First Cuckoo - Gipping Valley Pits - 27/4/2017

A chance to look for new Spring migrants today at one of my local patches. Best of the birds was a CUCKOO calling at Alderson Lake, although I didn't get a chance to spot it. Also present was a pair of LITTLE RINGED PLOVER further down the river at Pipp's Ford, with one late GREEN SANDPIPER.

Working quarry at Pipp's Ford

 



Other than that, wildfowl were present in small numbers, the usual resident species, with 8 SWANS at Pipp's Ford, Pair nesting Riverside Farm Pit, and further pairs at Needham Lake and Alderson Lake. Also around were 3 GADWALL at Pipp's Ford and a pair of TUFTED DUCK at Alderson Lake. A LAPWING was on territory at Pipp's Ford, chasing away the CROWS, so it seems there is probably a female nesting nearby.
SAND MARTIN were busy excavating new nesting sites in the sand quarry at Pipp's Ford, in the ever changing landscape, amongst the diggers and the lorries.
Other than that not much else about. Migration is in full flow, but away from the big sites, its quite hard to tell.

Stupid Pheasants

 

 

Ok so this isn't a post about a birdwatching trip as such. The pheasant pictured got me thinking about the whole subject of introducing birds for hunting. This bird, at Minsmere, was so trusting it went up to every human it saw and begged for food. At Minsmere there were pheasants everywhere. One stumbled onto the scrape and was subject to mobbing by the nesting gulls.

Across the countryside thousands of pheasants are released for hunting, often making them the most common bird to be encountered. On the quiet country roads they are often encountered, too fat and stupid to fly away from approaching cars.

So I ask why. Why release birds for shooting when they will approach you in so trusting a manner. There really can't be much sport, in it surely?

Otters and more at Minsmere - 23/4/2017

OTTER! BITTERNS! SPOONBILLS! STONE CURLEW! GARGANEY!
Yes, today's trip to Minsmere had it all, in what has been one of the best days birdwatching I have experienced.

I turned up around 10 and the weather was good - it looked to be a beautiful day, with warm gentle South Easterlies blowing in from the sea. On hearing that the SAVI'S WARBLER was still present and singing I went over to Island Mere to have a look for it. It I s a very rare nesting bird in the country, so to hear it is quite a privilege. I positioned myself in the right area of the hide but I couldn't hear or see the bird which might be down to how deaf I am.

Island Mere hide

 



 The mere itself, a large lake in the reedbeds, was fairly quiet with a couple of pairs of GREAT CRESTED GREBES, and several pairs of BEARDED TITS flying back and forth across a small pond to the right of the hide. There were at least two BITTERNS booming, the iconic reedbed sound drifting over in the peace. Then at around 10:50 a call went out and 3 SPOONBILLS appeared flying over the mere. They circled around for a while before disappearing north.
But that wasn't all. A small time later a BITTERN rose out from the pond to the right of the hide, and leisurely flew across the neighbouring mere right in front of the hide. Magnificent.

West Scrape - The deepest and more overgrown area of the scrape

 



Of course no trip to Minsmere would be complete without a visit to the Scrape. Pretty much every coastal reserve around the world has a scrape, and this habitat originated here at Minsmere. It's basically shallow brackish water with islands, a simple habitat that attracts lot and lots of birds.

 

GULLS attacking a PHEASANT that had roamed onto the scrape

 



As you approach the Scrape your oral senses go into overload as the sound of several thousand noisy birds all packed into one small area hit you. There were lots and lots of gulls of different species: the nesting BLACK-HEAED, of course, but also around 40+ MED GULLS - concentrated mainly on East Scrape with a few on West - with those sort of number you'd expect them to nest this year. There were also KITTIWAKE roosting on South Scrape, they nest further down the coast at Sizewell Power Station. TERNS were present with 20+ SANDWICH and 10+ COMMON.

 

GULLS nest on the scrape in very high densities

 



With winter passing there were  few duck present. However bucking that trend was a male GARGANEY present on East Scrape, a MANDARIN on South Scrape (a site first for me - common in the parks of Ipswich rare in the wildness of Minsmere); and a pair of WIGEON were also still present.

 

 

MANDARIN paired up with a female MALLARD

 



OK I need to catch some breath. Just relax. Right.
Scrapes are designed to be attractive to migrant waders, however today was fairly unproductive. Single figures  of BLACKWIT, DUNLIN and TRUNSTONE were present with a single BAR-TAILED GODWIT on South Scrape.

Around 100 AVOCETS were present today

 



On the subject of waders, one of the highlights of today was the STONE CURLEW present just off North Wall. In the back of a large area of grassland, in the haze of the sun it could just be made out poking its head above a patch of dock plants. With these birds showing so well at Minsmere, there's no longer the need to go all the way up to Weeting Heath - the traditional stone curlew viewing place - to watch them.

TURNSTONE in beautiful summer plumage

 

Which leaves the OTTER. On a pond to the left of the west hide it appeared and was present for around twenty minutes, ducking and diving. Only a few yards away were a pair of nesting SWANS, with the male very tentatively watching in case the OTTER came near. The animal was quite small, so the consensus was that it was a female. However due to the small side window of the hide and the people present I wasn't able to take a photo.

