Missed Chances

Having been away most of August in Cornwall and then frying my brains for a week on a course in St Andrews it was good to get back to the patch. On the 30th I managed a seawatch at Hopton but didn't catch up with any of the skuas that the north coast was enjoying. Sooty shearwater was new for the patch and 6 med gulls, 2 arctic terns and 4 common terns passed by flying south. The only migrant that appeared in the windswept dunes was a Whinchat. I checked the same dunes on the 31st and flushed a Gropper in fading light.

Seawatch Southwest

Small pearl bordered Fritillary

In the middle of August I headed west to Cornwall to volunteer for SeaWatch Southwest at Porthgwarra. Free accomodation and a week seawatching at one of the best seawatching sites in the UK sounded a good deal to me so it was to my suprise when I was there to find out they find it very hard to find volunteers. Visit the website http://www.seawatch-sw.org/ and have a look and help if you can. To try and convince everyone here is brief breakdown of what I saw during my week:

210 Balearics
3500+ Manxies
28 Sootys
6 Great Shears
32 Stormies
27 Bonxies
5 Arc Skuas
1 Pom Skua
10 Med Gulls
1 Roseate Tern
1 Little Gull


Adult Med Gull


Crap photo of a Sooty


Ocean Sunfish


Crap photo of Balearics

African Cricket

An away trip to Cottishall CC gave me one of the most unusal sights I have seen on a cricket field. It appears that Cottishall has more africans on the pitch than the England test team, thankfully for us it was in the form of 12 Helmeted Guineafowl!!

Unfortunately while playing there I missed a Kentish Plover at Breydon but did pick up a Black Tern there today (124).

Cley, Minsmere and Breydon

White Admiral


Muntjac

Grayling

A busy week has seen me touring a few of East Anglia's best known reserves. Firstly, I visited Cley on the 1st and was rewarded with a good mix of waders, several Spotted Redshank, Curlew Sands, Green Sands and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. The highlight of the day for me had a topical feel to it as news of a breeding colony had just been anounced, a group of 14 Spoonbills. Cley is one of my favourite reserves and it always has some birds to watch no matter what time of the year. A quick visit to Breydon that evening was rewarding as there were large numbers of roosting birds including 400+ Avocets, a Greenshank, Whimbrel and a Green Sandpiper (121). A Hobby flew over the hide chasing Swallows with no success!

A brief visit to Gorleston gave me the rare opportunity to do some local patch birding and an adult Yellow-legged Gull (122) at the river mouth was my first patch tick at Gorleston for a long time. The next one came along tenb minutes later when a dark phase Arctic Skua (123) flying south.

On the 4th I met my parents and took them around Dunwuich Heath and Minsmere. We cleaned up on the usual suspects, Dartford Warblers, Bittern etc and a couple of butterfly year ticks in Grayling and White Admiral (a new species for the UK for me) added up to a good day out. The most boring looking bird may also have been the most interesting of the day when we found the female Ferruginous Duck that has been hanging around. What a dull bird!!!!!!

And finally a brief visit to Breydon on the 5th produced a suprisingly early female Merlin.

Triglav NP, Slovenia

Scarce Copper


Large Wall Brown


Brimstone

I have just got back from a hiking holiday in the Triglav mountains in Slovenia. It wasn't a birding holiday but saw some nice birds and lots of great alpine butterflies. July wasn't a great time for birds, most had stopped singing and it was hard work! Feel free to correct my butterfly ID, I know bugger all about alpine species.

Alpine Chough

White Admiral

Scarce Swallowtail

Crossbill

Apollo

Moths & River Warbler

Buff Arches


Magpie Moth


Buff Tip


Dot Moth


Buff Ermine


Privet Hawkmoth


Rosy Footman


Poplar Hawkmoth


Brimstone Moth


Eyed Hawkmoth


With the lull in birds persisting in the patch I have been setting the moth trap in the garden a few times to ease the boredom! With over 40 species found, above are the pick of moths that we have caught (or at least the ones I can ID!!). The only highlight bird wise has been the River Warbler near Haddiscoe which I twitched along with 300 others. It only highlighted how much I hate twitches with people getting really agitated at not seeing the bird and suprisingly very few seemed to listen to the great song, all they were after was a tickable view. I would have been happy to leave having just heard the warbler but just as I was thinking of leaving it showed and showed well. To end a pleasant evening, which also had hunting Barn Owls and Marsh Harriers at the warbler site, a Tawny Owl flew over my head while cycling home and just inside the patch boundaries.

Summer blues!!

After another month in the north sea (some cracking sightings, more news may follow!!) it was good to get back to the local patch although its pretty quiet at the moment, a female Black Redstart near work was my only addition. I went to see the Little Tern colony at Yarmouth only to find they aren't there this year or at least in no real numbers (about 20 were flying around the area). John has boosted the Aberlady list to 129 before galavanting off to Canada. Hopefully SW Cornwall is busier as I head down there for the next week.

Catching up about falling behind!!

The last couple of weeks have been a bit hectic although I have managed a few visits to the local patch picking up a few species, a singing Nightingale at Gapton estate the highlight and Cuckoo numbers have increased dramatically in the last week with 2 or 3 calling around Bradwell, one at Breydon south wall and two near Haddiscoe. Johnboy at Aberlady has taken advantage of my slackness and holds a 127 - 118 lead! A few non-bird things were new for me on my local patch, a couple of Muntjacs near Burgh Castle and more and more butterflies are about with my first Orange Tips and Small Coppers of the year appearing on the 14th. On the night of the 20th a Quail called briefly near Habland Hall, a very pleasant suprise and good patch tick.

On the weekend of the 15th and 16th I visited Thetford Forest. I visited the usual places, didn't see Stone-curlew at Weeting, at Lakenheath (what a change since my last visit 10 years agao!!) I heard a Golden Oriole and 3 booming Bitterns. The highlight of Thetford for me was the Kings Forest to the south. The chorus of song early in the morning was incredible, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Woodlarks, Tree Pipits, Nightingale and Cuckoo to name a few were in full song. We saw a few Red Deer, many Roe and few Muntjac Deer, Brown Hares seemed unusually tame and butterflies were everywhere, including my first Brimstones and Dinghy Skippers of the year.

On the 22nd I headed off patch again to a small lane near Toft Monks which had been recommended to me for butterflies and althought there weren't huge numbers there were still 9 species including my first ever Brown Argus. Canoeing near Beccles on the 23rd was a relatively quiet affair although it was a great way to get good views of Sedge and Reed Warblers. There was a few Banded Demoiselles and Emerald Demoiselles but jesus its hard taking photos on a canoe!!!

Dirty, filthy twitching and the Black Sea

Since the last time I posted anything I was banished to the Black Sea to save some dolphins! It all started with some filthy patch twitching on the 26th of April when I nipped into Breydon after work to get a a distant view of a feeding Spoonbill (113). The next morning I was sent to the Black Sea as 'punishment'. I could go into detail about the Black Sea but all I done for 12 days was sit on deck looking for dolphins, which there were lots. Although I had missed the main migration there were still a few birds about and I think I will let these pictures tell the story!

Along with these there was a Levant's Sprawk, Saker, Montagu's harrier, Quail, Collard Fly and a few other more common bits and bobs. There were several gulls about and I am still sorting through some of the pic's, Armenian, Caspian, YL??? So stay posted for some boring gull photos later. The Caspian gull above won the fight with the Sprawk, laying claim to the front deck for the rest of the day!