Singing Greenish, White-winged Black & Pied Fly

It's been a long time since I updated my diaries...  a busy summer got in the way I'm afraid.  Actually I did write most of this at the time, but never managed to finish it off and post it.  Well, now I have, but no promises as to how soon it will be before I'm fully up to date.

The forecast for Friday 25th May showed a cloudy start following pre-dawn rain combined with winds coming from far to the east and clear skies to the east.  It looked perfect for late spring migrants!  I got up early, checked the moth trap in torrential rain and thought I'd better do a last minute check of the weather.  If it was going to be raining like this at the coast I'd be better off going back to bed and heading up later.  The forecast for here was heavy rain for the next 3 hours, so going back to bed seemed a good bet, but the forecast for Burnham Overy painted a different picture.  There it was fine - just light rain on and off over the next 2-3 hours - enough to drop some migrants in maybe but not so much to make birding difficult.  So I resistsed the temptation to return to bed and headed up to the coast.  The roads were like rivers and the rain showed no sign of letting up by the time I reached Burnham Overy - and another check of the forecast and it had changed completely.  Now it was showing heavy rain for the next 3 hours.  So I put the seat back and went to sleep.

Some time later I awoke.  It was still raining but I'd had a message from a friend to say the Greenish Warbler was still singing at Titchwell.  After my snooze I really needed some facilities, the likes of which are pretty hard to find in and around Burnham Overy at 6.30 in the morning, so I opted for driving over to Titchwell.  By now the rain had eased right off so I figured it would be worth a quick squint at the Greenish Warbler - I'd particularly be interested to hear it singing as I don't think I've had a singing bird before.  I headed straight to Meadow Trail as that's where RBA had been saying it was, and found no sign of the Greenish Warbler or any people looking for it.  A quick check with some friends on site and it became clear that it was actually nearer the visitor centre, and sure enough as I joined Fen Trail and started walking towards the visitor centre I picked up an unfamiliar song that was surely the Greenish Warbler.  There were a couple of others looking and in no time I got some good views of it fairly high in the trees, constantly singing and frequently showing.  In the gloom and murk my photos were never going to be much cop, but here are the best.

Greenish Warbler, Titchwell, 25th May

There was a constant backdrop of calling Mediterranean Gulls which was lovely, but rather than head out on to the marsh I was keen to resume my original plan of finding rares at Burnham Overy.  So I hopped back in the car and headed over.  It was like the rain hadn't actually stopped that side of Brancaster - still chucking it down there, but conveniently it did start drying up on my arrival at the staithe.

I wanted to see the White-winged Black Tern that had been present there for the best part of a week.  Yoav had already seen and photographed it this morning so it was looking hopeful as I walked down.  But I arrived at the reedy pool to find one forlorn twitcher bemoaning the fact that he hadn't seen it and had only seen one other birder who also hadn't seen it.  It clearly wasn't around, but that didn't overly concern me as I know it comes and goes from time to time.  I wandered on to the dunes in the hope that it would appear by the time I went back.

I bumped into Yoav in the dunes - he'd already done the Gun Hill end and been disappointed by the lack of migrants.  I tried to reassure him that it was late in the season for numbers - "the big one travels alone" and all that.  I don't think it helped!  What may have helped is when I wandered over to one of my favourite clumps of spindle and a superb male Pied Flycatcher popped up on the top.  As soon as I got my bins on it and pointed it out it flew, again perching out in full view on the top of some bushes.  Unfortunately it was now directly behind Yoav for me and due to the nature of the path we were on I couldn't manouevre to a position where I could see it quickly enough to get any shots before it flew again.  So if you want to see a very nice photo of it, you won't find one here so check out Yoav's blog instead.  I had a quick attempt to relocate it but failed, and didn't see it again when I came back through this area later on either.

Sadly that wasn't the padder before the mega, it was the star of the day.  I managed a few other migrants like Reed Warbler, Tree Pipit and Wheatear, but it was hard going - certainly not the arrival of rare and scarce migrants we were all hoping for.  Other nice birds included Spoonbills, Great White Egret(s?), Mediterranean Gulls, Cuckoo, Barn Owl, etc. but wer were all a little bit disappointed given the seemingly favourable conditions.

Fortunately though the White-winged Black Tern did return.  I heard it was back over the marsh but it took a while to pick it up from the dunes.  I did eventually see it distantly but hoped it would stick around until I headed back.  Conveniently it did - it was performing nicely at the reedy pool as I returned past there.

White-winged Black Tern, Burnham Overy, 25th May

Pleased enough with having seen and heard my first singing Greenish Warbler, found a stonking spring male Pied Flycatcher and seen the equally stonking White-winged Black Tern I decided to call it quits and head back home.  I went out again locally, but nothing better than Nuthatch and Green Woodpecker to report from there (bird-wise - plenty of non-avian interest that I've written about in my mothing diary).

