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...

Half term road trip

Got back last night from a week-long trip with my family. In a way, we are packing up here in the UK, as we're planning to head back to Israel next summer. So this was our last October half-term in the UK. The trip was organised around two talks I gave. First, a talk for the excellent Ringing and Migration Week by Filey and Flamborough Bird Observatories. We stayed in Yorkshire for a few days (thanks Mark & Amity!), where I did little birding mainly with Mark, including a short vismig session at Reighton Sands. There were few birds around and nothing exciting, but we did have a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers and two Mealy Redpolls on the beach at Flamborough. Perhaps the most exciting bird was a surprise Glossy Ibis that flew over the road while we were approaching Flamborough - the least inspiring rarity I could find.

Not a Glossy Ibis. A (Scandinavian?) Rock Pipit

Then we crossed-country to North Wales. I gave another talk, to the lovely Bangor Bird Group which was enjoyable. We spent a few more days in North Wales (thanks Steve!). The weather was not great, and I hardly got my camera out of the bag. But it was all good fun. Only birds of mote were 130 wet Pale-bellied Brent at Beddmanarch Bay that were sweet, and a few random Chough.

Pale-bellied Brent in the rain

Gloomy Beddmanarch Bay

Snowdonia National Park 

Caernarfon Castle 360

Caernarfon

Issy Wheatear and more

Yesterday was my birthday but I couldn't go birding. So today I cashed in on my birthday credit,  and went out with James (AKA The Driver), Dave, Phil and Will to Burnham Overy Dunes. Weather was looking good and we hoped to find Norfolk's first Sibe Accentor. But when we got there we started complaining how few birds there actually are. We had some crests in the Suedea, Robins, thrushes but really rather slow. We walked west towards Gun Hill, hoping to find yesterday's Pallas's Warbler, spread out and covered as much ground as possible. And of course as me and James walked across the crest of the dune, Dave calls, and quite nonchalantly tells us 'I have just found an Issy Wheatear'. This guy is amazing, quite a rarity magnet. We caught up with Dave and the bird very quickly, but it was really unsettled and didn't stop moving for the first half an hour or so - it must have just flown in. We got some good initial views that confirmed Dave's ID, but photography was difficult. I was really lucky to get these flight shots from a huge distance - surprising my old camera focused on the bird:

Isabelline Wheatear 

This is the original:

But as the first birders arrived, the bird settled down more or less, associating with two Northern Wheatears and performed rather well. We were gentle with it, hence the poor record shots. I think later on some photographers managed to get closer to it.

White underwing coverts, for what it's worth

This is Dave the finder - well done Dave! He asked to remain in the shadows

First birders on site

Not for the first time in the UK, I was in the scene of a big UK rarity that is a common bird in Israel. It is the first twitchable for Norfolk, so I really 'got in' and shared the excitement:

Me and The Driver

There was also a Pallas's Warbler and a Barred Warbler in the same are, but it was getting busy and we wanted to leave so didn't see them. We knew that with the growing crowd at the wheatear site, we will have all the other North Norfolk sites to ourselves. So we headed east towards Holkham Pines through the dunes, but first an obligatory visit to the rotting 12 m Fin Whale that had washed up on the beach a couple of days ago - we smelled it from a mile away. What a fascinating beast though! So sad to see it dead and dissected.

The eastern side of BO dunes was actually pretty good. More thrushes, an obliging male Mealy Redpoll, three Waxwings that flew over calling, a beautiful Shore Lark that refused to play ball, Jack Snipe and The Driver's bird of the day - GREAT WHITE EGRET ;-)
In the pines not much, heard a Yellow-browed Warbler.

 Mealy Redpoll

 Shore Lark

Great day to be out!