Better say before i start the Norfolk Blog, Some local and Suffolk stuff. A 1st winter Isabelline/red tailed shrike turned up at North Warren, only the probable 6th species of shrike this year in Suffolk, and as i was in the area the Sunday this one turned up i took a look, nice scope views although a bit distant. You cant assign 1st winters to race so this one will go down as a nothing bird and shows what a waste of time it is splitting some species, the people making these decisions need to give there heads a wobble, trying to look clever but just look dumb when it comes to separating birds like this. Good job its just a hobby eh.......
Anyway end of October a fall of Firecrests was happening, another in the garden was great.
1st November meant the weather was turning and sea-watching should be good so as i had missed all the good sea birds due to being at work I gave East lane a try, it was good but not good enough for some scarce species. anyway totals as follows..
745 to 1245 1 little stint, 550 dunlin, 220 knot, goldeneye, 6 tufties, 18 common scoter, 1 red breasted merganser, 2 Great Crested grebe. Peregrine. 60 wigeon, 6 teal, 8 pintail. 1 grey wagtail, 4 skylark. 1 purple sand, 3 gannet and a Bar-tailed Godwit.
Goldeneye pics below
8th November
I was feeling very demoralized now due to finding bugger all whilst birds were being found all around me, again its the time of year when only weekend birding was possible, however finally a good bird found on patch with a nice Nearctic Pallas's Warbler, on the road to the prison, a good quite lonning this with mature maples all the way along it, I often find good passerines here. A couple of Firecrests and Brambling too. still seemed hard work however especially as there is still very little water in the pools at Hollesley.
North Norfolk 14th to 16th November.
Its Rachels birthday weekend and as I had booked the Thursford Christmas Spectacular I took the Friday off and headed for Norfolk. It absolutely poured it down all day with no let up so the only birding we did was a quick walk through the woods a Stiffkey. A Woodcock flushed from the undergrowth but very little in the trees or on the Marsh.
The Saturday it still rained but not as hard so we headed for Titchwell, checking fields for Geese, not many seen probably 1000 but just a Barnacle of anything different.
Did the track to Chosley barns and back knowing a Hoopoe had been seen heading in that direction from the roost site at Titchwell, I didn't really expect to see it but luckily the road was quiet enough that on the way back down the road towards Marsh barn farm I found it flying into fields. I waited in the rain when luckily it did return to the roadside verges. I gave it space and it enjoyed feeding along the side of the road and as there were no cars that came along the lane for a while the bird fed happily.
I watched 50 Bramblings in the fields whilst waiting.
Moved onto Titchwell itself where it was nice to find a Yellow Browed Warbler and a Pallas's Warbler although i later found out these had been around since early morning. I found a grey Chiffchaff which i called to a couple of other observers as a Siberian Chiffchaff, who were tentative in the ID at first but when it finally called i was proven right. Sometimes it feels like that if they didn't find it they don't want the bird to be right and it takes some people some real persuasion to believe what someone else has Identified for them. I shouldn't really care but something inside me pisses me off about it.
Anyway at least 6 Firecrests in bush's around the carpark and VC, but on the main pools very little of note, it was still wet and miserable so didn't give it too much longer. Headed back down the coast but didn't find much of note.
16th November time for home but did some birding anyway, back to Titchwell, it was so much busier, making the Yellow Browed and Pallas's Warblers much more illusive, I had 2 YBW calling at same time though, still several Firecrest but no sign of the Sib Chiffy. Left the Reserve to see if the Hoopoe was showing in better light but again too many birders and vehicles up and down the road for the bird to be out in the open.
5000 Pinks at the end of the road were worth a look but it was hard to pick anything out due to distance. Many Red kites were seen, many more than I've ever seen the whole weekend.
Found 2 Cattle Egret at Burnham Norton in the Morning on passing but when I checked on the way back there were now 6.
A Great White Egret was at Holkham from the A149 and a 15 Minute check of the Sea at Cley had a 1st Winter Little Gull and a female type Goldeneye. It was getting late now so headed the 2.5hour journey home.
