Wet and windy whimbrel

After the gorgeous weather of the last few days it was a bit of a shock to go out on a more typical Winter day. The trip was down to the South coast, combining a bit of birding with a visit to Wendy and Michael. The traffic was pretty slow so I didn't get there till gone 9. A reviving cup of tea and we were soon off on the road. With a late start and the threat of rain coming after lunch we only had one location in mind - Pagham Harbour. This was really my choice as there has been a whimbrel over wintering at Church Norton which is on the reserve. I have history with whimbrels here. A few years ago I spent almost 12 hours waiting to get a Hudsonian whimbrel, the American version of our bird. A very rare bird and a cracking tick. Unfortunately two years ago the powers-that-be decided it wasn't different enough to be a full species and was "lumped" back in. I lost the tick on my life list! Still, whimbrel would be a year-tick and my list has slowed down in the ast weeks or so with most of the "easy" ticks now in the bag.
The RSPB man in the visitor centre pointed us in the light direction so we parked up by the church and headed down to the harbour. The tide was really low and there was a massive expanse of mud. In the distance you could see curlews, redshanks, avocets, dunlin, ringed plover, grey plover, godwit and even a peregrine falcon. No sign though of the whimbrel though. A couple of well-marked curlews had us going but eventually we retreated into the hide.

This got us away from the rain which had now arrived and we also had the benefit of two locals who confirmed we were in the right place. We watched the rain fall and had lunch but still no sign. Finally though I spotted a "new" bird appearing from the right in the reeds and the mud.

This was the whimbrel. They are closely related to curlew and can often be mistaken for them. There are a few pointers to telling them apart though.

Most notable is the stripe on their head. Although some curlews, as in the one in the first photo, do have an eyestripe, it is never as well defined as a whimbrel and they never have the stripe down the middle of their head. Their beak is shorter than a curlew and the shape is different. The curve on a curlew is more regular whereas on a whimbrel it starts flat then curls sharply down at the end.
It moved out onto the estuary and started to feed on the mud just as we were joined by Lee Evans who had been caught out in the rain twitching the hooded crow!!

With the weather only getting worse we called it a day and headed back. A very enjoyable day with good company and an excellent lunch provided! What more can you want!!

North Norfolk meanderings

We seem to be set for a period of warm weather coming up. Perhaps not Spring per se but certainly something to get nature revved up for it. When I set out very early for Norfolk it didn't seem like that though. It was still pretty chilly and slightly foggy. By the time I got to Cley just after 7.30 it was very grey. There was a slight hint of a sunrise trying to break thorough the low mist but my first coffee of the day was very welcome.

The reason I was here was to try and connect with a glaucous gull. This has been resident for a few weeks now feasting on one of the seal carcasses on the beach.

This was about halfway between the shelter and the north end of the east bank. I parked up in the East bank carpark and walk down the bank to the beach. I got a year-tick as I was walking as a party of bearded tits flew off, pinging as they went. The marsh was alive with calls as birds woke up and the flocks of geese flew around.

I eventually found the seal and scanned out over the nearby beach and pools. There were lots of ducks including a large flock of my favourite duck, the pintail. Must have been over 50 of them. Within a very few minutes I got onto a small party of gulls having a wash and brush-up!

One of them stood out immediately, with its overall creamy colouration and lack of any large black highlights. This was the juvenile glaucous gull.

I watched if for about 90 minutes as other birders arrived as well. We were all hoping it would finish its ablutions and come up to the beach and feed.

Although it was very instructive in giving us a good view of the wing patterns of juvenile glaucous gulls and their comparison to other large gulls it did not seem hungry. Even after all the other gulls had flown off it just carried on mooching around and preening itself. I did get a nice view of a marsh harrier hunting the pool near it but even that didn't persuade it to move on.

