Winterton Bird Spotting Collective

Woodchip Yellow Wag

2023-05-06T17:00:00.006+01:00

4 May 2023 - Ruff Day!

2023-05-05T20:27:00.006+01:00

Today we had a really spectacular arrival of Reeves onto a little patch of muddy field on the inland part of our patch. Here is a panorama taken towards the end of the day. At the peak we counted around 240 birds! Click the image and let it load, then you can zoom in and scroll around the panorama and marvel!!!

Finding a Blue Rock Thrush at Winterton on October 20th 2022

2022-11-21T15:49:00.010+00:00

The local birders in Winterton (at least those of us who didn't have to go to work) were pretty excited about going birding on the morning of Thursday 20th October as, for the first time that month, the wind had been easterly for the previous 24 hours and the day was leaden with cloud and intermittent rainfall.

I, too, was hopeful for some good birds, despite the fact that I’d been out on the patch for a solid 10 hours the day before, and while other birders from around the county seemed to have been caught in an endless shower of Pallas’s Warblers, my best bird had been a Lesser Redpoll.

But patch-birding Winterton is pretty often like that and you just have to keep the faith - even if that faith sometimes seems to border on religious self-flagellation. I’ve lived here for 19 years. I’m not massively keen on crowds, and twitching doesn’t do it for me, so pretty much all my birding is done from my door in the hope and expectation that occasionally - very occasionally in my case - it pays off, and the countless hours of birdless trudging about will be all forgotten in a moment. (The last time it paid off really ‘big time’ for me was 14 years ago, on 20th April 2008, when I found Norfolk’s first, and to date only Black Lark, in the North Dunes).

Since I retired a couple of years ago, I have been able to conduct my self-flagellatory patch walks on pretty much a daily basis and so was out again at 7.30am on the Thursday morning to undertake my customary autumn morning route through the ‘valley’ as local birders call the Winterton South Dunes SSSI. As I reached the dunes at the end of my road I could see Barry, another of the village birders, heading off with his scope towards the fishing huts for a sea-watch, and momentarily I was torn about whether I should be doing the same thing. But I decided to stick to my plan and look for a Pallas’s Warbler - surely there must be one here somewhere!

The valley was full of thrushes - mainly Redwings, Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, and there were many more Goldcrests than the day before too, so it felt pretty ‘rare’. But despite looking everywhere, I could find little else and around 9am I headed up towards the Hermanus, the holiday accommodation complex of distinctive thatched roundhouses which sit above the dunes just south of the village. This area is pretty much out of bounds to birders but the owners kindly allow a few locals to scan the complex from the top of the slope leading up to it from the South Dunes. The rooftops are a favoured haunt of Black Redstarts. The area also contains a few more sheltered spots which I figured might hold birds avoiding the still fairly strong wind.

At about 9.15, I got to the top of the slope and scanned around. Immediately I saw a Grey Wagtail fly in and land on one of the thatched rooftops. Grey Wagtail is a slightly tricky year tick here these days and I knew that Barry would be interested so I rang him, but as is almost always the case with his ancient, steam-driven mobile phone, I couldn’t get through. I tried again and was waiting for the phone to connect and keeping an eye on the Wagtail when I noticed another bird come out from around the far side of the thatch lower down and shimmy up onto the TV aerial. It was about Blackbird size, but the effortless, agile way it had bounced up the slope of the roof was very different from a Blackbird and actually reminded me more of a huge Black Redstart!

I know I’m not a great birder by any means. Often I’m not even a particularly competent one! After 50 years of birding I still can’t really get to grips with large first year gulls, or with Phyllosc and Acro wing formulae, and confining my birding to one frequently pretty birdless patch doesn’t exactly provide me with the opportunity to hone my field ID skills on a wide range of species. But somehow I think I knew what the bird I was looking at was going to be even before I raised my binoculars to get my first proper look at it, and when I did (through Swarovski EL 8x32s if you’re interested) the shock of confirmation was overwhelming but almost expected.

Sitting on the TV aerial, looking around with a lovely large eye and alert expression, sporting crazy humbuggy zig-zaggy underparts all the way to the undertail, and casually holding a grub in its outlandishly long bill, was an immature Blue Rock Thrush!!

My first view of a Norfolk first

I’m not really sure how I knew what species it would be, but I had seen them abroad, and had read the finder’s account of this spring’s Essex bird in Birdwatch magazine only recently, looking longingly at photos of that bird and of the species in general, imagining finding one here. And here I was, looking at one!!

I had my camera on me (OM1, 300mm and 1.4 converter if you’re interested!) and was shaking when I raised it, but I fired off about 20 shots. Then the bird flew down and away on the other side of the roof and I was thrown into a dilemma about what to do - get permission to go into the complex and try to relocate the bird, double check the ID on my photos or try to get a message to the other locals I knew to be out birding that morning. I decided on the latter and hastily got my phone out. In the drizzle I texted “think ive got a blue rock thrush in the Hermanus” and sent it to our village birders WhatsApp group and a couple of other people, then copied the message and texted it to Barry (whose phone is so ancient it can’t use WhatsApp). I scanned around but still couldn’t see the bird any more, so I called Barry again and miraculously got through to him - “Oh! I’d better get back there then!” was his response and he was on his way immediately. I needed someone else there urgently to verify that I wasn’t just making it all up in my head!

Then I started off into the Hermanus grounds and double checked with one of the workers that it would be OK to take a quick look for the rare bird I had just seen. I went round the drive and couldn’t see it. I searched for the next ten minutes but nothing. So I crouched down and reviewed my photos. Thank the Lord about half were in focus. I sent one out on WhatsApp, which caused my phone to ring pretty much immediately as several other village birders realised I wasn't going bonkers and scrambled for further details.

The WhatsApp messages 😂

By about 9.50 several locals had arrived, and we had all started searching but couldn’t relocated it. By now it was drizzling steadily. Barry went to look on the rooftops along the road to the south of the complex while I and the others waited on the edge of the Hermanus, hoping it was sheltering from the rain and might reappear. I was elated but also sad for the others as it seemed increasingly likely that the bird had moved on and I was destined to be the only observer. But just after 10am, as we were discussing this likely outcome, one of us suddenly said “Hang on, what’s that sheltering under the roof of that playground house?” We looked over and in the murk there it was! I fired off another shot on my camera before it dropped out of sight. Amazingly it was still here!

The second sighting - phew!

Barry returned and a few other local birders began to arrive. I wasn’t sure of the status of Blue Rock Thrush in Norfolk and asked if there had been any previous records. Apparently not! The bird was by now showing very occasionally, popping up on a different rooftop each time, and disappearing for long periods, but it gradually dawned on us that despite the access problems, if it remained we needed to try to release the news. Indeed it appeared that somehow it was already out, as rumours were flying around on the Norfolk Bird News WhatsApp group, which led to it appearing on Birdguides and other information services, then disappearing, then reappearing!

We spoke to the Hermanus manager and negotiated access for a car-parking fee, and at 10.50am I was able to release the news. The first birders managed to get here within the hour and most who arrived through the morning were lucky enough to connect, but by early afternoon it had seemingly disappeared. Amazingly though it was relocated later in the afternoon on the other side of the village where it was seen by a lucky few as it continued to play rooftop hide and seek.

Sadly it was not seen the following day.

So 14 years after my somewhat obsessive patch dedication had paid off with a first for Norfolk, I had found another one! One Black, one Blue; I’m going for Brown Flycatcher next, but on my current form it will probably be in 2036...

May 2022 Roundup

2022-06-09T15:02:00.022+01:00

I've been finding it harder and harder to write these monthly roundups. In large part this is because what I really most enjoy about patch birding is not the occasional rarity that I might be lucky enough to find, but the activities and movements of the more 'common' species on the patch, the arrivals and departures of the winter and summer visitors and the birds passing through on their way to or from their breeding grounds, the first Wheatear of the year, the last Redwing, the Stonechat and Linnet broods, the annual spring appearance of Avocets on the distant pool in the north of the patch.

But these days for patch birders on the east Norfolk coast a retrospective look back at the month just gone by almost inevitably invokes disappointment in comparison with the hopes we all had at the start of the month. For lifelong birders, May used to be a highlight of the year, with fresh spring migrants pouring in, breeding birds setting up territories, the dawn chorus, and for me most magical of all: the arrival of the Swifts which, as Ted Hughes put it, 'means the globe's still working'.

But the tragic truth is that the globe's struggling, more and more each year and each month. The Mays of our youth will never come back, and today we are reduced to simply bearing witness to the ever decreasing numbers of birds in ever more impoverished habitats, and scrabbling around to glean our birding pleasures from more and more infrequent sightings of once common migrants. The truth is, with a handful of exceptions, there are no common migrants any more, and watching the few pairs of Swallows or Willow Warblers that remain on the patch is a pleasure completely suffused with huge sadness at the losses such species have sustained, and their inevitable continuing decline. Finding something on the patch like a Spotted Flycatcher or a Yellow Wagtail is now one of the highlights of my birding week, rather than a welcome but expected occurrence. And after witnessing the awful die-off of auks last winter, as I write it now seems like avian flu is here, with carcasses of Gannets washing up on the beach.

The other day someone I follow on Twitter encapsulated how I increasingly feel in a series of tweets which I've put together below:

Sorry to sound like an eeyore but recently I've been struggling to derive much pleasure from local birding, as I feel like I'm witnessing extinction/biodiversity collapse in real time. I can literally see the gradual disappearance of, say, Marsh Tit, Yellow Wag, Yellowhammer. Meanwhile, the likes of Wood Warbler, Willow Tit, Turtle Dove, probably LSW, have already disappeared, This grim reality is hard to ignore when out birding. It's also the reason I find the "yay, aren't birds brilliant" vibe of "nature twitter" and the "nice one mate, Eleanora's on my fucking list" vibe of twitching twitter so jarring: they feel like inconsequential scraps of pleasure amidst a biosphere going to shit. Tbh I think this is only hitting me now as I've led a rather itinerant existence as an adult (living, variously, in Fife, London, Essex, Leeds and now Cov), and only now have I been doing regular local birding long enough to properly notice real time biodiversity collapse. I can't help feeling that folks who have been local patching for longer than I have must have either greater emotional resilience than I possess, or some serious capacity for compartmentalisation.And I remain more convinced than ever that the nature conservation sector is wholly inadequate to the task of combatting biodiversity loss: it is risk averse and apolitical at a time when - as I argue here: - we need angry radicalism.

@JDeanbirding

I'm now not sure my emotional resilience is strong enough to continue documenting this decline month by month, so it's possible that this monthly roundup could be my last. However, who knows? Maybe I'll find some positivity down the back of the sofa and be able to continue. It hasn't all been bad this last month - the good numbers of Ring Ouzels continued into May, and our pioneering, if slightly dubious, approach to extreme long-range birding of the Horsey area with telescopes from Bramble Gap continued to produce some unusual records for our Winterton year lists! So I'm definitely not yet saying never again with the roundups, but if this is the last one, you can always look at the tweets on the right (desktop version of the blog - dunno where they are on the mobile version) if you want to flick back and see what's been seen here lately.

The month began with a bang for our regular visiting birder Stuart W, who saw a Red-rumped Swallow go south at Bramble Gap on the morning of the 1st. Ring Ouzels were still around, with several in the paddocks, and Chris, another of our regular visitors, heard the first Cuckoo of the year from the Commissioners area on the same day. The Cattle Egrets remained amongst the newly arrived cows in the fields inland from Bramble Gap, and the first Hobbies of the year returned to the Mill Farm area, and a Reed Warbler was singing near the Coot Pool.

Our newly appointed warden for the North Dunes National Nature Reserve, David B, reported hearing a Grasshopper Warbler in the Warren over several days at the start of the month, but despite many attempts none of the rest of us managed to hear it (but then our average collective age puts us at a distinct disadvantage in this respect!).

On the 2nd Chris was scanning the lovely flock of summer plumage Golden Plovers which had been hanging around in the newly ploughed maize patch along the Holmes Road when into his scope view popped one of the star birds of the month - a Shorelark, which, although always very distant in the field, remained for long enough for most of us to see it. Photos were difficult, and Maynard's digiscoped image is about as good as it gets I'm afraid!

Maynard continued to demonstrate his photography skills with this shot of an ultra-rare-these-days Grey Partridge which he found near the old maize patch on the hedge footpath between the concrete track and the Holmes Road.

The first Little Tern was also seen at Bramble Gap on the 2nd, and Chris had a great record in the form of a Black-tailed Godwit, initially seen along the beach by his partner and later in flight by him too.

On the 3rd Barry saw a Cuckoo in the valley and two Whinchats on the Edward Road paddock, which, although often out of sight, remained for the rest of the day.

This interesting gull was on the sea close to the beach off the diamond sign on the same day. On balance I thought was not a Caspian, mainly due to the greater coverts, but I'd be interested in further opinion if it secures a retrospective patch year tick!

Whilst I was watching it a nice summer plumage Bar-tailed Godwit dropped in on the sand bar.

There was also a Mediterranean Gull on the sea - their numbers seem massively down this year!

On the morning of the 4th a pair of Hobbies were hunting in the valley and their team effort quickly led to the demise of a Meadow Pipit:

Barry found a Yellow Wagtail in the Edward Road paddock which, again, remained for much of the day, although it took some of us several visits to manage to see it. When it did appear it it was usually out of range for decent photographs, as the evidence below shows! Some parts of north Norfolk were at this time recording double figure flocks of Yellow Wags, something which we have not seen here for some years - we just get ones and twos these days, plus a few more non-stopping flyovers.

On the 4th a Brent Goose flew north and a female Hen Harrier put in an appearance at Bramble Gap. It showed better in the North Dunes the next morning though:

On the 5th there was a large arrival of Little Terns - more than 100 were going both ways off Bramble Gap - the start of their wanderings while they are deciding whether to select here or beaches further south or north for their breeding efforts. Meanwhile there were two more Yellow Wagtails in the Chalet Park, a Garden Warbler along Low Road and a male Black Redstart in the valley, and David the warden once again heard the Grasshopper Warbler in the Warren.

On the 6th several more Garden Warblers were singing along the Holmes Road, and the first fledged Stonechats were noted.

On the 7th Tim had a Common Sandpiper on the beach briefly, and the first Swift of the year, the latest arrival date for some years, zooming north at Bramble Gap. The Common Sandpiper was later picked up by Mick a short distance south of the Gap. Sean, who failed to see one at all last year, was at a crucial stage in his marmalade making and couldn't get up to see it in time...

The saga of Patrick's Tawny Owls continued. After the seeming abandonment of the box and the Jackdaw intrusion, this adult was seen in the box all day on the 7th.

On the 8th Mick and Pat saw a pair of Garganey fly inland off the sea, and continuing the duck theme this Eider was seen walking about on the beach that evening.

That evening also saw the first lingering Swifts, with a pair over the village.

On the 9th Sean saw 4 Spoonbills in flight from Bramble Gap, and found this Short-eared Owl, obviously a member of the Winter influx which unfortunately didn't make it out alive.

On the 10th Sean saw the first Spotted Flycatcher of the year in the valley (photo of it below by Tim), as well as 2 Garden Warblers, and 3 Brent Geese sitting on the sea off the south beach.

Also of interest a Lesser Whitethroat seemed to have established a territory near the start of the North Dunes. Amazingly it wasn't until this date that any of us saw any Sandwich Terns on the patch, with the first few flying north on the 10th.

On the 11th Sean had a Tree Pipit feeding on the ground in the valley. It flew off calling but he didn't think it went far, and sure enough a little later when Pat and Barry had arrived it flew over our heads again. Yesterday's Spotted Flycatcher remained (or a different one had arrived) and a Sedge Warbler was singing on the bank. Mick saw two Canada Geese with the Greylags at Commissioners.

