Norfolk Day 4

Continuing on the theme of trying to avoid popular sites in Norfolk for birding I decided to go to Holkham for a visit today. A GWE had turned up yesterday and though it had dissapeared after half an hour with no further news it remained a possibility despite not really thinking I would see it. The dunes are also great places for migrants so I figured my chances of finding something were pretty good.

And so it turned out. Scanning the hedgerows near the car-park as I arrived I picked up a blackbird with a white crescent on its chest. Ring Ouzel. I couldn't believe it and quickly tried to get my camera out of my bag. However, when I looked again it had gone, and despite half an hour scanning I was unable to relocate it. I was gutted to say the least, my first decent find in my week visit and it goes after five seconds. Still, there were plenty of other good birds in the car park area, including Marsh Harrier and Egyptian Geese.

-Egyptian Geese

I decided to walk along to the hides first and then explore the dunes after. I was treated to obscene views of Jay and especially Muntjac Deer, which seemed to be very abundant and tame despite the number of dog walkers.

Just before I reached the main hide I scanned across and to my disbelief picked up the Great White Egret fishing in a ditch. I was so please. Buzzing even. What a striking bird, the best view I have ever had of one and certainly the best photos I have ever managed to get of one. Sadly it was very mobile and after around 10mins it took off and flew to the far side of the freshmarsh well out of view. It did do a massive poo though on the way, which was something of a novelty. I can now add GWE to me species seen pooing list. And on the subject of lists I should mention that Ring Ouzel was my 150th species this year, GWE being the 150th for public transport.

-Great White Egret

Walking on I arrived at the main hide and decided to pop in and have lunch there. Looking over I picked up Pheasant and Grey Partridge in abundance, as well as a smart Peregrine. Then a couple of other birders came in, saying to look out for the resident Spoonbills, they were hoping to see from the hide. It was not long after that we had Spoonbills flying, followed by views of one actually feeding. Not sleeping, actually feeding. Granted it was rather distant but to get views like this is something of a novelty with this species.

-Spoonbill

After lunch I decided to move on. A hooded crow seemed to have set up at Blakeney having being moving West along the coast all morning. As a result I decided to make a move there. It turned out to be a waste of time as the bird had clearly flown off about two hours before I arrived and nobody had bothered to put news out yet. Anyway, I was at least given some consolation with my first Yellow Wagtail of the year, although it was nothing more than a distant yellow spec.

Following a breif stint there then I moved on and ended up with time to kill in Sheringham on the way back. I wandered down to the seafront to kill time but instead found that there were some seriously tame Turnstones feeding around the area near my feet so spent the time photographing those instead.

-Turnstone

Thats the account of my last full day in Norfolk, and I pretty much had the best of it. A real nice way to finish off an excellent week.

Species List:

Holkham NNR: Woodpigeon, Jackdaw, Pied Wagtail, Shelduck, Teal, Lapwing, Marsh Harrier, Starling, Black-headed Gull, Greylag Goose, Egyptian Goose, Meadow Pipit, Shoveler, Redshank, Ring Ouzel, Moorhen, Chaffinch, Jay, Robin, Blue Tit, Tufted Duck, Cormorant, Pheasant, Great-white Egret, Peregrine, Goldcrest, Canada Goose, Avocet, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Grey Partridge, Spoonbill, Common Buzzard, Magpie, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Brent Goose, Red Kite,

Blakeney Freshmarsh: Yellow Wagtail, Rook, Jackdaw, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Shelduck, Shoveler, Greylag Goose, Willow Warbler, Robin, Greenfinch, Peregrine, Moorhen, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Redshank, Pied Wagtail, Oystercatcher, Marsh Harrier, Egyptian Goose, Black-tailed Godwit, Lapwing, Chaffinch, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Goldfinch, Pheasant, 

Weston Park

I returned back from lectures with the sound intention of working of developing ideas for my dissertation, something which is now well overdue. That idea was quickly cut short when I saw via the University Birdwatching Society that there was a pair of Egyptian Geese on the Weston Park pond. I, of course, headed straight down there and within 10 mins was watching the birds.

