The last few days

Monday 26th, I photographed the Tundra Bean, as well as its new friend and also its potential downfall, a pair of Foxes, at Sidestrand which was pleasing, but still no sign of the Bittern, presumably long gone.

After lunch acting on a tip I checked out the 20 or so Bramblings near Roughton and some more near Felbrigg, both with Linnets and Chaffinches

27th
A party of Grey Partridge flew across the main Mundesley - Southrepps road for an excellent year tick

28th
Cley was cold and uninteresting until a party of Pinkfeet came straight in off the sea with 9 Barnacle Geese tagged on, which surely must be good.  The only other item of interest was a new female Marsh Harrier but whether she stops or not remains to be seen.  I took the camera but only managed a few unexciting shots of Moorhen and that local photographic favourite, Black-tailed Godwit.

29th
A run round in the intermittent blizzards got colour-ringed Marsh Tit, some Siskins and a couple of Treecreepers for the year at Sculthorpe.  Only one Brambling there  and a couple of claimed Redpolls however, but there was yet another Water Rail under the feeder by the wardens hut.

The pair of Scaup at Wells would have been photographable were it not for the driving snow so I gave up and went for a late lunch at Cley en rote home.

Yesterday 24th Jan

Another work party at SBO, followed by a productive walk round the fields that produced a couple each of Snipe and Ruff, two Firecrests and a Short-eared Owl.  However, I missed a Bittern locally which had temporarily been sharing a ploughed beet field with a Tundra Bean Goose which was still there, so all was not totally lost!  A good local patch tick, though they must fly over with the Pinkfeet sometimes.

21st January

Chestnut

Two more Chestnuts in the moth trap when I opened it this morning, keeping the year ticking over.

Not too much to report from Cley except a young male Peregrine in the afternoon over Simmonds, apparently targetting Avocets, numbers of which seem to be reducing!  One pale-bellied Brent still and its nice to see Bearded Tits and hear three Cettis Warblers, while Water Rails continue to show, with two in front of Daukes (no camera!) and two along the East bank.

Besides more "Birding for Beginners"walks, NWT are talking about two moth evenings this summer as well as running a trap regularly Wednesday nights for Thursday mornings.  We did a bit there last year but a more organised effort is bound to pay dividends as well as adding to what visitors get to see.

Yesterday and today 17th/18th January

With the improving weather yesterday I went to Sheringham BO for the first time this year to help reprofile the mound round the seawatching hide.  Good exercise and a bonus in the shape of a female Marsh Harrier drifting east and a femal Goosander, also going east at sea.

With milder conditions I also put out the MV moth trap last night and almost immediately got a male Winter Moth which stayed around on the house wall to be photographed, whilst round the corner a 7-spot Ladybird had roused itself and was out for a stroll!

Winter Moth and 7-spot Ladybird

I love Norfolk, I really do, especially with days like yesterday which would be difficult to replicate anywhere else.  Phil and I started at Cantley RSPB, where we saw nothing, no geese, nothing apart from some Black-headed Gulls and a couple of Mallard.  Moving on to Buckenham Marshes however and we hit pay-dirt - some 70 Taiga Bean Geese, one or two White-fronts, about 200 Pinkfeet, stacks of Wigeon and a marauding male Peregrine, all without moving 50m from the crossing gates!

Next stop, Ludham Bridge, where lots of the local wild swans were on a recently ploughed field close to the road.  With parties flying in there were at least 17 Whoopers and 150 Bewicks by the time we left, while an adult Med Gull fling through and a scattering of winter thrushes added variety.  The site behind the Catfield gas storage station was almost empty of swans however - presumably they had moved to Ludham.

Bewick Swans flying in to Ludham

Last stop was Barton Broad for Smew and whatever else was on the unfrozen bits.  Two distant drakes and a couple of redheads were duly seen from the boardwalk along with 50+ Goldeneye and stacks of Teal, Pochard and Tufties.  Two Peregrines were hunting over the ducks and gulls, but the real bonuses were Phil refinding the drake Ferruginous Duck from last year and a mammal tick for me in the shape of an Otter swimming across the broad, something I thought I might never see, having missed them on the west coast of Scotland recently.

Cold drizzle then brought proceedings to a halt which even a cuppa at Walcott couldn't change, but what a terrific day.

Cley today

A pretty good day though the light was naff for photography, highlights being Kingfisher, 3 Water pipits and 7 Twite by the sluice along the west bank, 7 pale-bellied Brents shared between north scrape and Salthouse and a party of 6 Bewicks flying west along the coast.  Lots of Pinkfeet in the area as well, though mobile, plus a Cettis and Stonechat, so some insect feeders have made it through so far. The Marsh Harriers seem to be taking an interest in each other and a couple of Barn Owls showed along the grass banks off and on.  Waders were unexceptional but included a Knot on Pats Pool

Last few days

A bit of a catch-up from the last few days, with highlights including 12 Woodcock locally on 10th, nine of which were along the old railway line behind our house, 4 Roe Deer locally the same day and an impressive 250+ Fieldfares, with smaller number of Redwings, in the Southrepps area on 12th.  Less impressive, but interesting were the six Egyptian Geese on one local field which is a lot more than I,ve seen locally before.  Presumably they've been forced out of their normal haunts by the cold and snow?

Woodcock seem to be just about everywhere currently and one flew over the car from a garden in Cromer when we were passing yesterday.

I ordered a bat detector today, not that I'm expecting too many species locally but using them to i/d local grasshoppers sounds easier than crawling through the grass, at least for general surveys.  We'll see, if there are any grasshoppers left after this winter!

A distant snowstorm (upper): The old tin shed (above)

Overstrand, the local meadow

With the threat of more snow locally in Overstrand materialising we went for a walk round the meadow behind the house, managing a couple of Woodcock, 20 or so Redwings and a few Blackbirds and Song Thrushes. Luckily for them there are still a lot of berries on the local hedgerows. Photographing birds in this weather is a labour of love but the snow-covered scenery is great and allows the 5DMkII to show its abilities as well as letting me practice pretending being a proper photographer

Cley 7th January 2010

Salthouse - tracks in the snow

Salthouse in the snow

Volunteering at Cley has considerable compensations, especially when the reserve is frozen and the Centre is a great, heated hide. Not much to see except a few displaced Snipe flying around, some Redwings on a hawthorn and several Gadwall for the year but it was good to chat to a few people, drink coffee and eat soup and a cheese scone! The diet starts at the weekend.

Titchwell etc

I've spent most of the last two days standing freezing on the viewing platform at Titchwell hoping the potential Pacific Diver would show, but it didn't, least while I was there. Some compensation though, with the Red Kite showing both days (plus another today south of the A149 at Stiffkey near the fen), Peregrine today, 30+ Snow Buntings and some glorious late afternoon light yesterday with no camera!

Roll on summer

2010

Happy New Year (and decade) to one and all. Lets hope 2010 brings a few more birds locally than last year, Yellow-browed Warbler and some seabirds being the highlight, though the first local Cettis was good