Sunday 3rd February 3 Day Norfolk Winter Tour

Day 3 of 3 East Norfolk

Another day started with yet more lovely views of hunting Barn Owls

in fact by the end of the day one member of the group had seen no less than 12 individuals!!

We headed over to the Yare Valley & were soon enjoying a mass of wildfowl, thousands of Wigeon, plus Shoveler, Teal, Shelduck & geese. The Wigeon providing wonderful close up views. After a bit of searching I soon had a small group of 22 Taiga Bean Geese lined up, although a little distant, the long dark necks, heavy long bills, & orange legs could all be seen through the scopes. The fields were littered with small groups of Lapwing, plus a few Golden Plover & overhead Marsh Harrier & Buzzard passed by. 

As we were contemplating walking out along one fo the footpaths to search for further geese, a skein appeared on the horizon, as they dropped I could see they were our quarry - Eurasian White-fronted Geese, around c50 of them. They landed & everyone was able to enjoy scope views as they settled down to feeding.

We then headed north towards the Broads & were soon searching along some minor lanes for wild swans. It didn't take too long to find them; a good flock of around 220 birds were evident at some range. The first small group of 7 consisted of 2 ad, 4 juv Whooper Swan & 1 ad Bewicks Swan. These were nice & close & we were able to study them carefully from the minibus without disturbing them. Further over in the next field, the main flock was present, again viewed easily from the minibus & with no disturbance, we were able to really enjoy the beautiful sights & sounds of 200 Bewick's & 18 Whooper Swan as several birds dropped in to join the main flock.

I then took the group to a quiet lane for our lunch break, with a nice vista across on of the large inaccessible areas of Hickling broad, several Marsh harrier, plus another Barn Owl were noted. Dinner was suddenly & abruptly interrupted as 2 Cranes flew across. A successful lunch!

In the early afternoon we spent some time looking offshore at the sea, we had plenty of Red-throated Diver, with many flying past & several sat on the sea. A Shag was sat on one of the groins, & several Gannet passed by, we were fortunate to pick up 2 Purple Sandpiper flying by, which sadly landed well out of range.

We finished the day at a raptor roost, & were rewarded even before reaching the watchpoint as 2 Cranes were found in one of the fields just off the roadside! The roost itself surpassed expectations with an excellent number of birds, around 1000 Pink-feet were heading off to roost & a few thousand Starling also passed by - a brilliant end to a great 3 days. Raptors were excellent -  c50 Marsh Harrier, 2 ad male & 2 r/t Hen Harrier, 2 Merlin (one perched & flying over the perched bird), 2-3 barn owl & 8 Cranes, including a party of four showing well on the ground. 

Total species was around 112 for the 3 days.

Saturday 2nd February 3 Day Norfolk Winter Tour

Day 2 of 3 South Norfolk/Suffolk

The day started with lovely views of yet another hunting Barn Owl en-route to the Brecks, probably the 6th bird of this tour!

The first stop at a Hawfinch stake out proved fruitless for this species  & for the first half an hour the birding proved quiet & tough, a brief flyover Bullfinch, then the brief call of Firecrest, but no further sight nor sound. Slowly we teased a few birds out, a Nuthatch appeared, then a Marsh Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper, a flock of c40 Siskin were overhead eventually settling & a thorough search revealed some beautiful, "rosy" Lesser Redpolls amongst them. Hanging from the lowest branches we had scope filling views, most of them were Lesser Redpoll, but one bird with white underparts, white undertail coverts & a paler ground colour to the mantle looking good for a Mealy Redpoll. 

We then headed to Thetford & met up with Nick Moran (my local source of info down here!) we scored easily & had wonderful close views of the Black-bellied Dipper (the Continental form of this species, incredible they cross the North Sea!) it was feeding, preening & doing everything that we all love to watch Dippers do!

We stopped off for some local Waxwings, but no sign, did a circuit of the local berry bushes still  no sign! We started driving south for our next stop, the mobile rang - I pulled over & could see it was Nick, which probably meant head back for Waxwing! Indeed I was correct, he had found a single Waxwing whilst walking back to his house. Five minutes later we pulled up & was relieved to see the Waxwing still sat atop of the trees, providing wonderful views for everyone of this exceptionally beautiful bird, Nick & I pored over the detail & decided on 1st year male!

We continued south to our late lunch stop, this proved very successful. Eating lunch whilst watching c50 Brambling & c20 Tree Sparrow, plus Siskin was a real treat all from the comfort of the minibus.

We had a decision to make now, Bittern or Hawfinch retry? We plumped for the latter & arrived in nice afternoon sunlight - after 20 minutes of tantalising views near the ground a single Hawfinch gave itself up allowing everyone good scope views. 

Good decisions all round as a call to Nick reported the Bittern not seen!! Another great day. Total for 2 days 99 species

Friday 1st february - 3 Day Winter Birding Tour

Day One - NW Norfolk

A really lovely day with beautiful, big blue Norfolk skies, accompanying a great selection of 83 species!

The day started with 2 Barn owl encounters as we passed along the lanes heading for NW Norfolk. We arrived just in time to witness a really good showing of shorebirds, in excess of 50,000 shorebirds hit the skies.
The mass bulk of the flock being of course Red Knot, but also massive flock of 7000+ Bar-tailed Godwit probably  & the usual supporting cast of 1000+ Golden Plover, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Turnstone, Sanderling etc. Also several nice skeins of Pink-footed Geese past overhead.

