Best of 2007

It occurred to me that I failed to make an end of year appraisal for 2007, so here's a quick best of round-up...

Best birding site visited... difficult to choose, it'd have to be the North Norfolk Coast, and those magical dawn moments of thousands of roosting Knot, thousands more commuting Pink-feet, Shore Lark below the dunes and Barn Owl quartering closer than you'd dare imagine.

Best bird seen... for rarity value, the juvenile Night Heron at Fairbun Ings in July. Rumour has it this may have been the first true wild bird of the species hatched in the UK.

Best bird photograph...

This Swallow fledgling feed at Bempton Cliffs RSPB, also in July.

Best bird video...

Barn Owl at Holkham NNR, late August.

Best local find... not a classic year, but a pair of Whinchat at Brierley Forest Park stirred interest in the place during April. They would probably breed were it not for the dogwalkers. According to BirdTrack these were earliest birds reported in my region for the year.

Best memories... too many to mention, a shortlist list would include the Starling roost near Carsington, wintry days and rare ducks at Hoveringham, Osprey days at Rutland, magical Montagu's Harrier in Lincolnshire, the Nightjars of Sherwood Forest, 3 lifers in one day with Long-tailed Skua/Sabine's Gull/Red-necked Grebe, picking up a stranded Little Auk at Snettisham, and really I could go on and on.

Best decision... getting involved with the RSPB, volunteering at their Aren't Birds Brilliant(!) events at Carsington Water in Derbyshire, where I educate the public about the RSPB, conservation and birds in general. A genuinely worthy cause, I get to watch and talk about birds all day long, and it's a great crew down there too. That moment when you see it click within a kid, the gasp and dazzle of discovery when they realise how amazing the birdlife is out there, it'll never get old.

The numbers:

190 species on the year list
18 lifers

For the foreseeable future my prediction is 2007 will be my best year for sheer numbers of birds seen. Between moving house, rising petrol prices, and the intention of greenifying my birdwatching activities, I should be cutting back on the travel for 2008/9.

My Little Auk

So the the saga of the Little Auk. I take you back to Monday before last, a cold and blustery wintry morning at Snettisham, masquerading as November 12th. The ongoing Little Auk wreck (following the deep North Sea depression that had battered if not quite lacerated through the North Norfolk coast with a strong tidal storm surge) was taking place further east, so we weren't quite expecting to find any. Oh but we did. First sighting came with four bobbing around in the high tide, only a few feet from the shore. Lovely squat birds, sort of bullet-shaped, and for all my bird knowledge they still looked like fresh chicks. Of course they weren't.
A nice lifer then, but onward back to the pub for the &B part of our bed and breakfast weekend.

The walk back to the car park at Snettisham takes anywhere between 30 and 50 minutes depending on how many times the birds stop you, and stopped we were by another Little Auk, this time on the lagoon behind the holiday huts. This time something was wrong, the bird paddled weakly and as we stood to watch, it slowly but inevitably floated into the horrible foam on the windblown side of the water.


It was stranded, rolling in this froth, utterly stuck. Now usually I'm not one to intervene; Magpies I'm perfectly happy to have them as a garden visitor and when the Sparrowhawk takes one of my Blackbirds I'm actually quite thrilled - it's like a David Attenborough film outside your kitchen window. This time, clearly leaving things be wasn't going to be satisfactory, this birds, its dignity, it deserved better.

Glad for my gloves I scooped it up and rushed the damp fella back over the seawall to the beach, in hopes of refloating him. In retrospect it was never going to happen, and after a few feeble efforts the slosh of the sea's motion grounded the bird again.


Settling on the conclusion that it was likely to die, we reasoned that the best thing to do would be to rest the bird back down on the bank of the lagoon, this time on the sheltered sunny side. If was to die at least it was somewhere quiet, and sadly die it did, as we discovered after returning from our breakfast. The bird was never very lively, in truth it wasn't only exhausted but water-logged too.

