First Migrants (Part 2)

27/3/06 Heacham North Beach Leaders: Simeon and Connor
We decided to pop down to Heacham North Beach for about an hour. We saw; 50+ Pied Wagtails, 1 Yellow Wagtail (West), 1 Whimbrel (West) and a White wagtail with the Pied Wagtails. We were hoping to see the Black Redstart that had over wintered in the chalet gardens. After eventually getting good views of it we walked down the track a little way when a male Wheatear flew past. After getting decent views of it we made tracks.

We returned in an hour to get brilliant views of the Black Redstart while it perched on a fence post for about three minutes before flying back under the caravan. We managed to pick up another Wheatear and saw both together, making it two males as the final count!

First Migrants (Part 1)

27/3/06 Snettisham Water Mill and Patch route Leaders: Simeon and Connor
We took up the opportunity of the morning at the patch hoping to find some migrants. Our first stop was Swallow Point. Several Pied Wagtails and a White Wagtail. Then we went on to Lake view. Here we got Shelduck, Tufted Duck, Lesser Black Backed gull and Herring gull. Visible Migration produced plenty of Chaffinches, a few Meadow Pipits and Skylarks and a single Yellowhammer. Suddenly I spotted a large gull on the lake which turned out to be Yellow Legged! We were about to leave when two calling Twites went over! The trip had been successful so far. On the way to the Mill we got more Pied Wagtails and a Green Woodpecker. At the Mill there were more Skylarks and Meadow Pipits, another Green Woodpecker and about twenty Linnets. We were heading back with about an hour to spare when two Swallows flew past. With nothing else to do, we decided to try and relocate them. We eventually stumbled across them hawking insects over a field near Swallow Point. Other birds of note on the trip were, Long tailed tit, Goldcrest, Grey Partridge and Kestrel. We ended with fifty-six species on the list!

Recent Round-Up (Connor)
Unfortunately I have not had much of a chance to update recently so here is just a quick review of recent trips: Dersingham Bog has recently had up to 4 singing Woodlarks, several Crossbills with good numbers of both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers although Goshawk hasn't been for a little while (I believe.) A trip into Lincolnshire for the Sora at Gibraltar Point was successful with Pale Bellied Brent Goose, Smew, Black Brant and Kittiwake also being seen here. On the way home at Frieston Shore a male Scaup was nice and I found a Tundra Bean Goose.

My first migrants of the year have been Little Ringed Plover at Cley (12/3/06), Red Kite near Peterborough (18/3/06), Yellow Wagtail and Chiffchaff at Snettisham Coastal Park (25/3/05) and fifteen Sand Martins at Holme NOA (25/3/06). Spring is definitely in the air!!!

Other good birds have included a Caspian Gull and a Yellow Legged Gull at Dogsthorpe Star Pit, a self-found Red Necked Grebe and another Yellow Legged Gull at Grafham Water, 12 Barnacle Geese (possibly of wild origin) at Cley NWT, 2 Redpolls, 10 Siskin, a female Brambling, 6 Common Scoter and a Long Tailed Duck all at Holme NOA.

Ouseing with Tree Sparrows!

4/3/06 Ouse Washes RSPB Leaders: James, Simeon, Matthew.
We finally got the chance to go a little further afield - the Ouse Washes! When we got there we were greeted by the calling of about 25 Tree Sparrows. They were just around the corner feeding on the Peanuts and on the bird table. Together we got some beautiful shots of them(see gallery). We went into the visitor centre to find about 70 more on the grass. Amongst them we also saw 2+ Brambling, a few House Sparrows, several Chaffinches and 3+ male Yellowhammers. On the reserve we saw Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Pintail, Snipe, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Whooper Swans, Bewick's Swans and many Mallard. We were up on the bank desperately trying to find the Lesser Scaup (we never saw it!), when suddenly there was a crash and a splash in front of us! Something had been hiding behind a tree. The tree was in the frozen water and the animal had seen us. It was a fox! It lept out from behind the tree and fell through the ice! It scrambled out again, slipped, and fell through again! After doing this three times, it finally got to the bank and ran off into the distance! It had been an amazing encounter for all of us. Unfortunately, it happened so quickly, that none of us were able to get a photo of it. On the way back to the car we saw a Barn owl and a Short-eared owl that landed on the bank! James saw a Water Vole in a ditch near the car. On the journey home we saw a second Barn owl and about 4 Kestrels. It had been a tiring, nevertheless fabulous day for all of us. It had been our first visit there and we are definately going there again! It's a really nice place.
On the way back I got this photo of the sunset! If it was to have a title, I would call it "Amazing Grace".

Hmm! That's a nice change!

25/2/06 Welney WWT Leaders:Simeon, James and Connor
Due to time restrictions, the only place to go was Welney. Despite having been there twice in the last three outings, we decided to stick with it to see if we could get anything different from last time! The numbers of Whooper and Bewick's Swans had dropped dramatically. The number of Black-tailed Godwits had risen to 400+. There were also 4 Common Snipe, 9 Bean Geese, 4+ Reed Buntings, 30+ Pintail, 500+ Wigeon, 150+ Pochard and a few Tufted Duck. We were slightly annoyed by the fact that none of this was new to us. As we were walking back to the main observatory, gulls flew over us heading to the roost on one of the islands.
The idea suddenly occured to us to see if we could pick out anything decent amongst them. When we got to the main obs. we immediately set about the horrible task of scanning through about 100 gulls. The annoying thing was, the roost had more than doubled in under 5 minutes!!! There were brilliant numbers of Lesser black-backs, a few Greater black-backs and plenty of Common, Herring and Black headeds. Suddenly, I spotted a strange 1st Winter bird on the edge of the flock. We studied it for a while and with the help of a couple of proffesionals, identified it as a 1st Winter Caspian Gull! It was a lifer for James and I (Simeon)! By the time we left the reserve the number of gulls in the roost was an impressive 400+. It had been a wonderful day and the Caspian Gull had made a nice change!