Winterton Bird Spotting Collective

2099-10-05T22:17:00.002+01:00

Welcome. You have found us. We are a secret group of crack birders who have turned our backs on the machismo, corruption, and backstabbing greed that constitute today's birding scene, and have united together to follow the True Path of non-competitive, collaborative and generally lovely birding-as-meditation-and-spiritual-growth. Consequently, we never see anything. Birds that land right in front of our noses, and which we can identify with our observer book, are written about here. Oh, and they have to be seen in - or from - the parish of Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk.

5th February 2012

2012-02-05T20:34:00.002Z

Gardens were the hotspots today.

A Fieldfare in Sean's.

A Woodcock in Colin's.

41 House Sparrows in mine - double my previous highest count.

Peter

Wednesday 31st January

2012-02-01T20:20:00.002Z

A new Winterton species for me - or had it still been alive it would have been. One of three reported by a dog walking friend on Tuesday. I could only find the one pictured.

Boundary Issues - a three church approach

2012-01-31T10:28:00.008Z

Surely you saw the Duffle's Pond unblocker Kingfisher Ted?

In any case Marsh Tit is another problematic species which would become much easier with the boundary revision, as well. I think your church argument clinches it assuming it's correct -after all parishes are based around churches aren't they? So if we can prove that after the ruination of St Mary's church the poor folk of East Somerton had to traipse all the way to Winterton on a Sunday rather than nip over the road to the other St Mary's in West Somerton, then we can all praise the lord for several armchair ticks. We simply need to appoint a Collective Historian to check out the dates etc, then follow up to ratify at an Extraordinary General Meeting, where we can also take advantage of the library special offer on DVDs and screen "The Big Year". I'll offer my house as the venue and provide nibbles...

Boundary Issues

2012-01-30T13:26:00.002Z

With reference to recent blogs concerning our recording area there is a precedent for the inclusion of East Somerton in the collective patch -

White's Directory of Norfolk (1836) quotes:

East Somerton is a small but picturesque hamlet and parish, now united with Winterton (not you will note with West Somerton) its own church having long been an ivy-covered ruin.

I have to admit that this change would allow me to include Kingfisher on my list as well as the aforementioned White-spotted Bluethroat

28th January 2012

2012-01-29T20:31:00.002Z

A genuine Winterton tick this morning in the form of a Peregrine. Although I have seen various dots and hybrids/escapes in the past this long overdue gap was duly filled this morning. Once again it was the Raptor Rich Pallid Track area that came up trumps.

14 January

2012-01-19T04:14:00.002Z

After hearing word of an expansionist plot (see previous post), I hopped onto the next flight back from Beijing to investigate what all the fuss was about. After walking the controversial concrete track I could see the temptation to expand Winterton's boundaries. I counted 9 Common Cranes, at least 50 Fieldfares and, most exciting of all, 5 Tree Sparrows in the forbidden lands.

Despite these potential gains, I shall be voting (assuming the Collective is still a democracy and hasn't been taken over by a crazed dictator - Pete?) to resist calls for an invasion, I mean merger. According to my straw poll of local citizens (I asked a bloke walking his dog on the public footpath), East Somerton wishes to remain independent. As he said to me, "for now it's East Somerton but where would it end? Hemsby? Horsey? Poland?". Wise words.

And as if to remind me that Winterton has it all, the birding gods arranged for me to luck in on a Treecreeper along Holmes Road. Who needs East Somerton, eh?

2nd January 2012

2012-01-02T22:16:00.002Z

A bright and bracing morning saw three Collective members undertaking the The Concrete Track walk round the back of the dunes. Although fairly unremarkable birdwise (highlights being a Little Egret down Low Road and a single Common Buzzard) this route has apparently provoked a move to include the adjoining westward parish of East Somerton in the Winterton Bird Spotting Collective recording area. This would naturally require an Extraordinary General Meeting to approve the renaming of the Collective as The Winterton and East Somerton Bird Spotting Collective, which, as I'm sure everyone would agree, would turn us into a laughing stock - it doesn't exactly trip off the tongue does it? It would also risk souring relations with the East Somerton Collective (if they exist) as they might not want to be merged even though it would open the floodgates to a greatly increased list for them ie Gannet is still a very rare bird in East Somerton. On the other side of the coin we could only think of White-spotted Bluethroat as being a gain for Winterton.

As mentioned above the suggestion to incorporate East Somerton comes not from aggressive empire building but merely the fact that The Concrete Track and the Pallid Track both straddle the border requiring observers currently to pocket their pencils when they leave the avian paradise of Winterton. To my mind the obvious and surely infallible solution is simply to carry two separate pieces of paper in the field and record the Winterton birds on one and the Somerton birds on the other...

The debate, as they say, is sure to run and run.

PS Apologies to any hard working and diligent employees of bird information services who may have had a bit of shock when seeing White-spotted Bluethroat in bold earlier on in this post. Whoops, just done it again!

18th December 2011

2011-12-18T23:35:00.003Z

A return visit to a bird-packed Low Road this time produced a Rough-legged Buzzard showing well until enveloped by a passing blizzard.

17th December 2011

2011-12-18T23:33:00.001Z

A lovely male Bullfinch put in a couple of brief appearances down Low Road.

