Suffolk strikes again

So after Suffolk offered me a WP tick just last week, my neighbouring county 'struck gold' again. Yesterday a drake Blue-winged Teal was found at SWT's Carlton Marshes. I couldn't go yesterday but today I managed to sneak a quick visit into my work day. Less than an hour away from home I couldn't resist. Even though it's not exactly the best time of year for vagrant nearctic wildfowl, nor the best part of the country, local birding community seems to be taking this bird quite seriously, so who am I to ignore it? It may have escaped from a wildfowl collection somewhere - there are so many in East Anglia like this one, but I guess there are just as good chances it is a genuine vagrant.

Anyway, as I arrived on site I met a bunch of frustrated birders. A helicopter that had flown by flushed all the birds on the scrape, and the prime suspect was gone. But there I was to save the day ;-) - scanning through my brilliant Swarovski ATX95 I noticed a small group of ducks roosting in tall grass by the far side of the scrape. Despite the long distance, heat haze (in the UK!) and looking into the sun (in the UK!), I noted that one of them was THE bird - bingo! I got all the others on it, and the communal mood improved quickly. The duck spent most of its time sleeping, head tucked under wing. But occasionally it lifted its head up, and once it even stood up! Exciting times! Because of the tough conditions photography was almost pointless. This award-winning shot is the best I could achieve:

Blue-winged Teal

I really liked this reserve. Should return there with my kids. Pan-listers like James would appreciate it much more than a narrow-minded birder like myself, but there was enough stuff  to entertain me while waiting for the duck to lift its bloody head up: a Cuckoo was singing from the nearby woods; a Gropper reeled from the tall grass; and as a result of the warm weather raptors put on a relatively good show - five Buzzards together, a Red Kite and a Marsh Harrier.

Red Kite

In the bird-food section, I failed to find any Fen Spiders but I gave it not more than a couple of minutes; and among the large numbers of the commoner dragonflies and damselflies there were a couple of Norfolk Hawkers.

BC day 8 - Boundary Bay - great birding and cool people

At last we did some proper birding this morning. We met up with Tom Plath who courteously invited us to go birding with him in some sites around Boundary Bay - many thanks Tom! We started off checking Blackie Spit and some adjacent fields at high tide. The fields were nice with lots of Grey Plovers and one or two American Goldies among them, and also 3 American Buff-bellied Pipits and some Vaux's Swifts. At the spit itself there were not too many shorebirds. Two Marbled Godwits made a brief appearance but didn't settle for long. There were some nice gulls including a brief California, two Common Terns and a large group of Greater Scaups. 

Ring-billed Gull 2nd cycle

'Puget' Gull (Glaucous-winged X Western hybrid) 3rd cycle

Bonaparte's Gull - stunning bird

House Finches

Savannah Sparrow

Our next stop was Iona Sewage Farm - what a great site! Good shorebird numbers despite the dropping tide, and lots of waterfowl too. Among the many Western and Least Sandpipers there were some Semi-p's:

Semipalmated Sandpipers with dirty legs

Nice palmations

Wilson's Snipe

The ponds held both dowitcher species. These are long-billed:

Additional species included Lesser Yellowlegs and Spotted Sandpiper. This Northern Harrier flew over a few times:

Blue-winged Teals

Lesser Scaups

American Wigeon

We paid a causal visit to the adjacent Iona Island Bird Observatory, and had a great time.  They trapped Rufous and Anna's Hummers. The rufous is so tiny:

Recently-fledged male Anna's Hummingbird

 Lincoln's Sparrow

Wilson's Warbler

Many thanks to our new friends from WildResearch - Christine, Dan, Paul and Louise, for the hospitality. Keep up the good work! Here is Christine and moi, sporting my brand new WildResearch shirt:

On the way out we said hello to BC's only breeding Yellow-headed Blackbirds in the adjacent wetland:

Nice afternoon in Stanley Park with the family. Couldn't resist the male Buffleheads: