Raptors galore!

9/9/07
I went to Whin Common for three hours this morning and there were loads of birds about. 11 Goldcrests were busy feeding before Winter, 2 Green Woodpeckers were in histerics. A flock of 13 Goldfinch flew over and I saw a raptor fly past quickly. A Hobby! I heard another one call to my right and on turning my head to see, I locked onto a Marsh Harrier! It soon dropped below the line of trees so I looked towards the area in which I had just heard a Hobby call from. 3 Hobbies were playing in the air together! 4 Hobbies and a Marsh Harrier - it was going well! The other highlights were; 6 Blackcap, 1 Great-Spotted Woodpecker, 8 Chiffchaff, 1 Whitethroat, 2 Mistle Thrush, 1 Nuthatch, 1 Stock Dove, 3 Bullfinch (2 males and a female), 1 Sparrowhawk, 11 Long-Tailed Tits, 1 Jay, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, and a Wood Warbler (by the A10)! 9 Meadow Pipits and a Swallow went over too. James went down afterwards and got 2 Common Buzzards! There were loads of raptors today!
(Simeon)

Flocks building up...

8/9/07
I went to Denver Sluice today, but this time James accompanied me. 2 Green Woodpecker, 2 Kestrel, 1 Snipe, 1 Common Buzzard. There were also three Brown Hawker Dragonflies. We picked up two tit flocks; the first one contained only 11 Long-Tailed Tits and 4 Blue Tits. The second one contained 17 Long-Tailed Tits, 7 Blue Tits, 4 Great Tits, 1 Coal Tit and 1 Goldcrest - much more exciting!
(Simeon)

Denver Sluice

4/9/07
I went for a quiet walk at Denver Sluice, but it was too quiet. The only highlights were Kingfisher, Green Woodpecker, a few House Martins and a Goldfinch flock of over 100! No Siskins though. Is Autumn here yet?
(Simeon)

Whin Common

4/9/07
I went to Whin Common again this morning, but it was fairly quiet. The highlights were as follows; Goldcrest 4, Coal tit 4, Chiffchaff 10, Spotted Flycatcher 1, Nuthatch 1, Blackcap 4, Great-Spotted Woodpecker 1, Bullfinch 2 (adult female and young) and Whitethroat 1.
(Simeon)

Whin Common

30/8/07
I finally got round to visiting my patch after being on holiday! Just over an hour and a half produced 1 Herring Gull, 5 Goldcrest, 1 Coal tit, 1 Great-Spotted Woodpecker, 8 Chiffchaff, 2 Bullfinch (adult male and young), 6 Blackcap, 1 Green Woodpecker, 2 Hobby, 1 Sparrowhawk and 11 Long-tailed tits.
(Simeon)

Weney WWT

30/8/07
I went to Welney for about an hour and a half. Staying in the main observatory the whole time I managed to pick up 4 Yellow Wagtails, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Kingfisher (which showed brilliantly on a post in front of the hide) and a handful of Sand Martins.

Snettisham Water Mill

28/8/07
I worked the old patch in just under 2 hours and managed to get 14 Coot, 3 Oystercatcher, 100+ Swallow, a finch flock (c.20 birds) containing Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Linnet, 15 Grey Partridge (family group I expect), 2 Goldcrest, 1 Lapwing, 12 Moorhen, 2 Green Woodpecker, 1 Kestrel, 2 Jay, 2 Whitethroat and a tit flock containing 16 Long-tailed, 5 Great and 5 Blue, but nothing else.