Late winter among the Teal. While the weather hasn't been extreme, temperatures dropped during January, culminating in a day of ice at hte settling beds. But clear skies and stilled wind combined to produce some amazing views in hte early morning as the Sun started to flood the morning.  And always the chirruping and twirling Teal brushed across the canvass.

 

Winterlong

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6A8H8C7S90

The art of wintering has been on my mind, having read a thoughtful book of the same name pre-christmas I then had my wings clipped with a long bout of Achilles tendonitis which rendered me painfully immobile, followed by a daubing by the brush of Covid.  

So I have hunkered down, become one with the duvet with some frequency and searched for the restorative aspects from the confinement and restrictions imposed.  However I was out and about before Christmas taking a couple of trips to the coast and enjoying the winter fayre of seaduck, divers, larks, pipits, buntings and geese.  The Shorelarks at Holkham were particularly beguiling creeping closer towards us as we took a statue like vigil at the base of the dunes.  Watching them bathing in the pristine sand was a joy and a flurry of Snow Buntings were equally confiding.  The earlier trip in the month produced a great bonus in the form of a Raven pair kronking their way along the piney treeline before heading out Eastwards along the coast.

  

As Christmas approached we took ourselves up to Yorkshire to join the family on the coast at Sandsend near Whitby.  It was fantastic to step out onto the patio, following a stunning sunrise over tje thunderous surf, and set up the scope for a seawatch on Christmas Day with a strong NE wind blowing.  You'd have thought that an optimistic proposition however there was some local passage of  RT Divers, Scoter, Gannets and Fulmar but nothing to compare with the discovery of a Brown Booby heading south off  Flamborough some 40 miles down the coast.

Returning to the Fen I kept local over new year with daily visits to Ely Beet Pits as Teal numbers were swelling and diving duck were feasting on some flourishing food source at Roswell Pit.  A walk out at Welney seemed to trigger aches and pains in my foot which quickly became painful joint pain.  I had to rest up and in ceasing my daily check of the duck I was both over the moon but felt just a little hard done to when a smart drake Green-winged Teal was discovered amongst the dabblers at the Beet Pit.  It was a real cracker and remained for the Ely Wildspace bird race in early January where over 70 species were recorded cumulatively in 3 hours by 3 teams - not bad for an urban fringe.  Highlights included Crane, Mandarin, Green-winged Teal, Egyptian Goose amongst the more expected Marsh Harriers, Stonechat, Cetti's Warblers, Chiffchaff, Kingfisher and  Little Egret.  Tony Juniper, head honcho of Natural England joined the race, great to know that he enjoyed and values the Wildspace and it's SSSI's.

Covid came to our house through the smallest member of the family and whipped through us quickly leading to a week or so of houseboundness.  I escaped on Saturday and took in an hour or two watching Chfifchaffs at the sewage works with a candidate Siberian Chiffchaff showing too fleetingly to fully ascertain.  The gull roost at Witcham Gravel slowly drained the warmth from my body yielding just a couple of YL Gull and a Caspian type amongst a healthy mob of large gulls.  On the soggy fields of Byall Fen a ringtail Hen Harrier worked the bank but settled too ground too quickly to enjoy fully - it's small size and agility leaning towards a male but smaller ringtail harriers in winter always demand a decent grilling, yet this bird didn't re-appear either staying down to roost or perhaps slipping away quietly, unseen.

In the reeds.

As the Teal chirp and gather at the reed edge, other birds appear in the periphery. The frost melts on the reed heads and for the first time this year, Reed buntings show themselves. Down below, in the shade, a narrow grey thing eagerly slips along the edge. The Water Rail ducks into cover and moments later its shrill call squeals from the tangle. A Cetti's Warbler darts across the small channel, too quick to record.

 

The Ocean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJjg3A_wxc

Relieving the monotony of wintering by revisiting the summer adventures seems a reasonable way to spend a few hours.  I was lucky enough to have the time to spend a month of high summer in the south west enjoying seabirds and out on the waves (thanks to Scilly Pelagics).  Here's a little video of our Birdo weekender.

More Teal Vicar

Waiting for the Green Winged teal to drift across the clear water. Close by, sleeping among the tall reflections of reeds the locals settled down after a bout of courtship at dawn. By late afternoon, they were skimming the pink and peach, drifting into the shade, then back again, water droplets on bill tips. 

 

local rare

 

winterfare

The cold has crisped the grass white for
the past few mornings and now the thrushes gather under the apple trees, lunging and pecking at the ripe flesh. Blackbirds steadily increased after Christmas, and today I counted thirty at one time, mostly feeding on apples, but the whole garden is alive with them. Chacking down from the hawthorn come the Fieldfares, a dozen or so, and they soon puff out their chests in ownership of the juiciest fruit. A Redwing sticks to the periphery, rarely venturing among the apples, preferring to glean along the hedgerow, close to cover. Two Song thrushes bound across the garden, pausing under the bird feeders while above them Goldfinches and Tits spill seed on the ground. The feast lasts all day, from bright sunned dawn to isabelline dusk. The chinking Blackbirds call on the night.

