Burnham Norton and Sculthorpe Moor

A lunch-break wander round Syderstone Common on 31st March produced several singing Chiffchaffs, fly-over Siskins and a brief snatch of Blackcap song.

Chiffchaff, Syderstone Common, 31st March

On Saturday morning I headed up to the coast, passing Barn Owls at Brisley and Burnham Market.  I was to be meeting a group at Sculthorpe Moor at 9.15 or thereabouts so didn't feel I had time to do Burnham Overy justice, so opted for Burnham Norton instead.  Another Barn Owl was near the car park and 3 Mediterranean Gulls were splendid in their summer finery.

Along the seawall Chiffchaff(s) were singing in the saltmarsh, Goldcrest calling and a female Wheatear headed nipped across to the inland fields.  Clearly some migrant birds were arriving this morning.  A Bearded Tit called here too.

As I returned to the car one of the dykes held an interesting Wigeon.  It had a large area of white on the head, behind the eye.  I've seen a few Wigeon with white behind the eye and blogged about them a while ago.  Recently I again blogged about one bird at Salthouse which shows mixed male and female characters over several winters so is, presumably, an intersex bird.  This bird seemed to show mixed male and female characters too (though mainly female), so another intersex bird, I assumed.  Now what's the odds of two intersex birds both having excess white on the head if the two phenomena are unrelated?  And if they're not unrelated - why ever not?  Weird!  I noticed this bird also showed dark barring on the flanks, a feature that is not normally present on either male or female Wigeon, but is shared by intersex Pintails. Anyway, I've now blogged about this, so have a look there if you're interested.

Wigeon, Burnham Norton, 2nd April

At the visitor centre at Sculthorpe Moor the group were treated to 3 Red Kites.

Red Kite, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

A Blackcap was singing its heart out as we headed down to Woodland Hide, and unlike most Blackcaps this one had the decency to sit still while the whole group enjoyed close scope views of it.

Blackcap, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

A Long-tailed Tit nest in front of Woodland Hide was typically beautiful, if not easy to see, and here too were the first of at least 10 Bramblings, some of the males looking particularly fine.  Also the first of 5 Bullfinches here.

Long-tailed Tit nest, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Bramblings, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Bullfinch, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Reed Bunting, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

We also saw about 3 Nuthatches including one which was visiting a nest hole, and heard a Treecreeper singing.  From the new Tower Hide several Siskins were taking advantage of the feeders and 2 Redpolls were there when I first looked.  Unfortunately the latter disappeared before I managed to get a good look at them so I wasn't able to establish what sort of Redpoll they were.

Nuthatch, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Siskins, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Blue Tits, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Great Tits, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Chaffinches, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Goldfinch, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Greenfinch, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

From the last hides we spent a while watching a Little Egret feeding and one of the Red Kites (or perhaps a different one) provided closer views than before.

Little Egret, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Red Kite, Sculthorpe Moor, 2nd April

Lots of non-avian interest at Sculthorpe Moor too - check out my mothing diary page for details of not just moths (indeed no moths at Sculthorpe) but Vole and Stoats, Frogs and Toad, Stonefly, Elfcups and more.

On the way home I stopped off at the patch where the highlight was a Redshank at Bittering.  A relatively scarce bird around these parts now and this was the first time I'd seen one at this particular site.  Also a Little Ringed Plover on the patch.

Chiffchaff, Bittering, 2nd April

Buzzard, Bittering, 2nd April

Welney

With extremely strong SW winds forecast together with a dose of heavy rain during the morning I didn't really fancy the exposed setting of Burnham Overy that would be my default choice for a Saturday morning.  Somewhere with hides to shelter in seemed a more preferable option.  So I picked Dave up from Dereham and we headed off to Welney having had a drive round by Denver Sluice on the way.

From the observatory we could see plenty of birds but failed to pick out anything terribly exciting from among the hordes.  I found the Muscovy Duck x Mallard hybrid I'd seen on my last visit, which caused Dave no end of excitement (not), and a Wigeon with white on the head.  It's at least the seventh such Wigeon I've seen but I've still no idea why this species more than any other (except Brent Goose perhaps) is susceptible to such leucism always affecting the head.  
  

 

Wigeon, Welney, 10th January

Muscovy Duck x Mallard hybrid, Welney, 10th January

There were a few Ruff among a large flock of Black-tailed Godwits and a Goldeneye or two were among the ducks in the distance.

As we headed down the path towards Lyle Hide I picked up a flock of geese flying in from the fields.  They looked interesting and I watched them through the scope - a good view in good light and all 14 were Tundra Bean Geese.  This was a nice surprise - I knew there had been some reported at Welney during the winter but not as many as this (in fact just one report of 5 from 2nd January, though up to 9 down the road at Ouse Washes).  I enjoyed watching them but slightly regretted not switching to the camera before they went out of view - they weren't too far off and would have made a worthwhile photo.

Grey Heron, Welney, 10th January

From the hides we enjoyed plenty more duck and waders - vast numbers of Wigeon everywhere and some huge flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover over the back. A few Pintail were seen and raptors included Peregrine and a distant Marsh Harrier.  But we couldn't find the geese again - they must have carried on over to the fields beyond.

Wigeon, Welney, 10th January

Pintail, Welney, 10th January

Back at the observatory we had one final go at sifting through the hordes of wildfowl in order to find that something a bit more exciting, but we had to make do with this fellow again.
 

Muscovy Duck x Mallard hybrid (again, sorry), Welney, 10th January

Pochard, Welney, 10th January

Tufted Ducks, Welney, 10th January

 

Whooper Swan, Welney, 10th January

Mallards, Welney, 10th January

After leaving Welney we drove to Lakes End and down to Cock Fen in the hope of finding the Bean Geese here.  Huge numbers of swans here - far more than we saw the reserve side - but too distant to get a good look at them.  A flock of 50 Stock Doves was nice, and followed by an additional 23 Stock Doves.  No geese though.

We then ventured into Cambridgeshire but being outside of Norfolk was making Dave nervous so we returned home via the Brecks (not much doing there).