Sick as a Seal!

My plans today were to have an early start and walk from Gorleston to Corton along the coast to see what was left of this weeks 'fall'. However, as I reached Gorleston beach I noticed a small seal on the beach not looking too lively. I approached it slowly and it seemed not too concerned at my presence so I called a work colleague who saves seals in his spare time and we discussed what to do. I monitored it for another hour and in that time it was chased into the sea four times by Yarmites and their dogs but it kept coming back. I managed to send photos to my colleague who thought it was looking ok and obviously too mobile to catch to take into care at the moment. I went back later in the afternoon but the beach was too busy and I could see the seal out in the sea out of harms way. A early visit tomorrow morning will hopefully bring good news about it. All this distracted me from birding and I saw bugger all except a few Med Gulls, a Wheatear and a Sandwich Tern on the beach near the seal.

Common Seal, Gorleston Beach

The bit of waste land near work emptied by the end of the week although a wasteland tick was found in the shape of a Spotted Flycatcher on Thursday 9th.

Upstaged up north!!!!

With strong easterlies all week I had hoped the patch would produce but although I have picked up a few patch ticks it seems everywhere else has up staged here, even the birdless 'Ness up north! Things are bad! On the 6th there was severe east/south easterlies which made passerine hunting nigh on impossible. At lunch time I checked the scrub neear work and amongst the wind blown bushes I managed only a single Goldcrest. On the beach there werea couple of Wheatears and 5 Med gulls while out at sea 2 RT Divers, 6 Teal and a pale phase Arctic Skua flew south.

In the evening I decided to walk from Corton to Hopton. It was bloody hard work in the wind with only a Spotted Flycatcher near Corton and a dozen Wheatears on the pitch in putt course between the villages to show for my efforts. I decided a seawatch might save the day but again things were slow although I did add Razorbill and 2 Manxies to my patch list. I later found out I missed a Balearic flying past earlier!

Storms at Corton on the 6th

On the 7th the waste ground near work was its most productive I have ever seen it, with 2 Wheatears, 2 Whitethroats, a Whinchat and a Chiffchaff, a massive fall for the patch! The next day most had left with only a single Wheatear and Whitethroat about. The day (8th) started promisingly with a Lesser Whitethroat near my house. A walk through Beacon Park in Gorleston in the evening was little better with again only Whitethroats and a Lesser Whitethroat on show. And to think Girdleness, Abdn has had Lap bunts, Y Wags, Barred Warbs, Redstarts etc!!

Whinchat at the wasteground near work

A friendly dragonfly

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.