Why!?!

27/12/06 Lynford Arboretum :eaders: Simeon and James
We were very confident that we would get good views of Hawfinch today as there had been as many as 21 birds seen there on Saturday. But as it usually happens when we go there we only got one bird flying over about 200 yards away. We had to identify it by its call! The finch and tit flocks were fairly large and produced 5+ Marsh tit, 30+ Long - tailed tit, 2+ Goldcrests, 10+ Siskins and 30+ Goldfinches. It was all right I suppose...

Swan feed at Welney.

26/12/06 Welney WWT Leaders: Simeon and James
Hope everyone had a merry Christmas - have a happy new year - get those new year lists going... the usual! Anyway, a quick trip to Welney under the cover of darkness proved successful. I mainly went to get leg ring numbers. Whooper Swan leg rings I saw were, on the left legs of birds: 272, 6LX, VZZ, CTX, FZ6, 50U, X79 and UA9 and on the right legs of some of the birds: SP7 and 341. I was pleased with my finds!

Same as last time...almost!

23/12/06 Denver Sluice Leaders; Simeon and James
The Sluice is my priority at the moment, trying to find that rare duck! Thought I had it today, but instead of a Ring - Necked it was just a wierd Tufted with a small ring on its bill! A summer plumaged Black - Headed Gull was strange, but nevertheless true! 1 Water Rail was calling and there were also 11 Goosander, 42 Tufted Duck, 16 Wigeon, 2 Little Grebes, 2 Whooper Swans, 2 Barn Owls, 10+ Yellowhammers, about 6 Great - Crested Grebes, 3 Dunlin, 7 Redshanks and 4 Canada Geese. An all right trip although I still can't wait for spring... Blakeney is primed!!!

16/12/06 Welney WWT Leaders:Simeon
The others went to Kings Lynn, I got bored, so I went to Welney. Whilst eating lunch in the visitor centre a beautiful Short - Eared Owl flew over one of the ponds really close! Then it started hunting over the fields and landed a couple of times! Best views I've ever had! Then I went to the main observatory and managed to pick out one Scaup and a few Plastic Geese among the hundred of swans and ducks. I was getting bored by this time so I tried to go to the other hides, only the flooding didn't let me! I took a rather amusing photo (above) to share it with everyone else...! On returning back to the hide I noticed 300+ gulls except they were all sitting on the water so no-one can identify those Yellow - Legged Gulls amongst them! Then a Peregrine cheered me up by flying through my scope view and flying round over the hide spooking several hundred Wigeon/Mallard/Pochard. An all right day over all!

Winter's not so bad after all!

9/12/06 Holme NOA and Tichwell RPSB Leaders: Simeon, Matthew, Connor, James (and Yaseen who is new to birding)
As it was Yaseen's first birding outing, we dropped him in at the deep end with a bit of seawatching (his favourite part of the day strangely) We started at Holme at 10:00 until 11:00, then 11:30 until 12:30; (time spent seawatching). The north - westerlies had pushed loads in and the result was good! 1 Great - Northern Diver, 1 Arctic Skua (chased gulls right over us above the dunes!), 2 drake Goosanders, 3 Red - Breasted Mergansers, 9 Red - Throated Divers of which Yaseen found one, 8 Little Gulls, 35+ Long - Tailed Ducks, 7 Razorbills, 1 Guillemot and other unidentified Auk species, 36 Common Scoters, 500+ Wigeon, a drake Scaup, 14 Eider, 22 Great - Crested Grebes, 5 Slavonian Grebes, 5 Fulmar, 6 Gannets and 2 unidentified Divers that were probably Black - Throated but were too far out to tell! A few goldcrests were in the pines and 1000+ pinkfeet were constantly being spooked from the marsh. Also of note were, 2 Skylarks over the marsh and a single Meadow pipit along the beach.
Then it was on to Titchwell. We failed to get the two Chiffchaffs that had been in the car park, but we did get a male Bullfinch there. The marshes provided a couple of hundred Golden plovers, 7 Avocets and 10 Spotted Redshanks. Then onto the beach. A few more scoters on the sea, but little else. Then we randomly decided to check Thornham Point! It was actually quite good considering the time of year! Birds we saw were; one continental Blackbird, 2 Chiffchaffs, 1 Robin, 1 Dunnock, 1 Magpie, 2 Stonechats, 2 Rock pipits, 1 Pied Wagtail and 15 Meadow pipits. A great first day out for Yaseen and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! Oh yeah we also got a couple of Bearded Tits, Reed Buntings and Cetti's Warblers at Titchwell as well...

Winter's rubbish...

3/12/06 Denver Sluice SG and JG
With little else to do on a boring day I made the big mistake of going birdwatching! At the Sluice it was just one of those days. Whilst freezing myself to the bitter limit I only managed to pick out one male Goosander, the odd G C Grebe, Grey Heron, some boring pied wags and Mipits and a few Winter thrushes... The thought of next weekend's seawatch put my brain into override and I just wanted spring migration to hurry up!!!

A short trip...

2/12/06 Snettisham RSPB Leaders; Simeon and James
With only an hour and a quarter to spare, we popped in to Snett. Not much at all really, 2 Scaup, 8 Little Grebes, 4 Little Egrets from the first hide and on the sea, several hundred Mallard, Wigeon and all the other usual stuff! The spectacular of Knot cheered us up a little with several thousand birds present!