I had the day off on Friday 02/11, given to me by work as it was my birthday the following day. The Mrs and everyone else I knew was at work, so there was no choice but to go out birding for the day. Poor me! I had a plan in mind to set off early and get up to Thrapston, to see the group of 6 1st-winter Velvet Scoters that had taken up residence on Town Lake since the previous Sunday. It looked likely I'd miss out on this valuable county tick, but miraculously, they had hung on for me. Friday was a beautiful bright, crisp day and ideal to be out and about. I made my way to the southern side of town lake, hoping the scoters would still be in situ. I eventually found a gap in the lake side trees to view a reasonable amount of the lake. Relief soon enveloped me, as a single Velvet Scoter appeared in my bins, loosely associating with a group of Tufties. I walked further along and after a bit of effort, found another opening in the trees to enjoying closer, better views of the bird.
After a while, a second Velvet joined it and then the other 4 appeared a little later too, in the middle of the lake. I don't know where they were all hiding but now all 6 were in view! I spent some time getting lovely scope views and also picked out the recently reported 1st-winter Scaup too. Bonus!
It was now 10 o'clock and I was mulling what to do next. Either I mooched around a few county sites to try and find something OR, being well on the way to Norfolk, would it be a bit mad to go there for the afternoon?
Well, I'd realised that I had spent so much of 2018 patch birding and keeping it local, that I'd yet to see a lifer at all this year. So with the lure of of the probable Stejneger's Stonechat & King Eider in North Norfolk, I was soon heading around the Peterborough ring road and on towards Kings Lynn! Calling my Norfolk mate Kieran, he was luckily free and so we agreed to meet at Salthouse beach road, about 12:45pm. The possible Stejneger's Stonechat was a short walk away, along the Meadow Lane track. To be honest, we thought it would be relatively straightforward, particularly as it had been reported a few times already during the morning. But, for a good half hour it went AWOL! Thankfully though, someone else picked it out not too far from where we were. It certainly is a distinctive bird, with a noticeably white throat, pale underparts and a peachy rump which was not easy to see but could occasionally be seen when the bird was at rest. With DNA obtained from it's poo, we all await the results with interest!
Just after 2 o'clock, we hopped in our cars again and headed along to Sheringham. Just right of the seawatching shelter were several others already looking. After a brief scan with the bins, the 2nd-winter King Eider was duly located and there was my second UK lifer of the day! We soaked up the bird for a good 20-30 minutes, watching it diving for crabs. The light was immense and while it was a scope job to see it, the views were not to be sniffed at! We had a quick look for Purple Sands on the rocks down by the public toilets, but just the usual Turnstones were in situ.
With it now 3pm, I had about an hour and a half until sunset. Enough time then to finish the day at Stiffkey to look for raptors, before getting home for dinner! I therefore parted ways with Kieran and wound my way along the coast road to Stiffkey. I walked a short way west from the campsite car park and set the scope up. No more than a minute later, a female Merlin flew past west, really close by before setting off after some Mipits. Better was then to come with a fairly distant but fantastic male Hen Harrier, slowly making it's way west, pausing several times to half-heartedly chase something before carrying on it's path. Well that was all rather easy and seemed like the ideal way to end the day.
As is generally tradition, I managed once again to squeeze in a few days in North Norfolk in mid-October, in the hope that the wind had an easterly theme! My pal Kieran again showed spot-on hospitality by putting me up and it was wicked to properly catch up again. I spent the first two days of my 4-day visit birding by myself, as Kieran had to look after his little daughter. The first day, Sunday was in all honesty a right old washout, with horizontal rain all the way there and for the majority of the day. I tried my best to get out and find something, but it weren't easy! A scan at Thornham across the saltmarsh, in a brief break in the rain produced a redhead Goosander, several Rock Pipits, a Red-Throated Diver, a Pintail, flocks of Brents & Pinkfoots and a selection of waders, including 3 Greenshank.
I tried nearby Gypsy Lane near Titchwell and Titchwell church, but both were unsurprisingly devoid of passerines. I decided to carry on E and spend a chunk of the afternoon seawatching off Cley with the wind showing a bit of NW.
It wasn't too bad, straight away encountering 2 Snow Buntings at point blank range in the car park. Best birds seen on the sea included 2 Arctic & 1 Sandwich Tern, c10 Bonxies, 1 Manx Shearwater, several Eider and plenty of Gannets.
The next day, Monday 15/10, I decided to give Sheringham a go early for a seawatch. It was pretty squally with a strong NE wind, plus Sheringham is only 15-20 mins from Kieran's, so perfecto! It was a busy 3 hours, hardly mental, but lots of interest. The Little Gulls, Red Necked Grebe and Manxies were probably the highlights:
I then moved further west for the afternoon to give Wells Woods a go, as with the NE wind, I fancied there being a reasonable chance of finding something a bit tasty. After all...it's got just a bit of a track record! I love slowly making my way round there, always hopeful an OPB will flick up, or one of the Robins, morphs into a Bluetail. In reality, on this occassion, it wasn't so amazing, however I did come across my first Yellow-Browed Warbler of the autumn. A couple each of Brambling and Redpoll went over calling, while there was also a small smattering of Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Redwing, plus a notable number of Robins too, presumably mostly migrants.
The next two days I had company, with Kieran now free to bird, as his wife was now off work and able to look after their little one. The anticipation was high with far calmer weather forecast, following 2-3 days of minging weather and NE wind. We spent Tuesday 16/10 birding Kieran's patch along the coast near Trimingham. It was as good a place as any to turn up something juicy, with plenty of decent areas to try. As it turned out, we were straight into something very good! In the first 15 minutes of decent light, we saw a few Brambling, 2-3 Blackcaps and a surprise House Martin W. Then, around 5 minutes later, we reached a scrubby, grassy, more open area along the cliffs. Simultaneously, we heard a distinctive soft tack coming from the grass and dead weeds, a short distance to our left. We both knew full well what it was...a Dusky Warbler! We inched our way a little closer and were able to hear it really well for a good 10 minutes, as well as gain the briefest, classic Dusky views, as it scratted around in the dead weeds and long grass. See a recording of it here: https://www.xeno-canto.org/439999 Now that was some start to the day!! With appetite suitably whetted, we carried birding the rest of the area.
Unsurprisingly, there was nothing else as rare as the Dusky, however we still had a very decent day's birding with highlights including a Lapland Bunting, a fresh-in Yellow-browed Warbler in undercliff scrub, a Jack Snipe in-off and late Whinchat & Wheatear.
Just as interesting was watching birds coming straight in-off the sea too. This, included regular groups of Starling, Redwing, Skylarks, Bramblings and Chaffinches. An exciting sight!
On the ground there were impressive numbers of Robins and Song Thrush, particularly on the undercliffs, while the scrub had a decent sprinkling of Goldcrests and Chiffchaffs too. All in all, a really interesting day. Wednesday 17/10 was my last day in Norfolk. We once again made our way around the cliffs at Trimingham. There were still birds about, however we didn't find anything too new. Best bird was probably a rather late Willow Warbler. There were more Fieldfare and Redwing about, flocks of Golden Plover & Pinkfeet overhead, 4 Grey Wagtails through W, several Brambling and an impressive number of c200 Chaffinch over W early on.
I then gradually made my way home along the N Norfolk coast. I stopped off at Stiffkey Campsite Wood for a prolonged look about. Rather predictably, I came across a Yellow-browed Warbler, feeding with c10 Goldcrests at the W end of the wood. A Brambling was the only other bird of note, despite a meticulous search.
There ended an enjoyable few days and a welcome change of birding scenery!
