Birding Barbara

Had a great day in N Norfolk with James, Terry and Marie. Our main focus was geese - the large pinkfeet flocks attracted some quality geese over the last few days. We set an aim to see 14 goose taxa today but ended up with only eight... We started early around Syderstone and Docking. Scanning our own flocks produced little more than a few Tundra Beans, some Euro Whitefronts, a wild-looking Greylag, and a couple of funny hybrids. But hey, we didn't get bogged which was an achievement. As normal in these conditions, birds are distant and the best one can expect is crap digiscoped record shots. 

After some time others relocated the Red-breasted and the Todd's Canada side by side, north of Docking (thanks Ben for gen). We headed over there and the birds were on show. A mile away but scope views were good. Photos were, ehmmm... But great to see these two quality birds in the same scope view. This is my first 'wild' Canada Goose in the WP, and only my second-ever Red-breast. By the attention it receives from local birders, it should be 'wild' too. 

The Beauty and the Beast: Red-breasted Goose and Todd's Canada Goose, with Pink-footed Geese

Digiscoped through Swarovski ATX95 with Samsung Galaxy S5 and Novagrade adapter

Non-plastic Greylag? Who knows

Funny pigment-challenged (thanks Dave!) Pink-footed Goose. When I first saw its head, I thought it was a Lesser Whitefront. It clearly isn't. Sorry about the quality - a very long way away.

According to part of our team, the day's highlight was a brilliant breakfast at a secret N Norfolk spot:

While we had a quiet and cosy breakfast, outside things were happening. We moved on to Titchwell for some quality seaducks. When we got there, Storm Barabara had hit the coast and the weather was quite horrible. We were greeted at the carpark by this friendliest Robin, demonstrating pure Christmas spirit. James didn't miss an opp to pap him, and got down and dirty. Hardcore wildlife photography.

Braving the storm, we headed down to the beach. We had a quick look on the freshmarsh, and amazingly James picked up this adult Yellow-legged Gull, despite his frequent declarations that he doesn't do large white-headed gulls. 

One Water Pipit was on the freshmarsh too. On the beach it was pretty awful. The wind was so strong we couldn't stand up. Hunched under the concrete blocks, trying to find some shelter, we scanned the large raft of seaducks bobbing up and down on the choppy sea. The crazy wind had pushed them away from shore so views were less than great. But still it was quite fun with quality. There were over 25 Long-tailed Ducks, 6-7 Velvet Scoters, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 1 probable Black-throated Diver. I just love long-tails - great birds:

On the way back we paid a visit to the Ferruginous Duck on Pat's Pool. I would not twitch this bird independently, but the others were keen so why not. When we got there we scanned hard through the distant tufted flock and couldn't find the bird! Then we were shamefully told by other birders it was right under our nose, mooching about with the dabbling ducks. The sky darkened then as a result of the fading light and intensifying storm. Another set of excuses for rubbish photos. It was time to head back home.

 Ferruginous Duck 

With Gadwall

'Merry Christmas boys and girls!' says Mr. Fudge

Birds and poeple - Brilliant day in NW Norfolk

Wow, what a day. So good to be out for a full day, great company, brilliant birding, good weather - can't ask for much more can I? 

Headed off with James to the NW coast. Started off at Snettisham RSPB as the tides were right. The main departure of the roosting Pink-footed Geese was a bit too early for photography, but the 10,000 (?)-strong noisy mass was very impressive as they passed overhead and headed east towards their feeding sites in N Norfolk:

Awesome 

And then as the tide came up the shorebirds started moving towards the roost at Pit 4, so we followed them there. Unfortunately, the hides that were destroyed in the December 2013 have not been restored yet. So, if anyone from the RSPB reads this, please make some effort to get these hides operating again, because at the moment the viewing conditions are not welcome. Anyway, we managed to find ourselves an inch and a half of clear view, and watched the thousands of Knot and Oyestercatcher fly in to roost. Knot in a very tight flock, Oystercatcher in a looser, noisy group. Nice to catch up with some good friends there.

And when they fly up for some reason, the show begins:

  

Over above the mudflats impressive whirling flocks of Barwits and Knot did their obligatory performance, but we were a bit too distant to appreciate:

On the way out this pretty drake Goldeneye was attractive enough:

Our next stop was Huntstanton Tesco. First coffee and sandwiches, then we crossed the road to the coach park where Waxwings were seen over the last few days. Apparently the berries on their bush have all been eaten up, so they are more mobile now. As we approached James spotted from a fair distance one Waxwing perched just above the Pay and Display sign... I asked James: "It will let us approach, won't it?". James answered: "Of course.". I thought to myself, let's put the coffee and sandwich aside for a second and get an insurance distant record shot. James laughed at me, but sure enough two clicks later and it was up and off and gone. Despite searching through gardens and hedges in the general direction where we saw it flying too, it wasn't relocated.

Waxwing

Melanistic form of wankwing

We headed south and paid the Wolverton Triangle a quick visit. James has a tradition of trying for the Golden Pheasents there each time he is in the area, and always fails. Today was not different...

Then we continued on to Welney WWT. Short walk into the main hide, and we arrived just before noon feeding session. There weren't too many swans about, only 20 something Whoopers and more mutes. However they are so pretty and impressive that we enjoyed the entertainment very much. Unfortunately the main hides are shit for photography (next time we will book the photography hide in advance).

Whooper Swans

  

I was impressed by the local guide Katy who talked really well while feeding the swans:

There was a bit of pushing and shoving when Katy was feeding:

Pochard - so pretty, deserves some focus, don't you think?

By the Nelson-Lyle hide there were 13 Pink-footed Geese - quite distant so digiscoped them with Swarovski ATX 95 and Canon 7D: 

Eurasian Wigeon -  digiscoped with Swarovski ATX 95 and Canon 7D

On the way back onto the A11 we encountered some mixed flocks of Whooper and Bewick's Swans loafing in the fields:

And near Prickwillow (love this name) we had a hunting Barn Owl - unfortunately for the bird and for us it had one bad eye - always on my side...

Bad eye

Thanks to James for his good company and driving!