Archive News and Pictures - Norfolk & Gloucestershire Birding - to 28^th February 2009

1^st February. With a biting easterly wind blowing strongly all day it felt apt to head to Slimbridge to look for another visitor from the North. Once I had arrived I headed straight to the tundra pen to catch up with its free roaming inhabitant. Surely enough, the first winter Glaucous Gull was sitting amongst the pens' permanent inhabitants, seemingly oblivious to the many visitors passing by. The clouds were whizzing by quickly overhead making lighting conditions tricky, with dull flat light one minute and bright glary sunlight the next. I managed a few reasonable shots of my second white winged gull in a week before heading off to the rest of the reserve to see what was about. The southern edge of the reserve was quiet with only a sizeable flock of Wigeon and Teal but the Dumbles held a strong collection of wildfowl with Bewicks Swans, Barnacle, Canada, Greylag, White-Fronted, a single Brent and also 6 Bean Geese grazing right over the far side, unfortunately too distant to photograph. On the way back to the car half a dozen Redpoll were feeding on the Alder trees near the visitor centre but even though at times they were within 20 feet, the lighting was virtually impossible to get decent images.

6^th February. After driving through the freezing snow covered Midlands the previous night, I started my long weekends birding in Norfolk at Brancaster Staithe with a look for some Goldeneye in the channel. Ducks were thin on the ground but a nice Spotted Redshank dropped in to a nearby pool and allowed me to snap away from the relative warmth of the car. There were a few other waders around with both Bar and Black-Tailed Godwits, Curlew, Dunlin, Oystercatcher and Turnstone along with Herring, Common and Black-Headed Gulls. From here we moved over to Titchwell to see if we could get a first new species for the trip. Amazingly enough I managed to spot a feeding Woodcock moving slowly in the frosty leaf litter beneath thick cover between the car park and visitor centre. Quite an achievement considering my colour blindness and that the bird was in poor light in the pouring rain! We then attempted to get some photographs which was technically very difficult considering the light, thick vegetation and pouring rain! Fortunately Chris has his tripod and after waiting for the bird to move, managed to get some decent images, all things considered. Looking back at the EXIF data, I noticed that some of the shots were taken at 1/10 of a second at ISO 800! After an hour or so in the freezing cold rain, we moved onto the marsh and after 5 minutes walk, looking at the frozen ponds and no birds, headed back to the visitor centre, a hot meal and also to thaw and dry out! Feeling a little warmer we went off in search of Geese and after spotting a big flock of Pink-Feet stopped near the field to check them out. Chris managed to spot a distant Bean Goose and just as I was locating it, the flock took off and headed to the saltmarsh. We carried on East and found ourselves on Lady Annes Drive at Holkham. There was a mixed flock of Brent Geese and Pink-Footed Geese close to the path and we briefly managed to locate a Black Brant before the Brents also made their move after being spooked by a dog. Still, the Pink-Footed Geese showed remarkably closely and we both managed to get some good images from the car. Suddenly a Barn Owl landed on the bridge near where we were and I managed a quick shot of it perched before it fence hopped away from us. After filling our boots with shots of the Pinks, we had a quick look at the end of the drive and spotted a Short-Eared Owl quartering distantly along with another Barn Owl. We then moved to Wells to try and catch up with the Brent Flock. After a tour of the back streets we eventually found ourselves with a clear view of the flock which were grazing on a school playing field and managed to locate the Black Brant amongst them. It was noticeably different once you knew what to look for with a bigger white neck collar and markedly more white on the flanks. The light was terrible but we both managed acceptable record shots, clearly showing it wasn't a Brent Goose! The flock moved again and we caught up with it on the pitch and putt quickly locating the Brant this time. A Barn Owl also floated into view and I managed a few flight shots before the light failed. As we drove back we managed to see both Little and Tawny Owls through the gloom. 4 Species of Owl in one day - that's a first for me!

