A good day - BUT Ash takes the lead - WTF !

It all started out so well ;-) Leaving the house for a school run meant that I was able to do a couple of drive by birding situations - first up the Flood Plains , where nothing moving , then the road alongside the lake for a scan - as usual - bugger all on the lake apart from GC Grebe , Mallard, Coot and Moorhen ! , just about to leave and two ducks come flying in from the north - FAST ! I jump out of the car in time to see 2 GOOSANDERS heading south ! 2nd and 3rd records for the Patch ! a Kestrel on the way home makes it 55 for the year ;-)

I have lots to do today , so can't accompany Ash round his 3 hour patch walk - big mistake - he has already gripped back Common Gull , He calls to say he has a Little Egret flying over and luckily it lands near car park - so I head out and easily get number 56 on the list , while watching it and talking to ash a GREY WAGTAIL flies over calling - nice and number 57 - meanwhile ash is languishing on 51 - no chance of a catch up .... I go back to work .....

Just text after text , Jay , Coal Tit , MEADOW PIPIT ! and then the big one the crushing blow - RED KITE - these are notoriously difficult to catch up with on the patch - i have not seen one for 3 years :-( you have to be out there to win it ! Ash then hits blow after blow on his walk home , with Jay and Little Grebe finishing me off ... he is now on 59 and I on 57 - i have Goosander on Ash , but he has Red Kite , BRAMBLING and Green Woodpecker on me , I can't see me catching up anytime soon :-(

Si

A claw back !

I will ignore and rise above Wheelspins comment about my Footit score ;-)

Great couple of days , but only one addition - but its a goodie ! and will require Ash to go most days to try and get it back - the immortal TUFTED DUCK ! - There were 3 Drakes on Friday when i WALKED round the lake ;-) , I also had a WATER RAIL sharming by Smew arm and 4 Snipe and 2 Meadow Pipits on the Plain. 2 LITTLE GREBES were also at the end of the top inlet. Also took a few photos at the Abbey Paddocks.

Just to prove they were taken on the Lake 

Oh Yes ! How excited ! 

Geese !

Woodie

Chaffer

Redder Winger 

Saturday and Sunday involved bootcamps around Lodge Lake - No sign of the Tufted Ducks ( they have never stayed into a 2nd day ) but 4 MUTE SWANS flew over ( 3 Adults and a juv )

Sunday had nothing of note

So 58 on 12th and still Green Woodpecker to fall ;-)

Cheers

Simon

Footing It in Swanton Novers

Although I am meant to be doing Salthouse as my patch this year, I couldn't resist also doing the 1 mile radius footit challenge. Its only for January and Si and Ash were up for it too. Now I am sure that Ash is following the footit rules as he can't drive but Mr Nichols...lets see if his footit list is the same as his patch list for January ;-)

I have headed out into the wilds of Swanton Novers on a few occasions and things have been very slow so far. I am missing a few really easy species (Stock Dove, Yellowhammer, Barn Owl, Buzzard) and some expected birds (Teal, Grey Heron and Red-legged Partridge).

The highlights have been a Meadow Pipit flying around the long hedge field frantically calling (previous 2 records were autumn birds), Crossbills are always nice to see and 300 Pink-footed Geese over were very nice, if not unexpected at this time of year.

So my footit score is 43 (of target 60), and 9 miles walked so far.

The patch that just keeps on giving !

I popped off in the patch quickly today to see if i could pick up a Water Rail - Well an hour later I was still there ;-)

Nothing noteworthy on the lake , but as I stopped in the best area for them, just down from the car park , 2 REED BUNTINGS came into view from a pish, 10 minutes later and without a sound from the reeds , I accidentally played my iPod loud , Immediately one started "Sharming" ( Squealing to you and me ) about 5 feet away - Ash Suddenly appeared round the corner pleased with his 2 WATER RAILS only to find that I was one of them ;-) (YT-52) 

After spending a pleasant 5 minutes in Ash's company and not seeing a great deal , we parted company as I wanted to try the paddocks for Green Wood and Ash was heading home , i decided to detour into the A5 pine belt and glad i did - 4 GOLDCRESTS and a single COAL TIT later - I was well pleased (YT-53) 

Not expecting anything else exciting I headed back to the car , but on the journey home a delightful ROOK was perched on top of a lamppost as I entered Bradwell - which was nice (YT-54)

Cheers 

Simon 

Some pictures from 3rd January 

Hmm ? Fishy ? 

Like a bullet from a gun ! 

Probably an eagle or summink ! 

I do love my new camera , but I wish i knew how to stop the auto focus malarky ! 

Back on the Patch !!! And what a story already to tell !

Hi All

So 2014 - a new birder on the patch and so a friendly competition is born ! http://www.viewsfromanurbanlake.co.uk - I have also entered FootIt this year http://birdingbyfoot.blogspot.co.uk so need a big January ! Especially as Ashley had a first for the patch in the form of a flyover BRAMBLING !

Well what a blinding start - Just been back through the Blog from 2012 and found out that I had seen 53 on 17th Feb - well its 7th January and I am already hitting 51 ! So great balls so far !

