Small Canada Goose

A visit to Ryburgh on Saturday 24th May produced an interesting Canada Goose.  It seemed to be paired to an ordinary Canada Goose but was noticeably smaller and obviously shorter-necked.  Probably not small enough to be any of the Cackling Goose taxa so presumably one of the smaller Canada Goose taxa, like Lesser Canada Goose (parvipes) maybe?  The bill wasn't obviously different from the normal birds but perhaps a wee bit shorter.  The head shape seemed slightly squared but not as much as say Richardson's hutchinsii.  There was no difference in breast colour - just as pale as the other birds.  Is this within range for parvipes Lesser Canada Goose?  I'm not sure it fits any of the other taxa any better, but I suppose there's a chance it could have been a Cackling (e.g. Richardson's hutchinsii) x Canada hybrid.  Whatever it was it seems pretty likely that it came from Pensthorpe or some other collection, rather than being a natural vagrant from North America!  Note how the tertials are very worn compared to the accompanying Canada Geese.  I've been back to Ryburgh many times over the past month and haven't seen this bird again.

presumed escaped possible Lesser Canada Goose (race parvipes), Ryburgh, 24th May

Plenty of Barnacle Geese around at the moment too (also from Pensthorpe where they have a large free-flying flock, I understand), but it's unusual for them to visit the scrape.

Barnacle Geese, Ryburgh, 24th May

A bit of Lapwing vs. Grey Heron interaction...

Grey Heron, Ryburgh, 24th May

Common Tern, Ryburgh, 24th May

That evening Dave and I headed up to Gypsy Lane, Brancaster for some mothing.  A Spoonbill was feeding on the grazing marsh before flying off east, and 2 more Spoonbills flew east.  We heard a Whimbrel calling.

An afternoon/evening visit to Burnham Overy on 29th produced a Great White Egret over, 3 Spoonbills, Sparrowhawk, a Barn Owl carrying what looked like it might have been a mole, 3 Cuckoos and a family of Stonechats.

Other visits to various sites in the valley and surrounds have been largely uneventful - this Little Ringed Plover dropped in briefly but didn't stick around long.  A Marsh Harrier was seen the same day.

Little Ringed Plover, Ryburgh, 30th May

Grey Herons will happily take ducklings for lunch but it seems this Little Egret wasn't interested - and neither did the mother Mallard have any concern that it might be.

Little Egret and Mallards, Ryburgh, 30th May

I only occasionally see the Grey Wagtail at Ryburgh but when I do it often shows very nicely and I can't resist taking some photos.

Grey Wagtail, Ryburgh, 31st May

I shared some great birding moments with Mike Young-Powel in the mid 90s when he lived at Cley and birded Sheringham but he moved away to Pembrokeshire in 1997 and I'd not seen him since.  Seeing he was back in Norfolk for a few days I got in touch and Mike, Cathy and I headed out to Burnham Overy together on Wednesday 31st May.  Mike and Cathy had had a great start to their week finding Red-footed Falcon and Purple Heron but we didn't manage anything quite so exciting today.  We did see Great White Egret, Spoonbill and at least one Cuckoo, Cathy picked up a Yellow Wagtail in the saltmarsh and we watched a drake Common Scoter in the channel south of Gun Hill.  But regardless of the birds it was great to catch up with Mike and Cathy again after such a long time.  Hopefully the next time won't be so long.

Little Tern, Burnham Overy, 31st May

Cuckoo, Burnham Overy, 31st May

Ringed Plover, Burnham Overy, 31st May

Great Knot at last

This might feel like a 'blast from the past' post given how far behind I am, but it's not meant to be!  If you've read previous diary entries you'll know that I had several attemptes to see the Great Knot this summer mostly with no success and once with just poor views.  Well eventually I did see it well!

The Great Knot had spent some time at Gore Point, Holme over the previous couple of days so I started off there early doors, after seeing a Barn Owl on the way up at Brisley.  It was a lovely morning, very pleasant, all the better for the Hobby that whizzed through and 2 Spoonbills that flew west.  But there didn't seem to be any waders on the beach. There were a few scattered waders on the estuary, like this Ringed Plover, but no big flocks of roosting Knot.

