M A Y 2 0 0 8
May 3rd - Holme - Choseley - GUIDED TOUR
A cracking couple of days birding over this Bank Holiday - with warm sunny days and the wind in the SE, all we lacked were some showers which would undoubtedly resulted in a good fall of migrants.
We started at Holme on Saturday, with a nice steady passage of hirundines & swifts, into the bargain was 1 Ruff, 3 Wheatear (2 Greenland), 1 Whinchat, overhead 5 Whimbrel, 2 Turtle Dove, 8 Yellow Wags west
Up at the Obs we rehydrated over a couple of cups of tea, & scouring the skies proved worthwhile as we had cracking close views of 2 migrant Hobbies feeding right overhead, as we took them in through our scopes a much larger raptor passed above them, it was significantly higher – after several minutes of discussion we all agreed it wasn't a "Common" the long wings, a longer looking tail was pale and unmarked save an inconspicuous terminal band tail, and with the bird showing stong carpal patches & belly patches it was eventually nailed as a Rough-legged Buzzard. For a while it drifted a little closer, then a little higher then into the edges of the clouds and seemingly out towards the Wash.
We didn't much encouragement to take up an hours vigil scouring the skies. Lots more bits & pieces passed, including frustrating distant views high up of a “ringtail” harrier , available very briefly and unfortunately lost to view.
We headed off to Choseley & joined the masses, actually it wasn’t too bad, plus the superb 4 female Dotterel were well worth standing with the crowds (There has been up to 17!)
We finished Saturday with mega views of the Montagu’s Harrier’s they have been in just over a week & are performing really well, there are at least 2 pairs again.
May 4th - Lakenheath - GUIDED TOUR
We arrived at Lakenheath just after 830 - we were greeted by a cocophony of singing warblers - Chiff-Chaff, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Willow, Garden, Reed, Sedge , & 2 Grasshopper were a great start, also 4 singing Cuckoos. But were fairly soon overshadowed by the beautiful fluty notes of a singing Golden Oriole, 2 males have arrived and 1 was showing occasionally, plus the wonderful song from a lone Nightingale.
This was nice but for me was then overshadowed by the amazing sight of 18 Hobbies & 6 Marsh Harriers all in the air together!!
We wondered back and had 3 Garganey, 2 drakes plus a single Turtle Dove, & a pair of Stonechats - Lakenheath contiunes to impress me more & more on each visit. Also we noted Large Red Damselfly my first damselfly of the year, there was also Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White, Peacock, & Large White on the wing in small numbers.
We then headed up for some birding in the Wensum valley - we checked several gravel pits and raptor watchpoints. We had 2 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Oystercatcher, 10 Common Tern, 2 Pochard. We did well with raptors - 4 Hobbies, 4 Common Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk & 1 male Marsh Harrier.
En-route we had 2 smart male Grey Wagtails at one of my favourite loctions & we finished the day with a real reward for checking each gravel pit in the area - 18 fantastic summer plumage Black Terns, gracefully swooping and picking from the waters surface back & forth we absorbed them in detail for 30 minutes.
May 5th - Burnham Overy Staithe - Gun Hill
A morning session only provided some more good birding - plenty of Whimbrel here & Greenshank was heard, & a single Common Sandpiper were all noted as we walked out along the seawall. A Bittern could be heard booming, a nice surprise was another Montagu's Harrier a male working along the dunes.
Out in the dunes we had a 8+ Wheatear, & nice views of 10+ Little Tern at the colony, a drumming Snipe, 12+ Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Knot & male Marsh Harrier & Bearded Tit!!
May 5th - Burnham Overy Staithe - Gun Hill
A morning session only provided some more good birding - plenty of Whimbrel here & Greenshank was heard, & a single Common Sandpiper were all noted as we walked out
May 6th - Cley
Spent the evening in Teal Hide at Cley - taking Lapwing, Shelduck & Avocet pictures, not too much happening birdwise this evening.