Both were reasonably approachable and readily came to bread. They were unringed and were probably the same birds seen on the far side of Sheffield a day earlier. I had a behaviour tick when I got to see them displaying and a vocal tick when I got to hear the male calling, How cool is that?!? The only real downside was that the light was awful and so all 600 photos I took are also not brilliant.

Anyway, what better way to spend an afternoon...

-Egyptian Geese

Besides the obvious highlights there was also a smart female Wigeon present, unringed but almost certainly of suspect origin, not helped by the fact that it was coming to bread. The ever-present male Wood Duck was still strutting his stuff, today he was displaying earnestly to a female mallard.

-Wigeon

-Wood Duck

Species List:

Weston Park: Egyptian Geese, Wigeon, Mallard, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Pied Wagtail, 

Orgreave Lakes

Another free afternoon and another trip to Orgreave Lakes in all its glory. In fairness I should have gone in the morning before my solitary lecture but when the alarm went off at 6.00 I just could not face it and missed a whinchat for my lie in.

But never mind, hindsight is a wonderful thing! I arrived on site to a sunnier afternoon than yesterday but it was a very similar cast of birds on show. The Maned Duck was still present and still sleeping as seems to be its favourite pastime. Also on show were the waders from yesterday, featuring Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Redshank, Dunlin but the Common Sandpipers remained frustratingly distant. 2 of the original 4 Egyptian Geese were still present almost a week after they first dropped in, but they remained on the island so I could only digiscope them.

-Egyptian Geese

There were no hirundines in the sky, until I reached the main lake when the all seemed to descend at once out of nowhere. There were all 3 species though, in flocks which seemed much bigger than yesterday.

There was also a bumper landing of Wheatears, with at least 7 birds there today, including 2 females, which were my first of the year. Sadly they were all spread out so it was difficult to accurately judge just how many there were. Either way, the more the merrier so far as I am concerned as British birds just simply do not get any better.

Having said that, the highlight of today's trip was a superb White Wagtail along the northern edge of the main lake. I had checked for them all along the walk but had only got 2 Pied Wagtails (which are deffo the smarter of the subspecies!). But then I spotted this one feeding along the water edge. The contrast from the hood to the pale back clearly show this is a spring male White Wag, and is my first one of the year. What a super bird, and I set myself up so I got a couple of decent record shots through the scope to go with it!

-White Wagtail

That remained it for the lakes. Along the river there were multiple more male Blackcaps singing, as well as a few Willow Warblers. I managed to get eyes on both species but Willow Warbler was only fleeting as I tried to set myself up for a digiscoped shot. There were a few Chiffchaffs in the scrub as I come in as well, so we had a nice bunch of summer warblers.

Species List:

Orgreave Lakes: Mute Swan, Graylag Goose, Canada Goose, Egyptian Goose, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Moorhen, Coot, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Common Redshank, Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Common Sandpiper, White Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Goldfinch, Kestrel, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Wheatear, Sand Martin, Swallow, Great Crested Grebe, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Linnet, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, 

Orgreave Lakes

With nothing outstanding anywhere that required any major attention, my focus remained firmly on the patch. I made my way over for 9.00 for another lovely morning in the sun, the only difference from yesterday being that there was a chilly breeze putting an edge on the temperature.

We starting by making up where we had left of yesterday. As soon as I reached the river I heard a Blackcap from the far side of the river, which soon became 2. This time though I managed to get glimpse of them as they moved along the bank. Sadly it was not much and the record shot of this year-tick reflects that. A massive bonus was a Kingfisher that I must have flushed as I descended the bank to get closer to the Blackcaps.

-Blackcap

The small lake was quite quiet and I was unable to see any of yesterdays plastic. The usual suspects were all present though but nothing much had changed. Further round it was much the same story. The Little Ringed Plovers had been put up and were not really settling anywhere to get a proper view of them. There were 3 Redshanks moving between the 2 lakes depending on where the dog walkers pushed them.

Over by the rocks the male Wheatear was still present and looking absolutely fantastic in all his glory. This time I set up the scope to try and get some digiscoped shots of him to see how they came out. I think they came out very well, and it certainly allowed me to get probably my best shots ever of the species (Which is my fave!!). What a fantastic bird.

