Wet and happy

After a few days of easterlies, that did bring a sprinkle of scarce birds to the east coast, last night weather shifted and heavy rain and storms hit the Norfolk coast. This was a day I just had to be out, despite my aching body after the bike accident I had a couple of weeks ago. As I switched on my phone in the morning I saw the message: 'PGTips ringed at Spurn'. Shit. A dream bird to see in the WP, but 4 hours drive and there was no positive news of it after it was released. So after a quick consultation with Dougal, my birding companion for today, and a few more friends, decided to skip and and stick with Plan A - East Hills. I had to accept that this is the closest I would get to a PGTips today:

Yesterday our mate Dave had an Arctic Warbler on East Hills which Dougal needed, and I just wanted to get out there and see some birds. We started walking at 09:30, hoping the tide would drop enough to cut across the deepest creek and save time, but sadly the water was too high still, and we had to walk all the way around along the beach. It was raining hard, the wind picked up seriously, so the walk itself was hard work. Also my dislocated shoulder was killing me - maybe this activity today was a bit too extreme? But our spirits were high as it all looked well for a good arrival of birds.

We got to East Hills and it was still raining hard, but it was evident that there were birds around. From the first line of trees we already had Spotted Flycatcher and a few Willow Warblers. Dougal was keen to look for the Arctic Warbler, but I worked my way across the hills slowly. Along the way I picked up more migrants - Pied Flycatchers, Redstarts, two Tree Pipits and more Willow Warblers. After a short while, while scanning a mixed flock of tits and Goldcrests, I found a Firecrest - fine bird. Sadly it was in the canopy of tall conifers, so no photos. Unlike some of the Goldcrests that foraged very low, possibly because of the howling wind.

By the way, this bird with some grey on the nape looks like a continental bird. See here.

It was a very tough day for photography. Most of the time I daren't get the camera out of the bag because of the heavy rain. And light was..., well there was no light today. And all the better birds I saw today did not play ball at all. But good birds kept on coming. Immediately after Dougal called me to say he had just had a Red-breasted Flycatcher (probably the same one from yesterday) I heard a familiar call, a call I had spent many days listening out for - Greenish Warbler! I knew exactly what it was. It gave several clear calls, and then I located it for a second or two very close to me, maybe 4-5 meters away at eye level - it was in  a small conifer, good views but all too brief. I knew excatly what features to look for. I saw the wingbar well, and the good supercilium meeting above the small bill. It was a relatively bright bird so I assume it is a 1cy. It vanished quickly - the whole tit and goldcrest flock had moved on and the bird was gone. I spent some time trying to relocate it, and was joined by Dougal and Pete (another birder who walked with us out to the hills) but without success. I am really happy with this bird. I saw one a few months ago in Suffolk, but it feels good to find a fresh migrant in a migrant hotspot. 

We continued to work the habitat for a couple more hours. I was mostly searching for the greenish. We saw more Pied and Spotted Flys, Redstarts, one Cuckoo and a few other bits and pieces. I actually saw some fresh migrants falling out of the sky into the trees - pretty cool. There was this miserable Siskin there - it was very wet like all birds today:

Eventually I got brief views of the Red-breasted Fly but it was very shy, like most other birds today, because of the fowl weather. All three of us heard and saw a Yellow-browed Warbler - probably the same bird, and one was there yesterday as well so probably the same as yesterday. The view from the far end of East Hills towards Wells Woods was rather gloomy today. Lots of birds on the mud but I didn't have a scope and my brain was on passerine mode anyway. I did notice some 50-60 Brent on the saltmarsh.

Then the weather became so bad that we hardly saw birds anymore, and we just wanted to get back home. The walk back was again very wet and quite cold - bye bye summer I guess. We got back to the car drenched but rather pleased. It was a good day, with quality and decent numbers. This is very good compared to the rather weak results from nearby strategic points in N Norfolk - Blakeney Point and Scolt Head - very few migrants in both these sites today.