Red-legged Partridge, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 25th May

Since then I've been hearing a Cuckoo calling from home some mornings but most of my birding activity has been confined to the Cathedral Meadows in North Elmham.

OK, so that's as far as I got writing this up to the end of May, before things got crazy and I had to stop.  So now the catch-up begins...

On 1st June I headed up to Brancaster where migrants on the golf-course included 2 Wheatears and a Reed Warbler.  A Cuckoo was calling and a Spoonbill was on the saltmarsh.  There was another Cuckoo along Gypsy Lane, along with Yellow Wagtail and an unexpected drake Garganey.  Also plenty of Bearded Tits showing along here.

Garganey, Brancaster, 1st June

Bearded Tits, Brancaster, 1st June

Most of my birding throughout the rest of June was restricted to the local North Elmham Cathedral Meadows where the highlight was a pair of Spotted Flycatchers on 6th.  Other observations here included Hobby, Nuthatches, Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Bullfinches, Little and Tawny Owls, Sparrowhawk and Kingfisher.

Little Egret, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 3rd June

Spotted Flycatcher, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 6th June

Magpie, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 6th June

Black-headed Gull, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 11th June

House Martin, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 11th June

Apart from that Barn Owl at Derby Fen, Red Kite in Lenwade and a Curlew over the house one evening were about all I found in June.

Arctic Redpolls and Little Gulls in the valley

On 4th April I finally got a chance to go and look for the Arctic Redpolls at Felthorpe.  The birds were mostly hidden in the crop/weed patch but every now and then a small part of the flock would fly up to the wires where they showed for a few nanoseconds before dropping down.  I was looking into the light and if there were more than a dozen birds on the wires I didn't even have time to scan along the whole flock before they were back down and out of sight again.  But I did manage a couple of views of single Arctic Redpolls, both different, as well as a snall number of Mealy Redpolls.  The total flock size was difficult to ascertain (most were Lessers) - at one point I had over 100 birds flying around.  This was more than I'd heard being reported here up to now, but now most of them were heading off into the distance.  It was now quite a long wait before birds started to reappear, but before long I was getting brief views of another Arctic Redpoll.  I say another - I am not 100% sure it wasn't the first one again as I didn't get any objective detail on it that ruled that out, but my overall impression was that this was a much smarter bird - verging on hornemanni almost.  I suppose it's just about possible that the first one looked duller in different light but I'm 95% sure this was a third Arctic Redpoll.

Later on I got a more prolonged view of another interesting Redpoll in one of the roadside trees, but although views were prolonged it was very obscured and I couldn't do much with it.  I was 99% sure it was Arctic but never saw its rump and didn't feel able to claim it definitely was one - however if it was then it was a different bird from the 3 I'd seen earlier based on the pattern of the undertail-coverts and flanks.  I was now strongly suspecting this was my 4th Arctic Redpoll of the morning.  Finally a Redpoll appeared on the ground and we got reasonable views of it on the deck.  It was perhaps on the dark side by Arctic standards, but not too dark, and it had a lot going for it.  Unfortunately I couldn't see either its undertail coverts or its rump at all, so I cannot claim it, but I've a strong suspicion this was a 5th Arctic Redpoll.  After over 5 hours with the flock I'd now managed 5 views of birds I thought were different Arctics but I could only be certain I'd seen 2 different Arctics, and even those weren't really seen well enough to put together a proper description of them had I been the finder.  All in all a bit unsatisfactory, though somehow enjoyable at the same time.

I've been hearing a nunber of reports from the coast suggesting low numbers of Little Egrets since the Beast from the East, but locally they seem to be in good supply and I've seen odd birds in some new places like the roadside pond at Broom Green.  The floodwaters between Billingford and Worthing have been a good place to see them too and as I drove past on 5th April there were 6 Little Egrets - the largest count I've ever had in the Wensum Valley.

Another bird that has been reported as having experienced something of a population crash as a result of the Beast is Cetti's Warbler.  They have been reported to have become much harder to find than usual along the coast and along the Yare Valley at least, but there have been several in the Wensum Valley including some in places where I at least hadn't seen them before.  One of those was singing at Bylaugh on 5th April and another singing at Guist on 7th.

Also at Guist on 7th was a pair of Garganey - there were in fact 2 pairs there the night before I think, and I think someone saw all four on 7th too, but I could only see the one pair.  Perhaps a better bird in local terms, or if not very close, a Black-tailed Godwit flew across the flood and began to feed right next to where the Garganey were.  If you squint hard enough and use plenty of imagination you can see both in this photo.

Black-tailed Godwit, Black-headed Gull and Garganey, Guist, 7th April

A Marsh Harrier was huting here and as I arrived a little while later at Great Ryburgh another Marsh Harrier was hunting over the scrape.  That meant there were few birds on the scrape (though I did arrive just in time to see 40+ Teal and 4 Snipe flying off).