One of our regular hybrid Hoodies was enjoying the evening sunshine on the 11th, and a late walk up the beach finally enable Sean to lay to rest last year's year list bogey bird with this Common Sandpiper sporting itself on Groyne 53 and the nearby beach.

To celebrate his success he stayed out late and was rewarded with the year's first Nightjars churring, calling and wing clapping.

On the 12th another Sedge Warbler was singing in the valley and there were 7 or more Wheatears in the South Dunes too. Mick got the long-range Bittern in flight tick from Bramble Gap, and another Common Sandpiper on Groyne 45.

On the 13th Murray saw a Whinchat at the now single double pool, and he and Sean separately saw 3 Canada Geese flying north along the dune ridge, and a Shoveler flying south from Bramble Gap became Sean's 150th species on the patch for the year. Another Tree Pipit also flew north at Bramble Gap on the same day. That evening saw an incredible passage of mixed Hirundines go through the dunes, with a great cloud of several thousand Swallows and House Martins, plus smaller numbers of Sand Martins moving slowly north over the course of about 40 minutes. at one point they were literally everywhere you looked! Possibly the huge Saharan dust storms or other setbacks during the preceding weeks on their way north had held them all back in a massive group and they were finally arriving together.

On the 14th very early Pat had two Tree Pipits over at Bramble Gap, and later Tim saw a pair of Bullfinches along the Holmes Road (Sean and Mick had thought they had heard one there the previous day).

On the 15th Pat had good views of 2 Spoonbills from Bramble Gap, and Maynard had a Whinchat and a Spotted Flycatcher in the North Dunes.

On the 16th Barry saw a male Redstart and a Pied Flycatcher in the South Dunes. Though elusive, the Pied Fly remained through the day and into the next, allowing most of us to catch up with it. On the same morning Sean saw two Spoonbills sitting in the field inland of Bramble Gap. They remained long enough for Tim to cycle up and tick them, then to cycle back and get the Pied Fly too! Photographs of the Spoonies were again limited to the worst kind of record shot, as you can see!

That morning Colin also heard an unusually melodious sounding Acro in the valley, but others of us were unable to locate it later on. Mick noticed a nice pair of Green Hairstreaks in courtship flight at the Oaks, and a Peregrine also flew low over the valley.

After work Pat saw a Yellow Wagtail fly over the Mill Farm track. They have been SO thin on the ground this year.

On the morning of the 17th Sean saw 3 Spotted Flycatchers in the valley. You can never have enough photos of this absolute birders' bird.

Colin found a (normallly singing) Reed Warbler at the oaks and rhe Pied Flycatcher remained on the bank too. The Eider was still hanging around close inshore.

That evening Sean flushed what seemed to be a big Pipit from the North Dunes, which flew quickly and strongly away. He managed to fire off a couple of photos before it disappeared over the dune ridge. It had really looked large and long tailed at the time and although it hadn't called he had immediately thought of Richard's Pipit. However, on reviewing the photos it was very clear that it was another Tree Pipit. It was amazing how big and rangy it had looked at the time - a salutary lesson in how hard it can be to judge size in a quick and unexpected view.

On the 18th there were still at least 2 Spotted Flycatchers and a Reed Warbler in the valley. Colin, enjoying a coffee in his garden and playing around with the new Merlin bird sounds identifier, almost spat his beverage all over his phone when "Bee-eater" suddenly popped up on the app. He leapt up and frantically searched the skies and listened with his own ears, but alas it was not to be. Given that the app later also found a "Moustached Warbler" in the dunes, it seems we must take its claims with a huge amount of seasoning! That afternoon there were 6 Wheatears between the village and the car park, and that evening Pat noticed a pair of Tufted Duck on Commissioner's Dyke. They remained on the dyke over the next few days, always extremely unobtrusive and difficult to see except in the evenings.

On the 19th Mick saw another Bittern from a great distance at Bramble Gap and, on hearing of the annual Caspian Tern which had just arrived, and was now fishing, over Martham Broad, set himself the task of getting it as a long-range tick from the patch. He cycled frantically to the gate north of Commissioner's where he figured he'd be closes to the Broad with the widest view, and started scanning. Amazingly he saw it, just as it was making its way north towards Horsey Mere! The best 'mission accomplished' tick of the year so far!!!

On the 20th Sean saw at least 7 Avocets in the distant pool from Bramble Gap. and 4 Spoonbills flew out to sea before decident to return and head inland towards Horsey Mere. A little later 3 of the Spoonbills, or perhaps 3 different ones, appeared in the field inland from the gap. Colin needed Spoonbill for his year list, as well as Avocet, and the rapidly drying pool quite possibly meant that today might be the only day to see them, so he negotiated ship to shore leave with Linda and came up, successfully adding both, although he had to sweat a bit with the Spoonies who had all walked out of site. Luckily they took off after about half an hour and showed well in flight.

Another Mediterranean Gull was on the south beach on the 20th, with the Eider still on the sand bar, alongside a Little Egret (we very rarely see them on the beach) and a Wheatear by the sheds.

A few Cuckoos were also being seen around the patch at this time.

On the 21st Sean and Pat were up early at Bramble Gap and were duly rewarded with a fine male Golden Oriole north at 6.40am, and a pair of Turtle Doves at 7.30! Once again, terrible record shots of the Oriole were all that we could manage in our panic!

Pat also had another nice yellow yeartick in the form of the Grey Wagtail which had reappeared along Low Road, and this time he managed a better record shot!

The rest of the month saw a smattering of the expected birds being seen - Avocets, Garden Warblers, Cranes, quite a lot of Red Kites, Hobbies, a few more Mediterranean Gulls, the odd Fulmar and another sighting of a Bullfinch, this time near the White House. The Eider remained too. More unexpected was a late Redwing in the valley on the 26th. On the insect front Sean had a Norfolk Hawker in the valley, an unusual occurrence, and on the 27th Pat scored big in his moth trap with this subtly beautiful and rare migrant Striped Hawkmoth.

Here it is later on preparing for takeoff after its release:

And that was May. Some nice highlights and a dearth of 'common' migrants. We (and our visitors) have collectively seen a total of 174 species on the patch so far. Sean is out ahead on the year list race with 154 but rapidly running out of steam with Pat closing in fast on 151, and the pack not far behind.

Sorry for the rant at the beginning; maybe June will be better and I'll regain the impetus to keep writing...

April 2022 Roundup

2022-05-08T18:05:00.008+01:00

Not a lot of time this month so here is a simple list of the highlights from resident and visiting birders. If I find time I'll come back to it and add some 'flavour'.

Red Kites and Bar-tailed Godwits were seen regularly throughout the month and the commoner warblers began to appear in slightly better numbers. The first records are mentioned here.

1st - 3rd: 2nd winter Glaucous Gull

3rd: Redshank, Green Woodpecker

4th: Black Redstart

6th: Willow Warbler

11th: Ring Ouzel (they were regular throughout the month from this date, sometimes in really good numbers), White Wagtail, Swallow

12th: Sand Martin, Tree Pipit, Barnacle Goose, Black Redstart, 7 Whimbrel (regular after this date)

13th: Black Kite, male Hen Harrier

14th: House Martin, male Redstart, Sedge Warblers, 5 Brambling

15th: female Hen Harrier (seen over the rest of the month), 3 Brent Geese, 12 Golden Plover, Little Ringed Plover

16th: Woodlark, 2 Shoveler

17th: 5 Gadwall, Short-eared Owl, Jack Snipe

19th: Fulmar

20th: Lesser Whitethroat

23rd: 2 Turtle Doves north

25th: Arctic Terns, Common Terns, 3 Bitterns (distantly inland from Bramble Gap), 2 Canada Geese

27th: 3 Great Egrets, 3 Cattle Egrets (first for the patch), Whinchat

28th: Wryneck

30th: Garden Warbler

March 2022 Roundup

2022-04-10T13:19:00.023+01:00

Although a somewhat quiet month, March was not without avian interest. On the 2nd a single Snow Bunting was on the beach, and on the 3rd a Peregrine sat in the field opposite Bramble Gap long enough for Mick to alert tardy yearlisters (Sean) about it. Geese were melting away steadily, and only 8 Pink-footed Geese were in the field alongside it. A short poor seawatch on the 5th produced a Pintail for Pat, and several pairs of Ringed Plover were taking up territories on the beach. Goodness knows if they'll have any success this year with so many off-lead dogs everywhere. However, English Nature are employing a summer warden for the dunes and beach this year, to complement the RSPB's Little Tern efforts, and part of his job is to try to educate (in a non-confrontational and friendly way) dog walkers about the harm off-lead dogs do in the breeding season. We wish him every success!

The Dunlin numbers on the flooded field next to Commissioner's Dyke fluctuated up again on the 5th, with around 70 present, and beyond them in the heat haze 7 Whooper Swans (4 adults and 3 immatures) grazed alongside the Mutes. Several pairs of Gadwall were also in the same area during this time, and Red Kites were a daily occurrence on the patch too.

On the 9th Pete was walking up Low Road when he noted three short-tailed passerines take off from a field. He thought perhaps they might have been Woodlarks but his mind was focused on bryophytes and he continued on his walk up to the ruined church without thinking any more about them. A little later he met Sean coming back from Commissioner's and they walked back down Low Road. Sean saw three passerines fly up from nearly the same place and at that point Pete told him of the earlier sighting. This time however they were found on the ground a little further along and confirmed as Woodlarks. They hung around for the rest of the day allowing all of us to see them.

The next week was largely quiet, although Siskins were on the move (all going south, as birds often do here in the spring), and both winter thrushes were seen regularly in small numbers. On the 12th Pat saw a Merlin from the concrete track and Mick saw a White Wagtail at Commissioner's. The wintering Green Sandpiper was also still frequently showing very well in the same area, and Mistle Thrushes had started singing in several places on the patch.

Towards the end of the afternoon of the 14th an amazing migration spectacle began to take place in Winterton, and indeed all along the coast of east Norfolk. Blackbirds were on the move... There were lots gathered in the paddocks along Low Road, and in the air more and more seemed to be appearing until it reached a point when at all heights, wherever you scanned, you could see parties of Blackbirds, from just over the rooftops to barely visible almost in the high clouds. There were many hundreds of birds passing, mainly going south (as usual!) but there seemed a smaller number heading in almost every direction. We later found that the predominant direction across Norfolk for this incredible event was north-east, so again Winterton birds were bucking the trend. The movement primarily took place in the last hour and a half before dark, and must have involved several thousand birds. That's what patch birding is all about!

Over the next few days Starlings, Chaffinches and Siskins moved south each morning in significant numbers, with Redwings and Fieldfares also moving through in smaller numbers. A ringtail Hen Harrier was seen fairly regularly, and Mick saw another Woodlark in flight south over Bramble Gap on the 15th. A non-birding local reported the first Wheatear of the year on the same day, at the Chalet Park, and Sean sound-recorded a Water Rail over his garden at midnight.

On the 16th Colin found a Grey Wagtail in the newly dug dyke next to the devastated hedge along Low Road, and although it flew off, it had the grace to return about an hour later and allow several more of us to get it on our yearlists - a very tricky bird to make sure of these days...

On the 17th Barry saw two Black Redstarts in the valley and 16 Snow Buntings on the beach, while Mick and Tim saw a Great White Egret, 4 Red Kites and a Shoveler from Bramble Gap. Black Redstarts were seen pretty regularly from this point to the end of the month by most of us, generally around the Hermanus.

On the 18th Mick saw a Merlin whizz successfully through the Starling flock and land in the field with its prey. He also had a Blackcap in the Low Road paddocks. Quite a few Woodcock seemed to be arriving around this time, including one that Pete flushed off the allotments. On the 19th Pat saw this male Hen Harrier at Bramble Gap.

On the 19th Chris, our regular visitor, was up from Bedfordshire and casually told us he'd had a singing Cetti's Warbler in a ditch along Low Road, which, although a Winterton tick for him, was, he assumed, a regular bird for us locals... In fact it's a real rarity on the patch and when we found out we all shot up to search for it, but alas unsuccessfully!

On the 20th Barry reported two Firecrests on private property, and Manyard a Red-necked Grebe flying north just beyond the surf. On the 21st Barry found another two Woodlarks in one of the paddocks, but they did not hang around like the earlier Low Road birds.

A smattering of Curlews have been seen (or heard) in flight this year, but one found by Sean walking about in the Commissioner's field on the 21st was the first on the deck, allowing Pat to twitch it for his yearlist when he got home from work!

On the 23rd Barry found another Firecrest, this time in the valley, on a classic date for this species here, but annoyingly it melted away and couldn't be found a few minutes later. It looks like the Firecrest early spring window has closed with only Barry managing to see any. And last year there was none in the autumn...

On the 24th Tim found a Wheatear in the farmland opposite Bramble Gap, and later Sean found another in the North Dunes and took the customary 'first Wheatear' photo below. It hung around long enough for several others of us to see it too. What a great pleasure it is to see these birds when they arrive.

Chiffchaffs also started to arrive and sing in small numbers across the patch around this time.

On the 25th Sean saw a White Wagtail in the horse paddocks along Low Road, and on the 28th another Black Redstart in the valley, this time much further south by the public steps. The next day he also saw a Brambling in the valley, and Mick discovered patch gold with 4 Canada Geese in the Commissioner's field, which hung around long enough for most of us to see them. There were also 11 Ringed Plover there and a latish lone Whooper Swan in the field behind them.

At the end of March the collective patch year list stands at 128. This time last year we were on 140, with quite a few more Spring migrants already arrived, so let's hope this April brings a nice southerly wind or two, and we don't have a terrible prolonged cold spell again. Happy patch birding everyone!

February 2022 Roundup

2022-03-06T13:29:00.025+00:00

February began with a small flock of around 15 Snow Buntings still on the beach, and Pat had some excitement as a Tawny Owl visited his newly cleaned out nestbox. Fingers crossed... The inland farmland contained small numbers of waders in the flooded patches - Lapwing, Snipe, Dunlin and the reliable Green Sandpiper. Several large flocks of Golden Plover were seen and the occasional small party of White-fronted Geese could also be found amongst the Pinks.

The family of three Cranes was also quite reliable in the fields to the west of the concrete track, and Kingfisher was seen regularly through the month on various dykes.

On the 2nd Sean saw the Lesser Whitethroat again in the same area as in January, and on the 3rd Mick saw three Whooper Swans going north and a Brambling in the mixed Chaffinch and Reed Bunting flock feeding in one of the maize patches. Maize will not be planted on the estate next year as it's stopping shooting, so we are not sure if we'll get similar flocks again. A bit later on Mick and Tim were treated to the fantastic sight (and sound) of a flock of 35 Bewick's Swans, and at least one Whooper, flying south towards the village.

Sean had a Lesser Black-backed Gull on the Commissioner's field and the Little Grebe put in another appearance on the dyke.

On the 4th Sean found a Redshank in the flooded field, and then spent a long time going very carefully through an extremely large flock of Pink-footed Geese which had, for once this winter, settled at a reasonable distance. Sadly no Bean Geese were mixed in with them, at least as far as he could see.

On the 5th Pat found 3 Bewick's Swans sitting in the Commissioner’s field (which provided a welcome grip-back opportunity for those of us unlucky enough to miss the big flock).

On the 6th Pat had a Great-northern Diver on an otherwise unproductive seawatch. Later he and Mick saw a maximum of 6 Gadwall on the flooded field, as well as 11 Ringed Plover. Maynard had a productive walk around on the same day, seeing a Brent Goose, and a first winter Iceland Gull on the beach near the fishing sheds. Pat heard a Bullfinch along Low Road.

On the 7th Sean took this stunning photo of a male Hen Harrier sitting in a field from Bramble Gap. Please put a cross to indicate your guess and send it in for a chance to win the big prize jackpot 😂.

On the 8th a female Hen Harrier was hunting near the flooded field, over 7 White-fronted Geese.

Anyone like to guess what this sound is?

Click HERE to listen to it.

It's a species which has sadly remained absent from all our patch yearlists until the 9th February 2022... That morning Sean was at Bramble Gap scanning the extremely distant geese. Despite the huge distance there was no heat haze and the light was excellent. Suddenly, even further back, he thought he saw a Bittern land in a reedbed, far off on the other side of the Horsey Road. He couldn't entirely rule out something like a Short-eared Owl though so continued scanning. His messages to the group show what happened over the next 10 minutes.

Considering the extreme distance, Sean's second and third views were excellent; he could see the neck, the lighter brown wing coverts etc, and was elated! Although it was not actually ON the patch, our rules allow birds seen FROM the patch too, so it was a full patch life tick! However, it was not in fact the first Bittern Sean has recorded here. The above sound recording is of a Bittern which flew around his garden calling every thirty seconds or so, for about three minutes on the night of 24 April 2020, just after 9pm. But unless we actually hear a bird with our own ears, our rules forbid us from adding such recordings to our own patch lists. For completeness, there is another fairly recent sight record of Bittern here, seen by our ex-neighbour Ryan, who had one fly over the south dunes and out to sea a few years back.

On the 10th Mick saw three Red Kites drifting south from Bramble Gap, and Sean and Colin picked therm up on the edge of the village.

Sean also heard a Curlew flying high over the North Dunes that morning but annoyingly couldn't see it (which doesn't matter for the year list though!). Later that evening 2 Tawny Owls calling and showing in the Duffle's Pond/paddocks area were Sean's 100th species for 2022 - the 10th February is a new record for the yearlist 'ton', 8 days earlier than Maynard's last year.

On the 12th Tim photographed this excellent male Sparrowhawk in his garden.

On the 13th Maynard saw the Little Grebe again and shot this nice video of the obliging Green Sandpiper on the flooded field.

On the 16th Chris, our regular visiting birder from Bedfordshire, saw a Peregrine from Bramble Gap, and on the 18th he saw a Shag in a brave short seawatch during Storm Eunice. A few days later he had a singing Treecreeper at the ruined church. On the 21st Sean had a flock of 12 Knot and 2 Grey Plovers going north, and there were many Kittiwakes moving south. On the 22nd Barry counted 40 Snow Buntings on the north beach.

Dunlin numbers in the flooded field began to climb towards the end of the month, with Mick recording 14 on the 24th and Sean counting 30 on the 27th.

Pat had a Tundra Bean Goose fly north on the 26th, and Barry had a Long-eared Owl in the south dunes.

On the 27th a message from Tim A, our neighbour to the north in Sea Palling, alerted us to a Raven heading south, and Sean was lucky enough to get on to it half an hour later as it came through the dunes then headed out to the beach. Thanks Tim!

Interestingly a Raven was also recorded at Caister, to the south of us, some three hours later, so if it was the same one it must have stopped off for a rest somewhere!

On the 27th Mick saw this pair of Eider float north. A female has been around for most of the winter so perhaps it's been joined by the male.

Colin had a Peregrine hunting again at Commissioner's on the same day, and Meadow Pipit numbers began to build around this time too, with Sean counting 50+ that evening in the North Dunes.

On the 30th the Dunlin numbers on the flooded field started to subside, with 27 recorded (down from 30 the day before). There were also a pair of Gadwall on Commissioner's Dyke that morning and a couple of small flocks of Siskins appeared to be on the move, with 5 going south at the concrete blocks and a few more heard from Bramble Gap.

At the end of February we have collectively recorded 117 species on the patch, and are looking forward to spring migration getting underway in earnest next month. Already birds are on the move - the geese numbers are declining as they head off, more Ringed Plover and Lesser Black-backed Gulls are around, and winter thrushes are starting to appear in little flocks as they prepare for their own incredible journeys.

Happy patch birding everyone!

January 2022 Roundup

2022-02-05T17:29:00.022+00:00

This post is guaranteed to contain no Short-eared Owl photos. Honestly, how many Short-eared Owl photos does the world need? Due to the presence of our wonderful avian celebrity visitors, the dunes in January have been absolutely swamped with photographers throughout the month. Many were also birders, therefore aware of issues of disturbance and field craft, who kept to the footpaths and were careful not to flush the owls, but many more were members of the non-birding long-lens-no-bins brigade, and sadly a not insignificant proportion of these, who seemed to want to get their shot at any cost, consistently hounded the birds, chasing after them when they saw them land, trampling through the heather and marram and putting them up again for yet another action shot. Our birds here have enough problems with off-lead and often out of control dogs racing across every inch of what is supposed to be a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, without humans who supposedly profess an interest in the natural world adding to their woes. Rant over; I will now get on with what else we saw in January!

The month began with Pat out first and finding the ringtail Hen Harrier hunting for over an hour in the fields around the concrete track, and Mick confirming that the Tree Sparrow was still around - a crucial year tick for us all on day one!

The concrete track area also held 3 Cranes (two adults and a young bird who were to remain in the same general area for most of the rest of the month), a showy Great White Egret and seven Whooper Swans flying south east mid-afternoon. A few Fieldfares were also around and two Mistle Thrushes in the field at the end of Low Road were a relief for Sean, who one year recently had to wait until December to get them on his patch year list!

On the morning of the 2nd Barry found a Shag on one of the groynes. Several of us went up for it a bit later and relocated it a few groynes down, looking distinctly unwell. It perked up a bit in the sun but later tucked itself further in to the crevices between the rocks, where it swayed unsteadily. By the afternoon it could not be found.

On the 3rd Sean found a pair of Bullfinches in a hedge along Low Road, always a tricky bird for the yearlist, and Maynard a Siskin in the valley.

On the 4th Mick had two Purple Sandpipers on one of the north beach groynes, and on the 5th he had 5 Fieldfares in off and 2 Ringed Plovers on the beach. They tend to disappear from the beach over the winter so it is always a pleasure to see them in January.

On the 6th Pat relocated one of Sean's Bullfinches in the same place, and snapped a record shot.

A fishing Little Egret had replaced the Great White in Commissioner's Dyke, and the ringtail Hen Harrier, a Kingfisher and several Song Thrushes were about on the inland part of the patch. Colin had a Gadwall in the dyke, the only one of the month.

On the 7th Colin noticed that both species of Egret had come to a truce and decided to share the Dyke, Tim had a male Merlin in the paddocks and Barry found two male Bullfinches in a different location along the concrete track. A bit later Barry also found this splendid Black Redstart which had taken up residence amongst the debris below the cliff at the bottom of Beach Road which had tumbled over during the recent high tides. We often seem to get a Black Redstart on or near the beach in early January! There was also a female Eider off the south beach.

Also on the 7th a visiting birder, Tim S, had a 20 second encounter with a Waxwing in the North Dunes, which flew west over him (presumably having just arrived off the sea), hovered once over the heather, and then shot off towards the woods. Despite how brief the encounter was, Tim managed to capture this record shot.

Another of our regular visitor Chris came up from Bedfordshire on the 8th and as well as the Black Redstart which had remained overnight he saw a Purple Sandpiper on the tank traps below the car park. Clearly the Sandpiper found a good source of food here as it could be seen there daily at the right tide time for the rest of the month.

As the seals moved off the beach after their breeding season it became possible to walk north again, and the level of pup mortality seemed extremely high this year. Between the car park and Bullet Hill there must have been almost a hundred little white corpses. The awful storms had surely done considerable damage to the colony this year. Looking on the bright side though, we had high hopes of attracting some nice white wingers to this veritable gull cafe.

We also had high hopes of another white winger. In nearby Martham around this time several Cattle Egrets had turned up. This is a species we have never seen in Winterton but the pundits amongst us have widely predicted to be the next addition to our list. However we've recently lost our only cattle herd, and it wasn't to be, despite them hanging around just a couple of miles away for ages!

On the 12th Sean and Colin saw a Green Sandpiper flying around, presumably disturbed by the shoot. We have heard that this is the last year of shooting on the Burnley Hall estate, and boy are they making the most of it! On almost every day in January hoorays have been blasting birds from the sky. It's certainly made seeing Woodcocks a doddle this month! After one particular volley of gunshots a Buzzard stumbled through the sky, emerging from of the woods with most of its primaries missing from one wing. I'm not absolutely certain that it was toff damage but circumstantial evidence is strong...

On the 13th Sean and Tim saw the first Little Grebe on the patch for two years! Pat saw the first Treecreeper of the year along the concrete track, as well as the Bullfinches that Barry had found a week earlier. He also heard a Water Rail along the Holmes Road - a very tricky year tick since we don't allow nocmig recordings (a rule that really ought to be reviewed I feel 😂).

Several Barn Owls were being seen on the patch around this time too, often hunting in daylight and providing alternative owl photography options for some...

On the 16th Pat had a very large Peregrine from the concrete track, the only one of the month. Snipe and Green Woodpecker were also added by others to the collective yearlist.

On the 17th Sean found 5 Russian White-fronted Geese in with the Pink-footed Geese at Bramble Gap, which were seen again over the next few days.

On the 19th Barry saw 15 Snow Buntings on north beach. They had disappeared for a few weeks so it was good to see them back, including a few nice males. Ted took this nice photo of one later in the month.

Later that day Sean saw a single female Common Scoter off the south beach, and was lucky enough to see this Iceland Gull as it cruised south, ignoring all the nice seal meat below it. Kittiwakes were also passing in small numbers.

On the morning of the 21st there was a Treecreeper again near the old Poplar wood, an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull at the Commissioner's pool, and another Treecreeper along Holmes Road, accompanying the tit flock along with this Chiffchaff.

Much more surprisingly, Sean found an entirely out of season Lesser Whitethroat along the Holmes Road.

On the 23rd Pat found two Dunlin on the Commisioner's pool, and a nice Green Sandpiper which unusually hung around out in the open for the rest of the month, rather than hide itself in a ditch.

On the 24th Tim found at least 15 Redwings in one of the paddocks, the largest group of the month, and Sean had the month's second Black Redstart on the northern edge of the village.

On the afternoon of the 25th Mick saw a Merlin hunting along the edge of the East Somerton fields.

The next morning on the 26th Sean was lucky enough to complete the white-winger double with views of a Glaucous Gull flying north through the dunes. One had been reported the previous day at Waxham so it might possibly have been the same bird. Once more it seemed uninterested in the buffet on the beach.

On the 27th Tim had two Russian White-fronted Geese from the concrete track.

Over the next few days Dunlin numbers in the flooded field began to increase, and on the 29th Colin saw the Merlin in the same area that Mick had seen it in. That afternoon Pat was very lucky to flush a Jack Snipe up from right on a busy main path in the North Dunes. Meanwhile in a short seawatch Barry had a Mediterranean Gull, two Fulmars and 16 Lapwings in off.

On the 30th Maynard reported a Tundra Bean Goose from the concrete track when he had returned from his morning cycle ride. Unfortunately it was not around when the rest of us went to look. Maynard also had a Grey Plover that day, the only one seen during January.

The month ended with a strong northwesterly gale and we had hopes that the sea might be interesting, but a long seawatch produced only Kittiwakes, Gannets and three Wigeon for Sean.

At the end of January we have collectively seen 108 species on the patch. Sean is some way ahead in the year list race - he saw 94 species in January, which smashed his previous best, and clearly demonstrates the benefits of being retired (or a 'leach on society' as his youngest son put it) for building your local patch year list.

Happy #localbigyear patch birding everyone.

December 2021 Roundup

2022-01-06T16:11:00.013+00:00

A very short roundup this time folks. The month started with a bit of a cold snap. A short seawatch on the 1st produced a Velvet Scoter sitting on the sea, a couple of Eiders past and a Woodcock in off. The rough weather and high tides eroded quite a lot of the dune ridge along the car park and off the sheds - it's getting more and more difficult to settle for a decent seawatch as our favoured places are disappearing...

On the 2nd Colin had a Short-eared Owl in the North Dunes and 3 Cranes from the Concrete Track, whilst a short afternoon seawatch for Sean produced 1 male Goldeneye north, 2 Bonxies south, a male Goosander in off heading presumably towards the Broads, 1 Brent Goose north, a Velvet Scoter, plus a few Eider and Common Scoter.

On the 3rd Colin saw another, or the same Short-eared Owl in North Dunes, and on the 5th he had the three Cranes again in the same place, and a Woodcock heading fast inland through the North Dunes, presumably freshly arrived.

On the 6th Sean saw a ringtail Hen Harrier hunting for quite a while near the inland end of Low Road, and on the 8th he had two juv Little Gulls close in along the surf off the north beach. Colin continued his Short-eared Owl observations again on the the 9th.

Probably the most exciting avian event of the month happened on the 15th when Barry found a Tree Sparrow in the valley, associating with the resident House Sparrow flock. A full-on twitch ensued for those able to get there (ie the retired contingent since it was a weekday), including a dash back from Buckenham for Sean where he had been on a rare trip away from the patch looking for the Taiga Beans - fate was clearly telling him to avoid this sort of irresponsible frippery in the future!

Luckily for those of us who are less of a burden to society and still paying National Insurance contributions, the dinky spadger hung around until the end of the month, allowing most of us to catch up with it in the end. However it proved a tricky blighter to get a decent photo of; Pat probably managed the best ones a couple of weeks later:

Not much more birding got done over the festive period until the month's end. On the 21st Tim had a two Mistle Thrushes from Low Road, and on the 27th Pat had 3 Cranes, 25 Dunlin and several Snipe in the flooded field near Commissioner's Dyke, plus a very distant wader which he initially thought was a Redshank but could have been a Ruff. Graham paid a visit and saw 4 Short-eared Owls in the North Dunes. There seemed to be some movement on the sea too, and in the morning Pat had a fair few ducks moving: Pintails, Wigeon and Teal, plus some waders too: 4 Grey Plover, 4 Redshank, a Purple Sandpiper and a Dunlin. The top waders of the day were in the afternoon though, when Sean had the amazing sight through his scope of 5 Avocets flying south just offshore (plus a Woodcock in off).

Short-eared Owls and the occasional Woodcock continued to be seen occasionally as the year drew to a close, and on the last day Sean confirmed the continuing presence of the Tree Sparrow in the valley, in readiness for the new year lists the next day...

So that was 2021. Mick saw the most species - 181 - which in the end was one more than Sean who decided to remove his heard-only Bearded Tit record since he didn't want to have it on his patch life-list without seeing it as well.

In total we collectively saw 204 species in 2021. That's a good number, and we saw some great birds. We thought about doing a summary of all the best ones here, but you can read about them in the other posts, and it is a sad but true fact that for many of us 2021 will be, and probably should be, remembered more for the incredible lack of supposedly 'common' autumn migrants like Goldcrests and the hastening disappearance of previously regular birds like Marsh Tit (which only a lucky couple of us managed to connect with).

Yes we had some wonderful scarce and rare birds over the year, as ever. But patch birding here, day in day out, is about much more than the rare species; it is about noticing the seasonal comings and goings and ups and downs and successes and failures of all the birds - and all the other species of life - that we are lucky enough to have around us. And it wasn't all doom and gloom - the Little Terns did well for example, and Linnets seem to have had another good year, and Pete refound a rare liverwort... We fervently hope that this time next year we can be writing some more good news: come on you Goldcrests!

Happy New Year to all and happy patch birding in 2022 #LocalBigYear.

November 2021 Roundup

2021-12-08T13:02:00.024+00:00

November was generally an unexceptional month as the Autumn migration petered out. On the 1st seawatching was slow, with the odd Arctic Skua and Great Skua, and several Kestrels in off, including one which was tracked arriving from about two miles out. The journey took about 20 minutes and the plucky little falcon was almost caught by several Great Black-backed Gulls before making it to land.

