September 2009 birdwatching & photography tours in Norfolk

Once in the main hides, we started to work through an array of waders & wildfowl.

The pools from Daukes Hide produced 1 Green Sandpiper, 150 Black-tailed Godwit, 40 Dunlin, 1 Little Stint, 25 Ruff, 6 Spotted Redshank, 2 Avocet, amongst the waders was 6 Spoonbills, consisting of two 3rd calendar year birds with small dark tips to 2-3 of the primary tips, the other birds appeared to be adults. I spent some time picking out the salient differences between the waders for the group & also showed them the differences in the adults & juveniles of some of the waders.

A surprise & most welcome was a female Wheatear feeding on the dry island areas to the north of the hides.

There was also a nice selection of wildfowl, 10 Wigeon, 6 Gadwall, 120 Teal, 1 female Pintail, 10 Shoveler, 1 Tufted Duck with 2 well grown young, all the birds were regularly shuffled when the Marsh Harriers passed overhead

On leaving the hide we were treated to something I had never witnessed before 2 Bearded Tits - feeding on the boardwalk!!

We finished the day off with a group log call & evening meal in The Dun Cow at Salthouse. It was early to bed for everyone with an early start planned tomorrow

Day Two - 6th September of Norfolk 4 Day Group Bird watching Tour

We collected everyone at 6am complete with packed breakfasts. En-route we watched a Barn Owl being chased for it's prey by a Common Buzzard. We arrived at Snettisham just before 7am, and took up our positions overlooking The Wash. We were soon rewarded with a fantastic high tide spectacle of thousands of swarming shorebirds. The tide pushed some of the birds on to the gravel pits, but the main spectacle was over the mud.

Estimating these huge numbers is not easy, but estimates were 20,000 Knot, 1000 Bar-tailed Godwit, 500 Curlew, 200 Grey Plover, 100+ Ringed Plover, 200 Redshank, 1000 Dunlin, 500+ Oystercatcher & 200+ Shelduck, these birds were all out on the mud.
The real excitement & lasting memory was as a large female Peregrine went charging through the flocks, causing the Knot to rise up in to a vast cloud of smoke, whirling around in the sky. This was again repeated as a Marsh Harrier also wandered over the area.

As we watched the waders we also noted a steady passage of migrating Swallow & House Martin with birds moving west a the rate of around 60 per hour. Also moving was Meadow Pipit & a Yellow Wagtail also passed overhead, also a couple of Wheatears were found nearby on the grassy areas.

We moved to the hides & overlooked the gravel pits, here we were able to feast ourselves on more birds, some absent from the Wash, 200 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Greenshank, 2 Snipe, 12 Little Egret & 1 Spotted Redshank.

By mid morning the tide was heading out & we took a closer at look individually at the shorebirds we had seen en-mass.
We then headed off to Titchwell, the reserve is undergoing a lot of work, so the waders were a little distant, but we worked carefully through the birds & we were able to find 8 juv Curlew Sandpipers in amongst 25 Ruff, 30 Dunlin & a mix of commoner waders.

We headed back around 3.30PM after the early start, but I picked up a flock of birds distantly & we jumped out to get the scopes on to them. They eventually wheeled down into the field in front of us - c200 Golden Plover, also here 1 Yellow Wagtail.

We arrived back at the accommodation & we did a the log call and were all finished around 6.30PM, before evening meals.

Day Three - 7th September Day Three of Norfolk 4 Day Group Bird watching Tour

I slightly more leisurely start at around 8.15am, we drove across country towards the Broads, stopping off at a Mill Pool to spend an hour birding in this area. We had great views almost immediately of a Hobby overhead, lovely close views of a Green Sandpiper, Chiff-chaff, Whitethroat all showing very well. We were also able to study Sand Martin, Swallow & House Martin as they took insects over the river surface.

We then headed on to Hickling Broad, once we were parked we took a short walk for a round a couple of hours through woodland & then on to one of the reedbed & wader areas. Here we more great views of another Hobby & we could hear young begging for food from a nearby nestsite. We heard Water Rail calling, Common Tern was over the main broad & we also saw some of the regular woodland species. At the scrape we saw 20 Ringed Plover, 300 Lapwing, 1 Little Stint, 3 Curlew Sandpiper, 30 Dunlin, 6 Ruff & 80 Teal. We heard Bearded Tit & saw a Kingfisher as it briefly flashed passed us.

On returning to the 7-seater, we headed off to Great Yarmouth, we had lunch & then wandered over to the shore. We were soon looking at several Mediterranean Gulls wheeling around over our heads, with a selection of Black-headed & Commons for comparison.

We then moved back to the broads & had an excellent finish to the day with 3 Whinchat & lovely views of 4 Cranes as they soared passed us and dropped into the fields.