We had probably seen around 25% of the masses until a marauding Peregrine went skittling through them all, sending everything into orbit & the smoke clouds of shorebirds hit the skies, superb!

From the hides, there was plenty of Lapwing, wildfowl & several superb male Goldeneye, head throwing at the females. 

We left Snettisham & were now able to study more of the waders at close quarters as they fanned out on the mud to feed. As we headed back another Barn Owl was seen from the road.

At Holme we wandered out on to the dunes & soon found a lovely flock of c50 Snow Bunting, which obligingly after a few flights landed close by & walked straight towards us, affording great views plus more shorebirds to study & a flyby Guillemot, being hotly pursued by a Great-black backed Gull.

Lunch was taken with Marsh harrier, Buzzard, Pochard masses of Wigeon & Tufted Duck on view. The mid to late afternoon was equally successful with 3 hunting Barn Owl, 1 Short-eared Owl, 5+ Marsh harrier & a Bittern plus a supporting cast of c200 Brent Geese, c120 Curlew & several Fieldfare & Redwing. 

The day almost finished with a flyover Woodcock, but was usurped by a calling Tawny Owl at the accommodation!!

Tuesday 29th January One to One Guided Birding

The weather was less than suitable for raptor hunting today, although the first few hours of the day were warm, cloudy with less wind. We decided to have a look for some woodland & farmland species at nearby localities.

We started off by watching a Barn Owl showing very well, both perched & hunting. We then walked along a stretch of the River Wensum, we had a lovely selection of birds & great views of Grey Wagtail, Siskin, Redpoll, Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Fieldfare, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Reed Bunting plus c120 Teal, 4 Egyptian Geese & 4 Snipe.

We then stopped off in another area & had c20 Yellowhammer, 4 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel, c20 Skylark & selection of commoner birds.

In the afternoon we visited a nearby reserve where we were treated to fantastic views of up to 100 Brambling, 3 Bullfinch, 3+ Marsh Tit, Water Rail & close views of a hunting Sparrowhawk, marauding through the finch flocks!

Monday 28th January One to one PhotographyTour

This One to One workshop was run by Josh Jaggard for Norfolk Birding.

The day started off looking for Barn Owls. One was perched but not close enough & unfortunately wasn't hunting. Whilst here we also had lovely views 3 Marsh Harriers, Red kite and a flock of over 100 Curlew. 

From here we moved into one of the harbour areas where we photographed some shorebirds & wildfowl. 

With in a few hours we had reasonable images of Teal, Redshank and Bar-Tailed Godwits coming close to the vechicle creating some nice images. Whilst there we also had nice views of Wigeon, Little Egret, Turnstone and Brent Geese. We were also treated to wonderful views of a  Bittern flying out of the reeds just in front of the car.

We then headed to Titchwell,plus used the  cafe for a warm up & a late lunch, followed by a quick session from a one of the hides. We had lots of wildfowl, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Pochard, Tufted Duck and a Hen Harrier. 

The weather turned grey & damp late afternoon, so we headed for an area where Bitterns had been showing earlier, but sadly they didn't reappear. We had a great day with some nice images in the morning in the better light & good selection of birds throughout the day.

Monday 28th January 2013 Monday One to one Guided Birding

Chris guided a One to One exclusive 2 day tour with a specific slant towards raptors on Day one.

The day started well with a quick stop for a lovely hunting Barn Owl. We stopped briefly for a perched small bird of prey, that to my surprise turned into a Merlin with prey, but was on view all too briefly! We reached the NW coast 7 were soon admiring Buzzard & several Marsh Harrier, showing very well & even starting some early territorial display flight. A large female Sparrowhawk shot in & out of view & it wasn't too long before we watching a distant Red Kite, eventually this bird drifted towards & gave fantastic, prolonged views as it soared overhead. 1-2 Kestrel were noted. We had a great morning with blue skies & great views, but by lunch the cloud had arrived & we settled into the minibus to look for other raptors over lunch. Our luck continued when a ringtail Hen Harrier passed us, we jumped out the van & had nice scope views.

Another search along the lanes produced another or the same Merlin, but again the bird was cruising quickly & disappeared within seconds. A quick stop off elsewhere produced several Yellowhammer & 16 Corn Bunting.

We finished the day at a roost site & were treated to 5 Hen Harrier including a cracking grey male.

Sunday 27th January Group Photography Workshop

Today we had a group of 5 photographers for a coastal bird photography workshop

We spent the morning with a 2 hour classroom session with a short presentation, with a question & answers period before heading out to take images. Working through equipment, technique, exposure, shutter speeds & apertures. 

Clients took home a Cd-rom with all of the information from the classroom session

We then spent the afternoon putting theory into practice. We split into 2 groups with Josh heading off to North Norfolk with a group of 3 whilst Chris visited an area in NW Norfolk with two others from the group.

The light was pretty good until mid afternoon & everyone bagged a one or two good images & learnt a lot.

Images of Turnstone, Teal & Bar-tailed Godwit from the workshop will be posted shortly.