  Mark picked up the 3rd winter Caspian Gull that's been turning up the last few nights almost immediately.  Pretty sure it wasn't there before he arrived!  The conditions were pretty rubbish with drizzle making visibility poor and this may also have impacted the number of gulls coming in.  But Mark was on the ball and picked up an interesting juvenile fuscus-type Lesser Black-backed Gull (Baltic Gull).  It looked good but we won't be allowed to count it... they're deemed unidentifiable so no unringed examples will be accepted currently.

apparent Baltic Gull L. (f.) fuscus, Waxham, 8th September

Mark again picked out a candidate Yellow-legged Gull, but it seemed unusually dark and was very advanced for a second-winter - we wondered if it may instead have been a hybrid.  Two more Yellow-legged Gulls appeared more straightforward (in as much as Yellow-legged Gulls in the half-dark are ever straightforward - which isn't much for me) and Mark picked up another young bird flying off.  In some ways it was disappointing that there weren't more, but I enjoyed what I saw and the fuscus-y thing was especially interesting.