Several Rock Pipits remained around on the north beach, and Short-eared Owls were much in evidence on the North Dunes. A few Fieldfares were beginning to arrive, with 2 in the North Dunes on the 2nd, plus a Bullfinch calling along the Holmes Road. Snow Bunting numbers built up a little, with 26 counted on the beach on the same date.

On the 3rd a Barn Owl was hunting in the North Dunes well into late morning. Also around were a singing Chiffchaff in the Birdless Bushes, a couple of Goldcrests and Coal Tits, and a Treecreeper in the Holmes Road. There was also a tern feeding off the sandbar, initially found by visiting birder Stephen H, which we eventually pinned down as a rather late Arctic Tern.

On the 4th seawatching produced big numbers of Eider - over 200 on the final count, plus several Bonxies, Goldeneye, 2 Velvet Scoter, a Goosander and a range of more common ducks. Little Gulls and Golden Plover were also seen.

On the 5th a Little Auk went north quite early on, and an eared owl, probably a Short-eared Owl, came in off rather distantly. This was followed by several more definite Short-eared Owls coming in at various times and locations through the morning. Despite plenty of Long-eareds being seen arriving in North Norfolk, ours were all Short-eareds. There had also been a slight arrival of warblers, with a Chiffchaff in Pete's garden and another one later in Colin's, a Willow Warbler below the lighthouse, and a very brief Yellow-browed Warbler seen with a small tit flock by Barry in private gardens. It wasn't seen again, although Mick heard it calling later on. There were also two Black Redstarts in the South Dunes/Hermanus area, and several Bramblings in the high trees at the Hermanus.

On the morning of the 6th, a few Siskins were moving through the valley, and there was a Brambling below the lighthouse and another (or perhaps the same one) at the Oaks. At least four Short-eared Owls were in the North Dunes, plus a ring-tail Hen Harrier and a Red Kite.

On the 7th there were at least 5 Swallows in the valley, and this slightly interesting Chiffchaff, which had a call somewhere between a normal Chiffchaff and a tristis - a single syllable but rather more optimistic than a siberian chiffy!

In the early part of the month Ted was honoured by several visits from this wonderful creature to his garden, which had presumably wandered down from its allotment cage.

A few Swallows remained in the valley on the 8th, and there was another interesting, completely brown Chiffchaff with the tit flock along the Holmes Road, plus a Treecreeper. The Chiffchaff didn't call. At least 30 Siskins were flying around Duffles Pond in the afternoon, and the Short-eared Owl count went up to a possible seven in the North Dunes.

On the 9th at least 200 Siskins went south through the valley before 9am.

On the 11th a Great-crested Grebe was sitting close inshore off the South Dunes, and a Woodcock flushed from below the Hermanus in the morning, with another flying over the village in the late afternoon.

On the 12th a Red Kite flew inland over the north wood, and a Peregrine was making the most of the huge influx of Starlings arriving in off, alongside Fieldfares and Chaffinches. Another Woodcock was flushed off the North Dunes. Another Black Redstart was hanging around on a roof on Old Chapel Road.

A Purple Sandpiper took up residence on and around the tank traps below the old cafe, and could be seen there at the right tide time for several more weeks.

Seawatching was slow still, with the odd Bonxie but not much else, although this in-off arrival on the 12th had us going for a while!

On the 14th and 15th the wind finally blew from the east, coinciding exactly with the dates we had chosen to all do conservation work in the South Dunes, removing Russian vine, so we didn't actually do much birding in the best wind of the autumn, but we did manage a little. There was another Black Redstart at the Hermanus on the 14th, and early on the 15th Barry had an excellent view of the White-billed Diver doing a close-in flyby (surely THIS will be the final view of this amazing bird). Later he and Sean had another Little Auk and a Red-breasted Merganser.

On the morning of the 16th Barry had seven Shorelarks on the north beach, but they flew south and couldn't be relocated. On the 17th Mick had a Merlin near the village and a Woodcock through the valley.

There was not much more to report as the month moved on. A ringed Herring Gull on the patch turned out to be at least 7 years old and fairly well-travelled.

This Casp-a-like Herring Gull (or maybe hybrid) was on the north beach for a couple of days too. It got us looking but its dark underwing, tertial pattern, and lack of a shawl put it firmly in the mudblood camp at best for us - although the structure was promising and the scapular moult was pretty advanced - comments are obviously very welcome from more experienced larophiles!

On the 19th sunshine brought out late butterflies (Red Admiral)and dragonflies (Migrant Hawker and Common Darter), and the first 'Autumn' Blackcap was in Pete's garden.

On the 20th Tim photographed this nice Sparrowhawk in his garden.

On the same date Chris, up from Bedfordshire for the weekend, had a Little Auk north in the late morning, as well as several Short-eared Owls in the North Dunes still. Colin also had a Green Woodpecker yaffling away.

The 22nd arrived with pretty good conditions for seawatching, and began well with a Long-tailed Duck north at 8.23am. Three Little Auks also went north during the morning, and 2 Great Skuas hunted close in. In the early afternoon these six fantastic Pale-bellied Brent Geese went north - a real rarity here. They were also seen going past Lowestoft 43 minutes earlier.

In the first hour of the afternoon more birds were moving north, including large flocks of Eider (such as this one with a passenger along for the ride).

Sean was lucky enough to see a brilliant, fairly close juvenile Sabine's Gull at 1.24pm. Interestingly, both Sean (the previous afternoon) and Barry (that morning) had seen what they thought must have been a juvenile Sabine's (seemingly brown upperwing coverts, dark outer primaries) but it had both times been too far out to clinch. This time the bird flew north well inside the Cockle Light, and showed the upperwing pattern very clearly, with the lightish brown coverts particularly obvious and extending forwards, making the bird appear dark-headed. It seems a very late record.

On the 23rd things had died down, although there was an immature Little Gull in the surf along the north beach. Pete had another (different) Blackcap in his garden and Sean found an extremely late Willow Warbler in the oak trees along the back of the Hermanus, where it was out of the wind. Getting a good photo was challenging!

The big storm Arwen arrived at the end of the month, producing an unprecedented arrival of Brunnich's Guillemots in the North Sea including one in Norfolk, so we all had high hopes of more decent seawatches but overall it didn't happen, although Barry did have a Puffin fly south on the 27th, along with a couple of Fulmars, Arctic Skuas and Great Skuas. On the 29th a Little Auk flew north in the morning, and there were a few Goldeneye, a Velvet Scoter and several Great Crested Grebes, plus an interesting Skua which two out of three observers thought might well be a Pomarine, but it was too far out to clinch.

The month petered out on the 30th with a slow seawatch, although a nice male Goosander flew inland and a distant Guillemot sitting on the sea was in full summer plumage, allowing fantasies of it drifting closer and becoming much rarer. Of course it didn't happen. At the end of the month we have collectively seen 204 species on the patch. Happy Christmas, and happy patch birding everyone!

October 2021 Roundup

2021-11-09T12:13:00.028+00:00

October. The month of dreams. The month where anything is possible. The adrenaline rush of stepping out of your door and walking into the patch expectantly, knowing that you might find a brilliant rarity, or be treated to a fantastic migration spectacle. The reason we live here and the reason we do what we do.

Not this October though. With the exception of one or two brighter moments, this October was basically a depressing continuation of the Great Birdless Autumn of 2021, with the added downer of a huge auk die-off happening on our very shorestep, with a supporting cast of dying divers forlornly shaking their heads in the surf. But it wasn't all completely depressing, so please do read on!

We watched the sea at the start of the month as the bushes contained literally no birds, and flyover passerine migration consisted of the odd Swallow, Meadow Pipit or Siskin. Little Gulls were present in reasonable numbers on the 2nd, and there was a close-in Bonxie flypast. On the 3rd on the south beach dozens of Swallows were sitting on the sand, flying short distances as dog-walkers pushed them on. It was bizarre and a bit unsettling, and reminded Sean of seeing several Hobbies doing the same in the Spring, when he mused that they were having to resort to looking for insects on the beach. The Swallows didn't seem to be feeding though. Also that morning Mick had one of the star birds of the month - an immature Sabine's Gull going south at 9.30am. We later found out that it (or another) had been seen going south at Sea Palling around 45 minutes earlier. Mick also saw a Pomarine Skua south on his seawatch that morning, and Colin, Peter and Sean noted several rather late Swifts on the patch.

On the 4th Mick had a Goosander south and a Wheatear in the car park, and on the 5th after the rain had stopped Sean had Lesser Whitethroat, House Martin and Willow Warbler, plus Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps in the valley - a notable increase in migrant passerine numbers, though still miniscule. There was also a Red Kite in the north dunes, and a reasonable passage of Swallows through.

On the 6th the wind was a fairly strong northwesterly, and there was a notable movement on the sea - lots of waders and wildfowl, plus Bonxies and Arctic Skuas, a Sooty Shearwater, Little Gulls and an excellent Great Northern Diver which landed close in off the car park. In the early afternoon, as seawatching continued, a bedraggled Redstart came in off and landed briefly at our feet! Lapwing also arrived in off. Later in the afternoon, after the rest of us had gone home, Barry arrived for another seawatch and a visiting birder told him he'd had a Red-necked Grebe. Scanning the sea for it Barry did indeed pick up a grebe, but it turned out to be a Black-necked Grebe! The visiting birder was a warden at Pagham Harbour so has had a lot of experience with grebes, and he was clear that this was not the bird he'd found earlier. So that makes two rare grebes seen here on the 6th! Sean returned to look for either (unsuccessfully) and had a Manx Shearwater south in the later afternoon, and he and Pat also had an Arctic Tern, an Arctic Skua, Red-breasted Merganser and Pintail. Meanwhile Maynard had a Red Kite over his garden.

The early morning of the 7th saw an incredible spectacle of many hundreds of Little Gulls moving through close inshore. Barry and Sean believed the number involved was in total over a thousand, and yet by 8am it had completely stopped and there wasn't a single Little Gull remaining, but while it had lasted it was a truly extraordinary spectacle! Later in the morning Mick had several Short-eared Owls, a Goldcrest and a Kestrel in off. Incredibly, the Goldcrest was one of only a handful any of us had seen this Autumn. Sean had another Kestrel out at sea, and also a Marsh Harrier heading south nearly a mile out! Pete flushed a Jack Snipe in the North Dunes, and the Swift was still hanging around low over the village, quite often receiving a lot of hassle from the Jackdaws. Pat had Redwing in the valley and House Martins and a Swallow from his garden.

The next morning (8th) Mick had a further 12 Little Gulls moving south, along with Kittiwakes, and a Great Crested Grebe going north, and in the valley Sean noted that there seemed to have been a small arrival of Song Thrushes alongside slightly improved visible passerine migration with Siskins, Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits all in better numbers. At the south end of the valley a single Redstart was a further slight surprise for Sean and when, on his way home, he also found a Lesser Whitethroat and a Pied Flycatcher in a garden abutting the dunes just north of Beach Road, it seemed certain that for whatever reason there had been a little fall of migrants in the rather foggy conditions, with a slight southerly breeze.

The next sequence of events shows how often the finding of a decent bird is down to a lucky combination of factors. As Sean was watching the Pied Flycatcher he could see Colin's hat bobbing about in his garden a short distance away. He thought of calling out that he had got a Pied Flycatcher but thought it might disturb the bird, so he WhatsApped the local group instead and then headed off. A few steps later Murray called him on the phone. Murray was actually in Colin's garden with him, and it transpired that Colin still needed the flycatcher for his patch year list. Sean agreed to walk back and meet Murray and Colin where he had seen it to show it to them. The three met up at the spot and Colin got onto the flycatcher very quickly, but Murray was having a bit more trouble (must be those rubbish NL binoculars he has recently bought 😁). As Sean was giving him directions, a movement in the bramble tangle growing against the garden's cobblestone wall immediately in front of them both caught Murray's eye instead - a flash of a greyish warbler disappearing into the bramble and momentarily revealing what he thought might have been a hint of a barred under-tail. "Wait! I just had something else - it looked like it might have been a Barred Warbler!" Murray announced, and all thoughts of the flycatcher were put on hold. We all waited and watched, and Murray began to wonder whether his briefest of glimpses might just have been the Lesser Whitethroat... But no! After a few minutes, just a bit further along the brambly wall, out popped a fine immature Barred Warbler, giving great views for us all. So a combination of chance factors which led us all to be in the right place at the right time, plus an excellent display of split-second identification skills from Murray, had resulted in the discovery of what was definitely one of the star passerines of the autumn! It remained for the rest of the day; a tricky bird to get on to at times but most (though sadly not all) of our little band eventually caught up with it.

Pat was one of those who couldn't get out for the warbler on the day it was found, so the 9th saw him and Sean looking for it in the morning. Alas there was no sign, but the Pied Flycatcher remained, and this Grey Wagtail put in a couple of appearances, which provided year tick relief for Sean!

There was also a Short-eared Owl in the North Dunes on the afternoon of the 9th, and a tantalising, seemingly rather short winged Acro, clearly just arrived as it was hiding in the marrams on the dune ridge nearest to the sea, which Sean chased around but was unable to pin down.

On the 10th there was a small arrival of thrushes, a Red Kite, and a few more Goldcrests. Pink-footed Geese were arriving too, and Barry had a Manx Shearwater feeding close in shore in the afternoon, along with a few more Little Gulls.

A further couple of Manx Shearwaters were seen on the 11th, plus several Arctic Skuas, a Velvet Scoter, and about 50 more Little Gulls. An unknown visiting birder also had a female Hen Harrier in the North Dunes, according to Birdguides.

On the morning of the 12th it was seawatching time again and the first Woodcock of the Autumn came in off.

In the early afternoon Sean went back for another seawatch. Four Brent Geese and a Pintail came past immediately and it was clear that there was some movement on the sea. The Little Gulls had also returned, and up the coast a little way north of the concrete blocks Mick had a Grey Phalarope right over the dune ridge. At 1.30pm a Short-eared Owl came in off, and just a few minutes later, just as Barry was arriving, Sean picked up a large diver going north not too far out. He got his scope on it as it came right past him straight out and in the good light the most obvious thing about it was its huge yellowy-white bill! Pandemonium ensued as he screamed White-billed Diver! and shouted incoherent directions to Barry, who managed to get on to it but only as it passed inside the Cockle Light to the north of where they were standing, so was unable to see the bill. In the panic and in his attempt to get Barry onto it Sean had not really studied its plumage, so didn't note the neck colouration or anything much else which might be useful for a description submission! Apart from the humungous bill, the other most noticeable things about it were how much 'lankier' and less compact it had seemed compared to typical views of flying Great Northern Divers, and just how large its trailing feet were. Overall it had also seemed rather pale in general rather than dark. Dave R from Lincolnshire, one of our regular visiting birders, had just arrived and had been walking across the car park during the sighting, and casually asked if we'd seen anything... He was somewhat gutted to learn what he had just missed! Coincidently, the last White-billed Diver occurred here four years ago, almost to the day, and with a similarly huge passage of Little Gulls. Also of note sitting on the sea that afternoon were four Velvet Scoter, and yet another Short-eared Owl in off.

Sightings of the diver continued intermittently over the next couple of weeks, and it seemed to be on something of a routine, seen mainly going south around mid-morning and north in the early afternoon. Eventually most of us, plus a few visitors, got on to it. But despite seeing quite a few Great Northern Divers over the coming days, Sean wasn't to see it again until the 21st October, when he, Barry, Neil M and Dave R had excellent views of it flying south close in, in the warm afternoon sunlight. In addition to the completely obvious bill, the dark/light/dark pattern of the neck with its smudgy pale collar was noted, and Barry also noted the pale face. Once again it looked very lanky with those great trailing feet and long neck, somehow more like a huge Red-throated Diver than the rather more bullet-like shape of a typical Great Northern in flight. We didn't notice any neck wobbles or anything like that as it flew. Dave R had the presence of mind to capture a stunning image of the bird which he later shared on Twitter here 😁.