12 November 2011

2011-11-12T22:40:00.000Z

A whacking great falcon which I think was a Saker was being mobbed by crows and even a Marsh Harrier in the northern fields today. There were also one pretend and one more real looking Hooded Crow up there.

9th November 2011

2011-11-09T17:29:00.001Z

A Lesser Whitethroat this morning in the North Dunes. Unfortunately it was not seen well enough to determine which race/"species" it was.

6th November 2011

2011-11-06T21:23:00.002Z

A rewarding seawatch between 07.00 - 11.00 produced the following all going north:

Brent Goose 110

Shelduck 420

Wigeon 570

Gadwall 3

Teal 310

Mallard 9

Pintail 18

Shoveler 1 South

Pochard 7

Eider 59

Long-tailed Duck 1

Common Scoter 26

Velvet Scoter 4

Goldeneye 7

Red-breasted Merganser 16

Red-throated Diver c20 mostly north

Gannet c50+

Great Crested Grebe 1 South

Oystercatcher 1 South

Avocet 2

Lapwing 8

Knot 35

Sanderling 2

Dunlin 275

Common Snipe 1

Bar-tailed Godwit 1

Curlew 3

Great Skua 1 South

Black-headed Gull c30

Little Gull 3-4 feeding well off shore

Common Gull c5

Herring Gull

Greater Black-backed Gull 3

Kittiwake c10

Common Tern 1

Guillemot c5

Little Auk 2

Snow Bunting 16 South

There was also a Blackcap in the garden and a walk along the beach to Caister produced another Little Auk and an Arctic Tern.

5th November 2011

2011-11-05T20:41:00.003Z

A Swift sp flew south along the beach at 08.10. In the murky drizzle it was impossible to pick up any features to suggest which species though. Other than that just a few Gannets, Red-throated Divers and one Turnstone.

In the afternoon 25 Redwings landed briefly in the garden and there were about 50 in the South Dunes.

3rd November 2011

2011-11-05T20:36:00.002Z

No bird news today but Muntjac Deer was a mammalian garden tick.

2nd November 2011

2011-11-02T22:41:00.002Z

A Short-eared Owl in off the sea this morning and Ted saw the Rough-legged Buzzard which has been lurking erratically since last Saturday.

1st November 2011

2011-11-01T18:49:00.002Z

Single Swallow, House Martin, Lapland Buntings and two Brent Geese all south.

30 October 2011

2011-10-30T11:26:00.004Z

A wander along the dunes behind the village this morning produced an unusually late Swift which, as I observed it, came low over the houses and appeared magically to transform from a typically plumaged individual into a lovely sandy colour. As I watched it it did this trick several times, until I was totally confused. I didn't have my phone on me so I ran back to Pete's house and he came back with me, in his slippers, and I took my camera to try to get some shots. We relocated it and had a good look. Half the time it looked like a bog-standard Swift and half the time looked much more suggestive, but out of context, and having not seen any Swifts for over a month, I was beginning to doubt my own vision. After about ten minutes we were still not sure what we were watching and so we phoned Tim, who arrived on top of the Hermanus and decided to put out the news as a possible Pallid Swift, in the hope that that we could con some proper birders into a visit so they could identify it for us. The bigwigs duly arrived and, typically, some were in the Pallid camp and some in the Common. As it stands at present we don't know, and people are making convincing arguments either way. Here are my pictures (µ43 rules!) which have only been cropped, not altered in any other way. You can click on them to see the larger versions. What do YOU think?

PS Just been out for another look and found out that Dick Filby took a decent shot of the underparts which he is going home to study. So we might have a conclusive identification soon...

Publish Post

Update - here are Dick Filby's photos. Still not conclusive - but he's leaning more towards Common Swift.

29th October 2011.

2011-10-29T16:09:00.000+01:00

39 Snow Buntings south beach,Great Skua,Little Gull Tim.

Friday 28 October 2011

2011-10-28T14:49:00.004+01:00

A few hours in the north dunes this afternoon during a flying visit back home produced 2 Northern Wheatears, at least 800 Pink-footed Geese, a handful of Reed Buntings in the dunes scrub, a Coal Tit and, frustratingly, a fly-over 'tick' bunting that came in off the sea, called 3 times and headed west towards the wind turbines.25 Snow Buntings south beach,one male Black Redstart south dunes,200 Little Gulls Tim.

27th October 2011.

2011-10-27T16:02:00.000+01:00

Pallas's Warbler north dunes,Black Redstart south dunes,three Snow Buntings south beach Tim.

26th October 2011.

2011-10-26T15:56:00.000+01:00

Four Lapland Buntings south dunes,two Black Redstarts in Hermanus Tim.

25th October 2011.

2011-10-25T15:44:00.000+01:00

Firecrest in lighthouse garden,Black Redstart in Hermanus,six Snow Buntings in north dunes,large no's of common thrush's Tim.

16 October 2010

2011-10-16T22:40:00.001+01:00

The Yellow-browed Warbler was still below the Hermanus (here is a nice pic of it from Tim's blog), and a Black Redstart was on the roofs of the monstrous houses now built at the start of the valley. A nice adder was catching the last rays before heading towards the land of nod for the winter.

15th October 2011.

2011-10-16T09:08:00.003+01:00

Yellow-Browed Warbler and Ring Ouzel in south dunes,two Bearded Tits,two Grey Wagtails,four Med Gulls, one 1st winter one 2nd winter two ads Tim.