Hybrid hunting

Last Monday I headed up to Blakeney for a walk round the Freshes.  Partly inspired by a report of a putative Scaup x Tufted Duck hybrid and partly just because it's a great place.  I walked round from the duckpond to the corner at the east end where the path turns back to Cley.

A Spoonbill flew down Blakeney Point and seemed to go down on the reserve at Cley and a Whimbrel flew in the opposite direction.  One or two Barn Owls were hunting over the marshes.  Good to see lots of breeding wader activity with chicks seen of Avocets (at least 3 broods), Lapwings and Redshanks.  Also a pair of Little Ringed Plovers there.  No sign of any hybrid ducks though.

Redshank chick, Blakeney, 16th May

Reed Bunting, Blakeney, 16th May

Skylark, Blakeney, 16th May

I couldn't resist a quick look at the collection on my way back past.  Interesting to see how the first-winter birds have progressed.  I thought the Smew and Hooded Mergansers would have got further than this by now.

captive Hooded Merganser, Blakeney Collection, 16th May

captive Smew, Blakeney Collection, 16th May

captive Blue-winged Teal, Blakeney Collection, 16th May

I headed to Cley next, starting off at Dauke's Hide.  There wasn't much doing here at all - a Knot and a single Dunlin were the only waders of note.

Avocet, Cley, 16th May

Gadwall, Cley, 16th May

A couple of Bearded Tits were seen as I headed back to the road, along with this Sedge Warbler.

Sedge Warbler, Cley, 16th May

I then headed down to Babcock hide, my first visit to this new hide.  Getting my lungs full of the spray a farmer was depositing on the field opposite wasn't the most pleasant experience and I didn't see much from the hide to make it worthwhile, but I can see the potential here and will certainly visit it again.  Another Bearded Tit was the best bird seen here, but also good to see a brood of 8 Pochard ducklings.

I returned to Blakeney Freshes next, this time walking to the corner from the Cley end.  The Little Ringed Plovers had moved on and again no sign of any Scaup hybrid on the pools in the corner.  But as I walked back towards Cley I did see an Aythya hybrid in the ditch nearby - no Scaup involved though, this was a Ferruginous Duck x Tufted Duck hybrid.

Ferruginous Duck x Tufted Duck hybrid, Blakeney, 16th May

Dave and I went to the Brecks in the evening with a view to moth-trapping.  By the time we got there conditions proved not to be as forecast so we soon abandoned that idea, but in the meantime we did get several sightings of at least 2 Woodocks, Cuckoos and heard Nightjar and Tawny Owl.

With poor conditions for migrant birds I spent the rest of my holiday in search of moths or brownie points and didn't get a great deal of birding in.  The mothing was quite successful with finding one first confirmed vice-county record (Bluebell Conch Hysterophora maculosana) and a county first of Pine Cone Tortrix Gravitarmata margarotana.  The latter involved 3 individuals but may only be the 4th or 5th UK record although that is not quite yet clear.  If you're interested in the moths then check out my mothing diary.

One trip to the local patch produced a good number of gulls though and a second-year (third calendar-year) Yellow-legged Gull was quickly located among them, a good record for the local area.

Another mothing trip to the Brecks produced the same species as before with the nice addition of a singing Tree Pipit.

Tree Pipit, Norfolk Brecks, 20th May

Back at work this week and on Monday I had a nice surprise at work.  In a meeting with my boss I just had to interrupt proceedings to point out a Spotted Flycatcher on the fence outside the window.

Today I saw a Red Kite in my lunch break from Coxford and perhaps the same Red Kite on my way home at Dunton.

Lapland Buntings showing well

There was no shortage of birds at Burnham Overy last Saturday morning (20th).  There are always lots of Brent Geese and Golden Plover here but there seemed to be even more than usual - maybe pushed off from nearby marshes by the shooting I could hear.  There were a couple of drake Pintail among the many Wigeon 5-6 Goldeneye and 3 Red-breasted Mergansers in the channel (with 3 more Mergansers on the sea).

At least 2 Barn Owls were hunting the marshes (following one at Burnham Market on the way there) and raptors put on a good show.  I got 3 sightings of Merlin, perhaps the same bird each time, and 2 sightings of Peregrine.  There were 2 Red Kites on the marsh as I walked back and Sparrowhawk perched near the reedy pool.  Buzzards, Marsh Harriers and Kestrels of course, making it a veritable raptor fest.