May 10th Holme - 6am -6.30pm
At Thornham channel, 1 Green Sandpiper & 1 Greenshank flew over, a Barn Owl was hunting the fields early on. I headed round to Redwell at 830, where I had a pleasant surprise, 6 poss 7 Wood Sandpipers, 7 Ruff (12 later in the day) including 2 males with 3/4 head dress, I was treated to a dispaly as the males head bobbed and circled one another! Also 1 Greenshank (2 later in the day) also Avocet, Lapwing, Gadwall & Shoveler here, a Turtle Dove was purring from just behind the hide, this was the first of a total of 7 between Redwell & the Obs. I then headed for the dunes and was treated to 3 Greenland Wheatears (pictures - click here) feeding in the short area before the plantation.
I then located a female Ring Ouzel, this bird was restless consistently moving around & I spent 3/4 hour getting several other birders on to it.
On the shoreline 6 Grey Plover, 80 Oystercatcher. 50 Sanderling,5 Bar-tailed Godwit & 6 Little Tern along the shoreline.
Very little visible migration, I had 1 Yellow Wag over going west. At least 2 Marsh Harriers were hunting the grazing marsh aslo 5 very late Brent Goose still out there.
May 16th Bintree Mill - 6.30pm -8.00pm
Grey Wagtails feeding young here, also Kingfisher & 2 Little Egret. Also noted Little Owl 1/2 mile from the house just outside Themelthorpe on the Reepham road.
May 17th Pensthorpe - Wild About the Wensum event
We didn't see too much in the way of birds but had an excellent day at this event & did get to meet David Gray whom opened the event & gave an excellent passionate speech about The Wensum Valley, the Marsh Harrier & conservation.
May 18th Barton Broad - Norfolk Wildlife Trust Event
Today I led 3 Guided walks at this event which was a great success. There were plenty of people, and it was great to see so many youngsters getting involved. The event had wildlife face painting, making a bird, making a dragonfly, moths, dragonfly guided walk, bird guided walk.
This is a private reserve and whilst the birds were mainly vocal, and less visible we also did well with the early range of dragonflies.
Best birds were Marsh Harrier, 2-3 Hobby, Bullfinch feeding on the ground, lots of vocal Willow Warbler, 1-2 Green Woodpecker,
Pochard, several Reed Warblers. Insects - 10+ Four-Spot Chasers, 10+ Hairy Dragonfly, Common, Blue-tailed & Azure Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly, 1 Brimstone butterfly, 1 Speckled Wood, 3 Small White.
Also during the first hour as the tracks warmed I manged to see 2-3 Grass Snakes.
May 23rd mid Norfolk Heathland
This evening we surveyed a sector of a local area of heathland, we had a total of 5 Nightjars and point blank views of 3 Nightjars.. The birds flying around in front of us were 2 males and a female. Also Tawny Owl & Kestrel.
May 24th North Norfolk
Wandering around the known areas I managed to locate 4 Montagu's Harriers, 1 pair, an other lone adult male & a 3rd cal year male.
2 DAY GUIDED TOUR & EVENING SESSION - Evening of 24th, all day 25th & 26th.
Evening of 24th
The tour started well with a Barn Owl flying alongside our vehcile almost immediately after leaving the Bed & breakfast. We then headed to a local mill where we had great views of Grey Wagtail, Kingfisher, Marsh Harrier & Buzzard.
We then made a return visit to the Nightjar site above, whilst the conditions were less favourable we were still able to watch 3 Nightjars; 2 male & 1 female in good light, in the cooler temperature the birds were noticeably less vocal.
May 25th - North Norfolk, Holme & Titchwell
Despite my good luck yesterday, with poor weather it proved very difficult to locate any Montagu's Harriers, I did see an adult male briefly, 2 Marsh Harrier & a Common Buzzard were in the area. En-route to Titchwell we had nice views of both Red-legged & Grey Partridge. At Titchwell, despite very poor weather we were treated to a fantastic array of birds; 37 Little Gull, 1 2nd Sum Mediterranean Gull, 1 Black Tern, 1 drake Garganey, 1 pr of Ruddy Duck,1 drake Wigeon, 3+ Common Sandpiper, 80 Dunlin, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Temminck's Stint, 20 Turnstone, 5 Grey Plover, 20 Black-tailed Godwit, 50 Ringed Plover & great views of a male Bearded Tit.
