11th January Central & East Norfolk
The bitterly cold weather continued and the woodland birds were very quiet, clearly subdued. We still managed to find 4 Bullfinch, 30 Siskin, 1 Green Woodpecker, 3 marsh Tit, 3 Nuthatch & 2 Treecreeper.
In the east of the county we located 40 White-fronted Geese, 60 Pink-footed Geese, 3 Stonechat plus a pair of Chinese Water Deer
The day concluded with 6000 Pink-footed Geese & amongst then we located an adult Ross's Goose - a new species for our tour list!! The raptor roost produced 50+ Marsh harrier, 2 ringtail hen harrier, & 1 Barn owl.
16th January Photography tutorial
Today I spent the day with a client providing a one day workshop on bird photography - we started by shooting some regular birds at our feed station & then headed up to the coast for the afternoon.
The workshop was a one to one and concentrated on how to get in close to the subject, how to review your images and make the correct changes & composition.
By the end of the day John had a nice selection of images, John dropped me a line to say
"I would just like to say thank you again for the excellent day on Friday, I am dead chuffed with the photos since I have been able to view them on the computer" - thanks John!
Below are a selection of a few images from John's day with Norfolk Birding
J a n u a r y 2 0 0 9
9th January - Winter photography
North Norfolk Coast
An early start on a beautiful but very cold and frosty morning. A walk along one of the frozen dykes produced a Jack Snipe & on the shoreline we found the wintering 1st winter Glaucous Gull.
We then settled down to some photography - 35 Snow Buntings gave excellent views down to just a few feet. The pools held Dunlin, Teal & Wigeon, the Teal & Dunlin both made stunning images on a well lit calm day, our seed encouraging them down to amazingly close distances.
On the sea plenty of Red-throated Divers were on the move passing east.
An early start on a beautiful but very cold and frosty morning. A walk along one of the frozen dykes produced a Jack Snipe & on the shoreline we found the wintering 1st winter Glaucous Gull.
We then settled down to some photography - 35 Snow Buntings gave excellent views down to just a few feet. The pools held Dunlin, Teal & Wigeon, the Teal & Dunlin both made stunning images on a well lit calm day, our seed encouraging them down to amazingly close distances.
On the sea plenty of Red-throated Divers were on the move passing east.
10th & 11th January - 2 Day Winter speciality tour
10th January North Norfolk Coast
A very cold start but a lengthy walk warmed us up and eventually we found the the wintering 1st winter Glaucous Gull, much further along the shoreline today than recently.At least 25 Snow Buntings were still present. The cold weather is obviously starting to have an impact as we found both dead Fieldfare & Turnstone!
On the sea 30+ Red-throated Divers were on the move - passing east in just 30 minutes.
We had nice views of Goldeneye, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher, Sanderling whilst eating our lunch in one of the harbours.
At Stiffkey, we saw a pair of Stonechat and a nice flock of 50 Linnets as well as 4 Bullfinch
At Wells I managed to eventually find the Black Brant amongst 400 Brents, we then moved on to Holkham where 7000 Pink-footed Geese roosted. Out on the marsh 1 Barn owl was hunting along with 2 Marsh harrier. We also heard Bearded Tit & Cetti's Warbler.
A very cold start but a lengthy walk warmed us up and eventually we found the the wintering 1st winter Glaucous Gull, much further along the shoreline today than recently.At least 25 Snow Buntings were still present. The cold weather is obviously starting to have an impact as we found both dead Fieldfare & Turnstone!
On the sea 30+ Red-throated Divers were on the move - passing east in just 30 minutes.
We had nice views of Goldeneye, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Oystercatcher, Sanderling whilst eating our lunch in one of the harbours.
At Stiffkey, we saw a pair of Stonechat and a nice flock of 50 Linnets as well as 4 Bullfinch
At Wells I managed to eventually find the Black Brant amongst 400 Brents, we then moved on to Holkham where 7000 Pink-footed Geese roosted. Out on the marsh 1 Barn owl was hunting along with 2 Marsh harrier. We also heard Bearded Tit & Cetti's Warbler.
21st January - North Norfolk coast
I spent the day trying to improve my stock images, my favourites of the day was this Common Teal & Dunlin
28th January - One day tailored tour
Today was all about geese for these 3 clients, two of the clients from Canada were keen birdwatchers but had studied geese as part of a professional career & now retired this interest had extended to all of the geese species around the world!!
The day started with a good look at some nice Snow Buntings, Turnstone & Dunlin all of which showed down to a just a few feet, also there were several Red-throated Divers on the sea. The group were impressed impatient to head off for the target species Taiga Bean Goose.
At Cantley all of my prayers were answered - not just 3 Taiga Bean Geese still hanging on after their mates have departed North, but also a Tundra Bean Goose with 100 White-fronted Goose. We were also treated to 2 Peregrine Falcons hunting & perched, plus 2 Chinese Water Deer
A visit to the coast at Walcott produced the usual selection of gulls, but also amongst them I located an adult Meditteranean Gull
The day finished at a raptor roost where we saw 1 Barn Owl, 13 Common Crane, 4 ringtail Hen Harrier & 50 Marsh Harrier
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