Day Four - 8th September of Norfolk 4 Day Group Bird watching Tour

Today we tried the high-tide roost offshore at Holme, this gave us the chance to see a good number of birds roosting but much closer than at Snettisham. The tide was not so high, but the shingle bars held a great selection, 4000 Red Knot, 250 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Whimbrel, 100 Curlew, 200 Oystercatcher, 50 Redshank, 150 Sanderling, 100 Ringed plover, 50 Turnstone, 100 Sandwich tern, 50 Common Tern, 800 Herring gull, 100 Common Gull, 20 Lesser Black-backed Gull. Overhead the hirundines continued to move south, with 200 Swallows, 50 House Martin & 15 Sand Martin passing per hour. Lots of Meadow Pipit were in evidence both overhead and on the ground, amongst these we also found 4 Wheatear.

We headed for a wooded/heathland area, here we had a massive tit flock, probably 150 birds, they moved very quickly so it was diificult to get everyone on to the birds, but amongst the flock, were Chiff-Chaff, Treecreeper, Blackcap & Marsh Tit.

We again checked the inland stubble fields, and we again found the Golden Plover, this time with 150 Lapwing for company, we checked through them carefully but nothing unusual was located, although 3 Yellow Wagtails were nice as they passed over the field.

We finished off looking at the shoreline at Hunstanton again studying the waders individually. We ended the day with a pot of tea, & a log call & discussing the identifcation of the shorebird species we had seen.

We finished the tour in the evening with a group evening meal.

11th -18th SEPTEMBER SOUTHERN SPAIN - TRIP REPORT COMING SOON

23^rd September 2009 Norfolk 3 day Rare & Scarce Bird tour
Day One

This was the start of the second tour of the autumn, with 2 keen birdwatchers for 3 days.
I met up with the clients on the Tuesday evening & we discussed the possible options for today & we settled on a start at Snettisham, followed by a search for a recently found Yellow-browed Warbler in the afternoon.

The next morning we left at 7.15am, just before leaving we noted some overhead House Martins & arrived at Snettisham just after 8am, passing 2 Marsh Harriers en-route. As we walked along the sea-wall there was clear evidence of some overhead passage, and also a number of passage finches had collected in the weedier areas. There was 70+ Chaffinch, 20+ Greenfinch, 100+ Linnet, 30+ Goldfinch, 5+ Reed Bunting & 1 Siskin - most of these birds eventually moving south, Meadow Pipit was steady with around 100 birds passing overhead south per hour.

As we headed up towards the watchpoint, we flushed more birds including 4 Grey Partridge & it was clear there were many thousands of birds as a mass of birds appearing like �smoke� rose into the sky over The Wash - these were mainly Knot.

Just before reaching the watchpoint we noted 3 smart Wheatears strutting around on the short grass, after this nice diversion our attention fell to the masses of birds in front of us. Numbers were difficult to estimate, but the following are minimum numbers:- 200+ Teal, 500+ Shelduck, 1200 Oystercatcher, 15,000 Knot, 500+ Dunlin, 1000+ Sanderling, 700+ Curlew, 2000+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 500+ Grey Plover & 400+ Ringed Plover. Amongst the masses we also noted 6 Pintail & 2 Golden Plover.

After searching the masses for some time, we headed over to the Hides & looked out on to the freshwater lagoons - more impressive numbers with; 2000 Redshank, 400+ Black-tailed Godwit, and more Knot, Dunlin, Turnstone etc. Searching through the masses I managed to pick out 1 Little Stint, 11 Spotted Redshank & 4 Greenshank a lone Avocet flew over & a single Swallow passed south. Nearby we located 1 Whitethroat & 1 very confiding Chiff-chaff.

We now took a steady walk back with the tide disappearing out into The Wash, this gave us the chance to study in more detail & individual shorebird species at much closer range. By the time we reached the van, it was time for some early lunch, sitting with our picnic lunch, there was still no time to relax as an adult Mediterranean Gull flew over!

We drove across country to Holkham to look for the Yellow-browed Warbler. I decided to take us to the area I have found this species in before, whilst we couldn�t locate the warbler, I did manage to find us two beautiful Firecrest. Whilst birding the woodland, we also added Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldcrest, Chiff-chaff, & Blackcap. We rounded the day off with around 2000 freshly arrived Pink-footed Geese, the flock also carrying 2 most welcome Barnacle Geese, 400+ Wigeon & 2 Stonechat.

24^th September 2009 Norfolk 3 day Rare & Scarce Bird tour
Day Two

We collected clients at 7.45am & headed up to the North Norfolk coast. On arrival at Cley the wind was WNW & I felt it would be worthwhile undertaking a short seawatching session, especially as the winds were forecast to go back to light westerlies.

