Of Bugs birds and the New Year

Just my luck.  Having not had any real illness since we retired here 4 years ago, 2 come along at once!
A walk round Cley on 30th Dec to shake off a virus from over Xmas was interesting with Water Rail, Purple Sand and Lap Bunt (west over Arnolds) while Arnolds itself had healthy numbers of waders - would have been superb in the autumn like that!
New Year came with a potter up the coast to Cley followed by fireworks at Cromer and a gathering of friends at home.  The next day started well with 8 waxwings dropping in at Sidestrand but went downhill rapidly with the sudden onset of winter vomiting virus, followed by several days confined to in front of the TV when not asleep.  I did manage to get to see the American Wigeon courtesy of my wife today so now I've got one on my county list I don't have to fret too much again.
Hopefully more fully out and about tomorrow and I may even find the camera to take with me

More snow!!



Snowy footpath

18th December 2010


A walk towards Northrepps in the morning after the previous evenings snow produced few birds with the highlights a flock of Skylarks. However, it did give me a chance to add some snow shots to the photo catalogue, puzzle over what were probably stoat footprints alongside the rabbits and walk off breakfast!



The sycamore bank behind us



New Zealand

Aukland by night



Fox Glacier

 So, New Zealand. This was more a family holiday but we navigated our way round using birding sites/areas as destinations – Tiri Island, Miranda, Cook Strait, Kaikoura, Arthurs Pass, Fox Glacier, Stewart Island and Dunedin for example, plus a bit of culture and wine - Rotorua and Hawkes Bay. November is the peak of the landbird breeding season but we managed most things except Yellowhead and anything which needed effort, like Kiwis.

Tiri was great. The conservation bodies have done a fantastic job but they are a bit overly cautious about reintroducing predators – asking people to check their hand bags for stoats seems a bit OTT. We day visited but still missed Brown Teal and the crake, the island having been taken over by several schools. We were however lucky to see Kokako, most of the local birds having been retrapped and shipped out to avoid in breeding. Greg the Takahe raised the question of what you tick or don’t, not a question I’m prepared to answer!


Little Black Shags, Rotorua


Lots of other landbirds proved tricky. For example we didn’t see either Tom-tit or Rifleman on the North island, the only Wekas we saw were on the road side in Fjordland (and not on Stewart Island – surprise) and even Brown Creeper proved tough. Tuis and Bellbirds were pretty common though, as were the hordes of European birds, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Redpolls, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Dunnocks, Yellowhammers, Starlings, House Sparrows being just about everywhere. Obviously the New Zealand farming regimes are more sympathetic than the methods our own “guardians of the countryside” employ!


Kaikoura

 

Braided river system, South Island



Lake Wanaka, South Island

 Seabirds are fantastic and you don’t really need to go offshore for some of them. Although we saw a lot from the Cook Strait ferry we also saw two races of Shy Albatross off Shag Pt and a “Gibsons” Wandering Albatross off Kaikoura headland as well as the Otago peninsular Northern Royals on the breeding colony. We’d recommend a visit to “Penguin Place” on Otago from mid afternoon to see Yellow-eyeds coming and going and its only a short hop from the albatrosses, which can usually be seen from the carpark. The ferry to Stewart Island goes a bit fast for real seabird watching but was still pretty good, particularly for diving petrels, though the crossing can be really rough.



Kea, Arthurs Pass

 As to the country itself? Well the people are really friendly, prices are similar to UK except petrol which is half price and the scenery ranges from old-style English pastoral – cows, sheep, deer in grassy meadows, to worrying, with what looks like over-grazing and subsequent erosion, to truly fantastic, especially around Kaikora and Milford Sound on South Island. If you are going, take a camera!


Fern bank, South Island





Northern Royal Albatross and Red-billed Gull, Otago



Cley 16th Dec 2010

A pretty awful day almost waiting for the promised ice storm.  Not much around the reserve of note excpt a Whooper swan flying round with Mutes, lots of Pinks early on and a presumed Ross's Goose with Greylags, no doubt from Kelling.  the hunt goes on for the high Arctic gulls!

Last few days

On Sunday it seemed about time to catch up with the Northern Harrier, but I first stopped at the triangle at Burnham Overy Staithe looking for Rough-legs.  No sign but a very pale Common Buzzard got the assembled birders going briefly, as did a weird harrier, rufous below, dark above with grey on outer upper wings and no obvious white rump which came out from Holkham and set off for Burnham Norton.  No diea at all and no chance for photos so this could remain a mystery.

On to Titchwell just in time to miss the apparent Northern Harrier at midday.  Lots odf stuff to see ther whilst waiting, including Water Pipit, Whoopers and a couple of Spot Reds.  the Harrier eventually showed well but looked a bit odd - I've now been told its got a broken leg.

Again, no shots but I retrieved the camera from the car for robins in the car park and sunset at Burnham mill, both slightly tweaked.

Autumn 2010

Back from nearly a month in New Zealand, returning to cold weather, waxwings and an apparent Northern Harrier at Thornham.  The blog got kinda forgotten in the autumn with so much going on locally and across Norfolk generally.  Patch-wise I only saw Yellow broweds, a wryneck, a Monties in-off, the Cromer Red backed Shrike and some nice seabirds including both storm petrel spp, a couple of long-tailed skuasand sooty shears, a grey phal or two and a smattering of poms.  I didn't catch up with Andy B's probable Citrine and the Bluetail at Trimingham was suppressed from all of us locally by a well-known Norfolk birder who doubtless had his reasons.

Bluetail, Weybourne

I did venture out a bit seeing Arctic and Barred warblers at Holme, Bluetail at Weybourne, the BOS Pallas's (how did they find each other) a couple of Richards and GG Shrikes at Sheringham and of course the empid flycatcher - my boots took a week to dry out but I think (!) it was worth it.  Cley was mostly subdued during my visits there but the American Golden Plover was good and a bit of encouragement to check the local fields.  Not being a great bird photographer and finding their insistence in standing at the front tiresome I didn't get any shots of worth but I'll break out the old gear and give it a go again.

Happy wanderings

Just back from 3 weeks in France photographing orchids and butterflies in the Vercors and Alps.  Amazing place but I now have 4,000 photos to sort through.  Here' a couple of tasters though.

Apollo

Ghost Orchids