Peterborough Bird Club
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Archive for January, 2011
|North Norfolk coast
Friday, January 21st, 2011
Trip report for the 9th January 2011
0845hrs on the cliff at Hunstanton was a big ask (modern speak, yuk!) but there was an excellent turnout of 20 or so all eager to go! It was blowing & then some! However our sharp-eyed leaders had soon got Red-breasted Merganser, Velvet Scoter and Fulmar spotted. I’m not sure what else was seen as I was one of those mavericks who thought they’d try to get Golden Pheasant at Wolverton triangle on the way by & actually succeeded for the 3rd time in about 15 attempts! Stonking male job, too!
So, ‘Titchwell’ was the cry & we shambled along in a loose fleet. I’ve never seen so many birdy folks there before! It was the best day weatherwise for weeks & everyone was out taking advantage. Inevitably our group got split up but we exchanged notes on passing & all saw a fabulous number of species. Listing a few to encourage those who weren’t there this year not to miss in future: Water Rail at 5 yds, Spotted Redshank at 15 yds, Brambling on feeders, Northern Harrier, Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Pintail, Water Pipit. We were impressed by the new hide and even more by the birds at sea & on the beach: Great Northern Diver, Red-throated Diver, Slavonian Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, Long-tailed Duck, Common & Velvet Scoter, Sanderling, Snow Bunting, Shorelark.
The next plan was to re-assemble at Holkham Hall but the distractions on the way caused chaos! Ross’s Goose with thousands of Pink-feet & Rough–legged Buzzard at Burnham Overy split us up again. No one saw all the good things on offer but the day’s total of some 115 species was outstanding! Many thanks go to Brian & Trevor and don’t you miss-out next year!
EVEN MORE TWITCHING TALES (click here for full details)
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Roger’s latest exploits
This twitching business has been really interfering with my golf this year. I’m just beginning to get the swing sorted and maybe get the handicap down when along comes another irresistible challenger and this time it was in the form of an Arctic Warbler from Fenno-Scandia, would you believe! I’m never keen on warbler twitching as they’re so small, fast-moving and usually give pretty unsatisfactory views. It was slightly better than that in the pines at Holme and thankfully I was there at a popular time when there were many pairs of eyes on the job. Even then we lost it occasionally but what a problem it could have been without the other 50 folks! The supercilium was noted ending short of the forehead, the bold eyestripe and the long primary projection! What, you don’t believe me!? You’re right – I saw the bird and everyone said it was an Arctic Warbler so that was OK to me! No 396, only a 2-star rarity but another warbler I’d never have to twitch again and I was getting quite excited at the prospect of 400 before Christmas!
Now that was an easy outing – I just drove to a quarter of a mile from the spot, but unfortunately sometimes things are a little more difficult! However it was a Yankee Mega which I’d missed by 1 day in Cornwall previously, so it had to be done, even in a howling north-easterly gale! What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon – trudging for an hour and a half from Cley beach carpark to the very end of Blakeney Point on that shingle! There’s strength in numbers and there must have been 300 bedraggled souls cursing their ridiculous obsession.The object of my desire, this time, was a flycatcher and it really did show well to me and did far less hopping and skipping than a warbler! It even posed for photographs if the rain hadn’t got in your camera works like it did in my mobile! I really shouldn’t have texted ‘Gorrit 397’ to herself back in the dry at home ‘cus that was the last thing my newish mobile ever did! The sarnies were absolutely soaked but had rarely tasted better! There was great debate as to which flycatcher it was of 2 but it seems to have been accepted as an Alder Flycatcher and I believe this was only the second ever in Britain. Who am I to question the identification- as previously mentioned! It was the very same distance back to Cley but 397, wow! And the wind on my back! But was I soaked! I poured the water out of my boots and sat in wet clothes all the way home to that hot, hot shower and celebratory cuppa.
I didn’t catch my death that day thankfully and lo and behold along came the prospect one Sunday evening of 3 ticks in one day! That would take me to the magic figure! OK, off early on a Monday to Lowestoft for the Isabelline Wheatear then north to the Norfolk coast again for the Olive-backed Pipit at Stiffkey and lastly the Western Orphean Warbler in Wells Woods – great plan! When you get to Kings Lynn and there’s no word of any of them, morale can fall through the floor and you suspect it may not be one of your better twitching ventures. We decided that the wheatear must have flown far from the fence post it was sitting on last night so it was straight to the north coast. Why didn’t we just give up altogether? Ah, surprisingly, that could have been a costly error because at Stiffkey we were greeted by a flypast from a harrier with a very orange belly and owl-like facial disk! What was that we asked ourselves? Not being the greatest authorities at the game, we sat back and listened to opinion on the famous web. Hen Harrier, Pallid Harrier but, as I write, a putative Northern Harrier from the US of A has been seen in the area. Now you’re talking! That gets my vote! Officially the jury is still out but I can see what’s coming, so can you! So, no pipit, no warbler but who cares?
