Norflolks Eastern Gems

The week after coming back from Shetland, my mate Dave Gray was asking if any body wanted to go to north Norfolk for a days birding as a few eastern birds had turned up, so, on Thursday morning, Neil Hagley, Brian Moore, Dave and myself headed for Norfolk. After an uneventful  journey, and with the obligatory stop at Kings Lynn Mcdonalds for a sausage and egg Mcmuffin, we started at Wells wood looking for Blyth's Reed Warbler; Neil and Brian did get brief views of the bird, but it was really elusive. There were Goldcrest everywhere - but apparently not as many as the day before! I would have liked to have seen that fall  There was a Humes leaf Warbler reported, but the message was a bit vague as to where the bird was, so we decided to head for Holkham pines for a Red-flanked Bluetail. It was a good walk to where the bird was frequenting - again lots of Goldcrest on the way -but it was well worth it when this gem showed! On our walk back, an Isabelline Shrike showed distantly from Washington hide; reports then came of Olive-backed Pipit at Muckleburgh Hill so off we went to try and find yet another eastern migrant. After approx 45 minutes, Neil found  the bird doing what all OBP's do - creeping through the grass! Sadly, I didn't see it as we were short on time, and had to head for home,but I know it showed quite well after we had left.  All in all, it was a great day out with some good mates doing some general birding in a week which saw the east coast of Britain awash with eastern migrants.
Below is record  image of the Red-flanked Bluetail

As always, thanks for stopping by

Shetland 2015

The 1st of October, and time for my annual visit to the Shetland Isles with my travel companions, friends and fellow birders Brian Moore and John Waters. As usual, it was up at stupid o'clock for the 6.50am flight from Birmingham to Aberdeen, and then from there on to Sumburgh, arriving there around lunch time.... or so we thought!  The fog at Aberdeen meant we were delayed from leaving Birmingham which meant we didn't actually arrive on the Shetlands till late afternoon, and as we were staying this year in a cottage on the West side of the Mainland, at Aith, we were too late  to get any birding done, with the light already fading as we arrived at what was to be our home for the next 10 days.

 This was our cottage for the our 10 day stay, and the image below is a view of our cottage from the other side of Aith Voe - and just a piece of trivia - the RNLI life boat station in Aith Voe is the most Northerly in Britain.

I will not bore you guys with a day to day rundown of our itinerary - just some of our highlights during our stay, so, the following morning, after our breakfast, our first port of call was Norby, where a Pechora Pipit had been seen; Brian needed it for a British  tick. When we arrived there were a few birders there already looking in the vegetation around the loch, and as Brian and another birder walked towards where it had been frequenting, they flushed a bird which flew by them and landed on some twigs.  I heard Brian call 'that's it!', so in less than half an hour, Bri had a new tick.  The bird then became very elusive; we also noted a pair of Scaup on the loch, and there were quite a few Ravens calling above with Lapwings, Curlew and Greylag Geese in the surrounding fields. We then decided to explore some of the west side, birding as we went - there are some great areas out west, and I don't think its birded enough. We then headed for Cott, where we had reasonable views of Arctic Warbler, and then on to Wester Quarf where Red-breasted Flycatcher and our first Yellow-browed Warbler were noted - the latter were everywhere - probably the most I have seen on the islands; also, lots of continental Blackbirds and Goldcrest were seen. We then headed for Quendale where a Bluethroat was being seen really well. Whilst the weather was windy, the rain was staying away - until we got up Quendale Valley, when the heavens opened! The bird did the sensible thing and went into the quarry, where, after a while, we got good views of this little stunner