This male STONECHAT was present on the dunes

So a brilliant day all round with the exception of ducking the SAVI'S. This is why Minsmere is such a magical place, perhaps the best birdwatching reserve in the country, and added to that the season of Spring  - my favourite time of year - and it truly came up with something special.

Landguard Point - 19/4/2017

 

 

 

Not much really to report from today, this Spring has, so far, been fairly uneventful for me. I keep persevering though and maybe the local area might turn up something exciting. Today I tried Landguard point, hoping to catch some migrants at this (usually good) hotspot.
Keeping myself carbon neutral, I biked, then Trained, then biked again reaching the reserve around 11, but came out with not much to report. 

 

The nice sunny weather didn't help much, as it allows migrants to pass overhead rather than grounding them where I can see them.

There were loads of WHEATEAR about, strangely when there were few other migrants. Other observers said there were 40 + present, which seems about right, they can mostly be seen in the more open southern section and in the roped off areas, often in loose groupings.

The only other grounded migrant was a YELLOWHAMMER, which although fairly uncommon here is abundant on the fields near where I live, which just shows how geographical areas affect bird populations.

 

 

LINNETS are extremely common at Landgurad, appearing in small flocks all over the reserve. I can't really complain but they do make birdwatching harder, having more birds to check.

 

 

Large areas of the beach had been roped off to allow RINGED PLOVERS to nest without disturbance. Because their camouflage is so good its quite hard to spot them, but this chap, above, was checking the edge of his territory, which happened to be a short distance from where I stood (outside the ropes).

New Horizons - Pensthorpe - 7/4/2017

I'd always wondered about Pensthorpe, because I couldn't decide how they were advertising it. It didn't seem to be a nature reserve, yet it didn't quite seem a tourist attraction. However I did find my day here very interesting.
The area is a combination of several gravel pits, with a scrape, wood and meadow area. As a reserve it's not that good. compared to the reserves I had been to the days before, there was no real comparison with a reserve like Cley. The lakes held small numbers of TUFTED DUCK, with a few COOT as does every lake in the country. There were a few Feral BARNACLE GEESE and EGYPTIAN GEESE and I'm sure the GOLDENEYE present were from their captive stock.
The scrape held a larger variety of duck, with GADWALL, TEAL and SHOVELLER present. There were 10 OYSTERCATCHER, 4 pairs of AVOCET, and a territorial LAPWING.
So that was it. I had done the place and it was ok for what it was. And then...

The White Stork

 

 

When it hits you that you have seen something amazing and you breathe out a wow. A WHITE STORK was flying over the lakes at Pensthorpe!

I later found him resting on a fence staring down into an enclosure below. For in that enclosure were two captive female STORKS.
With whom he mated...

 

No one knows where the male STORK came from, he just showed up one day and now he just hangs about. I'm counting it as wild and on my year list. It is as wild as the  BARNACLE and EGYPTIAN GEESE on site, even as wild as MUTE SWANS which are all introduced birds to this country.

 

 

Captive Ducks

 

Pensthorpe had several lakes turned over to captive ducks. They had an area given over to CRANE conservation. There was a hide where each of three sides looked out onto a different CRANE species.

 

 

There was another hide that looked at the STORKS and BALD IBIS.

 

 

They had a little pen where they captive bred RED SQUIRRELS, which was nice.

Finally, there was a walk in aviary which had captive British waders like AVOCET and RUFF, along with CORNCRAKES and BEARDED TIT which was excellent.

So, a game of two halves. The reserve wasn't up to much, but I found the captive stock areas very good. The captive areas held a large number of native species, which were very good for getting stock photos of animals that are usually difficult to get close to. I'm glad I saw the place but I probably won't come back for a while, only when I've run out of photos to use on my blog.

 

There you have it - my little trip to North Norfolk. It was ok, but going to an area of such high quality I did have large expectations. And while they weren't fully met I still had a good time.

 

 







Titchwell 6/4/2017

After a fairly underwhelming morning at Holme Dunes, the pressure was on to get a decent sighting. So I went to Titchwell, a big beast of a reserve, to see if I could catch something.

 

 

As usual as I find with Titchwell it is the coast and the sea that provides the main interest, especially to someone coming from Suffolk where the sea doesn't really hold large numbers of birds.
It had turned into a beautiful day, bright and sunny with no wind, allowing me to strip down to a t shirt.
Titchwell only has one route, a mile long journey down to the beach. As the journey progresses it passes through a range of habitats, from woodland, throuch reedbed, through fresh marsh, to esturine marsh and finally on to the beach and to the sea. Having walked this short route many times it can get a bit monotonous.
First sighting of  the day was a small party of BEARDED TIT, just as the reedbed ended.

Male BEARDED TIT has the distinctive moustache

 

On the Fresh Marsh the water levels were very high, with only two islands visible there. There were over 100 AVOCET present, with a few other waders. A pair of MEDITERRANEAN GULLS, were 
amongst their slightly less distinctive cousins the BLACK-HEADED GULL, which were nesting in large numbers.