Ringed Plover, Holme, 2nd July

Eventually I did find a flock of waders on the beach: 17 Sanderling.  They were very nice of course, but they weren't a Great Knot.  Robin Chittenden had indicated that he'd seen the Great Knot further round towards Old Hunstanton early morning a day or two earlier so I tried the beach opposite the golf course.  Nada.

Titchwell was the next place to try and there were plenty of Knot on the freshmarsh here.  From the bank I couldn't see a Great one among them so I went down to the hide for a different angle.  No-one there had seen it so after a quick scan I continued on to the beach.  Surprisingly, given how much time it has spent on the beach during its stay, and how many birders were on site, there was only one birder on the beach ahead of me, Mike Buckland.  He was already well down to the east where I could see a small flock of Knot and Oystercatchers.  I couldn't immediately pick out the Great Knot but needed to get closer, so headed down towards Mike, not feeling very optimistic given the quite small number of Knot in the flock.  As I reached Mike he indicated that the Great Knot was there and indeed it was!  It tended to keep to the back of the flock, often hidden from view but often appearing at one end of the flock.  The three of us now present moved further round to view the flock in better light and eventually we all got really good views of it.

Great Knot (with Oystercatchers and Knots), Titchwell, 2nd July

Eventually the entire flock took off and flew towards the freshmarsh.  The Great Knot is the lone bird top left in the flock shot below.

Great Knot (with Oystercatchers and Knots), Titchwell, 2nd July

I returned to the Parrinder hide where the bird was showing nicely at the front of the flock, although by the time I set up for photos it had moved round to the back of the flock where it stayed for most of the next couple of hours or so.

Great Knot (with Knots), Titchwell, 2nd July

Lots of Swifts were flying past the hide close by so I made a few attempts at snapping them.

Swifts, Titchwell, 2nd July

Avocet, Titchwell, 2nd July

There were at least 6 Red-crested Pochards on the freshmarsh and we heard a Bittern booming.  A couple of Bearded Tits showed.  Rob eventually turned up and saw the Knot - must have been the first time he's twitched anything for years!  We headed round to Patsy's Pool where we found 2 Little Ringed Plovers.

A successful morning after which I returned home knackered to catch up on sleep.

Hybrid seagull, Grey Wag and Lap Bunt

Last week was a busy one but I managed to see the odd bird.  I've spent several lunch breaks looking for the Pallid Harrier (and Ravens) without success, Tuesday and Friday of last week being examples.  Both visits resulted in Bramblings, and Friday's was more satisfying with 2 Little Owls and close views of a Grey Wagtail.

Grey Wagtail, Flitcham, 12th February

Brambling, Flitcham, 12th February

Chaffinch, Flitcham, 12th February

Blackbird, Flitcham, 12th February

Other than that last week I saw Barn Owls at Tattersett, Summerfield and Brisley.  On Thursday I saw the Red-necked Grebe at Brancaster Staithe again (with a Goldeneye) but it was too far off for photos so I contined along the coast seeing 2 Red Kites and a group of 4 Muntjacs at Burnham Norton (rarely if ever seen so many together).  Also these:

Grey Plover, Burnham Overy, 11th February

Ringed Plover, Burnham Overy, 11th February

Magpie, Hunstanton, 10th February

On Saturday I was helping the usual group again, at Cley, and decided to squeeze in a visit to Blakeney beforehand.  Would have been plenty of time had I got up earlier, but I left it late so was a bit rushed.  No sign of the Herring x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrid that I wanted to see but I did get to see a Lapland Bunting, thanks in no small part to Marcus.  Rubbishy shots taken in haste...

Lapland Bunting, Blakeney, 13th February

At Cley there didn't seem to be a great deal happening from Dauke's Hide - all pretty standard stuff: 8 Pintail and lots of commoner duck, 29 Avocets and 104 Black-tailed Godwits.  We enjoyed it when a Snipe appeared in the grass just in front of us, quickly dropping into the ditch where it joined a second bird.  In the distance we could see plenty of Red-throated Divers moving west at sea - I imagine anyone watching the sea that morning would have ended up with a good count if they could stick the cold long enough.

Snipe, Cley, 13th February

After this I headed back to Blakeney to have another look for the gull.  Mission accomplished this time, the Herring Gull x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrid was in the harbour showing nicely.  Interesting bird, and I even got some sound recordings of it calling.

 Herring Gull x Lesser Black-backed Gull hybrid, Blakeney, 13th February