                                                                       Bluethroat
We traveled to the capital, Lerwick, on numerous occasions in search of an Olive-backed Pipit which we never connected with, nor the other two we tried for at different locations, but did have good views of Barred Warbler, Chiffchaff  and Siskin - and bumped into our good mates from the West Midlands, Archie Raven and crew. Also in Lerwick is Clickimin Loch; on here we noted Whooper Swan, Tufted Duck, Common, Herring and Black-headed Gulls lots of Oystercatcher and Snipe. Another good place for waders is the Pool of Virkie where we saw both  Black and Bar-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Knot and Ringed Plover. On the Sunday afternoon, we just happened to be birding around the Melby area and had good views of Red-breasted Merganser,  Great-northern Diver, Turnstone,  Kittiwake and Great Skua (Bonxie); there were also a few Twite and Rock Pipit about. When John checked his pager, a mega in the shape of  a Swainson's Thrush had turned up at Baltasound, on the Isle of Unst, so it was a quick dash for the ferry, as both John and I needed it for our British list. After  a couple of hours, and two ferry crossing later, we were at the site with 40 other birders, waiting for the bird to show, but time and light wasn't on our side so it was decided to do a controlled flush - and it worked!  I think we all got decent views of this North American Thrush and a tick for John and myself. The journey back was a lot less stressful, I can assure you! On the Monday and Tuesday it never stopped raining, so birding was mainly from the car. On Monday we were up at Sumburgh light house, trying to photo a Lapland Bunting. The wind was extremely strong though the Fulmars and Gannets seem to relish it!  I was pleased with my results considering the conditions. The only other birds of note that day was an adult Little Gull, Long-tailed Duck and Goldeneye; the Tuesday, in my opinion, was even worse than the previous day, but again birding from the car was the order of the day. Whilst driving by Hulma Water (it's between Sandness and Bixter) Brian saw a Little Egret - quite a rarity on Shetland - so rare that it's a 'description species', so a good find! We drove again to Quendale, where a Great-grey Shrike was close to the Mill, and good views were had of the 'butcher bird'; also there was a Lesser white-fronted Goose which was apparently ringed in Russia and released in Sweden to boost the population. The following day was bright and no wind. Everybody was expecting a big fall of migrants with a mega mixed in among them - us included - but it just never happened! We did note that lots of Redwing had arrived and there could have been an Eastern Thrush with them - it just needed finding. (well, that's what I was thinking anyway)  Also on the Shetland Isles was our good mate Steve James with his partner Emma. He told us to try Busta House gardens, and what a great garden it is! Garden and Willow Warblers were seen and some nice Brambling too.

                                                                           Garden Warbler
Another great place we visited was Lea Gardens at Tresta. This was one of the places where we tried to find an Olive-backed Pipit; though we didn't score with pipit, we did note Mealy and Lesser Redpoll and a Lesser Whitethroat - probably of Eastern race. We decided to head south, back to Sumburgh for a Richards Pipit, but the bird had disappeared by the time we got there; we did add Skylark to our list though. On our penultimate day, we went north to Ollaberry in search of a Red-backed Shrike. On the way, we ticked Merlin charging across the road looking for its' breakfast. We found the site where the Shrike was, and the farmer there pointed us in the right direction. Once again, after an hour of looking, Brian found it feeding around a burn; the farmer said we could check out his garden just up the road too, which we readily accepted, and it wasn't long after that John was kicking his way through an iris bed. He was about half way up it when a bird flew out, which Brian and I saw;  it was very pale - a sandy looking colour. We needed to find out what this bird was! After about an hour, some other birders joined us, but the bird was being very elusive! Our initial instinct was that the bird was either a Blyth's Reed Warbler or a Paddyfield Warbler; after 5 hours, and with everybodies' little bits of information,we were all leaning towards Paddyfield. We badly needed to get an image but Brian, and I failed miserably, so, with our flight home being the next day, we decided to go back the following morning after we had loaded the car ready for 'the off',and try again. When we got there some birders were already there, but after an hour or so there was still no sign of the elusive Acrocephalus, so it was a slow drive south towards the airport. We did have brief views of a Dusky Warbler at No Ness, and a rather funny looking grey Little Egret at the Loch of Spiggie. All in all we had a  great 10 days; we traveled over a 1000 miles, had some good laughs, saw some amazing places and some great birds -91 species in total! Hopefully, when we submit the probable Paddyfield Warbler, it will be 92!   Just to say 'thanks' to Rory Tallack for all the info he gave us about the west side of mainland Shetland. There are some images below of our trip. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did taking them.

