12 miles of Breckland magic

On Thursday I only managed a spot of local birding.  A flock of 10 White-fronted Geese were still present at one site but later when I returned to my car a flock of 12 White-fronted Geese were flying around.  They appeared from the direction of where I'd left the 10 so I have to assume they included the 10, but as there had been up to 32 in the are until recently maybe not.  Other than 475 Wigeon there wasn't much else to report.

White-fronted Geese, Bittering, 16th February

On Friday I had a lovely day in the Brecks.  I walked a total of 12 miles and saw plenty of birds along the way.  For the most part they weren't rare birds, but they did include some rare breeding birds including 2 Goshawks, 7-8 Woodlarks and, most unexpectedly, a pair of Cranes.  If the latter do indeed stay to breed it will be for the first time in this area.

I enjoyed watching one pair of Woodlarks that plonked themselves down on a fence not very far away from me and proceeded to display to each other, each bird dipping its head down and lifting it right back, swinging from side to side as one bird gradually moved closer to the other.  I was half expecting to see copulation when they eventually met but in fact they flew up and dropped to the ground out of sight (where who knows what they got up to) before flying up and continuing their display aerially while singing.  I'd never seen all that before - fantastic.

Other highlights included several small groups of Bramblings, lots of Siskins, the odd Redpoll flying over, Nuthatches, Treecreepers, Marsh Tits, Green and drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers, etc.  Also flushed a Woodcock and saw a Kingfisher.

Beside the A1075 near Wretham Camp I was surprised to see a Ruddy Shelduck paired with an Egyptian Goose right next to the road.  It was also next to a minor turn off allowing me to pull in safely and photograph it - it proved to be very tame.  On closer inspection I noticed the bird had dark vermiculations on its rear flank feathers and rear upper scapulars - features that should not occur on pure Ruddy Shelduck.  It also had a grey spot in the middle of the crown.  I've seen a few Ruddy Shelducks with some grey on the head and wondered about their genetic purity, but this one was more extreme than most.  Cape Shelduck (now often known as South African Shelduck) has a grey head of course, and also shows dark vermiculations where this bird had.  My assumption is therefore that this bird was a Ruddy Shelduck x Cape Shelduck hybrid.  I saw an identical bird - I suspect it was the very same bird - near Bittering in January 2015.  Maybe these apparent Ruddy Shelduck x Egyptian Goose hybrids that have been seen around the county recently are really trigens (Ruddy Shelduck x Cape Shelduck) x Egyptian Goose hybrids...?!

apparent Ruddy Shelduck x Cape Shelduck hybrid, East Wretham, 17th February

During the day I had a quick look at the gulls at Thetford but they wouldn't settle and if they had settled in the usual place the light wouldn't have been very good, so I decided to head on to Livermere to have a look at all the gulls in the pig fields there.  The only problem with that plan was that there weren't any gulls in the pig fields.  There were a few in one of the neighbouring fields, but very few indeed - just a handful of large gulls.  I had to make do with a tenebrosus Pheasant nearby...

Pheasant (var tenebrosus), Timworth, 17th February

I didn't do much yesterday but Bylaugh sewage treatment works produced Grey Wagtail and Nuthatch but no sign of the two wintering Chiffchaffs. 

This afternoon I spent some time on the local patch where at least 11 White-fronted Geese are hanging on.  I flushed a Jack Snipe and 9 Snipe from one private field though suspect a more methodical approach would have given a higher tally.

Jack Snipe, private site, 19th February

A wander round Beetley Common produced 1-2 Bramblings, Grey Wagtail and Treecreeper.

Shelduck hybrid on the patch

I spent some time birding the local patch this morning.  First stop was a gravel pit that's been pretty rubbish recently.  In 2013 it was great - Temminck's Stint and breeding Avocets were among the highlights.  Early last year they filled it in and began excavating a different field - with no standing water it went downhill and apart from an escaped Ruddy Shelduck that spent all year there with a couple of Egyptian Geese, we hardly saw a thing.  It's an active working gravel pit with no legitimate way to view, but on Sundays and evenings we sometimes sneak it to have a look.  A lot of extraction has been going on recently but still no standing water.  Even so I managed two birds I'd not seen there before - 2 Mute Swans flying over and a Marsh Tit in the roadside hedge.

At another site only a small section of the water is visible from any roads or public footpaths.  As I arrived today I met the landowner who was very friendly and interested in the birdlife there.  He's told me that once the shooting season finishes I'm welcome to go in and have a look round, so that's excellent news.  After he'd gone I noticed what at first resembled a Ruddy Shelduck among the Egyptian Geese.  But it was an oddly dark, slightly chestnutty colour - more like Cape Shelduck I thought.  Clearly not a Cape as the head wasn't grey, but could it be a hybrid?  At first there seemed only to be a slight hint of grey on the head - a little in front of the eye and a little behind/above.  I've seen otherwise pure-looking Ruddy Shelducks with a little pale greyish colour on the head so not sure that's a barrier to a pure bird (though I'm also not sure that those birds were 100% Ruddy).  But then it put its head down revealing a really obvious small patch of darker grey on the centre of the crown - surely that was outside of the range of pure Ruddy?  And the rear of the bird wasn't just dark orange it had blackish markings in it, like on Cape Shelduck.  I won't say I'm 100% positive yet, but I think this bird is a Ruddy Shelduck x Cape Shelduck hybrid.  Unfortunately after looking at it I only had time to take one or two rushed photos before it walked out of view.  Hopefully I'll see it again and get some better pics.  The anomalies don't show up well on these photos.

probable Ruddy Shelduck x Cape Shelduck hybrid, Bittering, 25th January

Interestingly (well, I thought so anyway) I'd seen a photo of a Ruddy Shelduck recently that struck me as oddly dark and I'd wondered if this might have been the same bird.  I can't find where I saw that, unless it's the bird shown on the new NE Norfolk Bird Club website (here).  I don't think it was that photo I saw, but I do think the bird in that photo is also a Ruddy Shelduck x Cape Shelduck hybrid, though a female whereas mine was a male.  On that bird note the dark greyish colour on the inner webs of the tertials - I don't think that occurs on Ruddy Shelduck.

All this makes me wonder about those Ruddy Shelducks I've seen with a little grey in the head.  When I first noticed this I wondered if they could have been hybrids but decided against it.  Some were in a collection with Cape Shelducks too, another was the long-staying escaped (blue-ringed) bird that's been on the patch for the last couple of years.  Maybe these are hybrids, if not F1 first-generation hybrids?  Anyone seen grey in the heads of wild Ruddies?

The only other bird of note here was a Woodcock.  As I headed back these 3 Roe Deer posed for a photoshoot.

Roe Deer, Beetley, 25th January

 Very rude of this one to stick its tongue out at me.

Roe Deer, Beetley, 25th January