Catching up on old friends

 I decided to take a trip out today to bag a few year ticks. It was going to be a route I often do early in the year, going to a few places where some good Winter birds tend to hang out. That is one of the things about year-listing, you can often go and see the same birds you saw a year or even a few months ago. It does take you to some very nice places though.

The trip today was focused around southern Norfolk and Lincolnshire. no rare birds or lifers on offer but with a bit of luck some good birds. First stop was Lynford Arboretum near Thetford. This is on one end of a parkland with many fine trees, hence the arboretum, and further on a wilder part of heath. My first stop was the "paddocks" where a small flock of hawfinches overwinter every year.

There are the two large hornbeam trees in the middle which are a magnet for the hawfinches. The paddock as a whole was alive with birds especially winter thrushes.

The hornbeams were where the hawfinches were hanging out though. It was pretty distant and the light was poor but you could see dark shapes in the leafless branches.

Hawfinches are large birds, sometimes likened to parrots due to their large bills and bulky physique. I think there was at least dozen up in the trees feeding on the seeds.

Further along from them is a bridge which has become a known feeding spot for smaller birds. I borrowed some of the seed from a feeder and put it onto one of the stone piers. Soon a variety of birds were popping in to have breakfast. Most colourful was a male brambling with its felty grey head.

They are a classic winter visitor, related to our resident chaffinches.

This year seems to be a very good year for them, with large flocks reported in many places. This spot is also a good area to see marsh tits.

They are much plainer than out garden tits and are more often found in woodland settings. They used to be a much more common bird and I remember them coming into our garden as a child. Nowadays they are quite rare though not as rare as their close cousins the willow tits which are absent from much of their historic range, including around this part of Norfolk.

My next stop was about 40 minutes drive away at Welney. I've been here many times before for the Winter swans and ducks. So far the year I've seen the rarer Bewick's swan but not the whoopers so I was particularly keen to connect with them. That wasn't very hard as a few were on the flood right outside the main observatory although most seemed to be out in there fields feeding. 

What was nice was a small flock of 9 tundra bean geese associating with the resident greylags. They have been around for a bit and are probably the same birds I saw a couple of years ago!

Superficially they resemble the greylags, part of the "grey goose" complex. 

There are a few points of difference. Firstly, they are smaller, though that can be difficult to tell. Their heads are plainer chocolate brown and their bills, as you can see in the bottom photo, are dark with an orange tip as opposed to being all-orange.

My final stop was at Deeping Lakes. This is another reserve I go to every year for its star attraction, a group of roosting long-eared owls. Normally the location of sites like this is kept a secret to prevent disturbance but here they roost either on an island or across an inlet so you can't get close to them. Another birder in the car park tipped me off to where to find them and I got onto two of them pretty straight away.

Comparatively speaking these were good views. There are both birds in the photo above. Most times they are hidden deep in the ivy and you struggle to see them.

I watched them on and off for 30 minutes but they didn't move despite the strong winds blowing their perches around. I guess they would just remain till dusk as they are our most nocturnal owl. 

A nice bonus was a group of 5 or 6 goosanders on the lake, another year tick for me. 

With the addition of treecreeper at Lynford and tree sparrow at Welney that was 8 year ticks taking me to 145 for the year. Not too bad and a few nice birds in there. Would be nice to get close to 170 by the end of the month to beat my previous February record.