At Holme we added Wood Sandpiper, & had fantastic close views of Common Sandpiper.
May 26th - The Brecks
Sadly the weather had failed to improve, with a blustery NE wind & showers, birding in the wooded areas proved difficult. We failed to locate any Golden Oriole and perhaps more surprisingly Stone Curlew also failed to be seen. However, this was almost made up for - with stunning views of a superb singing male Firecrest, very close views of Spotted Flycatcher & wonderful scope views of a perched Hobby.
Despite the poor weather we still totalled 100 species.
May 31st - Titchwell & Holme
20+ Little Gulls over the marsh, and Bittern heard booming en-route to the hide, Bearded Tits were vocal. Got some nice shots of Wren whilst awaiting an elusive Spotted Flycatcher in the car park area. At Holme, it was fairly quiet, but a Common Sandpiper was still present on Redwell.
We arrived at Lakenheath just after 830 - we were greeted by a cocophony of singing warblers - Chiff-Chaff, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Willow, Garden, Reed, Sedge , & 2 Grasshopper were a great start, also 4 singing Cuckoos. But were fairly soon overshadowed by the beautiful fluty notes of a singing Golden Oriole, 2 males have arrived and 1 was showing occasionally, plus the wonderful song from a lone Nightingale.
This was nice but for me was then overshadowed by the amazing sight of 18 Hobbies & 6 Marsh Harriers all in the air together!!
We wondered back and had 3 Garganey, 2 drakes plus a single Turtle Dove, & a pair of Stonechats - Lakenheath contiunes to impress me more & more on each visit. Also we noted Large Red Damselfly my first damselfly of the year, there was also Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White, Peacock, & Large White on the wing in small numbers.
We then headed up for some birding in the Wensum valley - we checked several gravel pits and raptor watchpoints. We had 2 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Oystercatcher, 10 Common Tern, 2 Pochard. We did well with raptors - 4 Hobbies, 4 Common Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk & 1 male Marsh Harrier.
En-route we had 2 smart male Grey Wagtails at one of my favourite loctions & we finished the day with a real reward for checking each gravel pit in the area - 18 fantastic summer plumage Black Terns, gracefully swooping and picking from the waters surface back & forth we absorbed them in detail for 30 minutes.
May 5th - Burnham Overy Staithe - Gun Hill
A morning session only provided some more good birding - plenty of Whimbrel here & Greenshank was heard, & a single Common Sandpiper were all noted as we walked out along the seawall. A Bittern could be heard booming, a nice surprise was another Montagu's Harrier a male working along the dunes.
Out in the dunes we had a 8+ Wheatear, & nice views of 10+ Little Tern at the colony, a drumming Snipe, 12+ Black-tailed Godwit, 6 Knot & male Marsh Harrier & Bearded Tit!!
May 5th - Burnham Overy Staithe - Gun Hill
A morning session only provided some more good birding - plenty of Whimbrel here & Greenshank was heard, & a single Common Sandpiper were all noted as we walked out
May 6th - Cley
Spent the evening in Teal Hide at Cley - taking Lapwing, Shelduck & Avocet pictures, not too much happening birdwise this evening.
May 10th Holme - 6am -6.30pm
At Thornham channel, 1 Green Sandpiper & 1 Greenshank flew over, a Barn Owl was hunting the fields early on. I headed round to Redwell at 830, where I had a pleasant surprise, 6 poss 7 Wood Sandpipers, 7 Ruff (12 later in the day) including 2 males with 3/4 head dress, I was treated to a dispaly as the males head bobbed and circled one another! Also 1 Greenshank (2 later in the day) also Avocet, Lapwing, Gadwall & Shoveler here, a Turtle Dove was purring from just behind the hide, this was the first of a total of 7 between Redwell & the Obs. I then headed for the dunes and was treated to 3 Greenland Wheatears (pictures - click here) feeding in the short area before the plantation.
I then located a female Ring Ouzel, this bird was restless consistently moving around & I spent 3/4 hour getting several other birders on to it.
On the shoreline 6 Grey Plover, 80 Oystercatcher. 50 Sanderling,5 Bar-tailed Godwit & 6 Little Tern along the shoreline.
