Norfolk Birders

Happy New Year! 

I hope that 2021 will be a better one for all my family, friends, colleagues and readers and hope we can soon beat this pandemic and get our lives back to normal. Good birding to you all!

1st January

2nd January

I started my day at Kelling Heath where after a walk, there was a rather confiding Waxwing sitting in the hedge. It was not at all bothered as walkers passed within a few feet of it. I took a few photos and left it in peace. I drove to Cley and after speaking to Trevor he alerted me to an Iceland Gull flying along the beach (thanks Trevor). I walked along the shingle on the beach where the gull had flown to. The bird eventually settled in the Eye field and I walked along to see it and hopefully get a few photos. I met Richard a former colleague and we caught up with recent events in our lives. Together we enjoyed good views of the Iceland Gull.

I scanned the scrapes and watched Pintail, Gadwall, Canada Geese, Shoveler and Brent Geese as well as a Marsh Harrier . A flock of Teal flew by as we looked out to sea but we could not find the reported Snow Buntings. I drove onto Wells North Point where I added Meadow Pipit, Rock Pit and Lesser Black-backed Gull to my year list. On the way home I stopped to admire the White-fronted Geese along with skeins of Pink-footed Geese flying towards Burnham Market. I could not find the Little Owls at Flitcham but did add Grey Partridge to my list.

3rd January

4th January

Having recently decided to purchase another car and having looked at the weather forecast I had set today aside for completing all the necessary paperwork and finances to enable me to acquire the car. I have bought and sold countless cars in the past and know the necessary routine and thought a few hours should be enough to complete this. How wrong I was! With extra security layers in place because of Covid and fraudulent transactions, I was met with a barrage of questions, texts, phone calls and online form-filling. And as for for a huge variation in insurance quotes.....don't even get me started! So most of the day has been spent sitting on my sofa with my laptop and only the constant stream of Blue Tits and occasional Great Tit and Starling on my bird feeder has given me any pleasure today.

5th January

After a morning of taking down Christmas decorations inside and outside my house and a spot of cooking, I watched a Sparrowhawk swooping in my front garden, scattering all the Blue Tits and finally sitting on top of my bird feeder by the lounge window. After a bit of a rest I had a late afternoon walk on Roydon Common. .For once it was not crammed with dog walkers and dogs off their leads. In the distance I heard what initially I thought to be Common Cranes calling but could not see anything. Eventually 12 Bewick's Swans flew over my head calling, an unusual sighting for here. I watched 6 Common Buzzards spiralling over the common as well as a Kestrel hovering. A Roe deer fed on the heather in front of me.  Another Common Buzzard flew over as I waited for the ringtail Hen Harrier to show, which it did. It only flew for about 300 m before landing out of sight. 

7th January

8th January

With my head cold now nearly better I ventured as far as the supermarket with my new face mask. I now have several friends with Covid and am so am keen to protect myself as much as possible and so did an early-morning shop when the customer numbers are fewer. On my way I saw a couple of Common Buzzards but the mist on Roydon Common was much thicker upon my return that I saw little and so my birding today has been restricted to my garden. My neighbour and I watched many Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits, a Great Tit and a Dunnock on my feeder as I have subsequently watched many Starlings extracting the suet pellets which they seem to enjoy. Hopefully John and I will see a few more exciting birds tomorrow but after hearing that police fined two people £200 for travelling 5 miles to exercise I don't suppose we will be going far! Apparently car registrations are being checked as to where people live!

9th January

I was woken up early by a text message from the NHS telling me that my Covid test was negative. Huge relief, all round! I have suffered from a head cold since Christmas and have been taking part in the King's College study on the Corona Virus pandemic who had asked me to take a test since I was feeling unwell. After a cup of tea and a quick breakfast, John and I were soon out of the door with the expectation of the early-morning mist clearing. We walked along the lane towards West Newton as we all have to stay within our local area. John was keen to see the Brambling flock along the lane. We flushed a few Grey Partridges out from the hedge as we walked as well as a couple of Bullfinches. We crossed over the main road and walked down the lane where more Bullfinches flew out of the hedge. There was little to be seen in the fields and it did not look promising as we approached the cover crop either. The mist was still lingering but all of a sudden birds burst from the crop of maize.  They alighted in the trees and hedge along the lane but frustratingly we were the wrong side of the glimmering sun that was doing its best to burst through the low cloud. We walked back a few metres and realised that most of the birds were Chaffinches with a few Bramblings and some Goldfinches. John stopped to admire the Crab Apples whilst I took a photo or two.

