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DAURIAN SHRIKE, HORSEY GAP 25th October

Stiff south-easterlies hitting a band of drizzly rain, surely there had to be some new arrivals along the coast. Apparently not, so a bit of dirty twitching for a Daurian Shrike at Horsey was in order. It came well close as I sat on the bank in the persistent rain, flycatching and being very active, if a little bedraggled

It was so dim I had trouble getting any snaps at all. Anyhow, it seemed to enjoy the Norfolk brambles, en-route as it is from Mongolia to Sudan!

 RED PHALAROPE, WAXHAM

Anyway, this little fellow stole the show. It was actively feeding just a couple of feet off the beach, allowing close approach . It was so cute I watched it for ages, reminded of the breeding-plumaged birds I have seen on Iceland that come really close if you sit and wait

Birding was busy today along the coast between Winterton and Sea Palling, between 8am and 3pm, in light south-easterlies after a day of rain. First thing, Fieldfares and Redwings were trickling in, the sea was calm and Thrushes and Blackbirds were struggling across the water trying to reach land, some getting harassed by a young Pomarine Skua as they went. The first of nine Short-eared Owls were seen coming in off the sea, some of the big numbers hitting the coast today.  A couple of Woodcocks were flushed, Bramblings and Lapland Buntings called overhead, and a familiar ‘tseeweet’ heralded a delightful Yellow-browed Warbler, obviously just in, and it offered close views and showed really well.  A Short-toed Owl failed to see me sat just 10m away, and perched on a branch in front of me. Couldn’t get the camera out in time, but another one at Winterton posed well but not as close. Same again tomorrow?

Click here for audio of the Yellow-browed Warbler at Sea Palling

ybw-131011

Twitching Sandhill Crane

Having spent Sunday afternoon ignoring the news about this (as I lay in the sun on the beach) we left Norwich at 5am and made our way to Boyton in Suffolk.

The Crane flew in from Havergate island at 0657, landed in the fields at 400m distance, and spent the next hour feeding as the sun rose. Having followed the news of it as it went from Aberdeenshire down the east coast of England, it unaccountably got across Norfolk without anyone seeing it and reappeared over Kessingland, en route to here. Lovely stuff! A bit dim for photos, heres some dodgy digi video

Despite motivated searching, the gorgeous weather put paid to any serious bird finding, in fact not one passerine migrant was seen in several hours spent around Covehithe. Waiting for the rain now..

Enjoyed a languid few hours between Horsey and Winterton. Sunny, warm, breeze from the south-east. Loads of close Seals – in the shallows, checking us out, plus Whinchat, 19 Med Gulls, two Arctic Skua and a Manx Shearwater.

Here’s a Stonechat picture just to prove I was actually there…

As the fringes of the Kingdom seem to be filling up with Nearctic waders etc, it was time to get to the Sugar Factory at Cantley in case something rare dropped in.

It had, funnily enough. On the sticky wader pit, a scan revealed not the expected one but four Pectoral Sandpipers, feeding along the edge. One was rather small and tricked us for a while, mainly because we were dreaming of Long-toed Stints. Then three decided to fly off, leaving one posing for us. A gripping afternoon.

An afternoon visit to Breydon to coincide with the high tide wader roost which resulted in some great views of raptors stirring everything up. I arrived to find a swirling mass of waders in the air, and setting eyes on a Falcon tearing through the air I expected Peregrine, yet it turned out to be an adult Hobby that clearly thought it was able could catch some wader prey instead of its typical dragonfly snacks. It caught nothing, yet twice it shot around the saltmarsh, reshuffling the pack and scaring off any small waders that might be lurking! A real Peregrine appeared a short while later, stood on the mud before confidently headed elsewhere, and a juvenile Merlin appeared on a post just in front of the hide. Hard to digiscope due to the stiff south-westerly, pictures weren’t so great

Apart from the carnivores, there were 5 Spotted Redshank, 2 Curlew Sandpiper, and nice views of hundreds of commoner waders.

News came of a Snow Bunting at UEA,  (just 1000m from home!), so I headed back to town and found this little beauty eating dandelion seeds  on a tiny lawn between the crags of the new blocks there. How odd!

Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Loop Head 9th Sept 2011:

This was one of a flock of five found on short grass right by the sea just along from Loop Head. Initially the birds (or at least four B-b S) were picked up in flight in a flock of Ringed Plovers that were flying over calling. I heard the flock as I was trying to record Choughs, and merely lifted my microphone to record the vocal Ringed Plovers without bothering to look at the flock! Luckoly, after a search we found the quintet and had crippling views. And this came after Keith found one at the seawatch place, clearly just arrived from North America.

A juvenile Sabine’s Gull, one of over a hundred seen passing the Bridges of Ross on a four day sea-watching trip to the west of Ireland.