The Brecks...

Carl a mate from Cumbria was in the area working and had a day free so I took the day off and we headed off to the Brecks starting at Lynford Arboretum where we had great views of Hawfinch, Siskin, Brambling, and Marsh Tit.

 

 

 

After our fill here we moved onto Lakenheath where nice scope views of the Great White Egret were had. Whooper Swan too.

We finished our day at Santon Downham hoping for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, unfortunately this was our only failure of the day. We did get great views of Great Grey Shrike and Brambling. A Kingfisher called from up river.

All in all a bloody great day, cheers for the company Carl. :-)

Love it when a plan comes together.

Well actually never planned anything today but all the birds I looked for I managed to get, these are the days I love. Started on the patch but half way round a Turtle Dove was found a great record for the area and the winter so walked back home picked up the van and drove up to Lowestoft and Hubbard's Loke football pitch to great views of the Dove. Shame the Sun was in our face and the bird was 500 yards from the patch boundary.

Picked Rach and the dogs up and made our way to Oulton Broad where I was hoping to see Kingfisher. 1 Brief flyby at first but then we managed to find one sat by the bridge for a couple of minutes. Don't ya just love Kingfishers.

We decided to head for Beccles hoping for Scaup but firstly stopped in at North Cove hopping the Little Owl would show for us, it only flaming well did but again briefly as someone was working in the garden just after we arrived I did manage to rattle of a few shots first luckily.

Arrived at Beccles only for the message Scaup Flushed by Rowers. Ah well cnt win em all I guess so sat and had lunch by the Quay. Finished lunch drinking coffee when the 2 Scaup flew over high looking to land the other side of the bridge, its a good job too because o wouldn't have looked down there. So went on a hunt and found the 2 Scaup showing really nicely. Rattled of a few more pictures and decided to call it a day and what a day its been. Thank you birding Gods :-).

Med Gulls

We took the dogs for a good walk today leaving the car at home again, that's what I love about Corton you can just walk for miles in any direction. Today though we took a route through Corton Wood along Gunton Cliffs, Lowestoft Promenade to Ness Point then back along the beach home.
A nice chilly walk in the beautiful sunshine. The morning produced 14 Med Gulls with 3 ringed birds, 8 Adults, 4 First winters and 2 Second Winters.

 

8 Purple Sandpipers were roosting up at Ness Point, there could have been more as they were all roosting on the seaward side of the rocks and could only been seen occasionally as they moved.

On the return lots the Med Gulls showed nicely.

A Great Crested Grebe flew South giving a Red throated Diver head cock, and 3 Red Throated divers passed distantly. A Kittiwake was a year tick as were the Med Gulls. An Adult Lesser Black Backed Gull posed for me.

Back in Corton Woods I finally found a really nice Firecrest in the Holly in the North end, although im pretty sure I had a second one too. A Tree Creeper was the last bird of the morning.

Lovely walk from the house.

Smew

Patch was once again quiet so the only birds of note today were a Woodcock and 3 Snipe. 100 up for thee year.

So in the afternoon had a walk to Covehithe hoping for Shorelark but it was way too busy and all the birders I spoke to hadn't seen them. I did see the long staying Red Headed Smew though.

Oh and a few Goldeneye.

17th January

Well what a crap day, spent the morning wasting my time looking for the Richards Pipit again still at Breydon Water, again failing F...ing bird....only other thing that's worth mentioning was an Avocet.
I eventually gave up and headed to Carlton Marsh. I wanted to look at Popes Marsh and see it full of water and hope to see the 2 Glaucous Gulls that had been reported. The area was impressive full of water and hundreds of gulls including 1 1st Winter glauc but nothing else worth mentioning. Waste of my day really.