Among the waders were at least 8 Ruff in the usual field with good numbers of Curlew and Dunlin.  A single Avocet joined the waders in the channel.  There were at least 11 Barnacle Geese in the fields too.

I had a quick look for the Shore Larks but with no luck.  They turned up there a bit later though - I told someone where to look and he later told me he found them exactly where I'd said - just a shame I couldn't!  I heard a Snow Bunting calling but couldn't locate it.  Two Siskins flew over the dunes having come out of the pines.

Afterwards I headed back to Ringstead to have another look for the Pine Bunting hybrid.  There must have been at least 80 Yellowhammers there, probably more.  Birds were coming and going between the field (where all were always out of view) and the hedges (where most were out of view but a minority usually showed) but up to a dozen Yellowhammers were on view in the hedges at any one time.  In the time I spent there I imagine I must have managed get a good look at the vast majorty of birds in the flock but at no point did I see anything that gave any suggestion of Pine Bunting involvement.  I did see a single Corn Bunting, though only briefly.

During the last week not much avian excitement - some Red Kites on the way to and from a workshop near Leicester and a few failed lunchtime attempts to see Ravens.  Yesterday I decided to head up to Blakeney to have another look at the Lapland Buntings, what with them showing particularly well by all accounts.  I stopped at Bintree Mill on the way up where there wasn't nearly so much doing as there has been of late.

At Blakeney 2 Stonechats were on the marsh and as I reached the favoured spot of the buntings a Lapland Bunting appeared on the ground just in front of me.

Lapland Bunting, Blakeney, 27th February

I took a few hasty snaps before a couple with dogs reached me, the dog barking its head off at me.  Simultaneously another couple with dogs approached the Lapland Bunting from the opposite direction and unsurprisingly all this was far too much and the bunting made a sharp exit.  A couple of birds were flying around shortly after, briefly landing on the fence before disappearing into the long grass.

Other birders arrived and it was a while before the Lapland Buntings put on a show again.  A female Hen Harrier was hunting over the marsh disappearing up the Glaven valley.  Later on what I suspect was a second Hen Harrier (though perhaps the same) was hunting along Blakeney Point, arriving from the west.

In the end we had great views of several Lapland Buntings, most of them sitting out in the open and some feeding on the ground very close to the path.  Hard to say how many birds were involved, but a bare minimum of 7.

 

Lapland Buntings, Blakeney, 27th February

No shortage of Reed Buntings in the area too, this one being one of several singing birds:

Reed Bunting, Blakeney, 27th February

A quick check of what was going on at the quayside collection was obligatory, and interesting to see how the first-winter birds are developing.  The Smew has hardly changed since a fortnight ago but the Hooded Merganser is starting to get a bit of colour now...

captive first-winter male Hooded Merganser, Blakeney Collection, 27th February

It's not just the ducks that benefit from the food put down for them...

Stock Dove, Blakeney, 27th February

I went for a walk in the saltmarsh at Morston next - not much doing there and I couldn't pick out the divers in the harbour (a few Goldeneye and Red-breasted Mergansers though).

Finally I had a look round Holkham and Wells for the Ravens, but they were long gone.  A Red Kite was the best I could muster up.

A Whale, 1.5 Ferruginous Ducks and 27 Kites

Seem to be getting behind again - best sort that out.  Back to 1st Feb when the only highlight of my lunch break was this showy Muntjac.

Muntjac, Helhoughton, 1st February

Last Wednesday I saw a fine Red Kite on my way to work at Sculthorpe and the Red-necked Grebe at Brancaster Staithe again in my lunch break (along with 3 Red-breasted Mergansers).  The Grebe showed nice and close this time allowing a few pics, though these might have been better had it not been quite so dull.

Red-necked Grebe, Brancaster Staithe, 3rd February

Redshank, Brancaster Staithe, 3rd February

On Thursday I saw a Barn Owl on the way to work, a Grey Wagtail at work, and then popped out to Hunstanton in my lunch break in the hope of seeing the Sperm Whale that had been beached there.  Of course I would rather see a healthy whale swimming in the open sea than a dying (or by now maybe dead) one on a beach, but it would still be interesting to see.

