Garden Survey

Have had a couple of days off with a stomach bug, so I had plenty of time to watch the garden for the NOA survey.

Unfortunately visitor numbers remain low-this weeks maximum totals:-

Wood Pigeon 1

Collared Dove 2

Dunnock 2

Robin 1

Blackbird 2

Blue Tit 1

Magpie 1

House Sparrow 8

Goldfinch 2

The Magpie is interesting. I sometimes see one at the bottom of the garden on garage roofs, and they sometimes sit on the house eaves and gutters, but this one (today) is the first I've ever seen come down to the feeders.

Only other observation of note was a fly over Grey Heron.

No Frigate Birds or Black Bellied Storm Petrels yet.

Staying In

The Pacific Diver on the Hayle in Cornwall was a bit tempting, but in view of the weather in the West Country, we decided not to go down yesterday. Good thing too as I was not feeling at all well all day.
Today I decided not to go out. The Norfolk Ornithological Association starts it's Winter Garden Bird Survey today so I thought I'd get off to a good start. Three Sparrows, a Wood Pigeon, and single Blue Tit Robin and Dunnock. The flocks of finches and Sparrows I have been getting have not been seen today.

Amwell Again

News of a putative 'meena' Oriental Turtle Dove at Collieston near Aberdeen yesterday lunch time was a bit of a worry since neither Colin or I were really up for it, since it is about nine hours each way. Possible for a Friday night/Saturday return if we were prepared for it, but not on the spur of the moment trip up and return on Sunday.
Luckily it turned out to be a very late Turtle Dove.
With nothing much to justify an expensive trip, I spent the morning at Amwell. Turned out to be a nice sunny day again, which was a bonus after yesterday's rain and gales. At least the pond is full up now.
There were at least four Egyptian Geese present, though by the time I arrived, only two remained, and they flew off after an hour or so. Snipe numbers building up now, or at least more visible now the water level is increasing. About seven could be seen at times from the watch-point. The female type Stonechat was seen again. I went down to the Water Vole view point just in case the Bittern was showing and possibly also to pick up Redpolls and Siskins that have been seen here. Had the usual calling Cetti's Warbler, and a nice Marsh Tit too. I went off to Hollycross and though I failed to see the Red Crested Pochards, I did get very good views of the Marsh Tit, a pair of Bullfinch, and my first decent flock of Fieldfare of the autumn.

November update

Have not had a chance to do much birding recently-last weekend was a non starter thanks to a chest infection. About the only thing of note was a late Red Admiral in the garden on the 2nd.
Yesterday I decided to get some fresh air and went down to Amwell. It was one of those lovely sunny late autumnal days that made it a great morning just to be out.
The birding was fairly standard-the usual mix of duck, geese and gulls loafing around. The Pintail were not present, though they had been seen earlier in the week. Two Snipe on the main island were the only waders apart from the inevitable flocks of Lapwing. The thermals eventually got going and several Sparrowhawks, Kestrel and Buzzard took to the air. At one point, all the Lapwing and gulls went up, in a manner suggesting a Peregrine, but we never managed to spot it, and its doubtful if the female Sparrowhawk nearby would have provoked such a reaction.
One female Stonechat was present. So far it seems that there are none wintering at Amwell, but presumably one or two moving around the Lea Valley are visiting from time to time.
I went down to Hollycross with Phil Ball and talked about his holiday to Cape Verde-not the best trip with a broken ankle, but he had a pretty good time. We saw the three female Red Crested Pochard, and he pointed out the phenomenal amount of Plums/gages of varying colours remaining in the trees. A lot of the trees and bushes have lost their leaves now, but in places the colour is still very good.
I was wondering about the lack of Bittern sightings recently, but last night heard that Bill Last had seen one in the afternoon, so it looks like one has finally turned up for the winter.

Eastern Crowned Warbler Mega

Just my luck. I go back to work after my autumn break, and within 48 hours, the news broke of the Eastern Crowned Warbler at South Shields. The previous Western Palearctic records have never stayed more than a day, so it was fingers crossed for the weekend.

The initial plan was to go with Colin and a friend from Amwell Jan Hein. Unfortunately, being Dutch, the lure of a Long Toed Stint in the Netherlands was too much for him.

We arrived after a pretty good run at 1000, to find several hundred in and around the quarry. The wind was a bit gusty, but luckily the heavy rain held off. I had cracking scope views and then spent the next hour attempting to get decent images (most of which seem to be blurred sycamore leaves, sometimes with a small green bird partly hidden). On a couple of occasions it posed quite well, but the low light meant I was shooting at iso 800, and the results even cleaned up show some noise.

We eventually left and headed south to Middlesborough. Just south of the new RSPB reserve at Saltholme, a pool held a very nice drake Blue Winged Teal, and the grass helped to hide a juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper. Neither were close enough to photograph.

We headed further south and over the North York Moors, hitting low cloud and rain and by the time we arrived at Bempton Cliffs, it had become very heavy. Despite this, we were able to get very good views-stunningly close at times of the Red Flanked Bluetail. The camera got soaked, and I could barely see through the viewfinder to focus, but the results were much better than I could have hoped for.

Autumn Colour

Not much happening in the birding world, at least nothing to justify a long trip, so I thought I'd wander along the river Beane and see if there was any autumnal colour.

Revisited the presumed Sulphur Polyphore on the remains of the Willow. Its starting to fade a bit now.
Locally, a lot of the colour comes from Spindle bushes.
And there is always the roses.

Apart from Dogwood and the Spindle, few trees and shrubs seem to be changing. Most remain greenish, or a pale yellow green, despite a few recent cold nights.

Norfolk

Yesterday was another day that promised much. The strong northerly winds and overnight showers suggested that Norfolk would be a good idea again.

We started the day at Horsey Gap where a Pied Wheatear had been present for a couple of days. Getting out of the car we discovered how strong the winds really were-I should have taken by thick fleece with me. Unfortunately we met some of the birders that had been present the previous evening, and the Wheatear was being continually harassed at very close range, and it had in fact flown off. A Northern Wheatear had been seen earlier in the morning further down the track, and there was a hope that the Pied had joined it. The habitat was ideal, but there were no birds at all, apart from several photogenic Stonechats.

We eventually left and headed north, scanning the fields nearby in the hope of locating the resident Cranes, but presumably they were sheltering from the winds in the reed beds. A quick scan of the sea at Walcott suggested that conditions would be good for a sea watch and so we ended up at Sherringham.

The hardy locals had been present since first light and had racked up impressive totals of skuas, shearwaters and gulls. Over a period of three hours we managed to see all four species of Skua-Bonxies were abundant, often in flocks of up to six, plus a few Arctic and single juvenile Pomarine and Long Tailed. Manx Shearwaters were constant, along with a very close Balearic and distant Sooty, and huge numbers of Gannets, Little Gulls, Kittiwake and auks (Guillemot and Razorbill with a few Puffin plus a Little Auk that I missed) were streaming east. A few late Arctic and Sandwich terns lingered offshore.We missed the Leaches Petrel by arriving too late, and despite hopes, another never appeared.

As we were driving home, the pagers had peculiar 'possible' reports of a Swainsons Thrush at Beeston, and a Veery at Sherringham. Too cold and tired we carried on home.