Highlights

1 Male GOOSANDER headed east just north of the FloodPlain on Saturday 4th Jan - Patch 1st ! putting me on 99 Species ! What will be 100th - answers on a postcard ( or comment ! )

LITTLE GREBE - 3 seen in Smew arm of Lodge lake on Sunday 5th Jan

4 SNIPE flushed on Flood plain - Friday 3rd Jan
2 SNIPE flushed on Flood plain - Tuesday 7th Jan

2 GREAT BLACK BACKED GULLS over the BP garage on Sunday 5th Jan

1 KINGFISHER along the river - Sunday 5th Jan

1 JAY by the Abbey on Sunday 5th Jan

1 GOLDCREST by hills and hollows on Sunday 5th Jan

2 TREECREEPERS calling in Bancroft on Tuesday 7th Jan

3 MEADOW PIPITS over flood plain on Saturday 4th Jan

7 LINNETS on Blue Bridges on Tuesday 7th Jan

so good days already !

Cheers

Simon

First visit to Salthouse this year

Having decided on Salthouse as my patch for Patch Work Challenge 2014 I thought I ought to make the effort and get down there to kick off my list. After another lazy start Ness and I parked up by the duck pond and headed down to the beach car park...well simply 'beach' would be more accurate.

This is the view from near the end of the beach road, with the car park to the right

The emergency telephone

Looking back across the car park area towards Walsey Hills and Little Eye. I doubt many of us will be photographing waders here this year!

Picked up the typical easy species on the exposed marsh, although numbers seemed down from previous years - I wonder how the salt will impact the flora and fauna over the coming year and therefore the bird species present. For example, I doubt there are many small mammals, fish or amphibians left alive on the marsh, so I don't expect Barn Owl to be hunting.

There was a nice Red-throated Diver just off the beach at Gramborough Hill, showing very well (don't let the rubbish photo fool you) and a couple of Guillemot flew past but little else moving over the sea. The big surprise were the new 'cliffs'!

The new 'cliffs' at Gramborough Hill

We stopped off briefly at The Quag to look for the Richard's Pipit but it had dropped into the deep grass area on Kelling Hards, so didn't give it long (I am probably going to regret that...). The area is still a mess after the storm with masses of reeds and bits of Cley NWT's North hide scattered around. The water meadows were devoid of birds.

In all, the walk was 2.5 miles and I only managed 38 species (40 points):

Pink-footed Goose

Wren

Coot

Moorhen

Black-headed Gull

Herring Gull

Mallard

Egyptian Goose

Lapwing

Great Black-backed Gull

House Sparrow

Wigeon

Redwing

Redshank

Rook

Jackdaw

Common Gull

Ruff

Dunlin

Turnstone

Starling

Meadow Pipit

Brent Goose

Red-throated Diver

Guillemot

Teal

Goldfinch

Curlew

Canada Goose

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch

Greylag Goose

Mute Swan

Robin

Shoveler

Stock Dove

Woodpigeon

Black-tailed Godwit

Some more twitching

So we have all been pretty poor on the patching front recently but I think we have all been out for some dirty twitching recently - who couldn't resist a Brünnich's Guillemot in Dorset?

Simon and I hatched a cunning plan - rather than join the crowds in glorious weather over the weekend we decided to add a little extra risk by going on the Monday...5 days after it was found. Rob, rather sensibly, decided that he would take the safe path and headed down over the weekend.

Which lead to me getting up at 12:30 AM yesterday morning and driving over to Milton Keynes to meet up with Simon and Nick who, in a weak drunken moment, agreed to come along with us. We left MK at 04:00 and drove south into gale force winds and heavy rain.

07:10 - we pulled into the car park at Portland to be greeted by horizontal, torrential rain. And it was dark.
07:20 - we headed off to find some food.

After 30 mins of random driving we finally listened to Nick's suggestion that Weatherspoons opened early for breakfast and, with the help of his Weatherspoons app, were tucking into a cracking full english breakfast by 08:00 - thanks Nick!

We then headed back to Portland and after some more random driving and searching in the wind and rain, the guillemot was located off the old castle.

It was very grey, wet and windy. The Brünnich's Guillemot is just by the end of the pontoon, honest!

We spent an hour or so watching the bird, with it sometimes coming close (I am sure Simon will add his record shots later...) before the weather got the better of us and we decided to retreat back to the car and head off to Brixham for the White-billed Diver.

About an hour after leaving we remembered that there was a Glossy Ibis back at Radipole...we had managed to completely forget in the excitement of seeing the Guillemot and trying to dry our gear...doh!

12:00 and we were in Brixham, the sun was out and after a brief search were enjoying the banana-billed bird. The bird headed out of the harbour before being chased back in by 3 camera waving blokes in a boat. They then spent the next 30 mins or so chasing the Diver around the harbour, to the amusement/distaste of those on the harbour side. The upside for us was that the bird did come quite close at times and I could grab a couple of record images with my little OM-D and 100-300 lens.

All in all a cracking day - 2 UK ticks for me, 4 species of diver and all 3 UK Guillemots!