-Wheatear

While I was watching the Wheatear I heard a Curlew calling and looked to see it flying overhead, before looping back round and doing the same again. Its the first time I have seen one on the patch this year, and is not a common species here. Its probably the only major difference between today's and yesterdays species count.

-Curlew

I had caught a brief glimpse of at least 2 gyppo geese still from the far bank but they had drifted out of sight. With that in mind it came as a shock when I rounded the point to where I should have been able to see them... and they were not there.

As I continued round though I realised I could not see them as they had taken up on the bank and were merrily feeding on the plains. I approached steadily over around a 15 min period until they were between 10-15 meters away. All the while I was taking snaps of them through the scope. And then horror! A dog walker was coming from behind, and this would undoubtedly push them back into the water. In one sense the dog walker stopped to ask what I had, and had an interest in the birds, but still carried on his way and the birds flew off. Never mind, it was great to still see the plastic around!

-Egyptian Geese

All the digiscoping had given me a thought of trying to upgrade my record shots for a number of common species that I always struggled to get close to, namely Skylarks and Meadow Pipits. I had some fantastic chances with Skylarks but it always flew off at the last second, and the pipits were generally too skulky. I did manage one effort of Meadow Pipit which worked quite well. I reckon I'm getting the hang of this digiscoping lark.

-Meadow Pipit

I finished my walk round and came back to the small lake for a scan before I headed off. I was pretty pleased when I saw the Maned Duck was indeed still present. It had come down to the eastern side of the island and was drinking from the lake. I took a few more shots of it, for even though its totally plastic its still a rather smart looking bird.

-Maned Duck

So it was another lovely morning on the patch with some great species, including yearticking Blackcap. Now why can't soil hill be as productive as this?

Species List:

Orgreave Lakes: Kingfisher, Reed Bunting, Blackcap, Long-Tailed Tit, Lapwing, Little Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Egyptian Goose, Common Buzzard, Goosander, Herring Gull, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Common Teal, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Graylag Goose, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Robin, Dunnock, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Black-Headed Gull, Wheatear, Coot, Moorhen, Great Crested Grebe, Curlew, Magpie, Cormorant, Linnet, Carrion Crow, 

Orgreave Lakes

First full day back in Sheffield and with nothing outstanding anywhere I decided to return to my usual patch of Orgreave lakes and hopefully pick up some stuff. A lack of motivation meant I arrive at 9.00 rather than any earlier, but while I was in bed trying to motivate myself I saw on twitter that 4 Egyptian Geese had dropped in to Orgreave that morning, as if more incentive was needed...

The day started hazy but it soon reached the heights of yesterday, with glorious sunshine. I quickly made my way to the small lake where I got chatting to another birder who told me all that was around. We then went found so we could see the far side of the island where the gyppo geese and the escaped Maned Duck were, the latter having been here for about a week now. The duck was easy enough to pick up on the island by its bizarre shape and obviously different plumage.

-Maned Duck

The Egyptian Geese were in 2 pairs that often kept apart. I was able to get some digiscoped shots of them on the island for purposes of patch and year-ticking records. I do quick like Egyptian Geese, despite their obviously being plastic. Last year I only had a sleeping individual spotted as we drove past so to actually see them for what they are was quite a result, especially on the local patch. 

-Egyptian Geese

Then we moved on to some real birds. The Little Ringed Plovers were still on the bank where they had been last time I was here but this time I was able to find them on the deck, largely helped by the bird choosing to sit on top of the ridge. As a result I was able to try and digiscope them, and finally got a reasonable shot of the species where all its features are clear.

-Little Ringed Plover

Not far on from that we stopped to chat to another birder. While we were chatting I picked out the female Pintail on the small lake, another patch tick, though the SBSG describes it as from suspect origin, so I may end up loosing this one.

-Pintail

All along the walk I had been told there was 1 Wheatear on site, but it was at the far end. No sooner did we reach the far end and with a quick flash of that white rump did we refind the superb male Wheatear. They are my favourite bird, as there is simply no bird that looks as good as this (In my opinion) on the British list. Fab! And my first this year. The only downside is that I did not get one on Soil Hill. Sadly it was never overly approachable and so my shots were all distant and not ideal.

