The end of year round-up!

December has not been the best month for photography, as we've often been birding in poor light. Nevertheless trips to Burwell Fen and the Norfolk coast have given us some memorable birds.
We had a very pleasant days birding which started at Strumpshaw with Marsh Harriers, Coal and Marsh Tits on the feeders but nothing else of note. A seawatch at Winterton produced Gannets, Guillemots, Common Scoters, Red-throated divers and a brilliant Grey Phalarope fly-past. A cold vigil at Stubbs Mill resulted in 20+  Marsh Harriers, 10 Common Cranes and a few groups of Pink-footed Geese - not our best visit there but still enjoyable.
Of course we had to try for the Western Sandpiper at Cley. Along with many others we watched this charming little bird busily pottering along the shoreline of Simmond's Scrape from Avocet hide.

We drew a blank at Holkham looking for the Rough-legged Buzzard and apart from flocks of winter geese there was little else about.
A visit to Welney to catch up with the Bewicks and Whoopers gave us some good views, although the birds were distant.

Four trips to Burwell Fen in the past few weeks have yielded some good views of the Short-eared Owls that are wintering there. Today we had some of our best views, though not easily photographed.

The afternoon sun showed the varying plumage of the birds at their best. There were at least two dark birds, one with russet 'infill' on the upper wings and some on the body. The other with very little russet. The other birds were all paler to varying degrees. We saw at least six but as they are not inclined to fly simultaneously it's difficult to say if there were more.
    Wishing everyone a Happy New Birding Year in 2012!

A Great and Greater weekend in Northumberland

After our weekend in Northumberland in June we decided to return to see the Autumn/Winter visitors to the NE coast. On the way we stopped off at Prestwick Carr to view a Great Grey Shrike which seemed to like the area close to Newcastle Airport. We had reasonable views before it moved too far away to see clearly. A Peregrine, a small party of Bullfinches and a flock of Fieldfare and Redwing were also seen.

Great Grey Shrike (distant)

After lunch we went to Low Newton, where despite very blowy conditions, we saw a number of Purple Sandpipers, Oystercatchers and Turnstones on the shore and Eider ducks, Red-Throated Diver and a Merganser in the shelter of Long Nanny. 
Highlights of a pre-breakfast birdwatch on Budle Bay - increasing light revealed large numbers of Pink-foot, some Brents and a few Barnacle Geese accompanied by two very white Snow Geese (later put out on Birdguides as Ross's). There were also large numbers of Shelduck, Wigeon, Oystercatchers, a few Godwit, Goldeneye and a Merganser. A couple of Mistle Thrushes in the trees behind us and a beautiful male Hen Harrier hunting across the fields.
After breakfast we spent the day on Lindisfarne, checking out Straight and Crooked Lonnen, the sea, shore and harbour and anywhere else for birds. Thrushes were bountiful, Fieldfare, Redwing and Blackbird. 

A young Blackbird - very confiding.

Fieldfare

Redwing

Gannets, Eider, Kittiwake, Guillemot and Red-throated Diver were on or above the sea, whilst Starlings and Turnstones busied themselves along the shore.

Turnstones

There were a few Water Pipit scavenging along the shore opposite the castle. 

Two Water Pipits 

Groups of Eider, some males looking very smart, gathered in the lea of the island, just outside the harbour.

A group of Eider

The sunset was beautifully displayed behind the Priory with the purple and pink skies over the Cheviots viewed from the Lonnen. 

Sunset behind the Priory

Fading light over the mainland

We watched as numbers of Starlings wheeled and swirled into a good sized roost over the fields, slowly heading towards the reed beds. Keeping our eyes out for Short-eared Owls, which have been reported regularly in the area, we re-traced our steps along Straight Lonnen until we had views over the dunes and banks. Just as the light was fading we spotted at least one SEO out hunting across the fields and dunes.
Sunday was dull and damp. A pre-breakfast trip to Fenham Flats yielded more Geese, mainly Brents, Twite and Yellowhammers. 
The mouth of the River Tweed held Eider, Shag and Red-throated Diver. 

Red-throated Diver on the River Tweed

Whilst we were lucky enough to have two Snow Buntings fly in close by. Only minimally disturbed by dogs and walkers.

Snow Bunting

North of Berwick we found a young seal that appeared to have stranded itself, high above the tideline. The rocks held Purple Sandpiper and the only Ringed Plover of the trip (seen by the 'boys').
A trip to the Kyloe hills in the afternoon proved an enjoyable walk and hill climb but not many birds. Treecreeper being the only addition to the list.
On Monday we re-visited Lindisfarne briefly for a pre-breakfast birdwatch. Nothing new but it was good to check it out. Finally we set off for home via Druridge Bay. Starting at Hauxley we were amazed at the number of cars around - until we found ourselves in the middle of a twitch for a Greater Yellowlegs and a Grey Phalarope! Sometimes it's really good to be 'in the right place at the right time'. We had good views but not good photographic opportunities. Fortunately a very kind, local birder who had managed to get a reasonable shot of the two sent us a copy and agreed to allow us to put it in this report. So many thanks to Len Waterworth for the photo.

Greater Yellowlegs and Grey Phalarope at Hauxley
(Courtesy of Len Waterworth)

A Slav Grebe at Druridge Country Park was our last bird of note and having failed to locate the Green-winged Teal we set off back home. 

