Little Owl at the flats.

I had a few hours spare on Wednesday before a visit from my youngest son. So I called Brian to see if he fancied a quick trip over Wanstead Flats to see if we could find one of the Little Owls that are over there for a year tick.

Brian is free so we meet up and it's only 15 minutes before we are walking the flats after getting the car parked, it's off to search.

We spent a little time in the first copse without any luck, as we walked to the next one we met Marko, he had just seen a pair and steered us in the right direction.

Knowing we have the right tree helps and after 10 minutes Jimmy spots one of the Owls and we are all getting a great view of it.

With only a limited time we never got to see the pair, which was a shame.

But a tick is a tick and nice to get out if only for a short time.

                                                               

The Little Owl

Nice trip to Breckland with the sun shinning, 5 year ticks.

We wanted to head off to Breckland on Wednesday. The weather forecast tells us that it is going to rain all day, so that put paid to that.

The next available day was Friday, and the weather was much better. We had a time restriction as I had to be home by 2pm to pick my grandchildren up for a weekend stay.

I left to meet Brian at 6am and arrived at Lynford Arboretum in Suffolk around 7.30.

We spend a fair amount of time at the gate, and the birds are coming in and out to feed on the floor and drink at the little puddle in the middle of the strip. Also, nuthatches and coal tit came to the feeder.

While watching, we see a massive flock of Chaffinch coming and going, and then, a single 

Brambling showed to give us all a year tick.

A nice walk down to the bridge was very pleasant, with the sun warming up.

It took a while before Jimmy and I got a second year tick when Marsh tit came to feed on the bridge pillar where we had put some food there for it. On the path down to the bridge, we spot a large flock of Siskin.

Brian walked over to the paddock to see if he could find any Crossbills. We stayed on the bridge and got another year tick as a Treecreeper climbed up the tree in front of us. I always love watching these funny little birds.

We think we hear Crossbill, but couldn't get onto them to confirm, so no tick there.

Off now to look for Goshawk, that is not too far away from Lynford. On arrival, we found the lay-by packed but did get parked up.

Jimmy and Brian get to see a Goshawk within minutes; I missed seeing it as I wanted to sit and have a snack in the car, a bad mistake as it took nearly 3 hours before my turn came. It's worth the wait when we see a single Goshawk give a great display to give me tick number 4.

The birders here got us onto a Woodlark, a short walk back up the road for tick number 5 for the day. This turned out to be a great day, just what we needed.

Marsh Tit

                                                      

                                                                 

Siskin

 

                                                                    

                                                                 

Treecreeper

  

                                                             

                                                                           

                                                                        

                                                           

                                                       

 

two local ticks.

A quick visit to Fisher's Green our local patch in the hope of ticking a Green-winged Teal for a year tick before they lump them together later this year.

Brian needs to get out after his father-in-law's funeral and has had it rough of late.

So we pick him up from home and 20 minutes later we are looking over the Goose field, a few people there put us straight on the Teal so not a hard tick.

We never hung about so that was the only tick for the day.

This morning we saw that a Red-necked Grebe had been seen at Walthamstow Wetlands, another local place that is only a short trip for us and is where we pay for our permits to the KGV res.

Parked up we walk the short distance to Lockwood Reservoir where we meet up with a fellow who walks the res nearly every day and he points the Grebe out to us, as we watch over the next hour it comes close for good views of the bird and its yellow beak.

Once again it is only a quick visit so only one tick but the year total is slowly creeping up to 140.

                                                                      

                                                    

First visit of the year to Dungeness, 7 year ticks

Brian needed a break and it was really good to pay our first visit of the year to Dungeness. 

On the way to the beach, we stop along Dungeness Road and scan over New Diggings.

We are looking for a Long-tailed duck. 

It's not long before Brian picks it out along with a single Red-throated diver for a couple of year ticks for us all. 

Up on the beach as expected the sea is calm and apart from a flock of 20 Red-throated divers, a few Gannets, and hundreds of Cormants, it is very disappointing tick-wise.

A fellow birder from East Sussex that we got talking to tells us that he had seen a large flock of Tree Sparrows at Scotney G P.

So off we head to find them and 2 Peregrine Falcons are seen on the pylons as we head back to the car.

Parking just off the road, we head down the path toward some men working with diggers.

Thinking it will be a long walk we get a nice surprise when the Tree Sparrow is seen within a few minutes in a few bushes along the path, about 50 seen.

Jimmy picks out a Ringtail Hen Harrier as it puts up hundreds of Golden Plover and Lapwing.

 A  ride round to Walland Marsh where we see 48 Bewick's Swans. not needed for a tick but nice to see. And as we drive around a single Yellowhammer is ticked.

