Red-necked & Slavonian Grebes in summer finery

On Sunday I couldn't resist heading off to the Broads primarily to see the summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe at Ormesby Little Broad.  I've seen plenty of Red-necked Grebes before of course, but rarely in summer plumage.  Indeed the last time I saw one well in full breeding plumage was over 2 decades ago in 1995 when I saw a displaying pair in Scotland.

I rolled up at Ormesby Little Broad, had a very quick peek from the road before heading down to the viewing platform where most recent reports had come from.  It wasn't there and hadn't been for at least half an hour.  There were 4 Goldeneye, but that wasn't what I came for.  I gave it a while before heading back to the road to view from there.  I picked up the Red-necked Grebe across the water on the left hand side.  It was swimming towards me and in no time it was so close that it had disappeared behind the reeds just in front of me.  It came in and out of view often enough, and views were excellent when it was in view - but the reeds in the way made for difficult photography.  Interesting to see how a dark throat patch within the white cheeks appeared and disappeared as the bird's angle changed.

Red-necked Grebe, Ormesby Little Broad, 3rd April

At Rollesby Broad the Yellow-billed (Speckled) Teal x Marbled Duck hybrid is still present and a Bar-headed Goose was also there.

Yellow-billed Teal x Marbled Duck hybrid, Rollesby Broad, 3rd April

Bar-headed Goose, Rollesby Broad, 3rd April

I moved on to West Somerton from where I walked to Martham Broad.  Another 5 Goldeneye were on the Broad but on my first few scans I couldn't see the Slavonian Grebe.  It was diving a lot and I was just unlucky - it was there, at the back but easy enough to see most of the time.  Another beautiful breeding plumaged (more-or-less) grebe.

Slavonian Grebe, Martham Broad, 3rd April

Great Crested Grebe, Martham Broad, 3rd April

Plenty of Marsh Harriers here including a food-passing pair.

Marsh Harriers, Martham Broad, 3rd April

It was a beautiful sunny evening so I had a wander along the footpath along to the river.  A Willow Warbler was singing at the corner and a bit further on I disturbed a Grass Snake.  As a teenager I used to see Grass Snakes occasionally at Bough Beech Reservoir (Kent) but believe it or not this was my first ever in Norfolk and my first anywhere for 26 years!

Along the road north of West Somerton I paused to look at 2 Cranes.

Cranes, West Somerton - Horsey, 3rd April

I continued up the track through Sea Palling.  Not birding properly as it was late and I didn't have enough time, but thought I'd just go that way to see if I could see any obvious birds like Black Redstarts.  Turned out I could - one Black Redstart anyway.

A quick stop at Wroxham Broad on my way home, an excuse to stop and change out of my boots more than anything as it was starting to get dark and my dinner was going to be on the table soon.  A Common Tern appeared from behind the sailing club and disappeared back down the broad again almost before I'd managed to lift my bins up to my eyes.

On Monday I popped in to the patch on the way home, only for a very brief look.  Highlight was a pair of Avocets at a new site, though whether they remain to breed remains to be seen.  Also Little Ringed Plover displaying.

Ruddy Shelduck from the house

I've done far too little birding over the last couple of weeks, but did at least get out properly yesterday.  Prior to yesterday highlights were in lunch breaks.  On 2nd March north of Stanhoe I picked up a bird flying towards me from low down on a field that was immediately obviously a Rough-legged Buzzard.  But as it was flying straight towards me I decided to grab the camera, which got caught in my handbreak and by the time I'd freed it the bird was over the top of my car.  I couldn't get out as I was blocking the track and now something was coming, and by the time I'd got out of the way the bird was nowhere to be seen.  Then I started questioning myself as to what I'd seen in the quick view before my hapless decision to grab the camera.  Was I really positive that I'd seen what I thought I'd seen?  I ended up deciding I'd best not claim it.  Annoyed with myself for stuffing it up, and probably being excessively cautious over what should have been a perfectly good record.  Whether it was one of the birds from the Chosely area or not I don't know - it's not very far away so quite plausibly so.

A Red Kite and 2 Barn Owls were in the same area and seconds later the huge grey cloud that was looming suddenly deposited an incredible amount of hail leaving the roads looking like there had been a major snowstorm.  It was very localised and half a mile away the thick white covering on the roads finished abruptly and colleagues just down the road at Bircham hadn't seen any hail at all.

