29/9/09 Holme NOA

5 hours seawatching from the dunes by the observatory was surprisingly productive in the moderate westerly breeze, with 138 Manx Shearwaters (my best ever patch count), 4 Black Terns, a Great Skua, 5 Arctic Skuas, an Arctic Tern, 33 Fulmars, 150 Gannets and a Great-crested Grebe noted between 7:10 and 12:10hrs. Grounded migrants included a Tree Pipit in the Forestry, as well as 3 Wheatears and a Turtle Dove in the dunes and a selection of common warblers including 5+ Chiffchaffs and 2 Blackcaps. 6 Greenshanks and a Whimbrel were recorded during the day. On returning to Dersingham village a Grey Wagtail was a surprise as it flew west calling.

28/8/09 Holme NOA

A quiet day in difficult conditions at the observatory. 3 Yellow Wagtails flew west overhead, while 5 Greenshanks were noted, as was a Whimbrel. A Little Stint flew east along the beach with a mixed group of waders mid-morning. 39 Swallows flew west, while a Treecreeper and 5 Chiffchaffs were in the pines. Seawatching was also poor, but 5 Gannets and 4 Fulmars flew west.

27/8/09 Holme NOA

Well, the one morning I can't get to the patch early they go and catch a Wryneck! Typical. Still I had a trundle round in the evening. Failed to relocate the Wryneck but did have a female Pied Flycatcher in the pines, as well as 2 Lesser Whitethroats and 3 Whimbrels west. I also got to see a Scarce-bordered Straw that had been caught in the moth trap overnight.

25/8/09 Great Ryburgh

An enjoyable 4-hour stint at the Great Ryburgh raptor watchpoint produced good views of the dark-phase male HONEY BUZZARD on two occasions between 11:30am and midday. Other raptors noted included 3+ Hobbies, 9 Common Buzzards, 2 Kestrels, 2 Sparrowhawks and a male Marsh Harrier. Nearby, at a wildflower meadow near Fakenham, 5+ Clouded Yellows were present.

In the evening dad went for a walk at Burnham Overy Dunes where he located a single Whinchat.

24/8/09 Holme

After the flurry of activity the previous day a trip to Holme was a little dissapointing in some aspects. High tide at Gore point revealed a lot of waders, with counts of 6000+ Knot, 500+ Grey Plovers, 300 Bar-tailed Godwits, 255 Ringed Plovers, 220 Sanderlings, 60 Dunlin, 40 Turnstones and 110 Oystercatchers. During the morning 14+ Arctic Skuas were noted, as well as a superb adult Pomarine Skua close inshore east past Gore point, 25 Gannets, 20 Common Terns (3 juvs), 70 Sandwich Terns (6 juvs), 1 Little Tern, 2 Red-throated Divers east, 8 Great-crested Grebes, 12 Shoveler west, 3 Pintails west, 60 Common Scoter and 55 Teal. Visible passage was more noticeable, with 1 Tree Pipit west, 250 Swallows west, 2 Skylarks west, 50 Meadow Pipits west and 21 Snipe west, while other waders consisted of 6 Greenshanks and 8 Whimbrel. The dunes were dissapointing, although 2 Wheatears, 6 Turtle Doves (2 juvs) and a selection of common warblers, consiting of 11 Whitethroats, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, 4 Blackcaps and 4 Willow Warblers, were noted.

Picture © Ray Roche.

Moths trapped included a single White Point, while a count of 100+ Migrant Hawkers was noteworthy.

A stop at Hunstanton revealed a single Mediterranean Gull on the school playing field.

Picture © Ray Roche.

23/8/09 Holme

Well the slight change in wind-direction to SE over night certainly did the trick. No scarcities pulled out of the bag but a definite increase in activity was headlined by 5+ Pied Flycatchers, perhaps my best ever August count at the patch, with 3 in the Forestry and 2+ in the west end of the pines. Always smart birds but they don't particularly like to pose at close range!