I looked first from the car park near the lighthouse.  There was a crowd of people on the beach but no sign of any beached whale.  I didn't know exactly where the whale was supposed to be, only that it was on the beach, and it clearly wasn't on the beach here.  So why the crowd, I wondered?  Given the numbers of emergency services in the area, including ambulance personnel who I didn't think would need to be attending a beached whale, I figured there might be some other sort of incident going on, and headed off to other parts of Hunstanton to look for the whale.  Drawing a blank I started to return to the lighthouse, but was interupted by a message saying it was near the hotel at Old Hunstanton.  The crowd I'd seen hadn't been far from there - maybe it was there after all and perhaps it had returned to the sea successfully on the rising tide?  Good news if so but I wasn't sure if it might have been round the corner out of view, so I headed up to Old Hunstanton next.  I stopped in the car park and had a quick look, but only very quick as I was in a private car park and blocking people in. 

This time I didn't just look on the beach but scanned the sea, and there was the Sperm Whale.  Excellent.  I just had time to dash back round to the car park near the lighthouse and look from there, a bit more relaxed as I wouldn't be blocking anyone in but not very relaxed as I'd wasted so much time now that I needed to be heading back to work.  I quickly found it again, showing much of the time despite the surfers all around.  I rattled off a few rubbishy shots but didn't have enough time to really look at it properly.  I kicked myself for not stopping here when I first arrived - if I had done I might even have had enough time to go down to the beach and see it relatively close, rather than from the top of the cliff half a mile away.  I might also have noticed that although it was thrashing around it wasn't actually moving very far - in hindsight I think it might have still been grounded in such shallow water that it wasn't off the sand at all.  In all my photos it was oriented exactly the same way, which would be odd if it had really been swimming freely as I supposed at the time.  My pleasure that it had made its way back to the sea was unjustified, though it was in any case tainted with the expectation that it would in all likelihood beach again come low tide.  Needless to say it did indeed die in that spot later that day.  Sad, but inevitable.

Sperm Whale, Hunstanton, 4th February

I'd been hoping to spend Saturday birding on the coast but with strong winds and heavy rain forecast I decided to do other things instead.  In the end there wasn't as much rain as had been forecast and I felt a bit cheated, but I did pop out very briefly.  Bintree Mill was the highlight - the flood containing a very impressive array of ducks.  Some 280 Teal was a fantastic number for this site, and lots of Wigeon, Shoveler and Gadwall too.  More unusual locally were 3 Pintail.

Pintails, Bintree Mill, 6th February

On Sunday I wasn't free until the afternoon but then headed up to Holkham with Dave.  Main target was the Pochard x Ferruginous Duck hybrid, but I also wanted to see the pure Ferruginous Duck.  Some have suggested that that's a hybrid too so I wanted to see it for myself and make my own mind up.  Like several other females that have been rubbished, I think it all looks in range for a pure bird - people don't seem to appreciate how variable they can be. 

Ferruginous Duck, Holkham Park, 7th February

The hybrid was better looking though!  Two drake Scaup were still present here too and we also saw 20 Barnacle Geese and a Barn Owl.

Pochard x Ferruginous Duck hybrid, Holkham Park, 7th February

A while ago I saw photos of a Lesser Black-backed Gull x Herring Gull hybrid at the Blakeney quay wildfowl collection and I recently heard that it was being seen there regularly (perhaps responsible for the recent Yellow-legged Gull claim?).  We headed over here next in the hope of seeing that, but no luck.  Interesting to see how some of the young birds in the collection are progressing in their moults though.  The collection has recently been re-stocked and for the most part with pairs of young birds.  The Smew is considerably further advanced than it was last time I saw it, but less so than I expected having previously read that they can change surprisingly quickly.  The Garganey that had previously shown almost no sign of masculinity was now clearly a male.  The Hooded Merganser male still looks much like a female but it shows just a small white patch on the side of the head now. 

captive Smew, Blakeney Collection, 7th February

captive Garganey, Blakeney Collection, 7th February

captive Hooded Merganser, Blakeney Collection, 7th February

A Barn Owl was hunting behind the collection but as time was now pushing on it didn't seem worth heading out to the marsh to look for the Lapland Buntings and Twite.  Instead we headed off to a Red Kite roost where we enjoyed the spectacle of 27 Red Kites in the air together, the most I've ever seen at a time.