A Good Trip, in my opinion!

29/10/05 Titchwell RSPB Leaders:Simeon
I quickly siezed the oportunity to pop in at Titchwell for an hour and a half. It had been quite humid recently so I was hoping the rain would hold for the last two days of our half term holidays. I had just had enough time to catch up on my loss of sleep on the trip to Spurn Head, but I still yawned every minute or so. I was greeted with the news of two Yellow-browed Warblers on the Fen trail, a Jack Snipe from the second hide and a Red-Necked Grebe on the sea. Strangely enough, I actually decided not to try for the Yellow-broweds, but to have a look at the Snipe and do a spot of Seawatching instead!
Anyway, I stopped at the second hide to try and get the Jack Snipe. As I got there, my hopes were raised as a crowd of people were looking at the patch of short reeds. To my utter disapiontment, there were only five female Mallards feeding in the mud, and as I listened to various conversations, certain phrases started to stand out, like, "I haven't seen it for ages..." and "...it must have gone into the reeds...". NO! You don't say!
Suddenly, a man shouted, "Water Rail! Coming out of the reeds and running down the middle of the cut area!" It gave superb views, but it was to quick for me to take any photos. It was a nice bird to add to the list.
I was running out of time, so I made my way to the sea where I saw; 5 Goosanders, 200+ Common Scoters, 3 Velvet Scoters, the Red-Necked grebe, 20+ Eiders and bad views of a Long-tailed duck. I was pleased at this and made my way back to the centre. With ten minutes spare I went into the first hide, where a man greeted my by showing me five Common Snipe with a Jack Snipe for good comparison! The ten minutes was up very quickly and I went back to the visitor centre. It had been a pleasing trip!

Spurn Head : A different trip!

25-26/10/05 Spurn Leaders:Simeon, James, Matthew and Connor.
We took the oportunity of a trip to Spurn head to try and get some of the rare migrants that were coming in. We got there and went straight to the seawatching hide. In about one hour we got the following; 3 Little Auks, 12 Guillemots, 1 Razorbill, 2 Red-throated divers, 5 Gannets, 14 Kittiwakes and an unidentified Skua sp. We were all very pleased at this and were looking forward to the rest of our time there. After this we went to the lighthouse area to try and get the Black Redstart that had been there recently. We had no such luck, but James spotted a Yellow-browed warbler in a private garden in a bush. I saw it later flying across a path behind James. Matthew spotted it again on the ground and had a good look at it, but James and Connor didn't get very good views of it unfortunately. The last thing we did that day was to take a trip to Beacon Ponds and down Beacon lane where there had been a Lapland Bunting for nearly two days feeding in a dyke. on our way down Beacon Lane we managed to flush two Jack Snipes from Shooting Pool, which was a small reed-covered pond. We got to the dyke and saw the Lapland Bunting in the end. When we did see it, it was either on the path or feeding on the banks, giving superb views. When it flew past you, you could see the head patterns really well! At the ponds we got; a Greenshank, a Dunlin, several Curlew, a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits, two Little Grebes and four Gadwall. It had been a brilliant day for all of us and we were looking forward to the next day.
We went straight down to the narrows next morning and got a good flow of overhead passage in just over an hour. This is what we saw; 200+ Meadow pipits, 5+ Skylarks, 10+ Rock Pipits, 1 Yellowhammer, 2 Siskin, 250+ Greenfinch, 150+ Goldfinch, a few Chaffinch, 200+ Starling and 5 Whooper swans joining with some on the mudflats to make 16. On the sea there were 3 Gannets, a Great-northern Diver, a Greylag goose and several Brent geese. After this we went up to the head to be greeted by the Black Redstart, 4 Chiffchaff and 4+ Goldcrests, of which 2 came really close on the ground giving us a chance to take some excellent photographs. We went round the point and saw the Little Bunting and 2 Ring Ouzels. We had a brilliant time at Spurn and I left with 2 more lifers and 8 more yearers! We all thoroughly enjoyed it!