Elsewhere in the country I'm sure similar stories are being recited, with almost 30,000 Little Auks past the Farne Islands in one day, and individuals blown as far inland as Doncaster, it's clear this was quite the birding event of the autumn this year in Britain, a lot of birders happy for the tick and I'm sure plenty of grateful gulls were happy to gobble the weakened auks down whole.

There will be a lot of discussion over why this occurred, was it just the storm pattern that pushed the auks so far south or could it be something more worrying like climate change induced disturbance of their marine food source? Likely to be both I would suppose.
The smallest of the auks (about the size of a Starling but much heaiver - believe me!), this species does come closer to shore in winter than its larger cousins, although for the large part they'll stick to the open ocean, the North Sea, the Atlantic and as far north as the Arctic ice shelf. They live for upto 10 years, perhaps a good deal more, and feed chiefly on plankton, invertebrates and small fry.

A lifer for us then, a life diminished too, and a bird held in the hand that quite probably came from a Spitsbergen breeding colony, a good deal north of the Norwegian mainland, from one of the nests not plundered by a Polar Bear. Memorable stuff from our hobby yet again.

link - an article in the Independent about this Little Auk wreck

Birds On a Bigger Scale

It's Thursday and I'm still tired from the weekend, but what a weekend!
For our autumn getaway I promised my girlfriend we'd go find a true birding spectacle; the great goose and wader flocks of the Wash. The destination was easy enough to pick, it had to be Snettisham RSPB reserve.

From Saturday through Monday we visited the reserve each morning (5:30am starts - ouch!) and twice in the evening, I suppose we just couldn't get enough. We were lucky on several counts, firstly because the Pink-footed Geese came down to their British wintering grounds earlier than is usual this year so the flocks flying from and to their roost were at their probable maximum, around 40,000 birds, perhaps more - you begin to guess with so many birds.
Morning seemed the best time to watch them going over because they leave in good light, whereas it was upto an hour after sunset when they flew into roost on the mudflats. The whole thing lasted over 30 minutes, with numerous skeins leaving almost all the time for the fields inland, mostly to nibble on left over roots of post-harvest sugar beet and potato crops, as apparently farmers are encouraged to leave a little something for them. That's why they gather in Norfolk in numbers you just wouldn't have seen a few mere decades ago.

The other bird that are around Snettisham in big numbers are of course the Knot, with a roost of around 10,000 birds covering the islands and banks of the lagoon behind in the dunes. The mass of greyness almost looks like a large patch of gravel at a distance. They are only in during high-tide so that meant for our visit we missed them gathering but were able to watch them depart at daybreak. Sort of a double spectacle with the geese going over at the same time.
In among the roost were occasional interlopers, a few Bar-tailed Godwit, Dunlin and Redshank on the edges of the huddle. Once the Knot went, that was it, whoosh and everything snaked over out onto the mudflats, leaving us with a few Dabchicks and Goldeneye left on the water, as well as a couple of hundred lazy Oystercatchers. It was exciting watching, waiting, for that moment of grand départ.

Other birds of note at Snettisham were a nice Barn Owl hunting in the pre-dawn gloom (ask for your money back if you go to Norfolk and don't see one), a couple of Merlin winged through on the wind, similarly a Great Skua was around, a few flushed Red-legged Patridge, and of the passerines a few Fieldfare battled the gusts, as well as Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Linnet and a Stonechat around the car park. On the mudflats, a good typical mixture of Golden Plover flocks, solitary Grey Plovers, lots of Dunlin, Curlew, Turnstone and Sanderling, a handful of Avocet. As well as the Pinkies wildfowl-wise there were also plenty of Greylag, Brent and Canada Geese, Shelduck, surprisingly large numbers of Mallard, and the one Scaup went through too.

On our final morning at the reserve, something rather special occurred, we found Little Auk bobbing in the high tide just off the beach, part of the Great Little Auk Wreck of '07. It began with 4 of them, but that was just the beginning of the story. More about that in another entry though, and the other sites we dotted along the coast last weekend, as well as more videos.