 

Heroes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXgkuM2NhYI

Early November saw just a brief opening of the eastern window on the 5th and on 6th I was able to make a dawn start on Gypsy Lane.  Blackbirds were pouring inland along the coastal hedgerows joined by Redwings and as dawn broke Fieldfares chuckled overhead.  It was cold and other passerines in the undergrowth and sycamore stand were scarce.  I headed out onto the marsh where breeding Seals were hauled up above the main creek.  Starlings were moving inland in numbers and finch movement was steady, I heard a couple of subtle "tics" overhead.  Loosely assosciated with a small flock of Chaffinches, 2 hulking Hawfinch flew West, flashing swathes of white through the wing.  Wading boot high across the path on the falling tide I headed to the dunes and sunk into the sands.

It was really busy offshore, 100's of Lapwing headed W in flocks of 20.  Teal and Wigeon heading East.  Merganser, Eider, Goldeneye and 1000's of Scoter at various distances plus the usual smatter of GC Grebe and RT Diver.  Starlings and Skylark over the steel grey sea added to the subtle spectacle.  After an hour I dragged myself away and back to the bushes.  By mid-morning I felt I'd worked what I could pretty thoroughly and headed up the road to Titchwell where a Red Breasted Flycatcher had been seen.  The chosen spot seemed a little dark and dank but a flurry of excitement revealed a grey and white Chiff with a bright yellow wing panel.  It was being called as a tristis but was the Bonelli's looking type of eastern grey and white Chiff I have longed to see.  I saw it a few times around the loop and, fickle with light, it did look browner with "tobacco" ear coverts at times, at others monochrome with shafts of highlighter yellow in the primaries.  A cracking looking bird and one I'd have liked to have heard but alas it remained silent.  

I chose to seek out the best interface, thinking specifically of how Ian Wallace (dimw) had shown me and Rich Baines the art of reading the lines of a canopy to locate where flycatchers can best locate insects against the light.  I thought I'd found the best spot and another birder or two joined my speculative vigil.  The fella behind me whispered, "I've got it" and with a few flicks the RBFly was sitting proud and spanking out in the open.  I drunk it in and it moved back into cover, I decided to wander.  Doing a loop around the fen sallows I slowly came back around to the chosen interface again but with the sun just breaking the clouds.  In no time the Flycatcher perked up activity, the grey and white Chiff showed itself well and one, then two sprites revealed themselves, my first Yellow-brows of the autumn.  I got home to learn the sad news that Ian Wallace had died - a birding hero since my early teenage days, in the late eighties and nineties, reading his hugely engaging and inspiring articles in Birdwatching magazine.  Rich's work on Flamborough allowed me and Ben to meet with Ian on several occasions.  They say best not to meet your heroes but in this case that proved wrong.  A gentleman, full of insight and reflective humour, a total bird obsessive alert to all the potential and possibilities and keen to share his thoughts about the journey with those willing to listen with an open mind.  Ben got to see in his briefcase once.

Last week the wind turned Northerly and I was able to get to the coast again for dawn with Mark Hawkes and later joined by Elyers - Mark x 2, Will and Ben. Our minds were on Dovekie, Little Auks, tiny pied bullets on a seawatch.  The wind was raging in and shelter proved hard to locate but we found a sweet spot and after a few drenchings the skies cleared and the viewing was good.  There was plenty to look at with steady movement of Kittiwake flocks into the wind being most enjoyable - these resilient gulls at their pelagic best.  Eider, Mergansers and Goosander, Shelduck and Scoter all put in a show as did Divers with plenty of Red-throats, a decent view of a Black-throat and a distant Great Northern.  A Black-necked Grebe made a short inshore flight but gave all the details it needed to before dissappearing into the swell and 4 Bonxies helped keep the idea if passage alive. A pale phase Skua defied specific identification, tempting to assume a Pom with several along the coast during the day but the plumage just didn't click.  I had to be back in Ely for lunch but the return past the freshmarsh yielded an adult winter Grey Phalarope hectically feeding and a Water Pipit  not far beyond it on one of the newly sculpted banks.  

A quick look off the cliffs at Hunstanton produced little extra but more Kittiwakes and the odd auk cutting across the churning mouth of The Wash.

vvhitish winger

 

......has landed.

 

always believe in....

