We find the spot with ease & park opposite the mill, a walk across the road & we are looking at our second only Black-bellied Dipper as it swims out from the bank looking for food in the middle of the stream.The only other one seen was a few years ago at Thetford.
It is a really good view the bird being only a short way down the stream. Off we go now to Norwich in search of Waxwings, we find Walpole Gardens & 4 Waxwings are sitting on top of a tall tree & at regular intervals drop down to feed on the Rowan tree berries, lovely can't get enough of them.
New years day & we meet up as we always with Brian on the first day of the year full of anticipation for the birding year to come.
A 6 o'clock start & on a whim we pull into Epping Forest before we leave Loughton & our first tick of the year is ticked as we hear a very loud male tawny owl.
Off we go now back to Norfolk as we seem to get better returns number wise from there on the first day. First up as usual is a Barn Owl at Runcton as it turns out the only one seem by us today.
A very quick call in at Hunstanton to tick some Gulls manly a Fulmar, it's very cold as we just jumped out of the car with no coats on for a very quick tick.
off to Thornham to tick the Twite there plus some Waders & we see the first Marsh Harrier of the year, then we are off to the big one at Titchwell.
It was already filling up with people mainly birders but a lot of walkers trying to shake off the festivities of the night before.
All the usual birds on the feeders ticked before we head to the beach. Long-tailed Duck,Eider 2,Merganser,Slav Grebe,plus plenty more seen.
Walking back towards the hide a nice female Peregrine puts everything up in the air & hangs around for some great views of it.Nothing out of the ordinarily but a lot of year ticks as we always get here.
A Water Pipit is a nice bonus tick. With the water high there are no Avocet about.
Next up Chosley where it's an easy tick with plenty of Yellow Hammers about but no Corn Buntings, a few Red-legged Partridge add to the list.
The plan is to pop into Holkham but it's impossible to get near the place just so packed & the same at Wells. So with a few ticks picked up on route we head back to yesterdays trip at Ebridge Mill North Walsham & hope it's going to be as easy. A few birders already there tell us it 's not been seen for over two hours, so as we are trying to get a load of early ticks we don't hang around & head off to get the Swans at Ludham Airfield. As we head round the back roads we come to a bridge with a few birders on it & as luck would have it the Black-bellied Dipper had made it's way down stream & we get another sighting of it plus this is a new year tick now.
On arrival at the Airfield that was only a few miles away we meet up with just one other birder & we have both Whooper & Bewicks Swans ticked.
There was maybe 40 birds on show but the fellow tells us that this is well down on other years.
With the light going fast it's a gamble but we head off to Long Stratton in the hope that the Waxwings had not gone to roost yet.
As we pull into the police station yard we see 5 Waxwings just waiting for us to arrive to see them.
So as always a really great first day, lots of running around but that's how it is on this day. 87 is a fair total with 9 more added today makes it a good start to the year.
 |
| One of the Waxwing |
 |
| The Black=bellied Dipper |
 |
| Jimmy & Brian at Ebridge Mill |
No comments:
Post a Comment