We continued down the lane and turned down the public footpath towards a small shooting pool. Here we watched Teal and Gadwall but the Mute Swans were missing. By the Babingley River a female Stonechat sat in the field but was too far for a photo. Back at the road we stopped by the mill bridge where the water level of the river was higher than I have ever seen it. We stopped to have some soup and a mince pie when the mist suddenly got much thicker and it was pointless continuing our walk. We turned around and headed for home, seeing more Bullfinches but little else.

Once back at home, John and I submitted our sightings of our NarVOS winter bird count to the NarVOS website. It was certainly interesting to see that some members had not kept close to home as we had been encouraged to, to keep within the government guidelines and I was glad we had kept to the rules as it made the day more of a challenge and fun. 

10th January

As I was due to 'click and collect' my new car today there wasn't much time left for birding by the time I had exchanged all the paperwork outside all socially distanced and had the very helpful sales assistant try to assist me as best as he could with all the instructions stood outside whilst I sat in the car trying my best to follow all instructions as to which button did what and trying to 'sync' my phone via Bluetooth. This did not quite go as planned but we got there eventually! My afternoon was spent playing with all the controls sat on my driveway, with no instruction booklet as all instructions are now online, 456 pages of them! By 2.30pm I had achieved as much as I could and quite clearly needed to do some 456 pages of reading!

Sat on my sofa with some late lunch I watched the family party of Long-tailed Tits which appear on my feeder every day. I know its the same family as there is one very distinctive bird amongst them which is easily distinguishable from the others. They are such wonderful little birds that give so much joy to watch.

11th January

12th January

After another spell of trying to figure out what some of the buttons do on my new car, sitting on the driveway I wandered down the lane. Blue Tits were singing the in the hedge as Blackbirds flew up the lane in front of me.  I stopped to admire some of the views and explored the churchyard where a Robin was perched and sang for us. Back at the T junction 5 Bullfinches called from the thick hedge before flying away. 

The birders quiz was good once again on Twitter. Thanks to Ash, Mark and Nick for arranging the questions tonight.

13th January

14th January

Upon opening the curtains this morning I felt like getting straight back under the duvet as I could see that I wasn't going to need any sun cream! The weather forecast had predicted rain for most of the day with the threat of some sleet as well. Luckily I had been asked to do produce a short talk for one of my bird clubs via Zoom and this seemed an ideal day to get it together. It has been nearly a year since I last gave a talk to a bird club and technology has moved on. Many years ago I used to give talks using slides, most of which went in the bin when they came back from the processors but any reasonable ones that were fit to show simply went into a slide holder with each slide labelled and I either relied on my memory or used to keep a few notes nearby which I hoped to be able to see in the dark! Nowadays it is so much more complicated as each photo has to be sent through photoshop, cropped, lightened, sharpened and finally labelled to put in a file. It takes hours! When all the photos have been filed, the ones to be shown have to be chosen and then put into Powerpoint. Powerpoint has changed over the years and they are loaded differently than they used to be with compression instead of resizing like they used to be. At each change I have had to learn new ways of doing things, mostly self-taught. However having mastered all this to the extent that I can confidently give a talk along comes the pandemic and it all changes yet again. Now we have all had to learn how to use Zoom so that we can all keep in touch. I have listened to many talks given last year but giving one requires yet another layer of mastery!

However after many hours of work my St. Lucia talk is now ready! This also means that my birding has all been from my sofa today, which means that I have only seen, Blue Tits, Starlings and Blackbirds. I was expecting a few wading birds as once again my lawn is under water!

15th January

It was a grey, misty, murky day as John and I set out for our walk from home today. We walked along the old railway line at the bottom of Rydon Common and watched a tit flock alongside the stream. I could hear a Marsh Tit calling which I needed for my 'lockdown walk from home list' . It took some time before I saw it amongst the Blue Tits, Coal Tits and Great Tits. A Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over as we were looking, which I also needed for my list. Eventually I located the Marsh Tit and managed to point it out for John. A finch flock flew into the trees above us and I counted 40 Lesser Redpoll. I attempted a few photos but the light was very poor. Two Stock Doves were sat in a tree by the horse paddocks. 

After being turned back by a very stroppy lady who did not want us walking along a lane that I have used for the last 20 years we walked up onto the common where we added Green Woodpecker to the lockdown list. Across the common we saw very little except for a lone stonechat and adding a Little Egret to the list. Two Red Kites were sat in a distant tree before flying around over the common. We crossed the road and walked the track back down to the farm where we saw a flock of 45 Skylark over the fields. In the hedgeline there were 30 Chaffinch and 10 Linnets with a few Goldfinch, Blue Tit and Wrens present.  Three Fieldfare sat atop bushes as 5 Meadow Pipits sprang out from the Sugar Beet crop. The only other count of note was 34 House Sparrows sat in hedges alongside the church. We were now starving as we arrived back home so I quickly made us some flapjack to accompany our sandwiches. Yummy!