TEAL were still common on the pools. They often approached closely to the hides, so were the easiest bird to photo

 



The esturine pools were failry quiet, just the usual waders in small numbers. Tidal Marsh held a pair of RED-CRESTED POCHARD, with another four on Patsy's Reedbed.

 

Pair of RED CRESTED POCHARD

 



Finally I came to the sea. On the beach there weren't any waders about, as it was high tide and too disturbed, but the sea was productive. Around 40 black and white LONG-TAILED DUCK were amongst the more numerous COMMON SCOTER, being quite difficult to count on the undulating water. Also with them was an EIDER. Another COMMON SCOTER flock, just out of range of my telescope, shimmering in the heat haze, created a massive black ellipse on the sea. A few SANDWICH TERNS were flying about and there were small numbers of GREAT CRESTED GREBE dotted aound on the water.
So it was the sea that saved it, but the scrapes and pools were as poor as the other two previous sites. I'd advise anyone looking to see the spectacle of a scrape in the spring time should head over to Minsmere, the first and the best example of that habitat.

Holme Dunes 6/4/2017

On the dunes were these webs holding a congregation of caterpillars

 



I was wondering about swapping Titchwell Marsh for Holme as my choice second reserve in North Norfolk, but on this evidence probably not. Like Cley yesterday the birding today was fairly underwhelming. it wasn't like there was nothing about its just there was nothing good about. The malaise caused by the weather had infected today as well. Even at the bird observatory nothing had been ringed.
In the huge dune complex, that made up most of the reserve there were hundreds of MIPPITS and LINNETS with the odd STONECHAT perched on a gorse bush.

On the beach a small flock of BARWITS, KNOT and SANDERLING had congregated on an area of sand, common waders indeed, just not so on the estuaries of Suffolk.
The large grazing marsh which made up most of the land behind the dunes, was fairly quiet. A flock of around 20 PINK FOOTED GEESE hung around south of the observatory. On the hide pools not much was around. A couple of pairs of AVOCET were present, while a few gulls were nesting. MARSH HARRIERS made themselves known with around 5 birds quartering the marshes, with the occasional  clash of talons as they came into contact with each other.
So some birds were about,  but with Spring now upon us I was expecting maybe to catch up with a migrant, which there was a dearth of today.

Cley 5/4/2017

 

On the first full day, Wednesday, things weren't looking good. a depression was hanging around somewhere and it caused the wind to come in from the north-west.  Now for Spring this is the worst direction the birds, at this time of year are coming from the south and east. Any facing wind will stop bird migration as the birds don't want to fly into the wind.
But I decided to persevere and spent the day at Cley Marshes. This is usually a good place for migrant waders, that come to feed on the scrapes, so it was worth a look.
However on the pools there was little to report, with maybe around 10 RUFF on the entire site.  When I first started birding 20 years ago numbers of these birds were often in and around  50 +, which shows what a massive decline they've had at their nearest nesting grounds in Holland in recent years.
AVOCETS were about on all the pools, and there were around 10 pairs of REDSHANK, which might start nesting soon. On the grasslands LAPWING were often indulged in aerial battles, to chase off anything flying above where they were nesting.

One of the scrapes at Cley

 



On Arnold's Marsh, a large scrape just inland from the sea a flock of DUNLIN and RINGED PLOVERS were present with single numbers of larger waders, such as CURLEW and GREY PLOVER.
DUCKS were in small numbers with mostly just breeders left, but a large flock of BRENT GEESE were still present constantly commuting to different areas around the coast.

 

On the sea nothing much was about, with just a lone male COMMON SCOTER.
On the Cley Eye, a little hill that arises amongst the marshes, a pair of BROWN HARES, were running about, acting in their crazy courtship dance.
After I had finished at Cley I decided to walk Blakney Point a shingle ridge that pokes into the sea. Now walking on shingle is like taking one foot forward for every two back, and by the time I had walked a mile, it became quite obvious I wasn't going to make it. I have to admit I am unfit and Blakney Point defeated me.

Holiday in North Norfolk 4/4-8/4 2017

 

I arrived on the Tuesday and stayed at Beeston Regis, on the coast between Cromer and Sheringham. This stretch of coast had steep sandy cliffs and there were a small SAND MARTIN colony with their little holes dug into the top of the cliff. Also present were several FULMARS on territory, their stiff, unbent wings distinctive amongst the gulls.
The aim of this holiday was to get some new birds for the year as we fully enter Spring, in one of the best bird watching places in the country. I was also hoping to catch maybe a lifer, some unexpected sightng out of left field. These goals were met to some extent, though I was too late for the PALLID HARRIER, as I  missed it by a couple of days, which would have been a nice sighting.
I visited the main reserves of CLEY, TITCHWELL and HOLME, and I visited a new reserve for me at PENSTHORPE. All this resulted in an interesting time, lots of birds seen, a sun tan (more like a wind tan), and a nice selection of meals and beers.