Birding locally has suddenly produced some what of a purple patch, with 4 local year ticks in 6 days. For this end of the year, that is verging on exceptional!
It all began on Sunday 16/11, on the back of a bit of a northerly, arctic blast and heavy rain. This certainly had displaced a few birds inland over the weekend and so I was out early at Grimsbury Res to see if anything was happening. This soon paid off as I picked out a lovely adult Little Gull fairly high overhead from west to east. A few other bits and prices moved through, (including a distant flock of seemingly small geese) as well as a stredy flow of gulls, again heading east. As I departed, the gull movement brought in another adult Little Gull that had a quick cruise about the res, before heading on. They are always tricky to see locally so two in a couple of hours was a bit of a treat to see!
Later that day, I took a late afternoon walk out along the canal, between Clifton and Aynho, with my little boy. The heavy rain from the last couple of days had, unsurprisngly flooded the valley, as is commonplace during the winter months. After a bit of a wander, we paused for a short while and I noticed a distinctive dark shape sat out on the flood - a 1w Dark-Bellied Brent Goose! Unfortunately, in no time at all, rather unusually, a lady appeared walking across the field and the bird flushed heading off low north. This was part of a significant movement of displaced DBBs into the south east and midlands on the back of the weather. My second in the mid-Cherwell, after another 1w back in 2022.
It didn't end there and on Thursday 20/11, an adult Great Northern Diver was reported from Foxcote Reservoir, Buckingham. Any diver in my area is an event and this was a must see. I teed up an early start on Friday (21/11) morning, as part of a diversion to work in Bicester! On a freezing, crisp morning a made it to the hide and after a bit of a scan, was pleased to find it sat in the middle of the reservoir. I took it in for a while, noting the handful of white flecs remaining in the matle, the remanants of the bird's breeding plumage. I was pleasantly surprised to actually hear it call a couple of times too! I returned for a short while on Sunday 23/11 and got to enjoy it in much better light and slightly less brutally cold conditions - was definitely worth another look! Juvenile/1st winters are by far the most frequent age GNDs inland and I think this one was only my second inland adult GND so a very good record indeed!
Finally, on Saturday 22/11, I took a local drive for my little daughter's morning nap. I decided to swing by the mid Cherwell to see if any floods were still about. As it was, by the road at least, they had largely receded, although these fields were full of geese. I quietly parked up, had a scan and was surprised to quickly come across a lovely, dinky Pink-Footed Goose hanging out with a few Greylags. Pinkfeet in this area are incredibly scarce, so was a decent find and just my second locally in 13 or so years! The only other also being in the Mid-Cherwell! A couple of Egyptian Geese were also closeby.
After what's been a pretty drab local birding year overall, it's been very refreshing to enjoy a good run of local scarcities! The local yearlist is now up to 145 - I still very much doubt I'll reach the 150 mark and would need a bit more jammy luck, but you never know!
The latter half of the autumn has seen me get out birding sporadically, but have found the time where I can to have a crack at finding some birds, or more realistically go see other people's!
Standout highlight was a drake Lesser Scaup at Rushden Lakes / Ditchford GPs actually on my birthday (03/11)! Hot on the heals of the 1st county record at Stanford Res fairly recently (and likely the same bird), this was of course a county tick for me and a rather good birthday present. The bird was never drastically close, but gave decent enough scope views, diving frequently to feed amongst the mix of Tufties, Gadwall, Shoveler etc present.
Keeping up the Scaup theme, I was chuffed to finally encounter a Scaup locally, with a distinctive 1w drake reported at Foxcote Reservoir, nr. Buckingham. Managed to get over there on 18/10, with my lively 1 year old daughter in tow!
Grimsbury Res has produced a steady run of yearticks and some pretty decent patch birds amongst these. Probably the best were up to 5(!) Rock Pipit on 15/10, as well as two the previous day that departed high north, so a total of 7 in two days! Extraordinary numbers, as part of a significant passage of birds during that week, throughout the country.
Other year ticks have included a female Goldeneye (very good patch bird), a brief confiding Great White Egret, 3 Crossbill, Stonechat and Marsh Tit.
Rounding up elsewhere, a couple of visits to Calvert Jubilee Lake has produced wonderful views of a Jack Snipe on 03/11, bobbing away, feeding right out in the open! An adult Great Black Backed Gull there in the pre-roost was a welcome local yeartick - such a scarce bird local to me.
The odd vis mig stint from the garden has produced a couple of Brambling, as well as Redpoll, Siskin and a male Blackcap kicking about. A Cattle Egret was at Bicester Wetland on 09/10, which appears to be hanging about the area with the usual Littles. The local yearlist stands at 141 - very unlikely to get up to 150 now but would be nice if I can encounter a nice surprise or two before the year's out!
The evening of Friday 10/10, saw me driving up to north Norfolk for the annual 'magic week', mid-October catch-up.
This year Dan W. & Gareth B. had booked a caravan at Pinewoods, Wells-next-the-sea for a few days, with me joining for the weekend and Norfolk-based birding pals Johnny P. and Kieran N. joining too - so a decent sized crew!
As usual, we were hoping to strike lucky with the winds, to relive the likes of 2013 or 2016, memorable bird-filled years, from years gone by!
In reality, it appeared unlikely for anything like that, but still would be some good birding to be had, way better than back at home, plus would be just great to catch up and have a laugh!