So after the 12th a lot of seawatching was done by our members, and in addition to the star bird a good range of species was seen including several Great Northern Divers, quite a number of ducks including Red-breasted Mergansers, Tufted Ducks, Eider, Goldeneye, Pintail, Teal, Wigeon etc. Great and Arctic Skuas came by regularly in small numbers, plus a few Manx Shearwaters and an excellent Sooty Shearwater on the 15th which drifted north almost in the surf. At least three of the four Velvet Scoter remained offshore and gave lovely views from time to time. More Short-eared Owls came in off and solo Little Auks went north on the 14th and the 22nd. Snow Buntings also began to appear, often noted initially by call as we were seawatching, and Rock Pipits also began to be noted. On the 17th Barry and Maynard had a Red-necked Grebe. Brent Geese were also beginning to appear in good numbers as the month progressed, and a first year Arctic Tern hung around for most of the month.

Despite the range of good seabirds, it was at times hard to bear the sheer numbers of Guillemots that were dying out at sea, in the surf and on the beach. Razorbills were present in record numbers which was also a worry - were they going to go the same way? The reasons for this huge die-off are not currently completely understood, although disrupted ecosystems and food chains due to global heating is the number one suspect, according to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

One ringed Guillemot found dead on Winterton beach didn't even make it through its first four months of life, poor thing:

Away from the sea, Mick had three Great White Egrets on the 17th. On the 19th there was a House Martin over the village, and small groups of Song Thrushes and Redwings were arriving in the valley. Redwings had been arriving in Norfolk for over a week but almost all of them had simply overflown us here and been noted inland.

Sean took himself off to Scilly for half-term week so was away on the 24th when Mick found a first year Caspian Gull near Bramble Gap. On the same day a Ring Ouzel was reported in the South Dunes, though not seen by any of us.

On his way home that day Mick heard a Yellow-browed Warbler call at the eastern end of the Holmes Road. It has been the worst year for a very long time for these autumn gems; apparently they are scarce right across Europe this autumn.

On the 25th three Lapland Buntings were reported in the North Dunes, though again they were not seen by any of us, and on the 29th another visiting birder, Ed H, took this wonderful photo of a Long-eared Owl which came in off. He also saw a Ring Ouzel and was probably the last observer of the White-billed Diver on the same date, as it has not been recorded since.

At the end of October we have collectively recorded 203 species on the patch and Mick is out ahead on the individual year lists with an excellent 180 species. It's been a truly terrible Autumn so far for passerine numbers, but perhaps November can give us some last gasp surprises? We'll just have to wait and see. Happy patch birding everyone!

September 2021 Roundup

2021-10-05T14:33:00.024+01:00

September started with a bit of a bang. As most of us locals were pottering about seeing things like a Pied Flycatcher below the Hermanus, a Swift over the village, and brief views by Peter of a possible Wryneck near the Totem Pole Bushes, extraordinary news came out in the afternoon of a staggering haul by an unidentified birder:

Given that nobody seemed to know who the observer was, and the news was emerging over three hours after the observation, there was some degree of incredulity over these sightings, but nevertheless you never know unless you check, so several of us set off into the North Dunes to see for ourselves. Despite the somewhat easterly winds there wasn't a lot of activity - a few Wheatears on the dunes, but the bushes largely empty, and so we began to conclude that whoever had claimed such a bounty had been either having a hallucination or a laugh. But just when we were all on the verge of giving up another visiting birder did indeed locate (or relocate) a Red-breasted Flycatcher in a clump of bushes south of the East Pool, and Sean, who was closest, was able to get there within a few minutes and send this record shot out:

After a bit of a scramble several more of us and other birders were able to reach the spot and enjoy fleeting views as the lovely little flycatcher moved around in the clump. Tim came up with his big gun and got the best photo, as usual!

So one of the three species claimed by the mystery birder had proved to be true, but what of the other two? In the absence of more precise location details nobody was able to find a Barred Warbler, and a Pechora Pipit seemed just crazy! It would have been considerably earlier than any previous British record, and, even more incredibly, not in Shetland! It was just too much to believe. And yet...

And yet it turned out that the observer was credible and experienced, just not someone who enjoys being 'on the scene', and he gave a convincing description of the bird to another birder who knows him well, which included the all-important feature of the primaries peeping out beyond the tertials, which rules out pretty much anything else! He watched the bird for 40 minutes in the late morning before he had to leave for work, and although he sent news to another birder immediately, a combination of factors meant it didn't reach the information services until three hours later. We looked a lot that day and the next, but there was not a sign, and the solo observer didn't take any photos, and I'm not sure if the record will be submitted, but September had certainly started with a bang!

Alas the month did not continue in this vein. Despite a decent easterly airstream in the following few days, it was such thin pickings.

Mick found a Purple Sandpiper on the 2nd, and over the following days there were a few Whinchats, a few Redstarts, and double figures of Wheatears . Maynard did a seawatch on the 2nd and had Sooty Shearwater, Bonxie, Arctic Skua and Great Crested Grebe. A few Hobbies were around and a visiting birder had a Grey Partridge in the North Dunes, so presumably the estate had begun to release a few in readiness for the landed gentry to enjoy murdering them in the coming weeks. A few Swifts were still about too, but for the first week in September, with the wind in the east, it was, as one of our neighbouring birders just to the north of us put it, "desperate, desperate stuff".

On the 5th Sean was tramping through long grass in the North Dunes looking for Pechora Pipits when he flushed up presumably the same Grey Partridge as a few days earlier. He brazenly claimed that it was "extremely wary and obviously wild", just so he could add it to his year list. There were public jibes from various quarters within the Collective, followed up by private messages asking for the exact location...

Whinchat numbers in the North Dunes reached double figures on the 5th, and on the 6th there were around 200 Mediterranean Gulls over the village mid-morning.

Into the second week commoner warblers passed through in small numbers, including a few Lesser Whitethroats and Garden Warblers, and one Sedge Warbler. On the 8th the resident Hybrid Hooded Crow was joined by another in the South Dunes, and, in a clear display of avian fascism, both were rounded upon viciously by a group of pure-bred Carrion Crows. A Red Kite went south through the North Dunes.

Mick had a Goldcrest at the Plantation on the 9th, and on the 10th Sean had a calling flyover Tree Pipit in the South Dunes, plus Siskin and Cuckoo. The regular Autumn movement of Great Spotted Woodpeckers also got underway, with two flyovers south. On the 11th Pat had a flyover Grey Wagtail in the South Dunes, Sean a Spotted Flycatcher at the Oaks and Pete another flyover Red Kite circling low near the Totem Pole. In the evening there were quite a few Sandwich Terns around, and a close Arctic Skua getting its supper from them.

Around this time in the month we began to notice Guillemots close to shore, like this one which was calling plaintively in the surf.

It quickly emerged that Guillemots were in trouble right up and down the east coast, and we saw increasing numbers along the shore, sadly including quite a few corpses on the beach. However lots of them seemed to be fishing successfully despite being so close in, so hopefully they’ll make it.

On the evening of the 11th Sean flushed the Grey Partridge yet again and sent out highly detailed directions for the champing Collective yearlisters 😁.

As the middle of the month approach it was difficult to keep spirits up. The patch was dead, despite some light easterly breezes. There was no vismig going on, and the Whinchats had departed. Attention turned largely to the sea, where Sooty Shearwaters and Bonxies passed in tiny numbers. A fairly decent duck movement on the 15th included a few Pintails, and a Redstart and Cuckoo on the same date were new arrivals.

On the 16th Sean went through the South Dunes in the morning and noticed a considerable increase in Phylloscs in the valley, which was encouraging. He messaged Barry and noted "Nothing rare but lots more birds". However, Barry was shortly going to tell him that he'd lied, because later in the morning Colin also took a walk through and found something he wasn't sure about... Mick arrived within a few minutes and was able to confirm that Colin had found himself a juvenile Common Rosefinch! For posterity, here is the first picture Mick sent out of it:

Luckily the bird stayed for everyone to catch up with it and more photos and even video were taken. Here is a selection:

A great find and a continuation of Colin's good year...

Hirundines started moving in numbers from around the middle of the month, with a very large flock of House Martins and some Swallows moving south on the 17th, and around this time the resident Tawny Owls on the western edge of the village were making themselves heard (and seen) more frequently.

Also around this time the first Autumn flocks of Meadow Pipits were beginning to appear, and more Siskins were moving too, albeit in very small numbers compared to this time last year.

On the 18th Tim had a Redstart at the Plantation, and 4 Hobbies were still around. On the 19th Barry had a Redstart and two Wheatears in the South Dunes. On the 20th Colin had a Great White Egret over his house, and double figures of Wheatears and a Whinchat remained in the North Dunes.

On the 21st, after spending several preceding afternoons skywatching in the dunes in the hope of raptors, Sean had arranged to meet an old friend and do some birding at Rainham Marsh on the outskirts of London. He had a worrying feeling about going away from the patch on such a good date for birding and his fears were confirmed when in the early afternoon Barry and Colin had an Osprey circling over the Hermanus. Oh well, Sean thought, there's always the next few days for another... On the same date Mick had a Tufted Duck from Bramble Gap.

The 22nd saw Sean return to skywatching and for a moment his heart nearly stopped when he thought last year's lightning had struck again!

In other nature news, on the same date three Vagrant Emperor dragonflies were found by a visiting group near the car park, and this marked the beginning of an unprecedented influx of these rare beasts which are primarily found in Africa. In the coming days there were over 10 seen and this is definitely a conservative estimate. Males were not as frequent as females but at least two copulating pairs were seen on the wing.

The 24th saw the first sizeable arrival of Pink-footed Geese, with several large, high skeins coming in over the North Dunes.

On the 25th there was a report of a Yellow-browed Warbler in the North Dunes but nobody who looked could find it and we are as yet unaware of the observer's identity. On the 26th Maynard messaged to say he had seen a Wryneck in the North Dunes, but sadly once again it proved very elusive to everyone else who looked for it, including Barry who was close by. What a poor year it has been here for Wrynecks - apparently the weather conditions pushed the majority onto the south coast this year. On the same date at about 11am Drew and his group of visiting birders, plus Tim and Ted had ANOTHER Osprey, this time over the North Dunes, just after Sean had returned home after several hours' birding. He immediately ran back out into the dunes, but missed it yet again. His skywatching plans had really paid off this year!

On the 26th the first Brent Geese of the Autumn were seen - Mick had 11 going north and later Sean had 9 going south, as well as the excellent sight of a flock of 6 Herons coming in off the sea (he was skywatching again but with a sea view this time). A bit later Mick had another 24 Brent Geese south.

The next day Patrick had a close Manx Shearwater south (they've been extremely rare this year) and Sean had three Pintails going north.

The 28th saw a really substantial movement of Jays going south, with several flocks of above 20 and a total of around 75 birds in an hour. This must be related to the cold, wet spring which disrupted Oak tree flowering and has led to a really poor crop of acorns - there are hardly any on the trees in the valley. There was also a Garden Warbler in the valley on the 28th, and 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers moved through, including one which stopped over in Colin's garden.

On the same date Mick saw a Balearic Shearwater and on the last day of the month Sean and Pat had a fairly close juvenile Pomarine Skua, to finish a basically disappointing month with a flourish.

At the end of September we have collectively recorded 197 bird species on the patch, compared to a total of 209 for the whole of last year. Will we manage a higher score this year? It seems unlikely but we'll continue to try.

Happy patch birding everyone!

August 2021 Roundup

2021-09-04T14:29:00.041+01:00

First of all an apology and a correction for last month. On 22 July Peter, with huge excitement, informed us all that he had rediscovered a species he has only seen here a very few times since he first found it 15 years ago. So huge apologies for missing it out to Peter, and here is his original finder's photo of Matt-grass, Nardus stricta, in all its glory, including the subliminal message which suggests Pete may well be a spy for the Chinese government...

The birding action for August began shortly after midnight on the 1st, when Pat popped out into his garden to check on his moth trap and heard a Little Ringed Plover calling as it flew over.

However for much of the month decent birding was in short supply, so for many of us attention turned to other taxa. In early August one particular patch of the dunes was still full of Six Spot Burnet moths. It was strange how concentrated they were in this patch, with few elsewhere. There were thistles in other places but way fewer moths.

On the dragonfly front several of us saw Lesser Emperors in the North Dunes, and over the course of a few days in early August there were suddenly hundreds of Small Red-eyed Damselflies.

On the butterfly front various species such as Grayling, Gatekeeper and a few Ringlets were putting on a good show, and there were reports of Purple Hairstreaks around some of the oak stands. Later in the month Painted Ladies looked rather wonderful feeding on the Sea Holly. Sadly however it really doesn't seem a good year for Dark Green Fritillaries.

This Essex Skipper in the North Dunes was impressively identified by Murray without him even looking through his binoculars!

Back to the birds, on the 2nd Tim connected with a Marsh Tit in one of the places we regularly look for but rarely see this increasingly scarce species. I suspect quite a few of us will fail to get it onto our year lists this year, sadly.

On the 3rd, shortly before their departure, a Swift finally went inside one of the nextboxes on Sean's house, hopefully prospecting for next season, which bodes well if it manages to survive its incredible migration and return to us in May 2022.

On the 5th there was a steady passage of Swallows through the morning and Mick saw an immature Cuckoo by the North Pool. Pat had a Ruff fly over his garden. We were still seeing quite a lot of Whimbrel at this stage in the month too.

Pat's garden skywatching venue continued to produce the goods the next day too, when he had a Green Woodpecker fly over.

With the birding rather quiet, insect watching remained enjoyable in the South Dunes, with Hornet Hoverflies, Spotted Longhorn Beetles, Giant Tachnid flies and other interesting species around.

Seawatching started to pick up a little on the 7th, when Barry had 5 Arctic Skuas and 1 Great Skua and Sean had a moulting adult Black Tern fly south. The next day there was another Black Tern on the beach at dawn, seen by Will the night warden, and later on Lottie, another of the tern wardens, found several more.

To the tern wardens' concern, the local Hobby family had done well this year principally on a daily diet of young Little Terns, and the adult Hobbies and four young were seen regularly throughout the month. On the 9th Sean saw all six of them chase down and catch a single unfortunate Swift, all working in unison; presumably the adults teaching the young how to hunt in the air. Mick had several Arctic Terns go south on the same day.

On the 10th Murray had a Common Sandpiper on the beach, and another Black Tern was sitting on the beach on the morning of the 11th, when Colin also flushed another Common Sandpiper from the East Pool. That day was a flying ant day, which meant significant numbers of Mediterranean Gulls hawking above the village in the afternoon.

At around 4.30pm on the 11th a visitor asked Mick, who was wardening on the beach, about an unusual wader on the shoreline. On investigation Mick saw that it was a fine Curlew Sandpiper, a species which although very occasionally noted in flight here, has never been seen 'on the deck'. It was a fantastic bird and we were all super pleased to get a chance to see it. Lots of photos were taken and here are just a few.

On the 13th Colin had a Cuckoo in the valley and Sean a Green Woodpecker in the North Dunes, whist in the evening Maynard had a Greenshank on the sand bank, plus another Arctic Skua and several Black Terns. Cuckoo and Green Woodpecker were both noted in the North Dunes on the 14th too, along with 5 Swifts (the majority have now departed).

Green Woodpeckers continued to give fleeting views (mostly like this one) in the North Dunes until the month's end.

On the 18th there was a steady passage of Swallows in the morning, all moving north!

The first returning Wheatears of the autumn were on the 19th, when Barry had two in the South Dunes.

On the 20th at 5.50am Pete saw a Common Sandpiper feeding in puddles along North Market Road in the village.