A lot of Knot!

Gravel?

Pinkies in the evening...


...and the morning.

Knot and other waders gathering on the receding tide (note Great Skua top left).

Very distinct white wing flashes, has to be a Bonxie.

Several Little Egret around too.

Panorama of the beach.

Normal for Norfolk

Barn Owl at Holkham NNR

Short of a warmly unseasonable September (figures crossed for it), August ban holiday marks the last chance for a summer camping break, and with a decent weather forecast the girlfriend and I headed for Norfolk. For the most part it was a beach holiday, to enjoy the sun, sea and sand, but you can't escape the birds of Norfolk, should you lose your mind and want to.

In the pinewoods behind the dunes at Holkham there had been reports of migrants right out of the top drawer - Wryneck, Red-backed Shrike, and one of the many Greenish Warblers turning up in Norfolk this August. Alas, carrying a beach tent and windbreak (essential items for a day on the Holkham sands) and other beach-going paraphernalia made birding a wee bit difficult, and day reports on Birdguides suggest all the aforementioned star birds had left anyway. The best I could find was a Kestrel hunting toads on the dunes, and a family of Willow Warbler. For all the world I willed one of them to have the pale wing-bar of a Greenish Warbler, but no.
What made up for any disappointment in the pines was the Barn Owl hunting over the open pasture and across the marsh. Splendidly close views of a bird it is forever special to see. Other birds along the walk back to the car park included Coal Tit, Little Egret and Curlew. Nothing to quite compare with the Spoonbill in April though. As we drove out we had another sighting of the Barn Owl as it nonchalantly whisped across the car park.

On the Monday the north winds blew, too cool for the beach, so we gambled on which of the North Norfolk birding sites to head for. We chose first NWT Cley Marshes. and there was plenty around; large numbers of Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff and Avocet, in the early afternoon a flock of 50 Golden Plover came in, many in still summer costume. Marsh Harrier is a speciality there, and I counted at least three males and three females, yet no juveniles. There wasn't much else to pick out though, and a Common Sandpiper was the only single wader of any note.

In the evening we had time for a quick stop at Titchwell Marsh RSPB, also a good place to get close views of waders. It was much the same as at Cley, plus a few Spotted Redshank, one Knot, a few Grey Plover, and my first Greenshank of the year (#176) was in the marshland just west of the reserve. It is always worth walking out on the beach at Titchwell, and although it was too hazy offshore to scour for skuas and shearwaters, many Sanderling, Turnstone, Dunlin and Oystercatcher pottered around on the surf line. I have always kept a soft spot in my heart for Sanderling - in their white winter plumage, they look somehow dainty and pure, perhaps spirit-like wardens of the tide.
Finally in to roost came six Little Egret. I'm still a kid really and even I'm old enough to remember how special that once would have been prior to their colonisation of these isles. Heck, it's still special!

Pictures from the weekend:

That Barn Owl again.

Little Egret at Holkham.

Greylag Geese at Holkham, many groups of 4-10 birds passed over heading east, presumably for a roost.

3 Black-tailed Godwit and a Ruff, at Titchwell.

The Titchwell scene.

And a couple of digi-scoped videos by the girlfriend:

Video 1 - Ruff at Titchwell
Video 2 - Little Egret Roost at Titchwell
Video 3 - More of the Holkham Barn Owl

Finally on the drive back home through the Norfolk farmland a Barn Owl was illuminated in our headlights. Fortunately veered right into the field beside the road and then kept pace with us for a 50 yards or so. Impressive really, because we were zooming along at a steady 40pmh at the time. Pretty swift stuff for a delicate owl.

Norfolk, it never disappoints.