On 3rd March I was working from home when I saw a duck flying straight towards me.  That might not sound remarkable, but in the 18 months I've been living here I have only once seen a duck before.  That was flying towards me on a similar flight path but I didn't have my bins to hand.  Bizarrely it looked like a Ruddy Shelduck, but in near-silhoutte and with no bins I didn't consider that rather unlikely identification sufficiently certain to record it as such.  This time I had one of those déjà vu moments as I got exactly the same impression as I saw it flying towards me along the same flight path.  But this time I had my bins to hand and was able to confirm that it was indeed a Ruddy Shelduck!

Next day I was driving through Burnham Norton in my lunch break, around 1.00 pm I think and in bright sunshine, when a small Bat flew across the road and disappeared behind the house.  First time I've ever seen a bat flying in the middle of the day in broad daylight.  It seemed to fly out from the top of a tree, though it may have simply come from behind it; a bird (Blackbird I think) had just flown into the top of the tree so I wonder if it might have accidentally disturbed the bat?

On Monday I popped in to Brancaster Staithe during my lunch break.  The Red-necked Grebe was still there, along with a Goldeneye.

 Goldeneye, Brancaster Staithe, 7th March

Red-necked Grebe, Brancaster Staithe, 7th March

rainbow, Brancaster Staithe, 7th March

Next day I paused at Flitcham where a Little Owl remains in the roots of the oak tree in front of the hide, visible from the road.

Heavy rain all morning on Wednesday hadn't relented by lunchtime when I headed over to Holkham.  The weather meant fewer people and in turn that meant more birds showing by Lady Anne's Drive including lots of Ruff, Snipe and loads of other common birds.  Nearby a pair of Egyptian Geese were like chalk and cheese - one looked wetter than a drowned rat while the other looked in fine condition.

Egyptian Geese, Holkham, 9th March

Yesterday I headed up to Burnham Overy early in the hope of finding one or two early spring migrants.  Rather fancied finding a Great Spotted Cuckoo in the dunes.  Good dreaming, but back in the real world I couldn't even find a Chiffchaff.  I did see 2 Peregrines including one that put on a fantastic show stooping at a flock of Starlings.  Other raptors included Red Kite and Sparrowhawk.

Lots of waders on the freshmarsh with the tide being high including at least 150 Black-tailed Godwits.  Surprisingly few geese though - took me a while to see any Pink-feet though eventually a flock of 40 flew west and another smaller flock appeared later on.  The Brents were in the channel later on when the tide had gone down.  Among them was the Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose hybrid.  I say 'the', but I'm not convinced it's the same bird I've seen each time I've seen one over the last 2-3 winters.  Maybe, but sometimes it looks a much better contender for pure Black Brant than other times.  Today it looked extremely similar to a Black Brant, but the neck collar was very thin at the front.

A Red-breasted Merganser flew past but apart from 3 Great Crested Grebes there wasn't much on the sea.  A Goldeneye was on the reedy pool.  The only passerine of any note was a Stonechat.

Dunnock, Burnham Overy, 12th March

In the afternoon I headed to the local patch - more on that later...

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.

Red-necked Grebe and Iceland Gull

Yesterday I popped in to Brancaster Staithe during my lunch break and collected this Red-necked Grebe.

Red-necked Grebe, Brancaster Staithe, 11th December

This morning I headed out to King's Lynn to see the Iceland Gull before the rain got too heavy.  No sign when I got there, but looking back from the layby north of the fleet I could see it on the edge of the quay (or whatever it is).  A fair way off though, and no good for photos, so I returned to Fishers' Fleet to wait for it to come in there.  Eventually, and after the rain was well settled in, it did come down and provide some great views.

Iceland Gull, King's Lynn, 12th December

I tried my hardest to pick out something from among the Herring Gulls, but didn't succeed.  The variation in first-winters was striking though - are both these birds first-winters, and if so is it just normal variation or are they from different places?

Herring Gulls, King's Lynn, 12th December

This one showed very little black in the primaries though I didn't manage to persuade it to fly while I was watching it, so didn't get to see the spread wing.  Presumably some missing primaries contributing to its odd appearance, rather than simply being an argentatus without much black?

Herring Gull, King's Lynn, 12th December

Not many of these:

Lesser Black-backed Gull, King's Lynn, 12th December

I've seen a mouse in my garden on numerous occasions, often going in or out of the shed (where it eats my bird food) but have never managed to have a sufficiently prolonged look at it to be able to identify it.  This afternoon I kept seeing it dart out of the shed and back in, with perhaps a couple of minutes between each dash.  Far too quick to see anything on it, but perhaps I could catch it on the camera?  Even with the ISO cranked up to the highest possible setting I could barely get enough speed to catch it mid-dash, but eventually it paused for long enough on its way out of the shed for me to get some grainy shots.  Let me know if you think differently, but I reckon it's a Wood Mouse.

Wood Mouse, North Elmham, 12th December