-Wheatear

Perhaps the most surprising yeartick of the day was Willow Warbler. The birder I had been walking with had said he had heard one singing near the river, and as we approached the river we heard it again. It took some finding as it was well tucked in, but find it we did and I even managed a record shot, though its pretty awful. The call was delightful to hear though, showing that migrants were finally starting to arrive again.

-Willow Warbler

Other birds on site included 3 Common Buzzards flying away over to the east, which were a patch tick for me. Also of note were at least 2 singing blackcaps along the riverside but I could not see one, as they were tucked well in on the far bank. They are the biggest miss of my 2015, so it would have been nice to tick it off too but not to be.

Overall it was a smashing 3 and half hours on the site in glorious weather with some smashing birds. Not a bad way to return to my patch!

Species List:

Orgreave Lakes: Linnet, Egyptian Goose, Maned Duck, Oystercatcher, Goldeneye, Willow Warbler, Great Tit, Common Buzzard, Lapwing, Redshank, Robin, Reed Bunting, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Kestrel, Pied Wagtail, Blackbird, Gadwall, Goosander, Mallard, Long-Tailed Tit, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Carrion Crow, Black-Headed Gull, Canada Goose, Graylag Goose, Mute Swan,Coot, Moorhen, Teal, Great Crested Grebe, Magpie, Dunnock, Pintail, Wheatear, Cormorant, Little Ringed Plover, Comma, Peacock, Orange Tip, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone,

Dorset Holiday-Day 12: Fort Nelson Royal Armouries, Arundel WWT

Another scorching day and my family decided to take us to Arundel WWT, but only after we had been to Fort Nelson Royal Armouries. When we got there I found that there was a nature reserve across the road, though it was little more than a field so I went to have a look while my family spent the morning at the armouries.

The field had a lot of butterflies but the were all the same species, though they were in excess. These included things like Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Large and Small White, But there were other species which were a bit more unusual, not least Marbled White and Small Skipper.

-Small Skipper

-Marbled White

Walking through the field I also found some none butterfly wildlife, though there was a lot less of this unless you counted the 6 Spot Burnet Moths which were once more very common.

-6 Spot Burnet Moth

While I was walking around there was a curious song coming from the grass and I eventually tracked it down to a very menacing cricket species, which Google informs me is a Roesel's Bush-Cricket, not that I regularly record cricket species, but it certainly struck me because of the striking yellow lines behind its head.

-Roesel's Bush-Cricket

On the bird front it was very quiet, with the exception of a couple of Magpies and on the way out I stumbled across a family of Willow Warblers. They were very flighty and I did not get exceptional views of them.

-Willow Warbler

I went to the museum cafe because my mum said that there we were going to have a coffee. While we were there my mum told me about all the butterflies that were on the wildflowers growing inside the museum. There was nothing that I hadn't seen, until during our coffee my dad spotted a Pill Millipede descending the wall of the museum, which is not a bug I can regularly see.

-Pill Millipede 

The journey to Arundel was none exciting except that there was a fire on the road which blocked everything up and restricted out speed at reaching the site. 

I have always wanted to go to Arundel, and when I arrived my first impressions were good, as on the first pond prior to entry there were Broad Bodied Chasers and Black Tailed Skimmers hunting it. The entry was good and we learnt that there were boat trips running, so we decided to go for one of those first before we had lunch and set off round the reserve.

The boat trip was very enjoyable and relaxing. I spotted some baby Tufted Ducks, as well as large families of Canada and Graylag Geese. On the mammal front we were delighted to see a Water Vole swim across the channel, though the delight would wear off as we walked round the reserve. On the Dragonfly front there were Black Tailed Skimmers, and there was another which I reckon was a hairy dragonfly but I did not get a good enough view. The only thing that would put me off that i.d. is that it is very late in their flight season, but apart from that, it ticked all the boxes. On the damselfly front there were Azure and Common Blue but also Red Eyed, but since we were on a boat I was unable to get any photos. For that reason my only photo of that species is from Norfolk 2 years ago.

