A Norfolk finch fest

Yesterday was all planned for a nip into Bedfordshire for Firecrest and a a bit of a trawl round Northants with Dave James. As it turned we did a little more than that and glad we did, saw some top birds!

We set of bright an early, just after 07:00am and headed for Kings Wood, just outside Ampthill. After following the very detailed instructions were had a good scour around but sadly drew a blank despite there being several Goldcrest knocking around as well as a yound fox which wandered very close without even noticing me! Dave mentioned that the best place to catch up with Firecrest would be Lynford Arboretum in Norfolk. It was still dead early so the next minute we were wending our way to Lynford!

On getting out of the car there were numerous Siskins calls and a distant Crossbill 'chip' chip'....the signs were good! On leaving the car park we were pretty certain we had a Firecrest calling away but we thought we would leave that for later with the rather elusive Hawfinches down in the paddock the main priority for now.

The place was alive with birds with numerous Siskins and Goldcrests encountered all the way down to the paddock. As we reached the paddock there were a few closeby Siskins feeding in an alder by the bridge over the lake. On closer examination there were also male and female Crossbill and 1 Lesser Redpoll there too showing outrageously well! No sooner had these been examined, yet more Crossbills appeared in trees to our left and it soon became clear there were tonnes of them around! From not really seeing many in the last few years I've done bloody well for Crossbill in the last few weeks!! We next crossed the bridge and set up camp overlooking the paddock.

The trees in the the centre of the paddock have, in recent weeks had up to an impressive 30 Hawfinches so I was looking forward to seeing how many we could muster. A Water Rail called closeby and a nice suprise came in the form of 2 Woodlarks flying over calling nice and loudly. An unexpected addition! Just as I move to get a decent photo of one of the Crossbills Dave picked up a Hawfinch on one of the trees in the paddock, but no sooner had I turned to see it, it flew off. Typical! However we didn't have to wait too long before two Hawfinches did appear on the nearest of the trees, showing very nicely, albeit briefly. Sadly I only managed a quick record shot before they flew off too.

   

Hawfinches really are stunning, stunning looking things and it was a shame they moved on so quickly. After that we decided to walk round the circuit of the paddock and have a look for Firecrest. In an area with lots of holly and 'box hedge' foliage we were pretty certain we heard one but not 100% before a bit of rain started coming down. After sheltering for a short while, we walked back round to get one more view of some Hawfinches. We were told we'd just missed 17 of them, bugger! But it wasn't long before we found 3 in the furthest tree. These stayed for a few minutes before they too flew back towards the house.

We then went to find a Brambling that had been with Chaffinches by some feeders nearby as well as another big search for Firecrest. Sadly both these drew a blank, however we'd done pretty well see several Hawfinch, a couple of Woodlark and tonnes of Crossbill and Siskin.

So where next?! Well we were in Norfolk so it would be rude not to go up to the coast wouldn't it! So Titchwell would be the next stop via Choseley for the Corn Buntings.

A 5 minute stop at Choseley Drying Barns yielded at least 3 Corn Buntings and a few Yellowhammers in the roadside hedge.

We arrived a bit after 14:00pm with a nice bit of sun, however it was fairly breezy. One of the alders by the picnic area held around 5 Lesser Redpolls showing down to a few feet, lavly! But where was their mate, the 1st-winter Coues' Arctic Redpoll!? Well a short way along the path people quickly found it feeding considerably higher up in another alder and despite it being pretty bloody neck breaking, it showed pretty dam well. It wasn't the purist white of Arctic Redpoll you're going to see but it was still considerably paler than the other 'Polls' and was a handsome chap!

We were flippin' starving so before doing the reserve we grabbed a cheeky 'jacky p' from the cafe. It didn't sound like the reserve had too much in the way of exciting finds, however I knew that most of what I would see would be year ticks so all was good. The sea however sounded promising.

There were a decent selection of waders on show with Avocets, Oystercatchers, Redshank, Ruff, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Snipe, Curlew, Bar Tailed and Black tailed Godwits all quickly noted. On the Brackish lagoon, 3 Spotted Redshank were also showing very close to the path and looked very smart in the mid-afternoon sun.

We got to the beach and after reassurances that we should get a great variety of seaduck, we weren't disappointed! It wasn't too long before I found 4 female Long Tailed Duck not too far offshore. These were the first I'd seen for at least a couple of years. There were lots of Goldeneye out on the sea in small groups and one such group had a scoter with them. It then flapped to reveal white wing panels and it quickly became apparent it was a a 1st winter drake Velvet Scoter. Further left a nice drake Red Breasted Merganser showed, as well as 2 drake Long Tailed Duck and 2-3 Eider with more Goldeneye a little further out. This was going rather well! Further left still were another small huddle of Goldeneye. Attched to these was a nice drake Scaup, my first one at Titchwell and also the first one I'd actually seen on the sea! The shoreline held the usual suite of waders with Sanderlings bombing around, Barwits, Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, Knot and a handful of Ringed Plover.

It had got to 16:30pm and I had my Tescos shopping coming between 8pm and 10pm. So ideally we had to leave by 5. So we slowly got back to the car without seeing anything else we hadn't seen already.

Our last stop on the way home would be Wolferton Triangle, home to the infamous Golden Pheasant. Both Dave and I have made numerous diversions there on the way to Norfolk for one of these illusive little buggers without any success but it was surely worth a bash!

It was a really nice sunny evening by now and we made our way round the triangle and up round some other rhododendran bordered roads. With no sign we thought we'd give the triangle one more go. It paid off immediately with one creeping across the road a fair way ahead. So drew up alongside it and could just about make it out crawling deeper into the undergrowth. We drove down to the village before coming back up the road. Dave then spotted it's head peeking out of the Rhododendrans and we parked up a short distance away. Within a minute it gradually came out and showed incredibly well pecking around on the roadside grass verge. Dave rattled off a few shots with his camera and got a great video of the bird that can be seen here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTOSbtYEZMQ&feature=youtu.be

We were so lucky to get such an amazing view, a proper treat to finish off a great day's birding.