 Goldfinch, Ryburgh, 7th April

I just had time to pop in to the patch before heading down to Minsmere, and 2 Avocet were the highlight there. At Minsmere I joined the group and headed first to Bittern Hide where a single flight view of a Bittern was all some of us managed, though there was plenty of booming going on all morning.  A couple of distant Swallows were my first hirundines of the year but Sand Martins soon appeared too (at least 35 by the visitor centre later on).  A brief snippet of Sedge Warbler song was also my first this year.  Scoping over to one of the pools over the back towards Island Mere I picked up a redhead Goosander.  A flock of 77 Barnacle Geese in the distance contained a hybrid but at that distance I couldn't be sure if it was Snow x Baracle or Ross's x Barnacle.

We saw a couple of Mediterranean Gulls from Island Mere but of course there were far more on the main scrapes - a very quick scan/count produced 80 birds but I believe there are well into triple figures here now.  A Sandwich Tern on the scrape was my first this year.  There was a pair of Stonechat near the sluice and a Red-throated Diver on the sea.  As we headed back along the north wall to the centre I looked back to see a Glaucous Gull flying along the beach.  Finally a Blackcap was singing and showing by the dipping pool.

I decided to take the slighltly longer route out via Eastbridge and in doing so ended up driving past the Glossy Ibis feeding in the floods there.  It wasn't very exciting quite honestly.

As I was driving back home through Beccles someone was photographing an American Bittern just down the road at Carlton Marshes.  Unfortunately I didn't know about it until later that evening, but to be fair neither did the photographer who thought he was photographing an ordinary Bittern.  The following day hopeful twitchers managed to get a couple of flight views of the American Bittern and so I headed down during the afternoon, ready to get there well before the time it had showed well the previous day.  A large crowd was assembled and they'd all got a reasonable if brief flight view of it as I was walking down the track.  It would only be a matter of time before it appeared again I though - at least I would get a decent flight view, and very possibly it would come out in the open where it had been photographed the night before which was more or less exactly where it had dropped in just before I arrived.  Well it did show - it walked across an open area in full view allowing half the crowd good if brief views.  Sadly I was in the other half of the crowd and secured absolutely no views at all.  Later a Bittern sp. was seen in flight, apparently coming up from a very different place, and it divided opinion.  Some were adamant that it was the American Bittern while others didn't see much contrast in the wings and were pretty sure it was an ordinary Bittern.  I didn't see it at all, so couldn't help with that one.  There was one final very brief and distant view of a Bittern in flight - I did see it this time but only momentarily and not clearly - I don't think anyone was claiming this one either way.  It wasn't really worth the drive plus several hours wait to see a few Chinese Water Deer and a Barn Owl.

American Bittern twitchers, Carlton Marshes, 8th April

A singing Blackcap returned to my garden on 9th April, followed by Chiffchaff the next day.

On 11th I joined Dave at Bylaugh so he could show me where some Butterbur was growing, a species of flower that I'd not previously seen but more importantly the host plant of a couple of micro moths that I've not seen.  As we returned to our cars I heard a call which instantly recalled White Wagtail.  The difference between the calls of White and Pied Wagtails is subtle at best and often I can't detect any differences at all between the two taxa's calls, but I have detected a slight difference on occasion.  It's hard for me to describe what it was about this one that made me call it as White Wagtail - perhaps a little flat?  Not sure, but I was oddly confident given that I don't think I've ever found one on call before.  We quickly found 2 Pied/White Wagtails at the sewage works, one Pied and the other more interesting, a candidate female White.  But we hadn't resolved it when they both flew off.  We spent a while longer there, seeing at least 3 Grey Wagtails and a few Pied Wagtails coming and going, but the original White candidate wasn't among them.  Finally it reappeared - the same bird we were sure, and this time it stuck around for a good grilling, and was indeed a White Wagtail.

We stopped briefly at Swanton Morley where Steve had seen a couple of Wheatears earlier.  No sign of them but a small fock of Redpolls dropped in briefly - 6 Lesser and 1 Mealy Redpoll.   There was a Common Tern, my first of the year, at Worthing.

Little Ringed Plover and Green Sandpiper were among the waders on the patch on 13th but a flock of 87 Golden Plovers were looking lovely in their varying extents of summer dress.

Golden Plovers, Bittering, 13th April

I took the scenic route home from Norwich on 15th and would have stopped to look over Sparham Pools even if I hadn't already heard that there were Little Gulls there.  From my vantage point I could see at least 17 Little Gulls, mostly adults but including at least one second and one third calendar-year birds.  I couldn't see the whole section of lake that they were using and suspected the true number was higher, and indeed Steve Chapman later counted 24 there.

Little Gulls, Sparham Pools, 15th April

Next day at Ryburgh Barn Owl and Kingfisher were the highlights.

Barn Owl, Ryburgh, 16th April

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Ryburgh, 16th April

Little Egrets, Ryburgh, 16th April

Willow Warbler, Ryburgh, 16th April

Goldfinch, Ryburgh, 16th April

Other birds worth noting that day included Nuthatch at Gateley and Green Sandpiper at Bittering.