Apart from the odd Arctic Skua, seawatching was still uneventful around this time, although the occasional Red-throated Diver was noted, and Fulmars started to be seen, even flying over land up the valley. They seem to do this each autumn: are they looking out for nest sites for next year??

Passerine passage was very slow in mid August although on the morning of the 22nd the valley held a Garden Warbler and a few more Lesser Whitethroats and Blackcaps, but still no Pied Flycatchers. Where were they? The local hybrid Hooded Crow took up residence in the car-park/fishing huts area around this time, where it could be found until the end of the month.

In the afternoon of the 22nd Pete flushed a Wryneck in the North Dunes, which proved highly elusive for the rest of us. However whilst looking for it a number of us finally saw the first patch Pied Flycatcher of the autumn, in the clump that the Wryneck had disappeared into. Chris, one of our regular visitors, noted the first Whinchat of the Autumn on the same afternoon.

On the 23rd Murray saw the Whinchat near the East Pool, then later he and Sean had two more near the Birdless Bushes, where there was also a Pied Flycatcher, with another near the concrete blocks. As Sean and Murray walked back towards the village, Sean had a brief but clear view of Pete's Wryneck, which flushed up from exactly the same place as Pete saw it the previous day, and flew over the ridge into exactly the same clump of bushes too. And once again, despite several of us arriving and searching for it, again we couldn't relocate it. Sean and Murray also had a Redstart on their walk back to the village. Tim found another Whinchat near the cable station and also three Wheatears in the North Dunes, whilst later on in the evening Mick had 2 more Redstarts at the Plantation and 2 more Pied Flycatchers in the Totem Pole Bushes. Birds were obviously arriving, albeit slowly.

The excitement was short-lived however, and the next day the dunes were almost totally devoid of birds, although the 2 Redstarts remained at the plantation. And despite the excitement of Graham E's Greenish Warbler appearing tantalisingly close to our patch, the birding for passerines remained very hard going over the next few days. On the 25th 1 Redstart remained at the Plantation, and a single Swift had a flyround to look at Sean's nextboxes.

There were potentially good seawatching conditions on the 26th, and in the morning the first 2 Sooty Shearwaters of the Autumn were seen by Mick, Tim and Murray, as well as 3 Pintail, 6 Arctic Skuas and a smattering of waders. On land, Colin had a Whinchat just east of the village. In the afternoon news came out of a (the) Black-browed Albatross flying east past Sheringham, so Sean, Mick and Barry headed down to the sheds for a just-in-case seawatch. Several hours later, and with no Albatross seen, things nevertheless brightened up when Barry picked up a small distant skua near the Cockle. He lost it, but seconds later an Arctic Skua appeared a little to the south, so we all assumed it had been that. However, in another moment there it was again, alongside several Arctics. Significantly smaller, less bulky and with a quite different flight style. Zoom in the Swarovski... and bam! The tail was visible! it was an adult Long-tailed Skua! I'm extremely wary of claiming LTS at sea and know that Arctics can appear light, tern-like etc, but there was no doubting this one and we were all happy with the ID, Barry even doing a sort of brief Mo Farah dabbing celebration over it (not a sight I'd wish on anyone else). Interestingly, as we watched it move a long way south, it was joined by at least one other structurally very similar skua, but by then they were way too far away to make anything of it. On the same seawatch were 9 Pintail, 1 Sooty Shearwater, 9 Arctic Skuas, 3 Great Skuas, Kittiwakes and a couple of Guillemots. Not a bad afternoon's work.

Seawatching produced the only other highlights for the rest of the month too. On the 27th there were 4 Arctic Skuas, 3 Red-throated Divers, and a Great Crested Grebe, and on the 28th 2 Sooty Shearwater, 2 Manx Shearwaters, 8 Arctic Skuas, 6 Great Skuas, 5 Kittiwakes and good numbers of Gannets.

August ended with a couple more Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts, but very little else. It is a sad truth that we are involved in a hobby which has the capacity to frequently remind us of the ongoing deterioration of our planet's natural resources, and this August, with so few migrants for most of it, was definitely one of those times. Then on the 29th we learnt with huge sadness that Keith Dye, a stalwart of the local birding scene since forever, had passed away. RIP Keith, and RIP the many avian migrants that no longer fly in our skies.

July 2021 Roundup

2021-08-02T16:07:00.014+01:00

Birding on the patch in July generally requires a level of dedication which really "sorts the men out from the boys". So since most of us are well into our second childhoods don't expect a lengthy roundup this month!

One exception to our lethargy was Mick who, due to his role as a volunteer tern warden, was out in the field quite a bit more than most of us. So a lot of the best birds (and insects) this month were down to him spotting them, then alerting the rest of us that it might be worth taking the knotted hankies off our heads, hauling ourselves out of our deckchairs, and struggling along to see his latest find.

This process began on the 1st with a Black Tern on the beach, but at that stage we were all too casual - a party of schoolchildren on an outing scared it off before any of us managed to arrive.

Pat saw another Black Tern during a brief seawatch on the 6th, along with a couple of Manx Shearwaters, which have been rather thin on the ground so far.

On the 8th Mick had an Arctic Tern fly past, and Maynard saw two Spoonbills flying from the Concrete Road in the early morning. There were a couple more Arctic Terns flying around the beach the following evening too, which enabled Sean and Pat to finally connect with them for the year (don't tell anyone, but both of them are too unsure of their tern skills to identify them at anything but very close range 😁).

On the 10th Mick struck yet again with the best Tern of the lot - a superb adult Roseate Tern on the beach. This time we didn't have to be told twice and several of us were down there like a shot. It was a really superb bird and a patch tick for most (all?) of us. Amazingly, about an hour later it was joined by two more! Here is a selection of shots of at least two of them.

Whilst a number of us were enjoying the Roseate Terns, this Arctic Skua did a nice flyby close inshore going south.

The terns hung around for Pat and Ted to get them later in the afternoon, but all had departed by the evening.

After all that excitement we needed another rest so attention turned back to our gardens. Pat enjoyed continued views of the Peregrine on and around the church tower from his, and Sean was encouraging Swifts to discover his new triple story nest box in his, and although they were interested they seemed to be having trouble finding the entrance holes, and continually landed on the top of it. Next year hopefully they'll have figured it out...

Common Scoter began to appear on the sea again in reasonable numbers around the middle of the month, with Barry seeing around 250 on the 13th. The next day Sean saw a similar number, along with a (fairly unusual for July) Red-throated Diver in summer plumage and a male Tufted Duck heading north.

Returning waders were increasingly in evidence too, with most of us encountering Whimbrel, Curlew, Knot, Dunlin and Bar-tailed Godwits in small numbers on most days.

On the 15th Mick had another Black Tern feeding offshore distantly, and a Great Skua south.

Back in our gardens mothing was happening, and on the 21st Pat caught this unusual micro called a Dark Bordered Pearl. It's a migrant with few records in Norfolk until very recently. Amazingly, Pat had another one four days later on the 25th too. As with many insect species, it seems the heating climate is having an effect on this one's range too.

Red Kites were also around in July, and on the 22nd Barry had 5 in the north dunes, while Mick had 3 at Commissioners Dyke. On the same day Colin finally caught up with Cuckoo at the Double Pool and Mick had a juv at the Coot Pool too.

In the North Dunes there's a nice big patch of bushes which we all know as the Birdless Bushes, since their promise has always exceeded what they deliver. However this year they have been a bit better, with Grasshopper Warbler, Bullfinch and a smattering of other half-decent birds. On the 22nd Sean noted a Willow Warbler in them, and wondered if it was the first returning warbler of the autumn. As he was looking at it another Willow Warbler began calling, but the more he heard this second bird the more it sounded to him like a Redstart! Surely this couldn't be the case, and it was another Willow Warbler - the date was just too wrong. The bird was calling low down in the back of the large clump and just would not show. In desperation Sean recorded the bird on his phone and put it through the notoriously erratic Birdnet app. Here is the result:

However, despite the app's almost certainty, it would be such an unusual record that one can't go on the app alone (which has got some hilariously wrong nocmig results in the past). The bird never appeared and so we can't rule out a slightly odd Willow Warbler... Nevertherless, the Birdless Bushes were back in the game! The following day, in the very same bushes, Barry had a Reed Warbler, Chiffchaff and a pair of copulating Willow Warblers, casting further doubt on the 'Redstart' and also suggesting that far from being a returning migrant Sean's Willow Warbler was more likely to be a late attempting breeder.

On the 25th Mick was returning from a wardening stint on the beach when he discovered this Lunar Hornet Moth walking across Low Road, so several of us took the opportunity to twitch it and Ted arrived to confirm the ID and take the unfortunate moth into care before releasing it in more suitable habitat at Duffles Pond.

On the 26th a large flock of Mediterranean Gulls gathered above the village to hawk insects, and around this time of the month a Hobby could be seen above the village each evening trying to outwit the Swifts.

On the 28th Barry saw a Green Woodpecker in the North Dunes and later that morning Sean saw one and heard up to three, in widely dispersed locations across the North Dunes. You wait ages for a year tick then three come along at once! Was this one bird on the move or some juveniles dispersing? Views were not good enough to tell.

Dragonflies were very active at the end of the month, including some rarities such as Lesser Emperor and Small Red-eyed Damselfly, and this Scarce Chaser which Sean saw near the Holmes Road was possibly a first for Winterton.

Also on the 28th the Birdless Bushes gave even more evidence of their purple patch when Sean flushed an immature Nightjar from their inland edge.

Again on the insect front towards the end of the month there was a mass emergence of Six-spot Burnets in the North Dunes near the village, as well as good numbers of Gatekeepers and steadily increasing Grayling numbers.

Two Green Woodpeckers were also seen by Colin and Mick in the North Dunes on the 30th, and Colin also had another Red Kite over the north woods.

Later on in the afternoon of the 30th, Colin and Gemma both had good views for around five minutes of a bird they are pretty certain was a Black Kite over the North Dunes. This is very interesting because the day before Sean had had a two second glimpse of a bird over the north wood which he immediately thought was a Black Kite, but it disappeared before he could be certain. There were no other reports of a Black Kite in the area but Colin is convinced it was one. On the same day Pat had a Greenshank over his garden, calling, and on the 31st he saw 2 Manx Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Skuas, Redshank, Curlew, Grey Plover, Whimbrel and Turnstone during a morning seawatch in the returning north easterly wind.

At the end of July the total number of bird species which we have collectively seen stands at 182, and we are eagerly looking forward to see what August will bring. Pat, on 162, is pulling away in the yearlist non-competition, but several of us remain within striking distance, and it's not over until it's over. Tim always bides his time, and there's the new boy Maynard, who has already shown what he can do...🙂

Happy patch birding everyone. See you next month!

June 2021 Roundup

2021-07-03T15:00:00.020+01:00

Butterflies remained a nice feature in the South Dunes at the start of the month, with Brown Argus and Green Hairstreak continuing to show well, and Painted Ladies, Wall, Holly Blue, Common Blue etc all being seen.

It wasn't until we started processing our photos that we noticed the snazzy orange headlights of the Green Hairstreak!

On the evening of the 2nd Sean heard a Grasshopper Warbler reeling in rough grassland and reeds at the north end of the patch, and managed a couple of record shots.

On the morning of the 3rd another of our regular visiting birders, Drew, found a Marsh Warbler in a small group of willows along the dune ridge at the north end of the patch, and managed to obtain this recording of its song. It was later seen by another of our regular visitors, Mick S, but it had fallen silent or moved on by early afternoon and none of the locals managed to connect with it in time.

In the mid afternoon Barry saw a Rose-coloured Starling fly in from the east through the dunes and go down in the village painfully close to Sean and Peter's gardens. Quite a few of us managed to see it over the next hour or so but Sean was in London being continually gripped off by a stream of delighted WhatsApp messages.

Things got worse for Sean when later in the afternoon one of the tern wardens, Will B, found a splendid male Red-backed Shrike in the North Dunes very close to the village. Mick took this picture of it in flight.

By now Sean was driving home from London, trying hard to ignore the continual pings on his phone and not to get done for speeding. He arrived home in the early evening and managed to connect with the Shrike at the end of his road quite quickly.

With no sign of the Starling and not much daylight left Sean decided to cycle up to the north end in the hope that maybe the Marsh Warbler might still be around and might even decide to sing, since the species is known for its nightime repertoire. Amazingly, after only about a 15 minute wait, he was rewarded: it began to sing, initially quite quietly but gathering strength over the next few minutes, in the tangle of brambles and weedy scrub on the west side of the path a little to the north of where Drew had found it. Although he never got a view better than a mainly hidden Acro moving through the weeds, he did manage to record this snatch on his phone. It sang for about 10 minutes fairly continuously, then subsided into the odd short burst, before stopping completely. On his cycle ride back he also heard the Grasshopper Warbler again singing in the same spot as yesterday.

On the 4th Sean had poor views of another Acro in the South Dunes, but after a little wait it chuntered into song and proved itself to be a Reed Warbler. On the same day Colin had two Canada Geese flying north over the North Dunes, and Sean saw a Red Kite over the north woods. The next day this Barn Owl was hunting in the fields along the concrete track in the early evening.

After such a terrible start to the year, the Collective moth-ers were getting more success, and Patrick had this very nice Light Brocade on the night of the 5th/6th.

Good diurnal moths also began to put in appearances for Tim, who had this Broad-bordered Bee Hawkmoth on his allotment on the 7th.

Also on the 7th visiting birders found a dark Great Skua on the beach. There was some debate about its plumage and size, and hence identity, but since none of the resident birders saw it we are unable to comment 😁. On the same day another (or perhaps the same) Rose-coloured Starling was seen in the South Dunes. Sean was yet again away from the village and beginning to despair, but this time there was a happy ending for him!

Here are a couple of nicer record shots of the bird from Patrick.

The starling was still in the valley the next day and Tim wheeled his big gun out for this portrait.

Meanwhile after a very poor showing last year our little patch of parish Bee Orchids was performing very well with lots and lots of flower heads. Here's one Mick photographed.

With the improved weather in the second week of June some attention turned to dragonflies, and quite a lot of Red-veined Darters were observed in the north dunes, along with the more usual commoner species, and also a Norfolk Hawker.

The North Dunes pools held a lot of life during this period, and it was very pleasurable just to sit by them and see what popped up.

The Lepidoptera action continued too, and Ted attracted this impressive herd of Small Elephants to his trap overnight on the 11th/12th.

After a few days' absence the (or a) Rose-coloured Starling reappeared in the North Dunes on the 12th, found by another regular visitor, Stuart W, and was eventually tracked down to the coastwatch/carpark/huts area, where we were able to follow the stage directions!

The Starling's reappearance was potentially very good news for Colin who was on his way back from a poorly-timed holiday in the Yorkshire Dales. Tragically for him he got stuck in a four hour traffic jam and although he looked hard for it when he finally got home, it had once again done a bunk. It did reappear in the South Dunes very early the next day for Barry, but sadly not for Colin.

So were there one, two, or three different individual Rosy Starlings? It seems to us that at least two different birds were involved in the sightings between the 3rd and the 13th, but we haven't studied all the photos properly so if anyone has any opinions on this please let us know!

On the 14th Sean saw yet another potentially exciting Acro in the South Dunes which duly turned into yet another Reed Warbler. Also around this time Tiger Craneflies were becoming quite evident in the valley, although focusing a camera on these impressive little beasts instead of on the leaves behind them proved to be a tough challenge!

Last Autumn Sean had sowed a patch of his back garden with meadow wildflower and cornfield annual seeds, and the kinder weather of June meant that it was finally starting to bloom.

One of the pleasure of this was the variety of Hoverflies it was now attracting.

On the 16th a male Bullfinch in the North Dunes was an unexpected find for Sean, but it wouldn't sit nicely for its picture!

