Arctic roly poly

This morning I made a small detour en route to work via Eccles with Dave. We arrived on site to find it very peaceful and calm, no baseball bats or rogue tripods in sight. The Coues' Arctic Redpoll showed immediately - the redpoll flock was feeding on some low bushes, seen through a hedge. At first views, head on, the bird was very striking - pale and frosty, with nice white undertail coverts and large white wingbars, and a small but deep-based bill:

The redpoll flock was very mobile and skittish. They moved between those low bushes, hardly seen through a hedge, the hedge itself, and a puddle where they drank briefly a few times. Never easy to get good views. Over the next couple of hours we saw our bird a few more times but always quite briefly. In flight it did show a large, clean white rump but I couldn't get a photo of it. Once it did pose quite OK for a few seconds. Note the single dark shaft streak on undertail coverts:

And small breast streaks on whitish background

Big white rump visible in this screwed up flight shot:

Partly visible here too:

Lovely bird! My first in the UK and I haven't seen them since I visited Scandinavia when I was a teenager. 

The redpoll flock was full of different forms and colours. It contained about 20 Lesser Redpolls showing some variation:

About 7 Mealy Redpolls were in that flock too. Some were beautiful, large and frosty males, but I couldn't photograph them. Those two allowed a quick snap but were not the most striking of all:

On the way, by Acle, we had two Cranes by the road. They did not like the fact we pulled over...

Autumn sprites

Joined our University ringing group this morning - similar to last year we held a ringing demonstration for the fresh MSc students at Waxham, our regular site. I love this site. Even when migrant numbers are low (as is normally the case), it delivers the goods. This morning the wind was sort of alright but no rain to knock birds down. This resulted in few migrants in the air and on the ground. Throughout the morning we had a few mini-waves, or trickles of fresh-in migrants. Even these micro-events are magical. Suddenly Goldcrest calling from the surrounding bushes; or a small group of Song Thrushes dropping out of the sky. But lack of numbers was compensated by quality. First smile of the morning came in the form of the expected Yellow-brow, our first of the season, right on schedule:

Yellow-browed Warbler

A very bright individual. Note the pointed and abraded tips to tail feathers, indicating this is a young bird. Fresh in from Siberia.

Next reason for a big smile was this brilliant male Firecrest - fantastic little bird:

We had a good team and lots of eyes and ears, so throughout the morning a few more good birds were picked up - Short-eared Owl zooming across accompanied by angry crows (Phil); a few Brambling calling, in-off; a second, unringed Yellow-brow; and Purple Sandpiper down on the beach (Daniel). Early on I heard a Red-breasted Flycatcher inside our trapping area, but only in the late morning I managed to see it. It dodged our nets and eventually went missing, but nice bird anyway. Anyone who might try to search for it, I suggest to give it a miss - it's deep inside an area with no public access, and anyway the bird did not stick around.
Later on in the morning we had some Lesser Redpolls flying over and we caught two males:

Great day to be out with the team - Iain, Dave, Phil, Jen, Harry and Daniel. Thanks.

Poll: birding or cherry-picking?

I had a week of torture. I sat in front of my computer at work, watching all those rarity reports pouring in from Norfolk, and I just couldn't get out until today. So today I had to decide what to do - to try and check an area with habitat to try and find my own birds, or go cherry-picking? What would you do? And there were many cherries to pick in Norfolk yesterday and today: 2 Red-flanked Bluetails, 3 Daurian Shrikes, Blyth's Reed Warbler, several Pallas's, Radde's, Hume's and Dusky Warblers, Olive-backed Pipit and a few other bits and bobs. That's an impressive line-up! I guess for the blog it would be wiser if I got great shots of these rarities, that I could promote on social media. But eventually I decided to go and try my luck in finding something new. I just know I wouldn't enjoy spending a full day chasing after long-staying rarities (that I don't 'need'). As I left home in Norwich a flock of 120 Redwings flew over, so my expectations were pretty high. I headed out to my regular hunting ground - walked from Stiffkey Campsite almost to Wells and back. The wind was too strong today which kept the birds silent and not very active away from the few sheltered spots. In the sheltered spots it was clear that there were huge numbers of Goldcrests - many new arrivals, feeding in less-than-optimal habitats, and some jumping right by my feet. I quite like this photo - the blackberries and the spider web:

They are just lovely aren't they? Can't have enough of them

In the campsite woods there was one Yellow-browed Warbler and a Firecerst with the goldcrest flocks. I then started walking west. After a short while I bumped into the Great Grey Shrike but it kept its distance and was very mobile, so no images. There were many thrushes in the trees and bushes, but because of the strong wind they refused to move out of bushes so I guess my estimate of 150 Redwings between Stiffkey and Garden Drove is conservative. There was one Ring Ouzel and one Fieldfare with them. Another Yellow-browed Warbler was somewhere halfway, and I heard and saw briefly the Pallas's Warbler at Garden Grove. It showed badly in the canopy of the large sycamores there, no photos either. There were many finches as well, about 15 Brambling. Other birds of interest were 2 Redstart and 2 Lesser Redpolls.

Lesser Redpoll

Only Brents showed nicely today, shame the light was crap. Large numbers already, and also several hundred pinkfeet were seen today.

After I was done I had time for a very quick look in Wells Woods. I couldn't bother chasing the rarities there - there were too many birders around, some running - not my cuppa birding. So I birded off the main track for a bit, more thrushes etc. and I bumped into the Hume's Warbler without planning to - heard it calling and it showed badly high up in the trees. 

Shetland day 4 - Red-throated Pipit and more

Had another great day today on Shetland. Headed out early onto Scatness. Paul dropped me off and just a few minutes after I had started walking I heard a familiar call - Red-throated Pipit! I quickly located the bird flying overhead. The wind was blowing hard from the southwest so it quickly flew northeast, and it gave another 2-3 calls before I lost it flying in the general direction of Sumburgh. While watching it I reached for my phone and tried to sound record it but all I got was the wind... Luckily I am well familiar with this call - common species in Israel. Nice one.

Otherwise it was still pretty quiet. I had one nivalis Snow Bunting and about 8 Northern Wheatears. There were many skylarks and Meadow pipits around but I couldn't relocate the red-throat or find anything else. On the wetland there were 8 Whooper Swans and a nice selection of scarcish Shetland ducks - singles of Pintail, Gadwall and Shoveler. Also 1 Jack Snipe.

Snow Bunting

Northern Wheatear

Whooper Swans

Roger graciously picked me up and we went on birding. First we checked Durigarth. No White's Thrush in the famous garden - we had to settle with this handsome male Lesser Redpoll, rather scarce on Shetland:

Then we checked Rerwick  - nothing there apart for a Great Northern Diver in the bay.

In the afternoon a visit to Lerwick with Martin and Sharon. We first tried the OBP - there were many birders there, some stringing Meadow and Rock Pipits in the process of hanging around... We didn't fancy that activity very much, so we went to have another look in the harbour - again many Eider and about 20 Black Guillemots.

Dodgy OBP (Rock Pipit)

Uk day 6 - ringing ticks

Early(ish) morning joined Nick for a short ringing session before work on the edge of the Nunnery reserve. Lucky I brought my wellies with me from Israel - very wet it was. Must have transported some soil diseases with polluted mud from the Holy Land into Britain.

Anyway, ring was quite good with some ringing ticks for me. Nothing too exciting but I really haven't done much ringing in Europe.

Lotti

Lesre - adult female 

Lesre - adult male

Bramb - as pretty as they can get

Thanks Nick for a great morning! After that meetings meetings meetings. My brain has no free space left anymore. Tomorrow off to NL for more meetings...