Very little visible migration, I had 1 Yellow Wag over going west. At least 2 Marsh Harriers were hunting the grazing marsh aslo 5 very late Brent Goose still out there.
May 16th Bintree Mill - 6.30pm -8.00pm
Grey Wagtails feeding young here, also Kingfisher & 2 Little Egret. Also noted Little Owl 1/2 mile from the house just outside Themelthorpe on the Reepham road.
May 17th Pensthorpe - Wild About the Wensum event
We didn't see too much in the way of birds but had an excellent day at this event & did get to meet David Gray whom opened the event & gave an excellent passionate speech about The Wensum Valley, the Marsh Harrier & conservation.
May 18th Barton Broad - Norfolk Wildlife Trust Event
Today I led 3 Guided walks at this event which was a great success. There were plenty of people, and it was great to see so many youngsters getting involved. The event had wildlife face painting, making a bird, making a dragonfly, moths, dragonfly guided walk, bird guided walk.
This is a private reserve and whilst the birds were mainly vocal, and less visible we also did well with the early range of dragonflies.
Best birds were Marsh Harrier, 2-3 Hobby, Bullfinch feeding on the ground, lots of vocal Willow Warbler, 1-2 Green Woodpecker,
Pochard, several Reed Warblers. Insects - 10+ Four-Spot Chasers, 10+ Hairy Dragonfly, Common, Blue-tailed & Azure Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly, 1 Brimstone butterfly, 1 Speckled Wood, 3 Small White.
Also during the first hour as the tracks warmed I manged to see 2-3 Grass Snakes.
May 23rd mid Norfolk Heathland
This evening we surveyed a sector of a local area of heathland, we had a total of 5 Nightjars and point blank views of 3 Nightjars.. The birds flying around in front of us were 2 males and a female. Also Tawny Owl & Kestrel.
May 24th North Norfolk
Wandering around the known areas I managed to locate 4 Montagu's Harriers, 1 pair, an other lone adult male & a 3rd cal year male.
2 DAY GUIDED TOUR & EVENING SESSION - Evening of 24th, all day 25th & 26th.
Evening of 24th
The tour started well with a Barn Owl flying alongside our vehcile almost immediately after leaving the Bed & breakfast. We then headed to a local mill where we had great views of Grey Wagtail, Kingfisher, Marsh Harrier & Buzzard.
We then made a return visit to the Nightjar site above, whilst the conditions were less favourable we were still able to watch 3 Nightjars; 2 male & 1 female in good light, in the cooler temperature the birds were noticeably less vocal.
May 25th - North Norfolk, Holme & Titchwell
Despite my good luck yesterday, with poor weather it proved very difficult to locate any Montagu's Harriers, I did see an adult male briefly, 2 Marsh Harrier & a Common Buzzard were in the area. En-route to Titchwell we had nice views of both Red-legged & Grey Partridge. At Titchwell, despite very poor weather we were treated to a fantastic array of birds; 37 Little Gull, 1 2nd Sum Mediterranean Gull, 1 Black Tern, 1 drake Garganey, 1 pr of Ruddy Duck,1 drake Wigeon, 3+ Common Sandpiper, 80 Dunlin, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, 1 Temminck's Stint, 20 Turnstone, 5 Grey Plover, 20 Black-tailed Godwit, 50 Ringed Plover & great views of a male Bearded Tit.
At Holme we added Wood Sandpiper, & had fantastic close views of Common Sandpiper.
May 26th - The Brecks
Sadly the weather had failed to improve, with a blustery NE wind & showers, birding in the wooded areas proved difficult. We failed to locate any Golden Oriole and perhaps more surprisingly Stone Curlew also failed to be seen. However, this was almost made up for - with stunning views of a superb singing male Firecrest, very close views of Spotted Flycatcher & wonderful scope views of a perched Hobby.
Despite the poor weather we still totalled 100 species.
May 31st - Titchwell & Holme
20+ Little Gulls over the marsh, and Bittern heard booming en-route to the hide, Bearded Tits were vocal. Got some nice shots of Wren whilst awaiting an elusive Spotted Flycatcher in the car park area. At Holme, it was fairly quiet, but a Common Sandpiper was still present on Redwell.