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.

A good day out East

Had a day off on Tuesday but with the wind forecast to move round to the NE in the middle of the day I decided that hunting for migrants might be more productive in the afternoon than the morning.  I started off by heading to the Broads, although news of a Subalpine Warbler at Kelling nearly made me turn round.  That would have been a nice bird to see, but I'm glad I didn't change my plans as it wasn't seen again.  Instead I pressed on to Ormbesby Broad.  Actually I stopped at Fliby Broad first as the bird I was after has been commuting between Ormesby, Rollesby and Filby Broads.  No sign there, but nice to catch up with Ken.  Ken told me he'd seen it at Ormesby Broad the previous day, and the only report so far during the morning was also there, so I headed round.  Scanning over to the back of Ormesby Broad I quickly located the target, a juvenile White-winged Black Tern.  Enjoyed watching it for a while without any other birders present.

White-winged Black Tern, Ormesby Broad, 8th September

Lots of raptors in the air here - mainly Buzzards and Marsh Harriers but also a Hobby over the back of Rollesby Broad (and Sparrowhawk at Filby Broad earlier).

I planned to end the day at Cley so in the meantime Waxham seemed as good a bet as any.  This used to be my favoured stomping grounds, many years ago when I used to cycle out to the coast from Norwich to do my birding.  But since the early 90s I've hardly birded the area - indeed I don't think I'd done the walk down from Shangri-La to the camp since then.  Well I didn't quite do all of that this afternoon, I parked on the road at the double bend so skipped the northern section.  It's changed a bit - some of the paths that I used to walk down have moved - vegetation has grown so thick round their old locations you can't possibly get through now - but it was pretty much like old times, not least for the lack of birds!  By the time I reached the smaller campsite I'd had just a single Wheatear in the way of migrants - it wasn't the afternoon fall I was hoping for!

I glimpsed a warbler disappear into a bramble without getting an ID on it.  I resisted the temptation to walk on despite the voices in my head assuring me it was probably just a Whitethroat.  I've realised that one reason I find so little in the way of rare birds is that I glimpse something that looks interesting, wait a few seconds/minutes without seeing it, convince myself it was something common and walk on.  If I stuck it out every time I reckon I'd have found a decent bird on some of those occasions.  So this time I stuck it out.  Not sure how long I waited - it seemed for ever but probably no more than 20-30 minutes - but a long time staring at nothing.  Eventually it popped out exactly where it had gone in but unfortunately this time my patience was not rewarded - it was just a Whitethroat.  Next time!

Round by the pipe dump things were much livelier - several Blackcaps, at least 5 Stonechats, lots of Goldfinches and a variety of other common biirds making it all feel birdy unlike the walk down to there.

Goldfinch, Waxham, 8th September

I was now standing at precisely the point where I had found my first ever self-found Red-backed Shrike, 22 years ago.  That was part of the reason why I had chosen this stretch rather than the line of trees further north - I fancied finding another and with one found at Salthouse that morning it seemed a realistic possibility.  No sign of one here today though so I moved on.  About 30 seconds later I found myself staring at a Red-backed Shrike!!  Bingo!  Not the easiest bird to get close to for photographs, but giving great views from a little further back.

 Red-backed Shrike, Waxham, 8th September

A few more birds at the campsite, but I turned round once I reached there, pausing to take in more views of the Shrike.  I was surprised to see a Kingfisher heading low along the side of the dunes, nipping between me and the Shrike before continuing south.  Don't know what their status is here, but they're a pretty scarce migrant at other dry coastal stations I'm more familiar with.  A lot scarcer than Red-backed Shrike in fact.

As I headed back north I discovered at least 4 Whinchats along the fenceline north of the pipe dump - I'd looked here on the way down and not seen them, so whether they were new arrivals or just moved round from somewhere out of view I'm not sure.

I'd planned to stop somewhere else on the way up to Cley but time was pressing on and in the increasingly gloomy conditions I figured I had better get a move on.  I was keen to study some gulls - hoping to get some learning in on Caspian and Yellow-legged ID.  Apart from Black-tailed Godwits and at least 75 Ruff there weren't many waders on show.  A single Greenshank was the best and I couldn't pick anything of interest out from among the ducks either.  The gull flock was disturbingly small and lacking anything of note.

Mark and Eddie turned up and with them came a few more large gulls.  Mark picked up the 3rd winter Caspian Gull that's been turning up the last few nights almost immediately.  Pretty sure it wasn't there before he arrived!  The conditions were pretty rubbish with drizzle making visibility poor and this may also have impacted the number of gulls coming in.  But Mark was on the ball and picked up an interesting juvenile fuscus-type Lesser Black-backed Gull (Baltic Gull).  It looked good but we won't be allowed to count it... they're deemed unidentifiable so no unringed examples will be accepted currently.

apparent Baltic Gull L. (f.) fuscus, Waxham, 8th September

Mark again picked out a candidate Yellow-legged Gull, but it seemed unusually dark and was very advanced for a second-winter - we wondered if it may instead have been a hybrid.  Two more Yellow-legged Gulls appeared more straightforward (in as much as Yellow-legged Gulls in the half-dark are ever straightforward - which isn't much for me) and Mark picked up another young bird flying off.  In some ways it was disappointing that there weren't more, but I enjoyed what I saw and the fuscus-y thing was especially interesting.