7^th February. After the deluge the day before, it was great to see the sun the next morning even if there was a very sharp frost. We headed to Salthouse to use the clear early morning light for some good photography opportunities. Once there we had a look around to see what was about and noticed that the shingle was frozen solid after the combination of heavy rain and cold temperatures. Very unusual! Birdwise, it was usually very quiet and we even resorted to scanning the sea to see a single distant Red-Throated Diver fishing offshore. We settled down (lying on the frozen gravel!) near one of the semi-frozen pools along with several other birders and eventually we were rewarded with the sight of a 25 strong flock of Snow Bunting. One of the birds came down to the pool and started to feed giving wonderful views, at times the bird was under 3 feet away, far too close to focus on and seemingly care free of the several nearby humans. Along with the Snow Buntings, there were the obligatory Black-Headed Gulls, a few Common Gulls and plenty of Turnstone which we all had good fun snapping as they came in to land. We stayed around the pools for a good few hours using the great light and rapidly filling up memory cards with some great birding. Eventually we headed off in search of other things and stopped briefly at the side of the road near Cley where an Egyptian Goose was showing really well. We then moved towards Cley Beach, where we managed to spot two Pale Bellied Brent Geese amongst the 300 strong Brent Flock. From there we moved to the beach itself where a first winter Glaucous Gull was feeding on a seal carcass. The obviously hungry bird was an easy photo target and it allowed us to get great views and even presented us with the chance of some flight shots. We then headed further west along the coast, looking for some White-Fronted Geese but the field that had contained the big Pink-Foot flock the day before was empty, with distant skeins of Geese being seen inland. We stopped again at Brancaster Staithe to have a bite to eat and photographed a couple of Bar-Tailed Godwit which fed busily on the harbour mud. The light worsened as the afternoon carried on and we headed inland looking for some passerines. Choseley, often a productive spot was quiet for passerines but a flock of several thousand Geese feeding on the beet fields kept us looking. We headed towards Ringstead and I bumped into a covey of 15 Grey Partridge whilst looking for a hedge hopping Barn Owl. We then happened upon what we were really looking for as in amongst a brilliant three hundred strong flock of Yellowhammer there were 20 or so Corn Bunting mixed in. They were feeding in deliberately left long grass in a stubble field on an environmentally aware farm which showed the benefits of compassionate farming. Suitable farmland habitat equals farmland birds! Getting a good view was always going to be a challenge so after getting a few record shots, we both sat on a pile of snow at the base of a hedge near to where the birds where frequently flying. The plan partially worked in that we got quite close but unfortunately the birds were flying to the opposite side of the hedgerow and not revealing themselves! Still never mind, it was great to get good views of Corn Bunting in the U.K. and also to see such a good number of Yellowhammers.

8^th February. Another bright morning started well by spotting a Barn Owl perched on a fence post which resulted in the car sliding to a halt on the ice in order to see it! We drove closer and managed a good few pictures through the hedgerow which worked well considering the amount of vegetation we were shooting through. A few "squeaks" got the birds attention long enough for us to get the full on face view. We then drove over to the West coast to hopefully find my fifth new photo species of the trip but stopping briefly en route to get a quick shot of a Fieldfare. We drove along some known Golden Pheasant sites but after a few laps of their frequent haunts it was evident that our luck wasn't in. We then went to find some Crossbill so decided to join the Queen, who was in residence at Sandringham, and drove into the country park. We soon found ourselves at a fully stocked bird feeding station with good numbers of hungry birds so set ourselves up in the car with the light behind us and started snapping. A nice collection of species were present allowing great views of Jay, Nuthatch, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit and finally good pictures of Marsh Tit. After both taking a good number of photos we headed further into the forest and had a quick look for Crossbill but only managed to spot several members of the Queen's security staff! After grabbing a bite to eat we found ourselves at Titchwell again, hoping for a Water Pipit. As we looked over the reserve we got some good views of a pair of Reed Buntings feeding on the seeds of the reed heads which presented great photo opportunities. We then moved into the Parrinder Hide from where the Pipits had been seen. Only a distant Meadow Pipit or two could be found but there were plenty of other good things to see. Two dozen Shoveler were standing around on the frozen pools and feeding in the open water patches. A Little Grebe diving very close to the Northern facing windows gave good views in the clear light and half a dozen Snipe showed superbly getting closer and closer, finally ending up at around 15 feet allowing me to lay to rest my bogey of not getting a really sharp Snipe picture! The local two hundred strong Brent Goose flock landed in front of the hide and we soon managed to locate the Black Brant amongst them which gave superb views and was very obvious in the perfect light conditions. Needless to say we both managed to get some really good pictures of a bird which only usually appears as a slightly different bird amongst the Brent Geese - I even managed to get a wing stretch picture! Very content we walked to the beach, getting a quick shot of a distant drake Goldeneye en route before heading back to the car park where I snapped a Robin virtually sitting on the end of the lens and finally added a few more House Sparrow pictures to my solitary previous photograph! We then headed back to Ringstead and to catch up with the big Bunting flock. I lay in the field for around an hour waiting for the Corn Buntings to show themselves better than they had previously, managing a few reasonable efforts but it was always going to take a greater amount of time than we had to get good quality images. I did have the pleasure of a few views of the local Barn Owl whilst waiting for the buntings.