With other targets to try and see I finally gave up and moved off along the coast. Next stop was at Thornham harbour for the twite. These small finches are a regular here and are very reliable, normally lurking around the car park area. This time they were ridiculously easy, as four other birders already had them located. Even better, within a couple of minutes they all flew up and the whole flock of 13 birds sat on the same post for us to see and count them.

They are often confused with, and fly around with, linnets. You can tell them apart though by the light-coloured stumpy beak. One of them has a coloured ring which I'm sure means something to someone! On the way out I had a bonus bird. I saw a car pulled over to the verge and someone looking into what I though was an empty field. On close inspection though I saw a light shape on the fence line - a barn owl sitting out in the sunshine (yes, the weather had cleared up quite nicely!!).

I did nip into Titchwell after this. Although it was good, as ever, most birds were quite distant feeding on the marshes. I did get one more year tick with a lone eider mooching about miles out off the coast. I then doubled back down the coast to Sculthope Moor. This small reserve just outside Fakenham isn't a place I often go to. It has been reporting both mealy and lesser redpolls coming to the feeders though. I paid my donation to get in and found the local warden. He pointed me to the feeding site and within no more than a minute I had both redpoll and siskin. One redpoll was even in breeding plumage with a beautiful red breast.

 The next challenge though was to separate the two redpoll species, only recently split into two. The common, or mealy redpoll, is actually the less common bird here, most of the are the lesser redpoll.

There are two distinct characteristics which you can use, both of which are shown above. The mealy are larger and are much greyer in their plumage. As you can see, the left-hand bird is much colder in its plumage compared to the warmer, browner tones on the right. Not a prize winning photo but quite instructive nevertheless. There were also marsh tits and treecreepers in the surrounding area. As a last stop I went back to Cley hoping to catch the glaucous gull in some better light. It was nowhere to be seen but the flock of snow bindings were showing well on the shingle.

Another really good day with 6 year ticks in the bag. The journey home was a trek as an accident had closed the A505 causing a large diversion down country lanes but it only slightly took the gloss off it. Up to 173 for the year now, way better than any previous year. Still hoping for 180 by end of Feb but I'm running out of "easy" birds to get now!!!!

Ducking and diving

After the long day out yesterday I got up late with no plans to do any birding. I did a few tasks around the house and garden and was just settling down to a cuppa when I saw the phone blink. A ferruginous duck in Essex. We had noted it yesterday but I had forgotten about it. These are becoming controversial birds now. Historically they have been rare migrants to the country.  Now there is a release scheme in Germany and many are also being released or escaping over here. So, the first thing anyone does when one appears is to check its legs for rings. This one, from photos, was seen to be fully unringed. This meant it was not from Germany and had a better provenance. This swung it for me so I altered my plans. I threw my gear into the car and drove round the M25 to Lee Valley Park, only 30 miles away.
These old excavation are now a large wetland area, good for bitterns and winter wildfowl. I've not been before though, so I wasn't sure of where to go. Fortunately as I arrived some other birders were setting off from the car park. Not only that, they were the same ones we had met yesterday at Frampton - the two Jims and Brian Anderson.
It took us about 10 minutes to walk to where the duck had been seen. When we got there it wasn't showing though. With a bit of searching it was tracked down to a scrubby island where it was lurking in the overhanging branches. You could just about make it out, a rusty brown body and a white bum. We chose place that looked good and camped out hoping it would show. It kept diving in the mangroves but refused to come out. Finally though it dived and came out into the open water.

It is a very handsome beast. The russet colours showed really well as does its white iris. That especially gives is a very comical look. I stayed with it for a couple of hours but it never came out again. Indeed for a long time it totally disappeared to, I presume, have a bit of a kip.
Its did give me the chance to have aloe at some of the other residents - grebes, coots, herons and goosanders.

Not a long trip but a satisfying one. Good to meet up with the Andersons again. You meet so many people on facebook/ twitter that its nice to realise they are real people!!!! Still looking for that first year tick though!!!!