In a major coup for his yearlist, Maynard returned from holiday in Scotland on the 17th, had a cycle round the concrete track, and put up a Bittern from one of the dykes!

On the 20th large numbers of Swifts and hirundines were feeding over the fields to the west of the village, probably because cold northeasterly airstreams (again!) had pushed insects inland. This time last year saw the start of a really phenomenal movement of non-breeding Swifts down the coast, but no such movement happened this June. On the 21st a Cuckoo was calling on farmland to the west too.

The 22nd was a red letter day for two Collective members! Just after 3pm Sean was in his garden admiring hoverflies on his mini-meadow, and Pete was walking back from the allotments and had just reached the east end of Low Road, when they both heard unusual whiffling chittery calls coming from the north-west. Both had been hoping for Bee-eaters and this was the first thought of both, but the sound wasn't right, it was more tern-like or wader-like. Suddenly the birds appeared, elegant, long-winged waders, chattering excitedly. It was 3 Black-tailed Godwits, a full-on patch tick for Sean and a parish tick for Pete (who had seen two from the concrete track - on the patch but not in the parish - in February).

Tim's allotment continued to repay his flower-planting strategy and produced a Hummingbird Hawkmoth on the 23rd - they have been scarce so far this year.

The weather towards the end of the month slipped back to being intermittently colder again, and for various individual reasons the Collective members did not get out in the field as much as usual. Despite this, Curlews started to be seen with some regularity, and Pat kept us updated with sightings from his house of the Peregrine which remained around the Church off and on throughout the month.

The Little Terns finally started settling, with around 400 birds on the beach and good numbers of nests, but still having to endure a lot of cold and rainy weather. On the 27th Mick found a Black Tern on the beach too!

So as we go into July it's fingers crossed all round that the Little Terns can still have a successful breeding season despite the awful Spring, and we all applaud the efforts of Lottie, Will and the rest of the tern wardens and volunteers in helping these beautiful and rare birds which choose to spend their summer on our beach before winging their way back to Africa. What a privilege for us!

At the end of June the total number of bird species we have seen on the patch this year has reached 178, and Pat and Maynard are neck and neck in the race! But of course, we are a collective, and we don't compete with each other at all. Honestly...

See you next month and happy patch birding everyone!

May 2021 Roundup

2021-06-06T17:41:00.024+01:00

With one or two fabulous exceptions, May turned out to be in large part a pretty miserable and cold continuation of April's conditions. Nevertheless there were a few bird spotting highs...

On the 1st several Reed and Sedge Warblers were singing along the Holmes Road, and two Grasshopper Warblers were also reeling on the patch. A Short-eared Owl was seen over the village, and 19 Whimbrel were still present in the farmland at the north end. The evening saw a small fall of Wheatears in the North Dunes - Colin counted 9.

Little Terns had also arrived, with an estimate of around 500 on the 2nd. Also on this date Mick had a high flying Black-tailed Godwit going south - the second record of this rare bird for here this year.

Tern passage continued on the 3rd with Maynard noting Common, Arctic and Little moving north, as well as a Ring Ouzel in the South Dunes. On the same day we had a really big passage of Hirundines - all mostly going south, as they usually do in spring here! Pat saw a Short-eared Owl and 3 Yellow Wagtails in the North Dunes that morning too, and Sean had a flyover Canada Goose in the valley.

Just before mid-day news came out that a Pallid Harrier had been seen up the coast at Waxham, and it was heading south. In the vague hope it might get to us, Sean headed into the North Dunes and sat on a hill, and Pat and Tim stationed themselves inland at the end of Low Road, as we have noticed that many southbound raptors seem to cut inland when they reach what we call 'the Warren' (a patch of rather open scrubby land west of the fence-line about half a mile north of the village). An hour's skywatching produced 4 Red Kites and a host of Buzzards to entertain us, but there was no sign of the Harrier, so Pat and Tim went home and Sean got to his feet and started to wander slowly further north through the dunes. We assumed the Harrier had either taken another route or whizzed through very quickly before we could get ourselves into position. However, amazingly, just before 1pm, over an hour after it was first reported, the Pallid Harrier appeared, sailing casually and elegantly across the dunes, riding the wind with effortless ease, and even deciding to take a detour east to dance over Sean's head before heading back inland and drifting casually into the Warren, just has we had predicted it might! Sean immediately sent a photo via WhatsApp to our local group, and within about ten seconds Pat had called for further information. "Get back to Low Road, it's flying really casually and dawdling, and it's heading through the Warren" Sean shouted down the phone, so Pat whizzed back and amazingly also saw it as it glided across the farmland. It then headed on, on a more inland route, and was seen once more, further to the south of us. Incredibly, later analysis of the photos showed it was the same bird that had been on Bryher, in the Isles of Scilly, just a few days before! It was a very special encounter with a really wonderful bird, and we must thank Will Walmsley and Robert Smith for putting the news out so promptly.

Some of Sean's Pallid pics:

And here is an atmospheric pic taken by Pat as it crossed farmland on the west side of the village:

Back down to earth on the 4th a Swift appeared in the valley in the rain that morning, and very annoyingly a Bearded Tit flew over, pinging away, but Sean was unable to actually see it because of raindrops on his binoculars and glasses!

On the morning of the 5th there were 2 Ring Ouzels in the valley, whilst the Iceland Gull was still here, on the south beach along with a summer plumaged Dunlin and a large party of Ringed Plovers. The Peregrine was seen on the east side of the church tower, and remained with us throughout the month again.

On the 6th Sean attempted the first Breeding Birds Survey visit for the square which covers the first km of the North Dunes, and almost got frostbite trying to fill in the paperwork. A Cuckoo calling was the highlight of the visit. Later in the valley Mick had 4 Ring Ouzels and a cracking male Redstart which stayed for the next few days, proving to be a master of the vanishing act for the majority of the time it was here, although eventually most of us managed to see it.

Now you see me...

...and now I'm gone!

On the 7th Mick S, one of our very regular visitors, had 2 Spoonbills flying south, but annoyingly none of us managed to get on to them. They are a difficult year tick here!

Meanwhile Lesser Whitethroats, Cuckoos and Ring Ouzels were still in evidence, with at least 5 Ouzels in the valley that morning, and Maynard had a Hobby in the North Dunes. Sean had a calling flyover Woodlark in the valley too, the first of the year.

On the 8th Maynard was lucky enough to see 4 Black Terns come in off, and Sean had Hobby and the Redstart in the valley, and the first significant arrival of local Swifts happened that evening, with quite a few flying around over the village.

On the 9th there were two Spotted Flycatchers and a Whinchat in the valley, and a steady passage of Yellow Wagtails moving south with Pat counting 19 from the Plantation and Sean 6 in the valley. Up at the north end the Whimbrel were still present, with Tim counting 30, and also seeing two Woodlarks going south.

On the 10th Spotted Flycatcher and Ring Ouzel remained for us locals, but once again we all managed to miss the best bird, a female Red-footed Falcon which Mick S saw as it whizzed south along the dune tops at the Plantation. We really must try harder! Mick's photos below.

On the 11th Tim had a Garden Warbler back at its usual territory and the rest of us caught up with it over the next few days.

In an indication of how cold it continued to be, there were still a few Purple Sandpipers around at this point in the month too, and Tim took this fine picture on the 13th.

On the 16th there was a Common Sandpiper on the north beach amongst the groynes, and Tim and Mick were lucky enough to see a Turtle Dove whizzing south at speed from the Plantation.

On the 18th Sean saw a Black Redstart and a late Redwing in the South Dunes.

On the 19th Sean had a tussle with this plain Acro in the valley which was resolutely silent and mostly refused to give itself up, although eventually he did get a couple of shots. A tentative identification was concluded on the balance of probabilities, but readers' comments are always welcome!

On the 20th Barry had another Common Sandpiper and later Tim and Mick had 2. There was also a Red-breasted Merganser on the sea. Mick had 2 Canada Geese on the sea too! Sean's nocmig recorder picked up a Little Grebe over the house at 1.21am the previous night. That evening Pat had an Arctic Skua during a short seawatch.

The cold weather continued and a Spotted Flycatcher in the Totem Pole bushes on the 21st was a sad sight as it huddled out of the wind with not a single insect to be had for its breakfast.

On the morning of 22nd the (or a) Peregrine was hunting in the valley, and the Red-breasted Merganser was flying up and down the south beach. Lesser Whitethroats remained in the valley, hopefully breeding, but they were not singing at all so were often difficult to track down.

At least 2 more Spotted Flycatchers were present in the valley on the 23rd and another on the 24th. On the morning of the 25th, as cold weather continued, Sean saw two Hobbies sitting on the beach. When dog walkers came past they only flew a short way and landed on the sand again. This was surely rather worrying behaviour and we feared that the lack of insects was really having an impact on them. We have heard of Hobbies dying of starvation in the UK this year...

On the 26th Mick had 2 Knot on the sand bar and 2 Arctic Terns flying north. On his way back from the seawatch he found another Spotted Flycatcher in the dunes near the houses off North Market Road.

As the month ended breeding seemed to be getting underway for most species and several more Red Kites were seen, and as the weather finally began to show some incipient signs of warmth, butterflies and dragonflies at last began to emerge. It turned out to be a great month for both Green Haistreak and Brown Argus, and on top of those quite a few Walls, Painted Ladies and other moer common butterfly species were seen.

On the 29th Pat had 3 Avocets and a Green Woodpecker from the Plantation, plus a Woodlark south, and Sean caught up with the Avocets a couple of days later.

Fittingly for this month, it ended with another great bird being found by another visiting birder. This time it was Drew's turn to find this beautiful female Red-backed Shrike in the classic 'shrike bushes' north of the concrete blocks. It was a tricky bird to see, but eventually we all managed. A male was also present a short way up the coast at Waxham, and we would have our own male a few days later, but that's the story of another month (where Drew will also play his part!). Here are his own photos of his excellent bird.

And one from Tim:

And what of Mays of yore? I hear you say... Here's three of Peter's accounts from last century to finish off with.

Good patch birding everyone!

1989

1991

1994

April 2021 Roundup

2021-05-02T16:16:00.033+01:00

Although the spring rain was notably absent, April lived up to the rest of T.S. Eliot's famous description, and migrants had a hard time of it in the almost continuous cruel and cold NE wind. The early flurry of Swallows in particular must have really struggled.

Nevertheless there were some decent birds, although it most definitely was NOT the best April ever here (which for Sean was April 2008 in case you're interested 😊 - some will remember why...). The Iceland Gull remained throughout the month, our Peregrine continued to use the church tower throughout as well, and there were pretty good numbers of Ring Ouzels to be seen, so we made do.

Mick had three Wheatears in the north dunes on the 1st, and on the Second Maynard had a Green Woodpecker, the second of the year, at the back of the Low Road paddocks. On the 3rd Pat found two more Canada Geese from the concrete track, allowing at least one of us to get a welcome grip-back for our year lists... Pat also had a Sand Martin from his garden on the same day.

Sean had a lone Swallow on the 4th, and Tim a Willow Warbler in its customary territory near to the concrete blocks. It snowed on the 5th, yet despite this Sean had the first Common Tern, along with several Sandwich Terns, an appropriate Snow Bunting and near frostbite... The tide and the wind were so powerful on the 5th that the rope fencing and posts cordoning off the hoped-for Little Tern nesting area, only erected a few days earlier, was ripped out by the sea. Mick bravely went down that evening and tried to secure it, and was nearly pulled out by the tide!

On the 7th a distant Grebe sp going north was considered to possibly be a Red-necked, but it was too far out for us to clinch. On the 8th Mick had a few more Sandwich Terns sitting on the Cockle light station (about 3/4 of a mile out to sea). They really must have been wondering why they had bothered... Pat had a Siskin on his feeders, but a dead Harbour Porpoise towards the north end miserably failed to attract any Ivory Gulls...

...so we had to make do with this little fellow, which Tim photographed up at Bramble Gap on the 9th when he also saw 3 Great White Egrets and a Swallow.

On the same day Pat saw the first House Martin of the year from his garden, and the next day took these impressive photos of an impressive beast still in the area, the White-tailed Eagle.

On the 11th Barry had an Avocet from Bramble Gap, in what over the years has become known as the Avocet Pool, and Ted had a Purple Sandpiper on groyne 52. Pat recorded two more Siskins in his garden.

Red Kites were seen by most of us on various dates through the month, and Fulmars became increasingly regular on the sea and even along the beach. There were a few more White Wagtails seen, including one by Barry from Low Road on the 14th and this one by Sean in the same place a few days later.

On the 15th Mick saw a Ruff on the plantation pool - a good bird around here - and in a very brief seawatch Sean managed a pair of Tufted Ducks before coming to his senses and giving up due to the absolutely freezing north wind. Later that day day Mick also had the first Ring Ouzel of the year in the south dunes, and Colin had 3 Wheatears in the north dunes.

On the 17th Mick saw the first Yellow Wagtail of the year moving north, and Ted located the first House Martin away from Pat's garden area, above the Low Road paddocks. Bar-tailed Godwits were still moving at this stage in the month: Pat had 5 on the 17th, Mick 7 north off the car-park on the 18th and one on the plantation pool on the the 22nd, Tim had one on the 23rd from Bramble Gap, Sean had 5 going south off the south dunes on the 24th and Maynard had 2 in the same place on the 30th.

On the 18th Pat heard a Grasshopper Warbler reeling at full throttle in the north dunes quite early. Most of us went up for it but by the time we arrived it had clearly decided conditions were far too cold for pouring its heart out, and we only heard it giving very short bursts, from very close by, and stubbornly refusing to show itself.

A feature of the last third of the month was the passage of Whimbrels which began on the 20th with one seen by Sean and Mick as it flew south calling along the shoreline of the south dunes, and numbers picked up steadily until by the month's end flocks in their tens and twenties were being seen.

The first Whitethroats were seen by Mick on the 20th, and a few Song Thrushes and high Sparrowhawks seemed to be migrating on the same day.

Pat's garden continued to be the only reliable site to see House Martins. Here is one of the two whizzing around there on the same date.

In the afternoon of the 20th Sean saw the first Cuckoo of the year, a male near the double pools in the north dunes, and shortly afterwards found a Wryneck near the concrete blocks. The Wryneck proved impossible to get a photo of but he did capture this astonishing image of the Cuckoo 😁.

On the 21st Mick came across a roosting Short-eared Owl in the north dunes which allowed him to get this fantastic photo - almost as good as Sean's Cuckoo shot 😂.

From the 22nd Ring Ouzels started to be seen daily in both the north and south dunes, up to about six at a time, and Red Kites continued to put in regular appearances.

On the 23rd, with most of us still waiting to see our first, Tim saw his second Green Woodpecker of the year at Bramble Gap. Pat had a Yellow Wagtail over and found another, or the same male Cuckoo in the north dunes. With careful fieldwork he was able to equal (or perhaps even exceed) Sean's earlier success and capture this stunning image 😂.

On the 24th April Sean saw the unusual sight of about 80 Carrion Crows flying south quite high in several loose flocks just out to sea, obviously migrating. Apparently others have noticed this sort of movement in spring on the north coast too.

Black Redstarts popped up at the end of the month, with Barry finding one in the village on the 25th and Stephen, one of our regular visitors, finding another in the valley on the 26th, which was also present the next day.

On the 27th Sean and Barry saw another Cuckoo in the valley, plus a House Martin and the Black Redstart, and the Iceland Gull decided to have a little investigation of the newly planted McCain Oven Chips field to the south of the village.

The 28th finally saw reasonable numbers of Swallows arriving and this continued for the last few days of the month; although there was barely a letup in the wind, it had at least got slightly less freezing.