Norfolk Trip Part Six: Holkham and Home

Tuesday had come and the long journey home beckoned. There was just enough time to cram in Holkham NNR, where I could get in a little birding and she could enjoy the beach. From the one hide I visited there was a wide open view across the marshland, out there were plenty more Greylag, a two pairs of Pintails, more Black-tailed Godwit, Lapwing etc. In the hide a couple of the locals were excited by a Ruddy Duck, honestly they could have ours from Notts if they want them. A few Avocet poked around the marsh too, and in the distance a handful of Little Egret flew by.
Without doubt the best bird might almost have been dismissed as yet another distant Egret flying across, made sense to check though when I observed the outstretched neck and broad bill. It was a Spoonbill!
After alerting the rest of the hide one of the local birders told me an individual Spoonbill had been seen on and off for a while now, and generally hung around the Heronry out to the west where it made rudimentary efforts at building a nest. Also several pairs of Egret up there I was told.
Out on the beach meanwhile the passage of Swallows grew throughout the day.


Back into the car and half-way home we stopped at Milton Country Park for the last half hour of daylight. It was here we saw three woodland species, Blackcap, Greater Spotted and Green Woodpecker that brought the species count for the trip up to an even 100.
Unspoken target achieved, just.

So that was our big Norfolk trip, the county really is as good for birds as all the guides say.

Norfolk Trip Part Five: Cley Marshes

It was time to expand a little, do something away from the bird reserves. In the flat were several leaflets for various boat trips around Norfolk and two of them stood out, a 'seal trip' up to Blakeney Point and an excursion onto the Broads out from Wroxham. Quickly we called around and discovered there would be room on the last boats of the day if only we could manage the 45 minute drive between the two quays without delay and direct through those small maze-like Norfolk farm roads. Somehow we accomplished it.

The seal, mostly of the Grey variety were pretty docile.

Among them were the occasional round-head Common Seal, only a few though.
So far as the birds went it was much the same as before, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit for the waders, Brent Geese were scattered here and there. Bird of the day were the first Sandwich Terns, among the hundreds of Black-headed Gull there can't have been more than half a dozen that we could see.

And then the hurried journey down to the Broads tour. Birds were quite few here. I carried slim hopes of seeing the Norfolk Cranes flying over, it wasn't to be though.

What we got were nice views of familiar birds, Heron, Coot, Great Crested Grebe, etc. Our captain told us there were far fewer than a month before. Apparently it was chock-a-block with spectacular numbers of wintering Coot.


The most notable species was the Egyptian Goose. Plenty of them around, much to the consternation of the (very rich) inhabitants on the Broads. The geese wreck the thatched roofs found on their properties, pulling them to pieces and sometimes nesting ontop unless carefully protected against.

Finally that day on the journey back north along the coast we dotted the villages, stopping for a walk at Winterton Dunes.

Just off shore a raft of 50 or so Common Scoter bobbed in and out of view, frequently disappearing as they dived en masse.

One more surprise awaited us very late in the day. Passing through the tiny coastal hamlet of Walcott we saw birds running and pecking along the top of the cement sea defense beside the road. Pulling over we realised they were Turnstone, still largely in winter costume and barely more than a metre away from the car window.

Video - Turnstone on the sea wall

By now Norfolk seemed to be unfailingly wonderful for birds, even on the quiet days.

Norfolk Trip Part Four: Cley Marshes

Onto the Sunday, we were staying in a holiday flat just west of Sheringham, less than ten miles away from NWT Cley Marshes, so it was there I was dropped off while my SO went shopping.
The reserve has a futuristic looking new visitor centre, so futuristic in fact that it isn't yet open. Same goes for some of the paths and one of the hides, something I wish the chap taking my entrance fee had told me. It really is pretty dismaying to trudge half a mile or more along a shingle bank to find a hide marked on the map is only half constructed and well cordoned off.
Otherwise it was a pretty good day.

Again the Avocet, Oystercatcher, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Ruff, Curlew, Lapwing and Golden Plover, were around. In the lagoon to the east of the reserve were a few Dunlin and Ringed Plover.With the Greylag were three Pink-feet feeding in the grass beside one of the lagoons, and late on a flock of 23 flew over. Funny I swear I could remember reading they'd all left for the north well over two months ago.

