Three in a day! Twice!

29/7/06 Titchwell RSPB Leaders; James and Simeon
We grabbed the easy opportunity to go to Titchwell as this is one of my favourite places to find good birds. We looked at the record book and decided to spend most of our six hours at the sea. But first we stopped off at the fresh marsh and saw two Spoonbills (see gallery), then we stopped off at the tidal lagoon and saw a juvenile Arctic Skua (see gallery) that we got some record shots of. Finally we got to the beach. Nothing. Except a few Sandwich Terns and Common Scoters, but apart from that...nothing! We were still pleased with the Skua and Spoonbills. We decided to go back to the visitor centre, have lunch and work our way, hide to hide, back up to the beach again. We did this with some success (bird wise) picking up Wood Sandpiper (see gallery), Water Rail, Yellow Wagtail, Marsh Harrier, four Common Sandpiper and two beautiful Common Snipes (see gallery) from Island Hide and some record shots of the Spoonbills from Parinder Hide. At last we got to the beach again with our hopes raised for the seawatch. It was a lot more productive with a few Eider, Common Terns, Little Terns and two more Arctic Skuas mobbing Sandwich Terns. One of them was a dark morph Arctic which can be told from Great Skua because the white patch on the wings on Great Skuas are very prominent. On dark morph Arctic they are barely visible. Another way to tell them is that Great Skuas have a much heavier and slower flight. All in all it had been a very pleasing day! The title is so because I got three Arctic Skuas in a day and three yearers in a day.

Watching out for Waders - Trip 4 (The final trip)

13/7/06 Snettisham RSPB Leaders;Simeon, James, Connor
As it was our last trip, we decided to go to Snettisham to try and find our own decent wader. As we got out of the car we were dreaming of Sandplovers and rare Sandpipers! On arriving at the first hide, we started scanning the mudflats, and despite the heat haze Connor managed to pick out a single plover. We were swaying to Pacific Golden and then realised the black on the breast stopped abruptly at the legs - it was a Golden. On Pacific Golden Plovers, the black extends beyond the legs and gradually fades out. Despite being downhearted we managed to pick up a few highlights, but no rarities. 7 Little Egrets, Scaup, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Common Sandpiper, Greenshank and several Black - Tailed Godwits were present on the pits and the mudflats. By the end I had counted 2 Sandwich Terns and 79 Common Terns nesting on the islands which could be viewed from the first and second hides. It had been a great trip including several yearers for me and many enjoyable birds.A fabulous start to the holidays!

Watching out for Waders - A short break

12/7/06 Dersingham Bog Leaders; Simeon, Connor, James

It was the evening and what better place to go other than Dersingham Bog to catch up on Nightjars and Woodcocks. We got there too early for the target birds, but never too early for the midges... From the top of the cliff we got a Barn Owl and a Kestrel. We walked on and around the boardwalk and managed to pick up,Great - Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Woodlark, Meadow Pipit, Tree Pipit and Jay. After beeing eaten alive by the midges we started hearing the churring Nightjars. Six were counted and in the end two were seen. We also saw three Woodcocks. This was a nice break from watching the coast, apart fom the fact of waking up in the morning to that itchy feeling all over your arms and neck the where the midges had bitten you! Tommorow was our last day, we could only go somewhere local, Snettisham RSPB perhaps...

Watching out for Waders - Trip 3

12/7/06 Titchwell RSPB Leaders; Simeon, James, Connor
Matthew had an RSPB volunteers meeting at Titchwell and he offered us a lift up there even though he wouldn't be with us, which was very kind of him. We quickly picked up the Temmink's Stints again, along with Little Egret, Marsh Harrier, Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper,Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Common Snipe, Blackcap and a wonderful Reed Warbler that James got some fabulous photos of (See Gallery). At the beach we met Will Bowell and together we found Fulmar, Common Scoter, 6 Whimbrel, Little Tern, Common Tern, Sandwich Tern and a lovely Arctic Tern (a yearer for me). A good trip that provided us with some species that we missed yesterday! Later we went to Dersingham Bog...

Watching out for Waders - Trip 2

11/7/06 Titchwell RSPB Leaders;Simeon, Connor, James

Our lookout for wader passage continued with a trip to Titchwell in hope of getting the 2 Temminck's Stints there. We were succesfull in this picking up, Little Egret, Common Scoter, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Water Rail, Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank,Common Snipe, Little Tern, Common Tern, Sandwich Tern and Bearded Tit. But the most surprising of all was the male Montagu's Harrier as it flew over the reedbed and over the path. A beautiful bird! Then it was back home for a well earned sleep...

Watching out for Waders - Trip 1

11/7/06 Snettisham RSPB Leaders; Simeon, Matthew, Connor, James.

We were staying round Connors for three days to pick up the beginning of the wader passage on the coast. This was evident when we went on our first trip to Snettisham, with 5 Common Sandpipers, 1 Greenshank and a few Avocets present. Other highlights included; 3 Little Egrets, the resident female Scaup, only 2 med. gulls, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, 2 Turtle doves, Whitethroat, Marsh Harrier and several Linnets. Then it was off to Titchwell...

A very unfortunate mistake!

10/7/06 Ouse Washes Leaders; Simeon, Matthew, Connor
James had been told that a Spotted crake had been heard fairly recently at the Nene Washes. James thought they said Ouse Washes, so off we went, looking for crakes at the completely wrong reserve! Anyway, despite the disapiontment, we managed to pick up a few decent sightings there anyway. Several Kestrels had been seen on the journey there and Marsh Harrier was seen hunting over the reedbeds. Other highlights present were; 2 Common Snipe, Common Tern, Turtle Dove, Blackcap, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, 2 Kingfishers from Kingfisher Hide and the usual yet beautiful Tree Sparrows.

Tail end of Migration

(Connor) Well spring migration has ended but it certainly went out with a bang! After having an activity day out in Norwich on 2/6/06 I returned back to my parents car at 6:00 pm to look at the mobile and find six missed calls! This could only mean one thing! I promptly rung dad to hear a Hoopoe had been found at Dersingham Bog, my local patch! A mad dash across Norfolk with a brief stop home saw me arrive at Dersingham Bog at 7:20 pm. On arrival the bird was thankfully in view and I continued to watch it until 7:30 pm when it was flushed by a very stupid birdwatcher and it flew into the distance, never to be seen again!

In May highlights had included a Temmincks Stint at Ttchwell RSPB on 5/5/06 and a male Montgue's Harrier giving superb views at an undisclosed site, circling over my head (!) on 14/5/06. Other good birds were an Osprey at Holme (5/5/06) and a Wood Sandpiper at Titchwell RSPB (9/5/06) while dad had a Red Necked Phalarope at Cley NWT (1/6/06).

Not long after the Hoopoe a male Red Backed Shrike turnt up at Titchwell RSPB (7/6/06) and was twitched on it's first evening from fen hide. Just as well as it only stayed one day! A Red Kite was a pleasing self find at Great Bircham (11/6/06).

Although spring migration has ended return wader passage has begun with a Spoonbill at Titchwell RSPB (27/6/06) along with a good supporting cast of a Wood Sandpiper, 8 summer plumaged Spotted Redshanks, 4 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Greenshanks, 6 Little Gulls and a Willow Tit by the feeding station. A repeat of the 2004 Greater Sand Plover wouldn't go a miss on wader passage this year; or something even rarer!