Spurn Point! PART ONE

The last week or so of autumn migration has been fairly busy with many thrushes, warblers and some waders moving through. With this in mind I was very excited at the prospect of spending a weekend at Spurn Point in Yorkshire. Recently I have spent some time at Holme NOA, seeing a Yellow Browed Warbler and watching good visible migration. Here is what I saw over the two days I was present at Spurn.

22/10/05

Arrived at the point at 7:30 am. Started of by looking around the Warren. Visible migration was clearly in evidence with many hundreds of Redwings and Starlings moving through. Twelve Siskins, two Rock Pipits and a Brambling flew over while a Redpoll gave good views. On the way up to the point stopping at the side of the road in several places provided more Bramblings and a Wheatear. The next viewing place was the Narrows. Thirty Rock Pipits and three Redpolls flew over but there was little else of note. Back to the Warren for a look at the hilights board. After this we moved to the triangle where the Long Eared Owl was quickly located in a bush. It was then back up to the point for four Black Redstarts which showed well on the wall by the cafe. Seawatching was relatively quiet but a Pintail, five Gannets and seven Common Scoters were logged. An evening walk around the Kilnsea area produced two Ring Ouzels, four Barn Owls, Redpoll, two Tree Sparrows while several Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Kestrel and Sparrowhawks where also in evidence . The day finished with a super Short Eared Owl hunting near Canal Scrape Hide.

23/10/05

Started the day by being at the point by 7:30 am. Quickly located the Little Bunting and got okay views. Other hilights on the point included Firecrest and Jack Snipe. One Black Redstart was still around the cafe and it was then time for seawatching. Four Little Auks, one Great Crested Grebe and seven Gannets were seen while ten Rock Pipits passed overhead. After having lunch in the Bluebell cafe. Our search for a Firecrest at Kilnsea church was cut short when we heard the bird had been trapped and ringed in the Crown and Anchor car-park. We saw the bird in the hand. A seawatch from the Bluebell car-park provided seven more Little Auks, one Guillemout and more Gannets. Two Stonechats and a Kestrel near the seawatching hide and two Lapland Buntings and two Tree Sparrows at the Triangle ended my very enjoyable trip tp Spurn! In several days time, I am going back with the rest of the group! Who knows what we will see!

A quick stop-off!

Titchwell 15/10/05 Leaders: Simeon and James.
Today James and I went to "In-Focus" (A very good shop for birding equipment just beyond Tichwell) to order the 20 - 40x zoom lens for my scope. On the way home we couldn't resist the tempation to pop in at Titchwell for what was literally ten minutes. We only had time to cover the Fen Trail, but this provided a beautiful bunch of Bramblings (like the illiteration?) . In amongst the flock was a small flock of Long-tailed tits, a couple of Goldcrests and a possible Yellow-Browed Warbler. Not bad for fifteen minutes!

White Rumped Sand!

15/10/05 Grafham Water Leaders: Connor
On the way home from a family birthday party in London I stopped of at Grafham Water to see the White Rumped Sandpiper. After a short walk I joined the assembled crowd who were watching it. Some ok pictures were taken. For more pictures see the gallery. The only one I've seen previously was quite distant and was four years ago, so it was nice to have another. A great bird!

A trip of two halves!

8/10/05 Walsey Hills, Wells Wood, Choseley Barns, Titchwell RSPB leaders: Connor

This week there had been a huge movement of rarities along the coast and I was finally able to go out at about at 11:00 am on the Saturday. The main target was Yellow Browed Warbler with other targets including Rose Coloured Starling, Richards Pipit and Great Grey Shrike. We started of at Walsey Hills where there had been two Yellow Browed Warblers this morning. By the time we got there they hadn't been seen for over an hour. I checked many tit flocks but all I could find was Blackcap, two Redwings, four Fieldfares, Treecreeper and five Bramblings.

Friary Hills, Blakeney then beckoned for a Great Grey Shrike. Unfortunately it had been flushed by a Land Rover by the time I had got there! The day continued to get worse. A stop at Wells Wood didn't provide any of the previously reported five Yellow Browed Warblers, just Brambling, Siskin, Redpoll, Marsh Harrier and Kestrel.