                                                                     Great northern Diver

                                                                     Hooded Crow

                                                                     Lapland Bunting

                                                                         Pechora Pipit

                                                                      Red Grouse

                                                                         Raven

                                             Whooper Swan with a peat stained head and neck

Sunset over the Voe

Black Guillemot (Tystie)

As always thanks for stopping by..........

The last few weeks birding

Since my visit to Stoke upon Trent to see the Red-footed Falcon, all my birding has been in and around Leicestershire - and mainly at my patch at Brascote GP. I think I have said before that sometimes it's really hard work at this site, although it has turned up a few good birds over the years and there have been a few good birds turn up over the last few weeks, so, going back to July26th, Pete and I decided to brave the elements as there had been some really strong NW winds for a couple of days. And so, on a windy, cold Sunday morning, with a rain filled sky,we set off walking around the pits.  All the usual stuff was about, with nothing special to write home about, when it started to rain - and quite heavily - so we started to walk back towards our cars.  Pete was about 15 meters in front of me when I noticed a small bird preening on the settling pool; there was something different about this bird, and on closer inspection, I realised it was a small Merganser!  I called Pete back and after watching it for a few minutes, Pete said "this looks like Hooded Merganser" to which I agreed. To make sure, he went back for the field guide whilst I sent a few texts to lads that bird Brascote; this breed of bird is kept in lots of collections, and you have to err on the side of caution about where it has originated, as this is a bird which breeds in North America; nobody will ever know for sure where it was from but we couldn't see any rings on the bird, and it was fully winged. Nick Sharpe and Carl Baggot also viewed the bird and they concluded it was a Hooded Merganser as well. Carl took some images - sadly, it was one of the times I didn't have my camera with me! I'll be sending a report to the BBRC and see what happens but I imagine it will be recorded as an escaped bird -  but still a great bird to see on your patch! Pete returned later that afternoon but the bird could not be found. On the 6th August there was a family party of 4 Ravens - not a common bird around Brascote - and finally,our first Hobby which was getting the Hirundines all excited!  It was good to see a few more Sand Martins about this year again, as they are usually not that numerous.There as been quite few Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers about this Summer as well. On the 16th August, I got a text from Nick Sharpe saying he had heard and viewed a Cetti's Warbler so I hot footed over to Brascote, where I spent nearly 5 hours trying to find it, but dipped on it; Carl Baggot saw it again at around 4pm so I went back early evening. A few more of the regular 'patch' birders were there, and finally the bird called, and we were able to get a brief view and a patch tick! - I think it could well be a first for this site. On the 30th of August, a Whinchat was found feeding from some gorse bushes - yet another patch tick!  the habitat is great for this species, so it was not going to be long before one tuned up - we get Stonchat most years now, and then, on the 31st Nick and I went back again to see if the Whinchat was still in residence but we couldn't find it, although the weather was awful,so it was probably in the middle of a gorse bush - and who could blame it! As we were walking back to the cars we were rewarded with 6 Whimbrel flying west, so all in all, some great birds over the last few weeks!  Hopefully, I'll have some images to post next time.
As always, thanks for stopping by

Back for Seconds

After my visit to the Red-footed Falcon last Saturday, and posting the visit on my blog, there was something eating away at me about the images I had posted; as I have said on many occasions, I'm no photographer - just a birder with a camera - but I still like to get decent images, so, with this in mind, I decided to return to the site on Thursday. I asked a few mates if they would be available but that word 'work' always seems to get in the way, so 'Billy no Mates' made his way to Chatterley Whitfield Colliery on his own. When I arrived, the bird was perched up in a tree having a good preen, and it sat there for nearly an hour before it decided to start feeding;  it perches quite close on the wires as some people are throwing out locusts for it to feed on.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about this practise - it does bring the bird quite close, so the images below, I hope, are a lot better than the previous attempts.