On the 29th we had the first significant arrival of Little Terns, with around 50 moving north before 9am. Barry had the first Sedge Warbler along the Holmes Road the next day (30th) Tim added Reed Warbler in the same place. Interestingly both of our commoner Acrocephalus warblers have been present at inland sites for well over a week now. Pete suggested that the reason they arrive here later is because it is sub-optimal habitat and so only gets used when places like Hickling etc are filled up with breeding pairs.

Also on the 30th Tim had another Yellow Wagtail, but they have been very thin on the ground so far this year.

Another birds that has been really notable by its absence this year has been Brent Goose - numbers have been way, way down in every month compared to previous years. We wonder if other observers along the east coast have noticed this seeming collapse?

At the end of the month on the 30th Sean had the first patch Lesser Whitethroat of the year, singing from a hedge opposite Duffles Pond.

Honourable mention must also go to our resident Hybrid Hoodie who can always be relied upon to cheer up the day.

So that was April. Our collective total for the year has gone up to 160 species. Let's hope this bloody wind changes in May!

In other wildlife news we have noticed a lot more Roe Deer on the patch this month, along with the more usual Red Deer, Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer. Hares have been much in evidence too, even in the north dunes, and adders have been out in the sunshine, braving the continuing cold wind.

We'll leave you with a few more photos of the month, and after that a couple of blasts from Aprils past. Good patch birding everyone!

30th April 2019

March entries from Peter's original bird notes of yesteryear, written for and published by the NOA, charting the early stages of the third technological revolution: from the Olivetti Typewriter, via the Amstrad Word Processor to the IBM PC!

1989

1991

1994

And finally...

April 20th, 2008

March 2021 Roundup

2021-04-01T18:20:00.011+01:00

The flooded field near Commissioner's Drain continued its recent run of good waders with a Knot seen by Tim on March 1st. On the 3rd it also produced 38 Dunlin and a Redshank for Mick. On the 4th, Pat finally caught up with a Russian White-fronted Goose amongst the Pinks, along with the three Barnacle Geese and several Brent Geese. Mick had a flyover Lapland Bunting on the same day, whilst Tim located the two Tundra Bean Geese again. Meanwhile, back near Commissioner's Drain a Barn Owl performed very nicely for Pat's camera.

Just outside of the patch from the Horsey Road but of note anyway was this interesting Cackling Goose, presumably minima if not a hybrid. It was initially found by Barry, and also photographed by Pat.

The early part of March saw the Peregrine become a virtual resident on the the church tower, and Pat was even able to video it on several occasions from his garden!

On the 6th March the number of Tundra Bean Geese went up to three (Tim) and a Great White Egret was noted again in the north of the parish. Short-eared Owls were seen occasionally through the month, including one seen unusually near to the village by Pat on the 7th.

On the 7th Barry saw a Rock Pipit on one of the groynes to the north of the village, and this proved to be the first of quite a few, including this finely plumaged, clear Scandinavian/littoralis bird with its rosy flushed breast, strong supercilium and almost Water Pipit greys on its head and back. It is apparently the case that almost all our Rock Pipits in Norfolk are likely to be littoralis rather than petrosus (see the 2019 Norfolk Bird and Mammal Report), a fact I was blissfully unaware of, since they are only separable in the spring, until I Tweeted this image and received some really interesting followups about it including an article from the 1995 NBMR on "The Origins of Rock Pipits in Norfolk".

Here's another shot of another Rock Pipit which stayed below the remains of the cafe for a couple of days.

On the 11th Mick had the first Sand Martin of the year whist seawatching, and he also saw the second on the 29th.

On the 14th Tim saw another Red Kite over the village. There were a number of Eider seen flying past throughout the month including two males south on this date. On the 15th Colin saw another two Red Kites in the North Dunes, which lingered and loafed about in the wind for quite a while.

The Peregrine was still spending a lot of time on the church tower around this time.

On the 17th a morning seawatch produced a Pintail, the usual Iceland Gull, identifiable by its right wing, a Fulmar and a fairly big movement of Gannets and Red-throated Divers for Sean - these two latter species continued to be noted in large numbers quite frequently until the month's end.

On the 19th Maynard heard a Water Rail, and saw a Bullfinch and several Treecreepers.

On the 20th much excitement for patch listers when Mick called in 10 Canada Geese (patch gold) which he had seen from Commissioner's Drain. Several quick-off-the-mark Collective members managed to connect, but by the time some of us arrived they were long gone. I can hardly bear to post Mick's picture...

Patrick noted the first flock of Siskin of the year, also on the 20th, and the Iceland Gull was still patrolling up and down the beach.

On the 21st Mick had a good seawatch, recording Great Crested Grebe, Shag, and two Great Northern Divers.

On the 22nd Peter saw two Brambling in the recently cut maize patch on Low Road, and in the afternoon Sean found a distant White-tailed Eagle north of the Holmes Road, which caused pandemonium in the geese flock and then lumbered low through the famland, heading inland. Given the number of eagles to the south of us and the north, it was not an entirely unexpected event.

Also on that day Sean took a picture of a lovely male Hen Harrier passing through the Pink-footed Geese flock without noticing that he had also unknowingly photographed a couple of the Tundra Bean Geese! Social media to the rescue again!

Luckily for the Collective year-listers, the eagle was also present the next day and for the following few days, when it was also joined by another!

On the night of 22nd-23rd Sean night-recorded the calls of both Water Rail and Coot (a mega rarity during the day but surprisingly common in nocmig recordings), as well as some nice Common Scoter calls.

On the 23rd Pete found a Firecrest in his garden and generously put the news out, allowing safe and socially distanced viewing of the bird from outside of his property. No lockdown rules were broken but most of us managed to add it to our year lists. In fact, Sean added both Firecrest and Goldcrest to his on the same day!

Chiffchaffs had been present on the patch since about the second week of March, but none had been singing until one in the valley, also on the morning of the 23rd. This uncorked the bottle: there must have been a big arrival overnight as on the 24th there were many songsters on the patch.

It was also a pleasure that morning to hear this Song Thrush pouring out his heart in the valley.

On the 25th Sean had three White Wagtails on the ploughed field to the south of the village, and over the next few days several more were seen.

Also over the following few days there were more Red Kites, Bramblings and White-tailed Eagle sightings continued.

On the 26th Barry found a Black Redstart in the valley and the next morning day Sean saw two there, then Tim topped that with three in the afternoon. This was nothing though as on the following Barry managed to see five together in the Paddocks!

Photo by Pat

The first Wheatear was found by Colin in the North Dunes on the afternoon of the 27th, and the first Swallow by Barry the next day on the 28th.

There were more Black Redstarts, Wheatears and Swallows as the month ended, and the first Willow Warbler of the year was singing in the valley on the 30th. Also on the 30th Tim saw a Grey Wagtail and a Green Woodpecker in the North Dunes. Green Woodpecker is an increasingly scarce bird here these days.

At the end of the month Blackcaps had become much more frequently seen in the valley and elsewhere, as the arrivers added to the small wintering population, and the Peregrine remained a regular on the church tower. Dare we hope it might find a mate and breed? As lockdown ended and the first visiting birders began to arrive, we noted one of our regulars caught up with a Short-eared Owl in the North Dunes, and Colin connected with a couple of Curlews over his garden.

So that was March. Spring is beginning to spring and at the end of March we have collectively seen 140 species on the patch, which is really not bad at all. We are all looking forward to the next few months and for now we'll leave you with a photo of a bird which is basically synonymous with March in Winterton. Happy patch-birding everyone!

February 2021 Roundup

2021-02-28T16:15:00.029+00:00

A slight change to this month's roundup as we have decided to include unphotographed birds seen by only one of us. Where this is the case the observer will be indicated so that if they have made a mistake they can be publicly ridiculed and their reputation trashed by all 😁. Also it's easier to write it as a chronological account, and hopefully this will give a bit more of a feel for the birding month too. Peter used to do this sort of monthly report for the NOA and so we though it might be nice to include some of these old reports at the end as well.

February 2021 began with a nice Merlin chasing a sanderling out at sea, and one Iceland Gull remained on the north beach, and was seen intermittently throughout the month right up to the end. Merlin were also seen pretty regularly through the month, and one seemed to be doing something of a regular circuit as it was seen over Low Road at pretty much the same time on several different days.

Photo by Tim taken on 11th Feb

Also on the 1st, a Little Egret was seen by Tim (and intermittently by others through the rest of the month), and a Song Thrush was singing at Duffles Pond.

The Pink-footed Goose flock at the north end varied in size through the month but was generally around 2000 or 3000 birds. The flock contained a single Barnacle Goose throughout the month.

Maynard had the first Curlew of the year on 2nd of February, as well as the first Shelduck.

There were not many Snow Buntings on the beach, though Pat saw 4 on 5th February and Maynard had 12 the next day. Purple Sandpiper was seen throughout the month, and Tim took this great photo on the 5th.

Ringed Plovers started to reappear on the beach early in February and courtship displays were observed later in the month. As the weather started to turn distinctly colder on the 6th, numbers of Woodcock were seen in the north dunes, arriving on the easterly wind ahead of the big freeze which was about to start. Sean found a Caspian Gull on the north beach in very strong winds on the 6th too.

Yellowhammers, which always seem to disappear in January, started to reappear in the dunes and surrounding farmland during the month.

On the 6th, Mick saw three Berwick's Swans fly over the concrete track and a Peregrine at Commissioner's Dyke. One or more Peregrines was seen throughout the month, including on the church towards the end. It would be brilliant if they nested!

Gadwall and Teal were seen in small numbers on sea watches and in the farmland through the month.

As the weather turned really cold and snowy Lapwings, Snipe, Woodcock and Dunlin started turning up in odd places along Low Road and elsewhere, and Sean had 2 Redshank at Commissioner's Dyke on the 7th.

Patrick saw the first Grey Wagtail of the year from the concrete track on the 7th and Maynard had one at Duffles Pond the next day. Pat also found a bobbing Jack Snipe on the 7th, out in the open among the Snipe in the horse paddocks (Mick got this excellent photo of it a few days later).

Sean flushed a Green Sandpiper from a ditch off the concrete track on the 9th, and a male Bullfinch took up residence for several days in and around Duffle's Pond.

Walking a tightrope in this cold weather...

The cold weather also drew plenty of Golden Plover and Skylarks into the farmland alongside the Lapwing, Snipe and Woodcock, and Redwings and Fieldfares were increasingly visible as they looked for food in the snow.

A male Blackcap put in several appearances at the Low Road feeders, and Great Spotted Woodpeckers started drumming in the woodland on the Burnley Hall estate.

The cold continued on the 11th and 12th, and immature Kittiwakes were seen flying over the beach and three Grey Plovers on it. The first Lesser Black-backed Gulls began to reappear. around this time too. Where do they get to in January?

Barry had a Little Gull on the 14th. (Colin saw a small flock later in the month too.)

On the 15th Pat had a Great Crested Grebe on the sea and Maynard saw three Goosander flying over Duffle's Pond, presumably coming from the Broads. Pat had another Goosander fly past at sea later in the month.

Sean saw another first winter Caspian Gull sitting on the sea offshore from the diamond sign on the 16th.

On the 18th Barry found a herd of 38 Bewick Swans on farmland north of the concrete track, which stayed for most of the day.

Also on the 18th Maynard became this year's winner of the fabled Creme Egg Trophy, awarded annually to the first of us to reach 100 species (not including Barry, who would never stoop to such vulgarity).

On the 20th Mick refound a Tundra Bean Goose in with the Pinks on the beet field from the Holmes Road, and Sean saw two later that day when the flock had flown over to the fields inland of Bramble Gap. Sean also found and photographed one back in the beet field the next day.

In the last week of the month Pat reported exciting news that Tawny Owls were actively investigating his nest box, and on 21st we received news from Tim A up the coast (thanks Tim!) that a pair of Ravens were heading our way. Since most of us were out birding already quite a few of us connected with them as they came down through the north dunes and landed briefly before deciding to fly back up towards Horsey.

The first queen bumble bee was out on the 21st, and Mick had a flypast Long-tailed Duck.

On the 22nd Pete found two Black-tailed Godwits on a flooded field to the north of the concrete track. This is a very rare species here which would be a life patch tick for some of us, and so caused an immediate scramble, but despite cycling as fast as our little legs would go, we arrived too late. Later that day Colin saw a small flock of 6 or 7 Little Gulls flying south close in shore.

On the 23rd the first Great White Egret was seen flying over farmland in the north of the patch, and it was seen a few more times over the next couple of days, with Pat seeing two together on the 27th.

On the 24th there was a big movement of Red-throated Divers and Gannets, and on the 25th Colin saw the first Red Kite of the year drift south through the north dunes and high over the village.

The male Hen Harrier, here last month, also put in a couple of appearances on the 25th, being seen by Mick near the cow barn and later by Pat in fields south of the village. Mick also had a White-fronted Goose in with the pinks, and Tim saw a 2nd winter Caspian Gull on the beach at Bramble Gap.

On the 26th Sean found his third Caspian Gull of the month, another first winter on the beach at Bramble Gap, a really nice long-legged, long-billed individual, and later that day saw the year's first Pintails, a pair which landed on the sea late in the afternoon in the moonlight of the snow moon - a beautiful sight.

On the 27th Tim had a flyover Lapland Bunting and the Peregrine was seen whizzing around, and sitting on, the church tower again 🤞🤞🤞.

So that was February 2021. So far this year, we have collectively seen 126 species on the patch. If you want to know who has seen what, you can check out the Year Lists section on the right if you are viewing on a computer or below the January roundup if not.

To finish, here are some of Pete's bird notes from Februarys gone by. Happy patch birding everyone!

January 2021 Roundup

2021-01-31T20:00:00.006+00:00

We've decided to do a monthly roundup for the benefit of anyone interested. The birds mentioned are all relatively notable for us, and all have been seen by at least two of us, so the list is not exhaustive. For the full list please see the yearlist spreadsheet below.

108 species were recorded in January, which is a very good total for the month.

Highlights were:

Iceland Gull (seen on the beach and later in the month also on rooftops in the village)

Hen Harrier (a fine 2nd year male)

Merlin

Great Northern Diver

Velvet Scoter (as many as 3 on some dates)

Tundra Bean Goose (4 birds but elusive amongst the pinks)

Russian White-fronted Goose (up to 14 amongst the pinks)

Barnacle Goose (1 with the pinks)

Bullfinch (2 males and a female; rare here now)

Water Rail

Barn Owl

Snow Bunting (a small intermittent flock up to about 20 birds).

Year Lists

2020-12-31T17:00:00.002+00:00

This list includes birds seen in and from the parish of Winterton-on-Sea, and also from the area around East Somerton ruined church and the 'concrete track' walk to Winterton Holmes (otherwise we couldn't count Nuthatch!).

Orange Tip

2018-05-23T16:19:00.001+01:00

Not sure if the roosting female was responsible, but found an egg on one of our Garlic Mustard (Jack-by-the-hedge) plants.

2018-05-07T17:17:00.002+01:00

Butterfly Survey today
Butterflies 0
Wheatears 0
Swifts 0
Swallows 0
Grass Snake 1 swimming across SE pool

Shall we resurrect the blog?

2018-05-06T18:49:00.003+01:00

Well, it's been a very long time but I am getting a bit bored of the way everything gets lost in the vast Twittersphere so I'm thinking of resurrecting this blog, just as somewhere to put the odd photo...

If any of the rest of the Winterton bird spotters wish to do the same please let me know and I'll give you access to the blog as authors.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures from today - the Little Terns are back, and I've discovered that my Nikon 300mm lens makes a pretty good macro lens for insects...

7 May 2014

2014-05-07T19:35:00.001+01:00

I hardly dared hope that the two Dotterel found by Barry this morning would stay until after work, but they did! My 200th species for the parish of Winterton-on-Sea. Shot taken in the gloom just before the heavens opened...

More pics here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/28183474@N04/sets/72157644566241614/