Fairburn Ings

On the 23rd October we joined the Bedford RSPB Local Group visit to Fairburn Ings in Yorkshire. Travelling along the A1 we had views of at least 5 Red Kites and a few Buzzards. We arrived just before 10am and our first interesting birds were Tree Sparrows, a party of at least 20 were close to the visitor centre making the most of the feeders. Then someone spotted a Willow Tit and all eyes were trained on the feeders! It was a very active bird but we all had good views, eventually. At the feeder on the other side of the path a pair of Bullfinches were feeding. The male was a bit of a poser!

Tree Sparrows

Willow Tit

    

       Bullfinch

We enjoyed a walk along the Riverside spotting flighty groups of Long-tailed Tit, Siskins and a small number of Bullfinches. There were several waterbirds on the lagoon including Goldeneye, Black Swans and 2 newly arrived Whooper Swans amongst the usual species.

After lunch we went to the Lin Dike car park and had views of Snipe and Curlew flying in to join the Pintails and other birds on the shallow pools. We also went looking for Long-eared Owl that had been seen earlier in the day but with no luck.

Snettisham high tide!

On Saturday 1st October we went with Gen to Snettisham to see the wader spectacular. When we arrived at 7.30 for the 9.30 high tide we were taken aback by the number of cars parked along from the entrance gate to the car park where surprisingly we found space to park (people must have panicked and thought that the car park was full!
There were a couple of hundred people waiting eagerly, just beyond the first hide, for the tide to rise to it's fullest and drive the waders from the mud. As usual there were several short forays of Oystercatchers and Knot and much shuffling along before the final 'lift off' and swirling displays.

Once the majority of the birds had left the mudflats we went round to one of the hides to see the birds roosting there. The hides were rather full but it was still possible to see through the gaps! There were large flocks of Knot and Oystercatcher with small numbers of Dunlin, Curlew Sandpipers and Redshank on the nearest scrapes.

Wader flocks on the scrape

Wader mix

View across the lagoon

It was a magical start to our days' birding in Norfolk which unfortunately was dogged by crowds of weekenders and packed car parks.

Algarve Autumn Adventures: Part 2

We visited the Parque Ambiental at Vilamoura where a group of bird ringers from Staffordshire were on an annual ringing trip. It was great to see birds 'in the hand' which included swallows, martins, warblers and a lovely Bluethroat.

Bluethroat

Unfortunately we missed seeing a juvenile Booted Eagle close to but did see it fly off.
At the Casro Verde visitor centre we had good views of Wheatears and a rather hot Tawny Pipit before Pete identified a juvenile Bonelli's Eagle being mobbed by a couple of Ravens. 

Northern Wheatear

Tawny Pipit

On a pelagic out of Fuseta, organised by Georg, we had good views of Audouin's and Slender-billed Gulls at the entrance to the lagoons.

Audouin's Gull

Slender-billed Gull

Out at sea we were pleased to see Cory's, Balearic, Scopoli's, Sooty and Great Shearwater, as well as European Storm Petrel, Common Terns, Gannets and Great Skua.

Cory's Shearwater

Great Shearwater

And finally we had our last visit to Cape St Vincent where we visited the raptor watchpoint and ventured off the main roads in search of Rock Doves on the cliffs. We found a party of Little Bustards feeding in the short scrub.

Little Bustard

Algarve Autumn Adventures: Part 1

In mid-September, Gen and Pete M and ourselves returned to the Algarve to see passage birds and residents a bit earlier than we have before. Our ten days were full of interesting birds as we returned to our favourite birding sites to see what they held. Our first stop was the Tavira saltpans where we saw the usual waders and an unusual Egret.

Hybrid Western Reef X Little Egret?

Around the cottage, where we stayed, we were pleased to see Whinchat and Wheatear on the fences and Pied and Spotted Flycatchers feeding on the insects.................

Whinchat in the garden

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Crimson Speckled Moth

......... and some cheeky Azure-winged Magpies having a wash and brush up next door!

Azure-winged Magpies 

Some of the insects seen included Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Crimson Speckled moth and Swallowtail butterfly. 
We also saw Two-tailed Pasha and Plain Tiger butterflies on our travels.

Two-tailed Pasha

Plain Tiger

 A Praying Mantis was a new sighting for us.

Praying Mantis

We had three trips to the Raptor Watchpoint near Sagres, which wasn't as busy as we've seen in the past but still gave us brilliant views of Honey Buzzards, Booted and Short-toed Eagles and Egyptian Vultures.

Short-toed Eagle

Honey Buzzard

 At Ludo Farm we met up with June & Peter and spent a very pleasant day birding together around the Ria Formosa. We would recommend anyone wanting a day's guided birding to contact them through their website - www.algarvebirders.com, they are very friendly and experienced bird guides with an excellent knowledge of the Algarve and Baixo Alentejo.

Summer summary!

A quick summary of the highlights of our birding during Summer 2011.

View from Staple Island to the mainland

Fulmars

Arctic Tern on Inner Farne

In June we visited Northumberland with fantastic weather on the day we were on the Farne Islands but very wet the following day when we ventured on to the Moors and to 'Happy Valley'.








We also had another garden event with Scarlet Tiger moths putting in an appearance for a few days and Privet Hawkmoths emerging from pupae.

Scarlet Tiger moth

Privet Hawkmoth

At the end of July we spent a week in Scotland, at Aigas Mains, next door to the Aigas Field Centre. The highlights of the week were a visit to the top of Cairngorm, alas no Dotterel in view, and then on to Spey Bay where we had fantastic views of Dolphins and Little Gulls.
In August we had a great day out in Lincolnshire starting with a trip on the Boston Belle out into the Wash to see waders and seals, then on to Frampton Marsh where the bird of the day was Wood Sandpiper.