Before you can say ‘warbler’ it’s back to Wells Woods again but with more success this time! The same old fleeting glimpses, only worth 2 stars but Western Bonelli’s Warbler from France or Spain is one fewer of those very similar greenish jobs to have to bother about and 398! I always surmise about what the next avian treat might be and always fail miserably, but no-one would have guessed American Bittern!! Resisted when it was down at the extremity of the country at Zennor but it was a different matter when it came as close as Wadebridge! Without a care for the carbon footprint, it was off on the 616 mile round trip and well worth every mile! Again it was a very early start in the hope that it hadn’t done a bunk overnight and, as usual, no news, even by Exeter! We were taking a break in the service area and biting fingernails for breakfast when the good news broke and the adrenaline began to flow. Oh no! not seen since the first sighting when we arrive. Worrying, as was the weight of twitchers in the wooden tower hide especially when there was no room for me and I was standing underneath it! Not for long though and I snuck off to the small hide round the corner and squeezed in. At least 1 of the lucky 6 able to sit on the bench had been there since 2am! No, that’s not luck that’s something else! Then it appeared! It posed momentarily, it hid in the reeds, then it was out in the open and did that heron/bitterny thing of freezing and looking intently and then it walked across in front of us! Fantastic was one of the adjectives! Great shots were taken though I say it myself! Now, if I count that Harrier as a Northern Harrier that makes this splendid bittern number 400 – and it really couldn’t be a better bird!
Well, that’s only a bit of creative accounting, but only 5 days later it proved to be unnecessary and the new number 400 is now Pied-billed Grebe. Yet another from ‘across the Pond’ and a ‘gentleman’s twitch’ to coin a phrase. Only 2 hours easy drive up to the Rochdale area, a short leg-stretching toddle and there it is swimming about in wonderful autumn sunlight. At one stage it was only 5 metres away and too close for my friend with the big bazooka to focus on! Not the most exciting 2-star jobber for my 400th – no pied to the bill and drab winter plumage – but it had come a long way so I’ll stretch a point and count it! Well that’s it! 400, I can die happy! Not immediately, I hope, and I think I’d better go on twitching for a while as I’ve maybe got some very slightly dodgy ticks in my book! Not many, you understand, and I’m proud of them all. Anyone care to buy me a congratulatory drink?
Well again! I thought that was bound to be ‘it’ for the year with 16 in the bag already, when chapter 2 of the Northern Harrier saga was written. I’d been thinking of quietly adding that fantastic bird I’d seen at Stiffkey now that I was safely over the 400 mark, as I might get away with it without anyone noticing, when the bird was made ‘legit’ (well, sort of) by reappearing daily at Thornham marsh and being positively identified (well, sort of). Bit of a shame really, as I’d rather have another somewhat dodgy tick in my book to give my ‘friendly detractors’ some more ammunition! I did go to Thornham to have another look at this bird but when you’ve seen it once it’s not so exciting the second time! So my list now stands at 401.
What do you think about the status of Northern Bullfinch? Tickable? Half a tick? Go on, be generous, it’s only just after Christmas. I was off to the dreaded Dell in Wells woods straight from Thornham anticipating stumbling across very little and for 30 minutes that was the case when all of a sudden a small group of these stunning birds flew across to an alder tree and landed. Got a record shot away but then they shot away and I was chasing them here, there and everywhere for another hour before the thought of a cup of tea won the day and I shot away! That’s enough of this drivel. There surely won’t be anything else for me to get excited about this year! You should be safe!
Well, surprise, surprise! There wasn’t anything else until the very last day of the year! There I was trying to hit small round white objects into eternity when I should have been at Houghton Hall for Lady Amhurst’s Pheasant!
Wow, what a moniker; a stonking (they always are!) male, too! Lurking on the roadside outside her ladyship’s grounds and reported at least twice. I’ll be hoping to bag it on 2nd Jan, hopefully someone will feed it a bit of turkey sandwich or mince pie to keep it visible to the hoi polloi and it would be an excellent way to start my 2011 list – not really tickable as a wild bird, but good enough to go on my list and therefore annoy the ‘friendly detractors’ really nice and early in the year! I’ll keep you informed, brave reader, if you’re still there after the celebrations. I wish you all a very twitchy 2011.