At Choseley Drying Barns there had been both Great Grey Shrike and Black Redstart. I got out of the car and fixed my scope on a very distant grey and black blob you could just tell was a shrike. A walk towards it provided more satisfactory views. The Redstart hadn't been seen for some time and I couldn't see it either although a Peregrine flew over for some consolation.

On to Titchwell, the last resort for Yellow Browed Warbler. Here I met the other leaders. Unfortunately they had to leave and about half an hour after this a Yellow Browed Warbler at first gave reasonable views, then more brief views before I got some stunning views when it was in a hedge right to me! A Firecrest was also in the same hedge! Other birds here include Redwing, Chiffchaff, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Jay. Finally the Yellow Browed started calling near Dragonfly Pool but it did not show itself again.

STILL no Yellow-Browed Warblers!!!

8/10/05 Holme and Titchwell Leaders:Simeon, Matthew, James and a bit of Connor.
During the week loads of Yellow-Browed Warblers had been seen all along the Norfolk coast, along with Thrush Nightingale, Great-grey shrike and Rose-Coloured Starling. I was really desparate to get to either Holme or Titchwell. In the end it was arranged that we would go to Holme and try and pick up a Yellow-Browed at Titchwell. We got to Holme at about 1:30 to be greeted with "I'm afraid you've come on a quiet day." by none other than...Jed! At this news I was a bit down-hearted, because earlier on in the week they had had up to three Yellow-Browed, a Rose-Coloured Starling and they had even rung a Thrush Nightingale. Anyway, we went for a seawatch. A raft of Eider flew past followed by a raft of Common Scoter with at least 5 Velvet amongst them. On the beach there was a single Sanderling, a few Grey Plover, a few Bar-Tailed Godwit, the odd Greater-Blackback and about twenty Brent Geese. Just as we were bout to leave I spotted a Skua flying along the beach. It was extremely close, and we identified it as Pomarine. My second one in under two months. After all the exitement, we left to try and get the Rose-Coloured Starling thet had been hanging around Redwell. Unfortunately, we didn't get it, but at Redwell there were a few Teal and two Snipe. We carried on to Titchwell to try and get at least one of the possible five Yellow-Browed Warblers that had been seen there that day. The result: we didn't get anything except for a "Thing" that could have been one, but we didn't count it. I wasn't worried at this because we would probably get one at the Crown and Anchor Pub in Kilnsea near Spurn where we are going later in in the month. After that we came back to Denver and went straight to the Bridge over the River to try and Get the Red-Necked Grebe that we had found about 3 weeks ago. We saw 2 Great-Cresteds and one Grebe that was probably the Red-Necked, but because of the lighting conditions we weren't able to properly identify or get any decent pictures of. Overrall it was a pretty good day and to round it up we got some chips from Downham Fryer. YUM!!! (We met Connor at Titchwell before we got "The Thing".)

Nod ya head, cos the Whoopers' coming!

Welney Leaders:Simeon and James 1/10/05
Unfortunaly James and I didn't have the time to go to the coast so we went to Welney to see the swans come in from the Arctic. We got there five minutes after 18 Whoopers had landed for the first time in what was to be their home for the next 6 months. We had great fun watching them each give "The signal" (Ducking their heads up and down) in turn. More and more of them wanted to leave for the fields to roost. In the end they were a group of swans ducking their heads up and down before they finally faced into the wind and took off. Other birds we saw were; several female Pintail with one male, two Pochard, one Tufted duck, a pair of Marsh Harriers, one Bewick's Swan, 25 Whoopers overall, several Teal, plenty of Wigeon, one Swallow, one House Martin, two Sand Martins, one Redshank and a few Shovelor with a couple of males still in their breeding plumage. We had about 35 species overall. On our way home we stopped off at Denver in a vain attempt to see the Red-Necked Grebe that we had found nearly three weeks back. We saw many Great-Created Grebes and at the end we were may have possibly seen the Red-NeckedGrebe. We took many pictures this day, to see the best ones just look on the gallery. Not bad going for three hours.