9^th February. After hearing news of an impending winter storm hitting South Wales on the Monday night, I debated about heading back but ended up staying the Sunday night in Norwich and had a few cheeky targets planned whilst heading back home. First stop was a very misty Whittlingham Country Park just outside Norwich where a redhead Smew had been seen regularly. After pulling back the curtains and seeing the fog I had a bad feeling about the day and it was confirmed after an hour and a half's walk, seeing nothing other than plenty of mist and a good collection of plastic ducks, with a few non-plastic Gadwall being the highlight. Deciding to cut my losses I jumped into the car and headed South East, into Suffolk and to Walberswick where I hoped to get a nailed on rarity. I arrived in good time and was greeted by grey skies and worse of all, a group of volunteers threshing on the salt marsh. They were working around a hundred yards from where the Lesser Yellowlegs had regularly been seen over the past few months and photographed well over the past week. Feeling pretty gutted I walked round for an hour as the drizzle turned to rain, seeing nothing more exciting that two Redshank at a range of 150 yards! Thinking that this was a sign to head home, I returned to the car where I realised that Minsmere was less than 20 minutes away and hoping for one last hurrah, pointed the car in that direction and drove. A Stoat shot across the road as I drove, clearly showing that it had some prey in its jaws. I took this as a positive sign and once I arrived at a wet and grey Minsmere, headed straight off through the rain to the West Hide. After a few minutes search, I managed to spot a redhead Smew, a first sighting for me since childhood. I got a few record shots through the gloom and after talking to a few of the local birders in the hide, discovered that the drake Smew preferred either the South or East hide areas. On arrival at the South Hide it was a bleak outlook but after 5 minutes, a skinny winged white duck flew in and landed near the public hide. I grabbed some record shots and made the decision to go for it, yomping my way around the Sluice and through the rain to the open hide. As I ascended the stairs I fully expected the bird to have moved on but it was still there, diving for food and I managed to get a few more records shots, once I'd managed to de-mist the viewfinder and my specs! After a few minutes sat on a wet bench the bird flew once more and seemed to land near the East Hide. I again upped sticks and headed off to the East Hide where the pristine drake Smew was busily swimming away from the front of the hide. It then stayed in view for around 20 minutes allowing some decent views, nothing Earth shattering but still wonderful to watch. After the bird drifted away, I headed off, spotting a Marsh Harrier and Bearded Tit as I walked back towards the centre. Noticing the time and then neglecting the need to get back to beat the winter storm, I decided to pop into the North Hide. I was so glad I did as, after again chatting to a birder I'd met earlier, we spotted the Green-Winged Teal amongst a group of Common Teal. Once located it was quite easy to distinguish, even at the range it was, with the vertical wing bars clearly distinct from the horizontal wing bars of the Common Teal. I got a few record shots through the murk and once the birds had moved to an even greater distance, headed back to the car to start the almost 5 hour drive back home! 6 new photo species in 4 great days birding and a new total of 211 species for the website!