Otherwise migrants were perhaps surprisingly thin on the ground, with a small scattering of warblers including 1 Grasshopper Warbler flushed in the Forestry, 5 Willow Warblers, 7 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Garden Warblers and 3 Whitethroats. A trickle of Swallows west numbered 56 by the end of the day and a Greenshank flew east calling. Moths in the traps included singles of Rush Veneer and Diamond-back Moth, both immigrants.

Bottom two pictures © Ray Roche.

21/8/09 Rutland Water

My first trip to the birdfair in several years was an enjoyable way to spend the day and it was good to see so many friends on site. Somehow I managed to limit myself to one purchase, despite being very tempted by many books and a good few foreign holidays! The birds were pretty good as well, with 2 Ospreys showing well on the deck and in flight from the watchpoint, a Gargeney and a Scaup from the reserve centre, a Bullfinch and a Greenshank.

15/8/09 Wash Coast and Blackborough End Tip

A walk around a section of the Wash coast with a friend produced 4 Turtle Doves, 8 Yellow Wagtails (including at least 4 juveniles), a Greenshank and a group of 75 Golden Plovers. Later, a sift through some gulls near Blackborough End Tip revealed 2 juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls.

Pictures from the summer

13/8/09 Holme NOA and North Creake

Another trip up to the obs in the hope that the light northerly wind might have shaken things up. The sea was fairly productive on the incoming tide, with a Great Skua, a juvenile Kittiwake, 11 Arctic Skuas, 2 skua sp, 1 Arctic Tern, 14 Fulmars, 5 Teal, 1 Little Tern, 138 Common Scoters and 147 Gannets in 2 hours. It was fairly quiet on land, with 3 Lesser Whitethroats, a Chiffchaff and a Cetti's Warbler on the NOA reserve and a Garden Warbler and 2 Willow Warblers along the stream at Redwell. Waders were more obvious, with 3 Greenshanks, 1 Spotted Redshank west, 7 Green Sandpipers, 3 Snipe, 2 Black-tailed Godwits and a Common Sandpiper. A single Hobby also flew east past the obs.

Moths included 2 rather stunning Gold Spots and a White-line Dart.

Late afternoon a trip to Beacon Hill, north of North Creake, produced distant views of a Red Kite.

10/8/09 Hickling Broad

A kind lift from Simeon and James meant I was able to get round to Hickling late afternoon (despite a rather poor, windy route chosen by the navigator - never mind Simeon!) and we obtained fairly good, albeit slightly distant, scope views of the smart BAIRD'S SANDPIPER on Rush Hills Scrape from the Weavers Way footpath, a British tick for all of us! A Little Stint was also present in amongst the group of Dunlins and Ringed Plovers.

9/9/09 Haweswater RSPB, Cumbria

A necessary trip to Cumbria meant I could grab a couple of hours at the Golden Eagle watchpoint. Unfortunately heavy traffic at several stages of the journey meant I arrived later then anticipated and therefore I missed seeing the Golden Eagle that had been showing fairly well for large parts of the afternoon. However, a male Merlin, a male Peregrine, 2 Ravens, 6 Goosanders and 4 Wheatears in the area, as well as some stunning scenery, meant it was pleasant enough.

8/8/09 north Norfolk coast

Just one of those days today... A fairly long heathland walk failed to produce a Dartford Warbler (the third time I have been unsuccessful at this 'known' sight - any helpful tips via email greatly appreciated!), with only 8 Stonechats and 2 Common Buzzards of note. Cley and Walsey Hills NOA both yielded little during quick stops, although a single near-adult Yellow-legged Gull was on Pat's Pool. A distant Hobby was an uninspiring end to an uninspiring day, although thankfully I got home in time to listen to the important Norwich vs Colchester game on the radio in all it's glory.... Arghhhhh, when will the pain end!

