Welney, 26/01/08, Simeon and James

The plan was to do the Big Garden Birdwatch in the morning, Simeon would then do the Sluice whilst I went to Wisbech for a hockey match, and then we would race to Welney and refind the American Golden Plover. It didn't work out quite as well as we had hoped.

The Big Garden Birdwatch was a success, though we were annoyed that the rules wouldn't allow us to count Buzzard! Simeon's Sluice trip was somewhat mundane as the flood pools had dried up (last weekend they successfully managed to steal nearly all of Welney's waders). I lost 4-0 to Stamford and our coach didn't even turn up!

Once we reached Welney Simeon decided he wanted to leave, partly because there were no plovers, but also because he hadn't done some vital shopping. I managed to convince him to stay, possibly aided by the fact that Simeon can't drive yet, until a multitude of Golden Plover began to pour in. They were incredibly annoying and we had to leave before they landed. At least Simeon got to the shops in time!

Local birding...

20/1/08 Denver Sluice, Welney WWT and Tottenhill; James and Simeon
I started early and was at the sluice by 8am. The floodplain had become waterlogged with all the rain over the past few days and hundreds of birds had been attracted to it.
Down the road, Welney had flooded completely and all the land was underwater, so all the wading birds had moved to Denver Sluice!
On arrival at the sluice, hundreds of Lapwing were on the fields and 8 Whooper Swans had roosted in the water and were begining to wake up. 5 Wigeon were flying about and 30+ Teal were on the water too. I called James and he came down too, with a scope. We managed to pick out 100+ Golden Plover swirling above us in amongst 700+ Lapwing! When the flocks landed, we found 9 Ruff, a new species for the sluice! 2 Curlews and 2 Black-tailed Godwits (another first for the sluice) were also present. Then a Sparrowhawk zipped across and put everything up. I went home and James shortly followed.
After lunch we headed to Welney and on arrival, we quickly got the three Bean Geese in the field behind the visitor centre near the haystack. The main hide produced nothing of note at all so we quickly moved on to Tottenhill to try for the Smew.
We saw about 10 ducks overall, which is very unusual for this time! There are usually loads of Wigeon, Pochard, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Pintail etc. But today there were only about 7 Goldeneye, 3 Tufted Duck and 2 Great Crested Grebes. It was rubbish. It had been good to see so many birds at the sluice in the morning though.
Hurry up spring!!!

More pie please!

19/1/08 Pymoor; James and Simeon
After having pie for lunch we were still hungry... so we went to Pymoor! Sadly there was no pie as the village name would suggest, but after 10 minutes of searching, we came across a lovely Great White egret in a ditch. It showed distantly, but well. Some awful photos of the bird were taken before we left it and continued on our pie-quest.

North Norfolk

(Connor) Another good day in north Norfolk today (12/1/08) produced Lesser-spotted Woodpecker at Holkham Park, Firecrest at Walsey Hills NOA, Lapland Bunting and 50+ Snow Buntings at Salthouse, Water Pipit at Cley NWT and second helpings of the White-crowned Sparrow at Cley Village, having first seen it last Sunday.

On the 5th a day around Holme NOA produced 7 Bramblings, a Rock Pipit and a female Peregrine.

Below are a few record shots of the White-crowned Sparrow.

Now that's what I call twitching!

12/1/08 James and Simeon; Norfolk coast
James and I got up at 5 and were on the road by just after 6. Cutting through Norfolk we were at Cley just before 8. As we got out of the car in the semi-light you could feel the tension. Birders were getting out of their cars in silence and making their way to the crowd opposite a gravel drive. As the light improved, the number of birders grew and soon there were more than 200 of us! Luckily James and I were near the front and we could both see most of the driveway. The first sighting of the White-crowned Sparrow came at about 8:50. However, some inconsiderate birders rushed to the gate on the other side of the road, so we din't get a look in. The bird was flushed into the hedge again, but at least it was still around! No more than 10 minutes later it appeared again and as I now had a front row seat, (I was kneeling on the road!) I got really good views through my bins and so did James! Then a lorry went past the drive and the crowd erupted into angry shouting. When it had gone, so had the bird! James and I were happy with the views we got so we left, to let other people see it. It was a brilliant atmosphere and I just love the tension in a massive crowd at a mega twitch!
The next stop was Walsey Hills NOA where a Firecrest had been seen 2 days ago. We walked up to the observatory and then down the track past the feeders. About 50 yards along the bottom track James spotted a crest, and, sure enough, it was the Firecrest! It showed brilliantly, but was very flittery and it soon popped down, out of site. We told another birder of its whereabouts and were off on the road again to Salthouse.
Arriving in the beach car park, we walked west for about 50 yards and there were the buntings on the South side of the sea wall. They showed really well, down to about 10 metres. There were 70+ Snow Buntings and a lovely Lapland Bunting!
We then went back through Norfolk and arrived at Roydon Common to the news that the shrike had disappeared 5 minutes ago! We thought our luck was beginning to run out. But then, just as we were about to go to the car and have lunch, someone refound it on top of the hill! It showed distantly and the light was rubbish, but it was still a nice bird! We marveled at its ability to sneak round the back of us unseen in an open heath. If only we were that good...
Next stop was Ongar Hill, to try for the Richard's Pipit. The walk was very long and the bird hadn't been seen for about half an hour, but it was a pipit after all. We waited for a few minutes and it soon reappeared on the bank we were standing on! It walked up the bank and started feeding on the path! It gave excellent views and we were really pleased - we had picked up every bird we had gone for that day - an extremely rare occurrence! We then took a short walk along the bank and at a barn, 20+ Twite were calling on the wires!
We decided to leave it at that, and started the journey home. On the way back, we stopped off at Tottenhill. The usual stuff was about; Goldeneye, Tufted Duck and Pochard. Then a massive goose flock came in and as they were landing, I picked out a white bird. Thoughts of Snow Goose flashed through my head, but as I got my scope on the bird, I saw it was a Feral Goose! Oh well! Scanning the goose flock again, I found a single Barnacle Goose and James found a White Fronted Goose!
We returned home with a brilliant lifer and several scarce yearers "in the bag", and it's still only January! What a day...!

2/1/08 Draycote Water, James and Simeon
James and I were in Oxfordshire so we quickly popped over to Draycote Water in the next county to try and see the Lesser Scaup. Arriving in the car park we met a birder who informed us that the bird was showing to about 20 yards! We were really excited and the next mile seemed the longest we had ever walked. When we got to the area it had been seen, loads of birds were around! 8 Goosanders, loads of Little and Great-crested grebes and thousands of gulls were on the reservoir. The sun was beginning to set so we set about the task of finding the rare. It didn't actually take that long as James soon found the Lesser Scaup right next to the bank! The bird had its head tucked in at first, but we could see the scalloped back and peaked hind crown. The sun was in a bad position for photos, but it was good for seeing the purple sheen on the birds head. (Greater) Scaups have a green sheen. At one time, it lifted its head for about 5 seconds, but we did manage to see the tiny "nail" on the end of its bill! A few other birders saw it with us, including a young girl (about 8 probably) who was still learning garden birds! Lucky! These were the only shots I managed of the bird;