Feather duster-bottomed Dabchicks were plentiful in the ditch beside the road.

Half way around I reached the shingle sea wall and over it spread a wide sandy beach popular with tourists. I decided to sit, eat my lunch and watch the sea for a while, only saw the ordinary gulls though.

From one hide in particular, the one apart from the three that sit side-by-side, I got wonderfully close views of Redshank...

...and Avocet.


In the sky all day sailed the Marsh Harriers, two females and a male it seemed, which is about the average bigamous ratio for these raptors.

If my visit was anything to go by Cley Marshes was very good, if not quite up the high standards of Snettisham and Titchwell, just on the basis of the bird-life around. Maybe when that visitor centre opens it'll nudge itself up a few more points.

ETA: Forgot to mention the Cetti's Warbler, I was told they were around but found nothing of them until very late in the day when I heard one calling. As is commonly the way with Cetti's, heard and not seen.

Norfolk Trip Part Three: Titchwell

...and on to Titchwell Marsh RSPB.


By now it was around 5pm with the late-in-the-day shadows getting long so we imagined the reserve might be fairly quiet. Boy were we wrong! There must have been well over a hundred people walking around the reserve, many of them seemed to be non-birders just going for an evening stroll. Pretty nice spot for it too. Plenty of birdsong, particularly Chiffchaff in the wooded area.
Here the Avocet numbered upwards of 200 and they were very confiding, little more than 10 yards in front of the hide. You could watch every detail on them, no need for bins. Out across the marsh were Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Curlew, the odd Golden Plover too, and regular ducks.

This photograph was taken from the path leading to the sea wall, the Avocet upending like a duck on your local pond and just as close.

As we walked further on a single Little Egret flew by. They're around in the region, if still not yet in very big numbers, and at this time at least six Marsh Harrier descended into the roost.

Down onto the beach and the sea was half-in. In among the shallow rock pools Turnstone busily pecked, above Oystercatcher circled in a small flock, and westwards 20 or so Sanderling ran around in between the surf.

All in all very memorable, the Snettisham-Titchwell double looks to be a natural choice if you're in the region. I can't see anybody leaving disappointed.

Norfolk Trip Part Two: Snettisham

So onwards from Rutland, we spent the second day dotting up the north Norfolk coast to the RSPB reserves at Snettisham and Titchwell. Always heard big things about both places, had not yet been though. The truth? They're up to their billing.




Although the tide was a long way out the mudflats at Snettisham still proved fruitful, sitting on the sea wall we could see among others, crowds of Curlew, Grey and Golden Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Avocet and Brent Geese stretching into the haze beyond the horizon.












The walk from the car park is pretty long compared to some reserves and that is no bad thing. Along the way we saw Skylark, Linnet, various Geese flying overhead. All of the hides look out onto a lagoon where Black-headed Gull and Avocet were preparing to breed. Geese were plentiful, Greylag, Brent, Canada, a couple of late Pink-feet, Barnacle and two Snow Geese with them. Lots of duck too though nothing special, the regular, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, etc.

With all those screeching Black-headed Gull around it seemed a good idea to check for Mediterranean Gull and it was worth it. There were at least two, with one bird showing very well. Initially I was a bit confused by the black dots on the wing-tips and eventually settled for calling it s a '2nd summer' bird.

That's him on the left there.
You can see how it stands out against the slightly smaller and ironically browner-headed Black-headed Gull there. It was #189 for my life list.

Bird of the day, Shore Lark, two pairs foraging along the strand line and up to the sea wall, just along from where we sat. That's #190 for me. Marvellous views too, all the detail on the facial mask and true yellow too.

Back toward the car park and a couple more species, Red-legged Partridge showing particularly well. And across the path scuttled a Sand Lizard, it was brilliantly green, like something out of a pet shop.