16th January

17th January 

After posting off my laptop to my grandchildren, I went for a walk at Congham Heath Wood. It has been a few months since I have been this way but the paths were much muddier today and many trees have fallen across the pathway meaning that I had to make lots of diversions. A good job I am used to forging my way through jungles as I had to push my way through vegetation and leap water-logged mud. Marsh Tit, Coal Tit and Goldcrest were all seen as well as the usual Blue Tit and Long-tailed Tit. I did not do the whole of the circular route as I intended but diverted onto Eastgate Drove as I knew that there was a farm reservoir along it that might hold a few water birds on it. I was right it was full of birds. It held Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Mallard, Gadwall, Coot, Greylag Geese and a lockdown list tick of a Little Grebe. 

I continued on my way and turned down a track back to the road. I saw almost nothing on the fields except for a few hares which were all hunkered down. Along the road I stopped to admire a flock of Siskin as Skylarks sang over the fields. A few Common Buzzards flew over before I stopped to count the Curlews in the field near Grimston. There were 38 today. Once again the Reed Bunting flock was in the cover crop. I suspect there are hundreds of them but difficult to count as they are constantly flying up and down. I saw at least 30 again today.

18th January

19th January

After an article that I wrote for one of my bird clubs I had some lovely messages. Thank you all.

It was a late start because of the rain this morning as I set out for Sandringham on my bike. A few Common Buzzards flew over me along my route and two Jays were having a dispute in the woods. I stopped for a breather and watched over 200 Siskins in a flock fly over the trees. The visitor centre was deserted, not a tourist in sight! I continued on my loop and felt sorry for the bedraggled sheep sitting in the field....they did look sorry for themselves.

When I got back home, I received some very exciting news. I was thrilled. More later in the year! Yah!!! 

For those of you on Twitter the birders quiz was good tonight. I actually knew a few of the answers! Tom, your account of the White-throated Robin twitch was so funny. It brought back such memories of climbing on top of the van to peer over the wall. It is a twitch that will remain in our memories for years to come!  Thanks to Mark, Ash and Nick for arranging the quiz once again!

21st January

I had a bad start to the day as I have lost my Canon SX60 camera which I think I left on the lookout platform at Sandringham, or it has fallen out of my bicycle basket. After a search John and I had a walk along local lanes and had a practice run with Nick back at home to present our two Zoom talks to one of our bird clubs; it seems straight forward....we hope! 

This evening was the joint meeting on Zoom for two of my bird clubs. It was nice to see so many familiar faces and good to see James Robinson again and have a quick chat as James was a former colleague of mine. The talk on the Spoon-billed Sandpiper and the efforts to save the species that is critically endangered, was excellent and although I have seen it twice before it was good to have an update on its progress. A big thanks to James for his efforts. Thank you too for those of you that thanked me for my newsletter article. I enjoyed doing the research for it.

22nd January

It was cold walk at West Newton this morning with frost and a light dusting of snow coating everything. It was certainly a wintery scene that greeted me with everything white. Seventeen Fieldfare were running around the field as I scanned the woods from the public footpath that runs along the hedgeline. I walked to the mill and watched a small flock of Goldfinches that alighted into the top of a Silver Birch and was surprised to see a Great Spotted Woodpecker sitting there too. A pair of Stonechat flitted around in front of the barn which I scanned once again. I generally have a look every time I pass. I could hear Mallard on the lake as well as Greylag Geese. I walked back to the woodpile and changed the angle I was watching from and spotted the Little Owl.  

January 25th

My evening was spent with the Great Yarmouth Bird Club where I was giving a Zoom talk on my trip to St Lucia. I was asked to concentrate on the endemics and Lesser Antillean endemics. Luckily I had photographs on most of them. It was a members evening and so there were a couple of other interesting Zoom talks too. Great Yarmouth Bird Club is a small club where all the members are birders and there is much discussion as we are holding the meeting. It was a very enjoyable evening appreciated by all those attending. 

26th January

After trying to sort out a few issues with my lost camera John and I went for a short walk and watched a few Goldeneye, Wigeon, Gadwall and Mallard. As I walked in some grass a Common Snipe emerged and flew around us calling as it went. I scanned the horizon and watched a Marsh Harrier fly in the gloom.