As always, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed my new and improved images!

Hot foot to the Red-foot

Last Saturday afternoon, the 11th of July, I spent having some family time ending up at an Harvester pub for an early evening meal;  just as we were finishing our meal, my phone started buzzing in my pocket - it was my mate John Waters -he was going to have a look at the first summer Red-footed Falcon that had been found a couple of days earlier, just North of Stoke-on -Trent, and wondered if I would like to go along too. Having not seen one in the UK for probably 15 or so years, (the only other one was a female down in Cambridgeshire,) we arranged to meet at my place at 6.30;  a quick change of clothing for me, and at 6.45pm, we were off for the hour and half drive for the falcon.  I wasn't going to take the camera as the light wouldn't be that good by the time we got there - but I changed my mind at the last minute and picked it up anyway.  90 minutes later, we saw the bird perched on a concrete boundary fence post of the Chatterley Whitfield Colliery. This really smart bird showed very well all the time we were there, although never coming really close. We spent probably a good hour there watching the bird feeding on insects and the odd small frog. The overcast conditions were not ideal for images but I was glad that I had decided to take my camera as I managed to get some record images; they're not brilliant, but give you some idea of this very smart individual.

As I post this blog on July 14th, the bird is still present at the same site.

.........As always, thanks for stopping by!!

Gotcha!! about time

       For the last three years now I have  been aware of a Tawny Owl roosting in late spring and summer, in some horse chestnuts on my local patch;  it does have a favoured tree, so when Pete and I walk down through the trees, we always have a quick look, and very rarely you might get a glimpse of  the owl among the foliage - but never enough to get any images though, which does get a bit frustrating at times, to say the least! A few weeks ago, I was walking by the tree in question with another mate (Dave Taylor) and saw the owl sitting high up but in the open.  Dave had his camera with him so he started getting a few images but mine was back at the car, so off I went to get it - only for Dave to tell me on my return it had flown to another tree and we just couldn't find it! (Lesson there, I think - always have your camera at your disposal!)  So..... today I was on my own, walking around the patch.  I didn't walk by the trees, instead plumping to walk down the hedgerow hoping for a warbler or two, but to no avail. Halfway down the first track the 'yaffle' of a Green Woodpecker caught my attention, coming from its' favoured  tree.  I noticed a pair Green Woodpeckers which then  fly into the horse chestnuts - and the noise they were making was amazing!  This went on for 5 or 6 minutes, which got me thinking -  was the owl about??  I left them carrying on - they were not happy about something! I carried on down towards the wood, noting a Blackcap  singing his little heart out (I love their song) and it was good to 3 LR Plovers on the deep settling pool. The only other birds of note today beside these were 22 Swift heading south,  so I headed back to the car. On reaching the horse chestnuts,  I gave the owls favourite tree the once over - and sure enough, there it was - quite high, but in the open. Remember about the lesson about the camera?? well obviously I haven't  learnt yet, so back to the car get the camera, and hope the owl was still there when I returned! Thankfully it was. The foliage around it didn't help matters, but I was quite pleased to get some kind of image at last,  a couple of which are below                                        

                                         

                                         

As always thanks for stopping by!!

Whoop Whoop!!!!

I've just returned from a relaxing cruise around Italy - and very nice it was too - but the Friday before  me and the Duchess were due to set sail,  (the 29th May),  I had a call from my mate Ben Croxall saying that Andy Forryan had found two first summer Whooper Swans on Groby Pool; I couldn't get there till early evening, and was expecting them to be in the middle or on the far side of the water - or even not to be there at all - so wasn't expecting to get any images, but on our arrival, the two birds in question were right in front of us and being very aggressive towards the local Swans and Geese.  I know these Whooper Swans are regular visitors in the winter, and we do get a few in Leicestershire now and then, but I thought it a bit of a bizarre record for two Whooper Swans to be in  Leicestershire at the end of May.

A very short post this time but thanks as always for stopping by.