The only drawback we found were the lack of facilities at Snettisham, no visitor centre, no reception hide, no toilets, nothing really, except the car park and hides. I was quite surprised to find this at such a famous reserve. The only other word of warning is that during our time there Snettisham appeared popular with group visitors, the sort that stick together and occupy an entire hide instead of splitting up to allow space for others, so there wasn't much room to move in some of the hides.
Still, a top visit, and we must return one day for that high tide winter spectacular. It was pretty gratifying to loop the reserve closely behind a man and his young son. The kid looked genuinely enthused.

Then it was onwards for an evening at Titchwell, just ten miles along the A149, leaving behind the famed Black-eared Kite that hangs around the area. It's been a long stayer since November and throughout that time probably the 'best' bird in Britain, a real 'mega'. They apparently belong in China and this juvenile is still the only individual ever to be seen in Western Europe. Damned elusive too though, even for those on all the best rarities paging services.
Not imagining we would find it, I couldn't count myself disappointed when we didn't.

Holkham NNR

I find late summer is lovely time for birding, it's the families. Just the other day I watched a gang of half a dozen Redstart darting after each other as much as food, a nice find for the East Midlands.

A couple of weeks ago we camped for a weekend down on the North Norfolk coast, very nearby to Holkham National Nature Reserve. The site comprises a sandy shore, extensive dunes, saltmarshes, pinewoods, and some reclaimed marshland a little further inland. I was beach-holidaying with my girlfriend so didn't devote as much time to the reserve as I'd have wished but still found stunning and close views of Marsh Harrier, enough to excite any birder. Below them species like Sedge Warbler could be heard. Underfoot the dunes were full of toads, and out on the beach Little Terns skimmed the surfed, and a pair of Oystercatchers babied their one remaining chick.
We plan to make future visits, give the reserve the attention it deserves. Also not a long drive west along the coast are both Titchwell Marsh and Snettisham RSPB reserves. This part of England really is very rich for birders.


Driving back home through the quiet farm roads brought us across this Barn Owl patrolling over one of the vast Norfolk wheatfields. We've found travelling along such lanes to be a marvellous birding tactic. It may not be very eco-friendly but there seems few other ways to cover so much rural habitat in a mobile bird hide.

Two Places to Visit

Over the Easter weekend I was fortunate enough to get a few days with family down on the Norfolk coast, during which I made a trip to a reserve I'd often heard about but never visited.

NWT Hickling Broad
Home to vast ranges of reed, interspersed with small pools, bordered on one side by the expansive waters of the broad, Hickling offers a near unique habitat for birds and wildlife, with wooded areas and sedge too. Though the star attraction are the Bittern, I wasn't fortunate enough to see the secretative bird on this occasion, but any disappointment was dispelled by stellar views of breeding Marsh Harrier. Previously I'd only seen the raptor very distantly, and not really been able to appreciate the patchwork plumage of the male, of the cream-tipped chocolate of the females. This time it was all on view, the harriers far closer to the hide than could have been imagined, close enough to watch a spectacular food exchange. My days list wasn't huge, but the common warblers are present, as are species like Teal, Shelduck, Snipe, Lapwing, and I heard Bearded Tit too.


Secondly,
Potteric Carr Nature Reserve
Situated on the south side of Doncaster this is a reserve still partially under development, but already a cracking destination for birders. Prime among its number are breeding Black-necked Grebe (which I was lucky enough to see performing a courtship dance), though here again Bittern may well be sighted.

With reeds, glades, and open farmland, there's good walking and tidy hides - this place is modern and it's good. A dual carriageway lies nearby the reserve and the east coat mainline actually running through it, that said there is greater peace than you might imagine.
The opening hours are 9-to-5, and Potteric Carr really deserves a full day.
One cautionary note, the reserve isn't very well sign-posted, so make sure of your route beforehand. When we arrived the welcome was warm, with a very informative lady making sure we understood the map, where the birds might be and how to cross the railway. She was really rather sweet.

You could do a lot worse than set out for either reserve.