It wasn�t exceptional, but the decision was a good one, we started with a few Red-throated Divers flying past, the a couple of summer plumaged birds were located closer inshore, with one quite close. Lots of Gannets passed offshore & a few Common Scoter & Guillemot flew past , there was regular parties of Teal passing & along with a few arrivals of Pink-footed Geese overhead, we kept busy. Then a nice surprise as 5 Great Skuas at reasonable range passed west lumbering long, flashing there white wing flashes, and just as we were watching these a Manx Shearwater also moved through our view, banking, flapping & gliding in it�s typical habit.

We suddenly realised that a small crowd had gathered on the west bank behind us & were excited to find that a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope had been found, we had absolutely wonderful views in the bright sunlight as the bird pirouetted just 50m away in front of us. Whilst, standing watching the Phalarope, a Kingfisher & Whimbrel flew over & also a group of very high Bearded Tit that could be heard but were not seen!

We decided to take a walk along the edge of the Eye field & check the fenceline, here we located 80+ Meadow Pipit, 4 Wheatear & a Whinchat. Also noted flying over were a Grey Wagtail, 2 Golden Plover & a juv Marsh Harrier.
We moved on to Blakeney, friary hills we had lunch & then a circuit over the next hour here produced a Lesser Whitethroat & a nice male Redstart.

We paid a short visit to Walsey Hills where we located a singing Cetti�s Warbler & Chiff-chaff. Having been told of a Spotted Crake at Stiffkey Fen we headed off to see if we could relocate this bird. We didn�t find the Spotted Crake, but were treated to a nice selection of waders & wildfowl, 200 Black-tailed Godiwt, 2 Greenshank, 2 Green Sandpiper, 40 Ruff, 6 Snipe, 12 Pintail, 250+ Teal & another Whinchat. Out in Blakeney harbour we located the first Dark-bellied Brent Geese of the autumn, 5 of them out in the channels.

We finished the day with another 30 minutes of seawatching, it was fairly quiet, the sea was calm with a light westerly breeze, but a Red-breasted Merganser was another first of the autumn & another welcome addition to our list.

We returned to the accommodation at 5.30PM & ran through the log, before heading off for a group meal at a local Thai restaurant. We finished the evening with Chris presenting a slideshow on Norfolk birds & pointing out some of the key identification features.

Red-necked Phalarope image - courtesy of Rob Lee

25^th September 2009 Norfolk 3 day Rare & Scarce Bird tour
Day Three

We collected clients at 7.30am & headed up to the North Norfolk coast. Today we headed over to the east of the county. We seawatched for an hour from Waxham & despite the conditions were rewarded with 2 Arctic Skua, 1 Manx Shearwater, 6 Red-throated Diver, 2 Guillemot & 3 Common Scoter.

We walked the hedgeline, but this proved very quiet & it was clear there were few migrants. Moving south we discovered a nice flock of feeding Pink-footed Geese around 1000 strong, presumably having arrived in the last few days. Scanning the horizon provided several Marsh Harrier but no Cranes. We moved on to Hickling, we walked through an area of mature oak woodland & here we added Marsh Tit, Treecreeper & Bullfinch along with a selection of commoner birds. We now headed off to Great Yarmouth, we had our lunch & then collected some bread & chips, purely for the benefit of the gulls!!
We were able to feast our eyes on around 15 Mediterranean Gulls, from juveniles, 2^nd winters through to adults including 2 birds carrying plastic darvic rings. We were also able to compare Herring, Lesser-black backed, Great-black-backed, plus Common & Black-headed in all age groups at point blank range, both perched & in flight.

Having filled up on �gulls� we headed back towards the Broads, just as we drving along I noted 2 �big� birds rising up out of the fields, the van was brought to a sudden halt & we all quickly jumped out, just in time to watch 2 majestic Common Cranes fly directly overhead - a wonderful experience and a new bird for one of the group. We sampled more Marsh Harriers, but no more Cranes & sadly it was time to head back. We arrived back at the accommodation at 5.30PM, we did our final log & said our goodbyes.

The total for the 3 days was 117 species, which considering the westerly winds and fine conditions was a very respectable total.

26^th & 29th September One to One Bird Photography days

We undertook two separate days of tutorial on wildlife photography. Each day consisted of 3 hours of classroom advice & discussion in the morning looking at the clients equipment, then discussing technique & composition. Eventually in the afternoons we headed out & did some practical work, we spent the afternoon shooting gulls & Ringed Plovers, the clients were able to put into practice the principles learnt & also gained knowledge on tracking birds & composing the subject, a series of images from the afternoon shoots are shown below.