Migrant totals for today 11:00 - 14:00 on East Hills:

10 Pied Flycatcher

5 Spotted Flycatcher

1 Red-breasted Flycatcher

8 Redstart

5 Song Thrush

15 Willow Warbler

10 Chiffchaff

20 Goldcrest

1 Firecrest

1 GREENISH WARBLER

1 Yellow-browed Warbler

2 Blackcap

1 Garden Warbler

2 Tree Pipit

1 Cuckoo

2 Wheatear

30 Swallow

2 House Martin

Firecracker

What a bird and what a way to start my day. Switched my phone on in the morning to see message from James - 'Firecrest singing in my garden!', accompanied by a stunning photo. I have seen many Firescrests before, including the one and only (to date) in Israel, but never managed to get a decent photograph. Understanding that I might have a chance here, and in UK context it is a scarce bird, I carried my gear with me doing schoolrun, and then headed over to James's. Was greeted by good coffee and warm hospitality, and very quickly the bird was performing. A stunning male. Jaw-dropping, almost like an flippin' Blackburnian Warbler. He was singing constantly and apparently holding territory between a large spruce and an apple tree, complete with crest-pumping. He was constantly chasing the local Goldcrests and was being chased by them. Will it find a mate and breed here? He was quite a feisty little thing, moving constantly and not so easy to photograph, but eventually 'we nailed him' as they say.

Goldcrests are usually personal favourites, but today they were clearly shadowed by the real deal:

Urban birding at its best! I am proud to be the first avian twitcher in James's garden - he has had moth twitchers before. Thanks to Sharon for this photo. Someone should design a camera with a nose-cavity for large-nosed individuals like myself:

Shetland day 6 - many non-sibe thrushes

Woke up early in the morning and the weather conditions were ideal. Walked out with Pierre and immediately we had a flock of Redwings overhead. We both said: today is a day for a Sibe Thrush. We were so right and so wrong. 

We headed off to spend the day on Whalsay. In the morning the weather was quite nice - sunny with a moderate easterly wind, but during the day the wind picked up considerably (now there is a gale outside). We first checked the famous plantation - it had a few Redwings, a Brambling and little else. When we returned there around noon it was packed full with fresh migrants - several yellow-brows, many Goldcrests, Pied Fly and a few others.

Redwings - when it was still sunny

The plantation

During my week on Shetland I probably saw more than 100 birds but I just cannot have enough of these stunning little sibes:

Yellow-browed Warbler

Goldcrest

We then continued checking iris beds, crop fields and gardens all around the garden. The wind made birding more difficult. We came up with nothing of real interest. Another Pied Fly, Whinchat, Lesser Whitethroat etc. I had three flyover Redpoll thingies and a flock of about 30 Twite: 

'Shetland' Wren

Hedgehog - introduced like all mammals on Shetland. Rather sinister-looking.

Whalsay

Around noon news broke of a Siberian Thrush on Fair Isle. Classic. Pierre immediately started calculating how to get there on time before the winds were too strong, and to get off on time for his connections to Corvo. After a few phone calls we figured out that flights for the day were cancelled because of the wind, and anyway the bird wasn't really playing ball over there. So we gave up the idea and continued birding in more leisure. We finished up on Whalsay and went on to check some sites on the east coast. More thrushes, yellow-brows etc. but that's it.

Today was my last full day on Shetland. It was a good day despite not seeing anything rare. By the sound of the wind outside I doubt if I get any birding done tomorrow morning before I head back home. We'll see. Good night.

Waxham

Went ringing this morning with the UEA ringing group at Waxham on the E coast. Weather was not promising so expectations were low, and indeed there were very few migrants around and up in the air. I really liked the site though, it has a good potential - looking forward to return there on a good day. We ringed mainly Meadow Pipits but also some Goldcrests and other common birds.

Goldcrest

Because of the slow catch I had time to walk around a bit. Few migrants around - some Redwings, Bramblings, Lesser Redpolls, and one flyover Lapland Bunting was nice. Some pinkfeet and cranes in nearby fields. The Grey Seal colony on the beach is impressive:

Thanks to Iain, Claire and Tony for an enjoyable morning.

Birding in the Upper Galillee

This morning I met up with Nadav and his team up in the Galillee mountains. Our main mission was to ring Goldcrests. This seems to be a very good winter for this rare bird in Israeli standards. In this particular spruce grove, we had 10-15 birds, which is an Israeli record I guess!
As you understand we caught nothing; the birds just wouldn't come down low enough to get caught. I spent some time trying to photograph them but no results at all - they're so fast! This is how my images looked like:

But this is not totally useless as these pretty spruce branches could make excellent perches for future projects:

Anyway, after that failure we had some time to check the beautiful pistachio and almond orchards of Birya. This is Israel's prime site for Pine Bunting, and indeed we had two - I had a female (all too brief) and Nadav had a cooperative male. They were hanging around with 30 Yellowhammers - another good bird:

Apart for that a flock of 20 Woodlarks were nice:

They actaully perch on trees!