Patchwatching

29/10/06 Whin Common, Denver Leaders: Simeon
Down the patch at 7:30 again this morning. Autumn's still not over, watch out for those last migrants going and coming! Vis. mig. was clear this morning with 4 Skylarks, 3 Pied Wagtails and 4 Whooper Swans over the common. 7 more Redwings arrived, but several of them had left since I was last there. 5 Bullfinches, 15+ Long - Tailed Tits, 5 Goldcrests, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Goshawk, Green and Great - Spotted Woodpecker, 4 Mistle Thrush, 1 Song Thrush and several continental Blackbirds were also of note. 5 Redwings and a Pied Wagtail flew over the house afterwards. Not a bad line up.

Simeon's Birthday Bluetail

21/10/2006, Thorpeness, Leaders: Simeon, Connor, James, Matthew

As it is Simeon's birthday on 24th October he decided to go for a twitch for his birthday treat (an idea heartily endorsed by myself!). There was only one possible venue - Thorpeness, for the red-flanked bluetail. We left at 10:30 with Matthew and Connor after dad had had a much needed lie-in. He had no idea how long the journey would be and got quite a shock upon learning it was 2 hours each way! The journey was enjoyable (for all except perhaps dad), but I started to worry when Connor's updates decreased from "showing well" to "brief views", followed shortly by a signpost saying "hidden dip"! The excitement heightened when we entered the village, and we all leapt out of the car. Dad went off to buy some breakfast and we went on ahead, guided by texts from Billy (Connor's dad) who was already viewing the bird, and leaving arrows for Dad to follow as we went. We were greeted by Billy, which was lucky as people were spread all over the area and we would have had a job finding him! We immediately set about finding the elusive beauty, fully prepared to wait hours, but after only a few minutes Billy called us as he was watching it with a small group of people. We followed swiftly and were soon stood gawking at a little brown bird with red flanks and a blue tail, flitting obligingly about in front of us. WOW! Matt almost managed to get a picture but the rest of us didn't even attempt it. Dad arrived just after it left, so we spent the rest of the time trying to get him to see it. We eventually tracked it down and Dad got a cracking view! The day's mission was accomplished....

Lots of Twitching!

14/10/06 Stiffkey, Blakeney, Cley, Salthouse, Titchwell Leaders: Simeon, James, Connor
We started very early and left the house at 6:30am for Stiffkey. Connor quickly managed to find the Yellow - Browed Warbler in the campsite woods and it gave excellent views about 8 yards away on the outside of a bush! A cracking bird! Other birds we got there were; a couple of Bramblings, two Chiffchaffs, a few Redwings and some Goldcrests. The next bird was a lot rarer but didn't give nearly as good views! It was the Cattle Egret at Friary Hills on Blakeney Freshmarsh. It was easy to pick out amongst the cattle, but it was very distant. Other birds we got there included several Redwings, a single Fieldfare, some more Bramblings and another possible Yellow - Browed Warbler! Then it was off to Cley. On the seawatch we got a really close Red - Throated Diver, three Eider and about 27 Razorbill. We then walked to the North Hide and picked up several Dunlin, Little Stint and a White - Rumped Sandpiper although it was giving poor views and hard to identify in the light conditions. After that we went to Salthouse. Here we got a few more Razorbill on the sea and a lovely Shore Lark East of Gramborough Hill. Then we went to Titchwell and got stunning views of the Whiskered Tern from Parrinder Hide and from the path when it flew up to 10m away! Then an adult white - morph Snow goose came up on the pager between Brancaster and Docking in fields with Pinkfeet! We rushed there to find no Pinkfeet at all! Then we took a minor road and saw some birdwatchers on a hill. We got out of the car and saw several thousand Pinkfeet all in one field! Someone had seen the Snow Goose fly over the hedge into another field so I rushed along the road to the top of the hill. The goose was just over the brow of the hill out of site. This was a little annoying, but suddenly they all flew up and the Snow Goose gave excellent views flying right past us! I ran down the road again and saw it landed in the field amongst the Pinkfeet. This was another cracking bird! There were also two Barnacle Geese present and someone said that the Snow Goose had been tracked all the way down the West coast! With nothing else to do, we returned to Titchwell and James got some shots of the Whiskered Tern (see gallery) and I managed to get the Pectoral Sandpiper and Jack Snipe from Parrinder Hide at the end! It had been a brilliant day and we were really tired by the end of it!

Around the coast

Holkam, Titcwell and Stiffkey Leaders:Simeon, Matthew and James
We started the day off at Holkam. Unfortunately the Firecrest had not been seen that morning and the Snow Goose was seen to fly south with Pinkfeet at 7:15 am. We arrived at 10:30 and there was basically nothing there! Then we heard of a Red - Backed Shrike at Stiifkey and rushed off to get it. It gave superb views perching on a bush at about 4 metres distance. At one stage it flew and landed on the bank we were standing on about a metre away from us. We got some ace shots of it (see gallery). We then finished the outing with a couple of hours at Titchwell. The sea was the highlight providing 300+ Common Scoter, 2 Arctic Skuas and a Shearwater sp. There was little else of note, but it had been a pretty good day.

No sign of...

Whin Common and Bates Wood, Denver. Leaders: Simeon and James
We returned at about 7:45am to try and relocate the Yellow - Browed Warbler. Sadly there was no sign of the bird, but migration was nevertheless still visible with 2+ Mistle Thrush, 25+ Redwing, 4+ Song Thrush, 20+ Long - Tailed Tit, 15+ Blue Tit, 10+ Great Tit, 2+ Coal Tit, 2 Great - Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Green Woodpecker, 11+ Goldcrests, 2 Bullfinch, 4 Chiffchaff, 14 House Martins and 1 Meadow Pipit. Also of note were two Cormorants over. Mostly the same stuff as yesterday, but still pretty good! Still waiting for the first Fieldfares mind!

A good sign of migration!

30/9/06 Bates Wood and Whin Common, Denver Leaders: Simeon
Early morning at the patch was really worth it. Vis. Mig. from the style gave me 2 Mistle Thrush, 20+ Redwing, 4+ Song Thrush, 10 Swallow, 5 House Martin, 1 Sand Martin, 4 Meadow Pipits and 2 Pied Wagtails. Migration was picking up now so I decided to go to the corner of the Common to check out the numerous tit flocks. This resulted in 3 Goldcrests, a Yellow - Browed Warbler, 35+ Long - Tailed Tit, 20+ Blue Tit, 15+ Great Tit, 3+ Coal Tit, 1 Nuthatch, 1 Treecreeper, 3 Bullfinch, 4 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff, 3 Great - Spotted Woodpecker and 1 Green Woodpecker! It had been a great morning! I was definately coming back tomorrow!