7/8/09 Holme NOA

A varied morning down on the patch. Seawatching from first thing for 2.5 hours was steady but not spectacular, with some quality provided by a distant Great Skua west and 3 Manx Shearwaters east, with 79 Teal west, 12 Eider, 96 Common Scoter, 13 Fulmar (12 w, 1 e) and 66 Gannets also noted. One of the notable events of the day was excellent numbers of terns throughout, first of all on the seawatch in the morning, then on the beach in Thornham harbour at low tide and again in the early evening, when large numbers were wheeling about catching ants with large numbers of gulls over the pines and observatory, resulting in counts (at any one time) of 364 Common Terns, 54 Sandwich Terns, 12 Arctic Terns (4 on the beach at Gore point at high tide, 5 past on the seawatch, 2 in Thornham harbour at low tide and 1 along the broadwater in the evening) and best of all 2 moulting adult Black Terns loafing around in Thornham harbour at low tide amongst the masses of Common Terns, along with a smart adult Little Gull. I rather stupidly didn't bring my camera to Thornham but Ray did and shots of both will be posted on his site soon. Further quality was added by an excellent group of 7 Spoonbills found by Ray, which flew west and then looped round east over the marsh (allowing me to eventually see them), heading towards Thornham at 07:42hrs - a further group of 3 were logged later just after we had left. Seemingly the first grounded migrants of the autumn were seen thanks to the rain overnight, headlined by a Spotted Flycatcher in the Forestry and 3 Garden Warblers, of which one was trapped and ringed.

15 Willow Warblers and 4 Lesser Whitethroats were also amongst a clutch of commoner warblers recorded in the dunes, while a singing Cetti's Warbler was on the NOA reserve. Waders were again a key feature, with a Greenshank, 8+ Green Sandpipers, 14 Golden Plovers, 20 Snipe and 10 Black-tailed Godwits recorded, while a trickle of hirundines flying west along the dunes consisted of 75 Swallows and 10 Sand Martins.

5/8/09 North Wootton area

An early-morning trip with a friend produced 5 adult Yellow-legged Gulls, as well as 4 Yellow Wagtails (2 adults with 2 juveniles), a female Wheatear, 9 Green Sandpipers, 3 Common Sandpipers and 5 Snipe.

Later, an evening walk at Holkham was surprisingly productive. A Hobby flew west and the hedgerows bordering the public footpath held 20+ Chiffchaffs (a mixture of adults and juveniles), 3 Lesser Whitethroats, a Blackcap, a Garden Warbler and a smart Spotted Flycatcher in bushes just south of the pine-belt, just east of the Joe Jordan hide.

4/8/09 Titchwell RSPB

An evening walk at Titchwell RSPB was enjoyable until the rain began pouring down! On the bird front singles of Little Stint and Greenshank were on the freshmarsh and a quick peek at the sea revealed 3 Arctic Skuas harrying a gull and 4 Gannets east.

2/8/09 west Norfolk

A few walks close to home this afternoon produced a good result in the form of 2 Hobbies hunting dragonflies overhead, while a Green Sandpiper flew over calling. The dragonflies were also good, with 2 Black Darters, 20 Common Emeralds, 15 Common Blue Damseflies, 5 Blue-tailed Damselflies, 5 Migrant Hawkers and 1 Azure Damselfly.

Black Darter








Common Emerald action - both males (top and bottom) and females (middle) captured devouring gnats!

Blue-tailed Damselfly

1/8/09 Titchwell RSPB

During the morning I took a trip to Titchwell RSPB to help with the official opening of the Island hide. However, this also meant a good few hours birding, which was surprisingly productive. 5 Spoonbills and 2 moulting adult Curlew Sandpipers were on the freshmarsh, along with 8 Greenshanks, 3 Spotted Redshanks, 5 Little-ringed Plovers, a Common Sandpiper and a Yellow Wagtail. The biggest surprise of the morning was a superb Common Crane that flew in from the north, circled over the freshmarsh and drifted east and I later found out that it had been seen over the beach as well, perhaps surprsingly the first one I can remember seeing at Titchwell.