At Cockles Bridge 4 Cattle Egrets are seen in a Sheep field so a quick stop to get a photo or two.   

2 off the Cattle Egretrs

2                                                 

Tundra Bean Goose Wanstead ( local tick )

We hear a Bean Goose had been found over Wanstead flats among a flock of Greylags and a few Egyptian Geese. 

 Brian pops by home and we talk about going to tick the bird but he has too much to do, so we put it on hold until Monday morning, we get a call and Brian is free to go, so we meet up and head to the flats, only 20 minutes away but not at that time of morning and it is slow going.

Parking the car at Alexandra Lake we see no sign of the Geese. So we round the side of the lake and head off over the flats where we soon spot a large flock of Geese.

Picking out the Tundra Bean Goose is easy once its head is up and the bill colour shows and is a bit smaller, so a nice easy year tick and back home in 20 minutes.

Brian not having the best of times at the moment with both his Mother and Father-in-law both 

passed away over the last few weeks. 

So he has a lot of stuff going on and it was nice to see him get a break from it all even if it was only a couple of hours.

The Tundra Bean Goose

Three tick's in Hertfordshire

We get a call from Brian, Fancy going for the Yellow-browed Warbler at St Alban's in the park by the Cathedral.

We have a real problem paying for the car park it costs us 30 minutes of birding time, a couple of birders tell us they have just seen the Warbler and point us in the right direction to find it.

After we sorted paying for the car park we walked down the river to near the bridge and started searching, after an hour we did not find it.

We get talking to a fellow named Rupert and he was the birder that first reported the bird, after a while of looking, he finds the bird and puts us onto it.

Loads of views of the Warbler but the light is not too bright.

After we had seen enough of the Yellow-browed we headed up the road to the Cathedral and it was not too hard to get a view of the Black Redstart as it came onto the broken window by a black grill on the end of the building for an easy year tick.

A Peregrine is sitting on the roof and always nice to see.

It's only 7 miles to Lemsford Springs and with the frozen weather, we think a Jack Snipe may have come to the running water for food. The warden was at the gate because indeed a Jack Snipe had been seen and a few birders had beaten us there and he was letting a few people in at a time. By the time we got our stuff out of the car, it was our turn to head down to the second hide to find a few people in there, we were told where the Snipe had been seen, about an hour ago and it was a fair wait before we get a view of the bobbing bird.

So a short trip to Hertfordshire gets us three more year ticks. total up to 127-year ticks.

The Yellow-browed Warbler.

 

Great Day in Norfolk Birding.

Jimmy and I meet with Brian at 5.30 on a cold morning to set off to Norfolk. A Glaucous Gull

has been seen on Old Hunstan Beach. Two& a half hours later we parked just off the beach near the golf club and took the path up to the beach in search of the dead seal where the Gull had been seen feeding.

Brian had wellies on so he got over the water before us and got a quick view of the Gull before it flew off not to be seen for another two hours. We got our sighting of it when we spotted it standing with a few Oystercatchers near the water's edge about 60 yards away from the seal for an excellent view of it. 

Shorelark was next on the list and we found three, not too far away up the beach, A couple of birders we met told us that they had just seen a flock of them a long way down the beach, so maybe about 8 in total.

While here we added to our year list with a large flock of Turnstones, Sandling, Fulmar, knot, and a Peregrine Falcon that landed on the beach near the dead seal.

Bar-tailed Godwit,Red-breasted Merganser, and a flyover of Pink-footed Goose plus Brent Goose. so a good addition to the list.

A short ride to Stiffkey for the Glossy Ibis. Parked up in the car park by the Red Lion pub and a walk across the road to sport the Ibis within minutes, so back in the car it's off up the road to Holkham stopping on the way at the gate to tick White-fronted Goose and then off to park in Lady Ann's drive where we speak to a fellow who asked us if the bird he had in his scope was the Long-billed Dowitcher, and how lucky is that when Brian confirms it is indeed the bird another good year tick plus Snipe seen while there.

Off now to Titchwell on the walk up to the beach Jimmy and I hear and then see Bearded Tit. A fellow birder tells us that a Tawny Owl was in a tree with Ivy just around the boardwalk, so that's where we head, the tree is easily found as a board is in place to tell us where it is, so an easy tick. An escaped Black-winged Stilt is seen as a Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Grey Plover, Avocet, and Common and Velvet Scoter.

Off home now and on the way we spot a large flock of Whooper Swan in a field somewhere also Red-legged Partridge seen. A really lovely day birding with the boys adding 28-year ticks taking the year total to 124.

Glaucous Gull

Peregrine

Long-billed Dowitcher