 

The Beast

https://rustedrail.bandcamp.com/track/the-beast-2

The forecast didn't look great for very much on the east coast with SW veering W winds and westerly airflows across the continent right out to the Urals.  Jono had the day off work and I was visiting the folks in York so we headed out to Flamborough early doors.  After the ever perilous descent beneath the fog station we settled in to watch the sea for a bit.  There was lots of light, mostly southerly, movement of duck which accumulated into more impressive numbers.  The variety was pleasing, offering good identification practice as sea and freshwater duck, waders, gulls and incoming passerines all presented points of discussion.  

Just shy of 4 hours later we headed up to the cafe for a bacon bap and on checking the bird news saw that there had been 2 White-billed Divers seen flying South at Hartlepool Headland just 30mins earlier.  That changed our plan to walk the headland and we headed back down to seawatch.  Brett Richards had been good to his word "What time are you giving it til Brett?"  "10 minutes after you lads" his deadpan answer.  😂😂

We kept watch and count through till 1.45 - we figured 2 hrs was long enough for a diver to have reached us.  Having scaled the cliff again we headed down to the golf course willows and as Jono walked up the path I stayed on the open side checking for movement.  I had routinely kept my eye on the sea when suddenly a large, brown and white diver appeared flying across the bay just offshore - in my binoculars it looked exactly as my search image for White-billed Diver should, I shouted very loudly to Jono to get on it and got my scope on it - boom.  I worked instantaneously down the bird noting sandy brown colouration, thick neck, no dark collar, no cap, smudgy open face and then the clincher a huge pale banana bill.  I hadn't time to put my tripod legs up and too quickly the scope views were gone and I was left hollering directions to Jono who was running down the path and following the bird in the bins as it flew out of view past the headland.

I wasn't cool over this sighting and froze, stunned, just repeating "I don't know what to do."  Jono took charge, he'd seen the bird but wasn't on the adrenaline hit I was riding.  We did take ourselves back to the fog station to check whether the couple of birders we'd spoken to had seen it and to check if it had landed and put ourselves in a better position if it happened to fly back North for any reason.  After a good search we decided to settle ourselves with a check of old fall which, apart from a dozen or so migrant Blackbirds, was as quiet as we had expected.  Later in the evening news of our diver heading South past Filey at 2pm was welcome.  The bird was described as " a beast of a diver" and I couldn't agree more.

Drive Blind

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x8W6X8X_ApM

An early October Birdo weekend based on the Norfolk coast began to unravel a little as it became clear that Mark H was going to be too unwell to join us.  The discovery of a Long-toed Stint in Yorkshire had started to wobble Jono's resolve too.  Nonetheless we started out at dawn down the shingle of Blakeney Point with a gentle south easterly whispering in our ears.  The beautiful blue skies didn't nod towards any migrants making landfall but it was gorgeous to be out.

The flat sea was dotted with auks and divers and as the tide rose flocks of Wigeon and Brent Geese filled the shallow bays and creeks.  At the Plantation on the Point there were Brambling, Chaffinch, Meadow Pipits and Reed Buntings picking at the brances and leaves.  A few Blackbird, Song Thrush and Redwing hinted at the migration that typifies many autumnal mornings on the coast.  From Yorkshire news came in that the Long-toed Stint was still present and we headed back with haste as Jono was commited to the twitch.  Long and short I went too.

Next morning we worked the coastal belt from Holkham to Gun Hill.  It was unnervingly quiet and it seems many years since I walked this route without a few Yellow-browed Warblers to brighten the search. There are many worse places to go for a walk but the birding was very sparse.  The only thing to do - go to Titchwell.

There was plenty to see on the seawall walk out to the beach at Titchwell and the Golden Plover were particularly beguiling. 

Jono headed back to York mid-afternoon and I headed to Gypsy Lane, slowly pottering out to Brancaster I was enjoying some close up Curlew when the strident "schweep" of a Richard's Pipit overhead jolted me, thankfully it wasn't too high up and easily located as it called again heading out towards Thornham Point.

I went back to Titchwell to enjoy the late afternoon spectacle - thousands of Starling began to gather and cover the bund pushing off the Golden Plover. There was plenty of interest in these as a young Rose-coloured Starling had been joining the throng.  With lots of eyes checking it wasn't too long before a call went out for the Rosy - I was in luck as the pallid bird popped out at the front of the flock right in front of me, my phone was dead through taking so many wader pictures, so no pics unfortunately. The chattering mass of Starlings swirled over the reedbed and beyond them 70 or more Little Egrets roosted in the pines, 3 Great White's towering over them within the snow flurry of small herons.

On the marsh gulls accumulated and a very smart 1st yr Med Gull was joined by a few Yellow Legged Gulls and 2 adult Caspian types that kept the interest going.  As the sun dropped, huge straggling skeins of Pink-footed Geese made their way to roost on The Wash.  There are few better places to spend an autumn evening.