John's Wildlife Wanderings: September 2012

Sunday, 16 September 2012

Little Egret

Here is a few shots of a Little Egret showing well on Summer Leys scrape on 9th September:

On Sunday 26th August, Dave James and I headed to Norfolk. The Wind was looking good for a seawatch and the possibly of skuas and early autumn migrants sounded too good to pass up.

We headed straight to Cley Coastguards and arrived there around 08:40am. Kieran, Dave's mate had already had Sooty Shearwater and several Arctic Skuas past early doors so it was sounding hopeful. We pitched up behind a boat and out of the wind. Birds were to be seen but were very distant. There was the usual steady stream of Gannets, a couple of distant Bonxies, several Arctic Skua, 2-3 Fulmar, 3 Common Scoter, plenty of Sandwich Tern and a Bar Tailed Godwit. After an hour and half or so, having bagged 2 year ticks (both Skuas) the birds dried up so we head to the North hide.

From there we saw at least 4 juvenile Little Stint, a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper, a Spotted Redshank and a Greenshank. We then saw the impressive sight of 7 Spoonbill in flight heading east, soon be followed by one more a little while later. After demolishing the best part of a mini quiche I drove us over to Stiffkey to meet up with Kieran and David Norgate.

At Stiffkey we all took a walk over to the whirleygig a scrubby area good for grounded migrants...but sadly there was sweet F*** all around other than a Lesser Whitethroat and a couple of Whitethroats, but we were having a laugh and it was just good to be back in Norfolk.

We were though stumped as to where to go next. But all was not lost with the sound of David's pager going off 'Greenish Warbler on Blakeney Point'. We had to didn't we!
We attempted to get a seal trip boat out of Morston to drop us off on the point while leaving a car at Cley. But the tide was too low and the boats weren't landing. All seemed lost until DJ the genius that is, managed to negotiate a guy to drop us off in, I quote a yacht! On went the lifejackets and we headed down to the vessel. It was an oversized dingy at best but it did the job grand and we were on the point within 15 mins...nice one!

On arrival Kieran decided to do a rather ungainly 'flop' into the water and out of the boat...was bloody hilarious! We headed towards the general area the warbler had been seen and it wasn't long before we found a group of around 10 birders on the top of a ridge. It wasn't long before we were having great views of the Greenish Warbler in a bramble bush, constantly flitting and feeding, must have been a hungry boy coming all that way! Really enjoyed watching him for around half an hour.

Next was the long walk back to Cley. From there we planned to get a taxi back to the cars in Morston (we presumed Taxis did exist in North Norfolk!). We managed to find a very showy Whinchat by the point 'plantation' however failed to see the Pied Flycatcher that had been knocking around.
Heading down the point we saw very little other a then a valuable yeartick in the form of a flyover Tree Pipit and a rather dozy Guillemot just offshore getting hammered by the waves.

After the hike back to Cley we were all nackered and a cheeky pint or two were keenly quaffed at the pub in Cley. We then headed home. Brilliant day out, was a right good laugh and racked up a lifer for good measure. Top notch!