With a big high tide due for the morning of Saturday 11/10, it was a no-brainer for us to start the weekend at Snettisham, to hopefully enjoy some spectacular flocks of waders, with the added bonus of a long-staying Short-Toed Lark closeby.
After encountering both Tawny and Barn Owls on route, on arrival at Snett, we were stunned to see the amount of people with the same idea as us, joining a queue to park! Luckily it was pretty straightforward finding a space and we began a wander west towards the pits. Things started well with a couple of Whooper Swans over our heads and landing on the sea - amazingly, not one other person walking down gave them a second look!
The tide was moving in pretty fast and soon nudged a good number of waders out on the mud, a touch closer to go through. We soon picked up a few scarcer species, including a couple of juvenile Curlew Sandpiper, a juvenile Little Stint and 2 Spotted Redhank. Wader numbers were of course spectacular, particularly Knot and Oystercatcher, as well as both Bar-Tailed and Black-Tailed Godwit, Curlew, Grey Plover, Sanderling, Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Redshank. These were pushed up into the sky by 1, possibly two Peregrines on a few ocassions, causing a spectacular swirl of thousands of birds. Very cool!
Amongst the mele of birds on the seaward side, a Ruff and a couple of Spoonbill were picked out, while several Marsh Harrier were crusing about. A decent number of wildfowl included Wigeon, Teal and Pintail and there were several Great Crested Grebe offshore. After having our fix and enjoying a good number of waders over our heads and onto the pits, we decided to head back east and onto have a look for the lark. A known long-staying Leucistic Oystercatcher was sat about on the way, a striking looking bird!
We headed on past the car park some 500m beyond, along the path sandwiched between the beach and the Snettisham Coastal Park. We cautiously kept an eye out for the Lark, that had been residing along the main path.
A couple a short way ahead of us, suspected they had seen it dive behind some vegetation, just off the path in roughly the right area. We waited a short while before I picked it up coming back out into the open - Short-Toed Lark! We had some nice views out in the open, before it was flushed by dog walkers towards the beach - typical! We tentatively made our way over for a slightly more extended look at it. It then suddenly appeared right in front me and I was able to get some much better views and photos before it flicked off again. It was cool to properly enjoy my first UK lifer of the year!
At this point, a female birder approached us saying she'd just found a Grey Phalarope just off the beach. Great we thought! She showed me the back of her camera and straight away I saw that it was in fact a Red-Necked Phalarope, even better and good for her, a nice little find! In no time, we were all on it, a short way further west, busily feeding just offshore. We had lovely views for five minutes or so, before it decided to fly and I watched it until a spec out to sea to the N / NE. That concluded a great morning!
Next, we headed over to Kings Lynn for a bit of brunch, as well as to catch up with the Lesser Yellowlegs that had been hanging out in the slightly unusual setting of a pool/lagoon, created adjacent to a brand new housing estate!
Peering through the fencing, we soon got onto the bird, distantly at the end of the lagoon. Also here were a small flock of Black-Tailed Godwit, a couple of Green Sands, a few Grey Wagtail and a big GBB Gull for a short while too. A decent little patch if you've just moved into one of the new, adjacent houses!
We were then ready for some food, so found somewhere for a half decent full English on the edge of Kings Lynn. We plotted a mooch about Titchwell next, however were scuppered by some event there, with the car park overflowing, didn't really fancy that! After a bit of umming and ahhing, we decided on North Point Pools, just the other side of Wells, which is a always worth a look.
To be fair North Point served us well, soon encountering a fly-by Glossy Ibis and a couple of Water Pipit flying around calling regularly. 10+ Cattle Egret were kicking about the cattle and there was a nice mix of wildfowl including c25 Pintail. We wandered on to view the saltmarsh east of Wells, bumping into several pretty fresh Wall Browns scattered about. First I've seen in a long time, so a welcome surprise on what was a very mild afternoon.
We popped back to the caravan for a while after, to plot our next move. We settled on an evening at Cley in what were beautiful, calm conditions. This was lovely, but not hugely condusive for birding interest! Still, a half hour look at the sea produced a fly-by Med Gull, a Razorbill, several Red-Throated Diver and a couple of Gannet.
We moved around to the south side of the reserve and walked down to Daukes Hide to check out Simmonds Scrape / Pats Pool. This proved to be a decent move with the 4 Glossy Ibis hanging out, feeding away. Wader highlights included a couple of brief juv Little Stint on Pats Pool and a very vocal Spotted Redshank somewhere out on Simmonds. Large gulls gradually streamed into Simmonds, including a couple of striking 1w Caspian Gulls, before a Marsh Harrier sent them all up and over to North Scrape. With light fading fast, we walked back to the car, spying 3 Whooper Swans distantly sat up in a field beyond the visitor centre, that had been recently reported. To finish the day, a Tawny Owl made a brief appearance by our car at the bottom of Old Womans Lane.
Sunday 12/10 saw the wind switch to a very light NE, giving faint hope of some birds making the leap across the North Sea. As it was, a wander from the caravan, into Wells Woods produced quite a bit of fog, but zero signs of any new arrivals. In fact it was dead! With little happening and really a need to get home, I reluctantly decided to hit the road back to south Northants!
Before leaving Norfolk, I made one short stop off, to have a nother look at the Lesser Yellowlegs in case it would show any closer. Pleasingly it did and I was able to take it in at closer quarters and get a few half decent pics too! A good end to a brief, but fun couple of days with the boys and keep up our Mid-October birding tradition! Hopefully longer next year.