We had lunch in the wildlife garden but did not really see anything.There was a school trip lunching next to us and that could be partly to blame. After lunch the trip headed off towards the lapwing hide, so we decided to  go to that hide later and instead go to the 'Sir Peter Scott centenary sand martin hide'. On the way, there were some Egyptian Geese on the path.

-Egyptian Geese

The hide was OK in terms of birdlife. There were Moorhens and Canada Geese feeding directly in front of the hide, as well as Mallards, Tufted Duck and Shelduck. There were also a pair of Common Terns on a raft in front of the hide, which were showing nesting behavior but no sign of chicks, despite what the sightings board said. They were quite close though, and they obviously were not too bothered by people who I imagine were often noisy which could have disturbed them from their nest.

-Common Tern

After we had finished in that hide we went back to the two hides we had meant to go to, Ramsar hide first, where there was nothing much except a female Mandarin. The second hide was the Lapwing hide, and it lived up to its name since the only bird in there besides Mallards was indeed a Lapwing.

After those two disappointments we headed to Scrape hide which was the best hide on the reserve, but that really did not say much. There was a good number of species, including Mallard, Shelduck, Tufted duck but also a few Gadwall sheltering from the heat under a tall tree. At the far end of the pond there was a Grey Heron hunting but it was some way away. There were also quite a few dragonflies around, but the only ones close enough to identify were Four Spot Chasers and Black Tailed Skimmer.

-Gadwall

-Grey Heron

We were watching the far dragonflies to see what they were, when a small mass began swimming across the lake. My initial thought was grass snake, and why not. But no, it turned out when I looked at it through my camera that it was another Water Vole, though to be honest I would rather that it was a grass snake.

-Water Vole

After we had finished at Scrape hide we moved on to Reedbed hide. Here there was very little, but there was a very cute family of four well grown Moorhen chicks. The adult bird then mounted a small platform in front of the hide, being very bold and then started looking in, even though we were only about 2 feet away.

-Moorhen

It was the best view of a moorhen I had ever had. After we had finished in Reedbed hide we moved on to the reedbed walk. About half way through the reedbed walk we sat down and were soon surrounded by a small gathering of Moorhens and Mallards, so my dad fished out the crumbs from lunch and started to feed them from our hands. The moorhen though decided that it would rather have my flesh than bread crumbs. 

After that we moved on and were just watching some more moorhens when I noticed that the reeds next to us were moving of their own accord. So I had a peek in and spotted another Water Vole there happily chomping away even though we were only about a meter away. Now the appeal of water voles at this site was beginning to diminish. On the boat, our pilot had told us that the reserve was in a big fence so that no water vole predators could get in with the exception of birds, but it also restricted the voles moving out. So effectively, it was like a big water vole zoo, but you don't really think of it until we start to see them as tame as this.

-Water Vole

We finished the reedbed walk and headed to the waterfalls enclosure. Here there was the only Blue Duck outside of New Zealand and that was quite exciting. After a few mins of watching it though you began to feel sorry for it, alone with only a farm duck for company. It was exciting to see because it is such a rare duck but for the above reason it seemed a bit bitter sweet.

-Blue Duck

We finished by walking back through the pet wildfowl zone and we got to see some large groups of rare wildfowl of the world, as you would expect from a WWT place. Once more though as we were walking over the white faced whistling duck boardwalk, a Water Vole appeared and started swimming across the pond, even though we were almost directly above it.

-Water Vole

I thought the reserve was a big disappointment really, I had expected a bit more. My dad summed it up quite well-Its a great place if you want to see Moorhens, but otherwise. We headed back to the caravan site, but the wildlife did not stop there, oh no.

That evening once more we set off to look for nightjars to see how many we would get. We had to wait a little longer than the night before and for a few minuets we were wondering if they would even turn up tonight when we were suddenly surrounded by churring and we saw one flying right towards us. We soon had 3 Nightjars flying all around us, and once more quite close. This time I had brought the tripod to try and get some photos of when the birds were landed. However, it did not really work as the camera still vibrated while on the tripod. Still I got more amazing views of these bizarre birds.

-Nightjar

So ends our last full day on holiday, alas that there 13 days have flown by so quick. Hopefully, on the way home we will go out on a high.