The Hoopoe & the Swallow

A Hoopoe took up residence for several days, in the rather unusual surroundings of IBM's offices in Warwick. I hadn't seen one in the UK since 2013, a significant time ago so was more than tempted!

With the apparent chance of sun on the afternoon of Sunday 31/10 and me having a rare free couple of hours, I took the 35 mins drive over there.

Needless to say it was a very enjoyable visit, with great views had as it pottered around the reception lawn, plucking big fat grubs regularly from beneath the closely cropped grass.

I quick stop at Grimsbury Res on the way home in very fresh and blustery conditions was worth a stab to see if the wind had pulled in a stray Kittiwake or something. No Kittis but something very much not on the radar - a tatty-looking Swallow! My latest ever by quite some distance. Fingers crossed it turned it's radar on fast and made it's way south!

Grimsbury Gold

Rather laughably, the birding improved once I returned from Norfolk!

On Saturday 16/10 an early morning visit to Grimsbury Res yielded a Rock Pipit, my first one there for three years and always a welcome find. But the best was yet to come...

The following Saturday (23/10), I again gave Grimsbury a go first thing, joining up with fellow patcher Gareth. We sat in situ at the northern end hoping for a bit of vis mig. A dutch-ringed Black Headed Gull closeby was nice before we heard a short-sharp 'seeeep' up behind us over the wood. Low and behold, a Hawfinch cruised purposefully over our heads and away from us, relatively low towards the SE corner of the res. A brilliant patch tick for me and Gareth's 2nd at Grimbo (pic below from several years back during the 2017/18 invasion).

On a high, we wandered down the W side of the res to scan the trees along the river to see if it had dropped in. No sign, but we did enjoy both flyover Brambling and Redpoll. A short while later more excitement as two egrets came in from the south over the cattle field. One was a Little, but the other a Cattle Egret - a site first and a patch tick for both of us. Amazing!!

Elsewhere, I had been hoping to score something else half decent at Hinton Airfield before the autumn was out and also had in mind, the possibility of adding Merlin to my local yearlist, with the site seemingly ideal.

On Sunday 17/10, I went for a quick walk there and saw my first Stonechat for the site, a female that showed beautifully in the golden evening light. c200 Golden Plover were also wheeling around, glistening as they changed direction.

Then on the morning of Sunday 24/10, I enjoyed a very decent couple of hours, racking up 40 species in total.

As luck would have it, I twice encountered an immature male Merlin over the main section of the airfield after the Skylarks. In addition were 2+ vocal Brambling, 4 Grey Partridge, a strong trickle of Chaffinch numbering 101 birds and regular small flocks of Starling totaling 220. 

Magic-free week

It was that time again - mid October and our annual east coast foray, looking for sibes!

I ended up spending a very welcome two and a half days in North Norfolk with Dan & Gareth plus our Norfolk based birding pal Johnny Prochera for the first day too. There was though one thing missing - the birds! It was without doubt, our most migrant-free, mid October for pretty much 10 years!

Anyways, it wasn't all doom and gloom...

We began in Wells Woods on Saturday 09/10 - with the hope of something from the east. The wind was coming from a good way east for a day's window - the only problem was, we had a blue, cloudless skies! Not exactly conducive for pulling anything down

I got there first, at about 08:40am, soon completing a circuit of the dell with very little to show for it. Best being a calling Brambling, flyover Redpoll, Siskin, Rock Pipit and Ringed Plover, a couple of Chiffchaff, a bit of a movement of Chaffinch overhead and a decent number of Jay knocking about. Dan & Graeth arrived and we then met up with Johnny, adding nothing particularly new other than a rather bedraggled Vole of some sort!

After that we had a good trek out from Stiffkey Campsite car park to look for Pipits, Harriers and whatever else we could find. Good numbers of duck out beyond the bank particularly Pintail & Wigeon. All the usual waders here including Barwit, Grey Plover, Knot, Curlew, Redshank, Dunlin, Oystercatchers etc, plus 1 Ruff & 1 Greenshank and a couple of nice redhead Red Breasted Mergansers.

We finished the day at North Point pools adding Med Gull, a surprise Fieldfare, c5 Redwing, a Blackcap, Blackwits, Water Rail, Grey Partridge, plenty of Egyptian Geese and quite a few Snipe.

We began Sunday 10/10 with a seawatch off Cley Coastguards with the wind having a distinct NW feel to it and early on, quite a bit of rain. A trickle of Little Gulls were moving through E early on, but this switched to a torrent once the rain stopped and probably well over 1000 had moved through E during our time there. Pretty amazing really! A small group were seen to head off inland over our heads too. The Little Gulls passed through at a range of distances, but the majority were a fair way out and were joined by a trickle of Kittiwake too.

Away from the Little Gulls, it was an enjoyable watch without being spectacular. We had a small pulse of Skuas consisting of 4 Arctic & 1 Great Skua and a candidate for Long-Tailed which stayed too distant to be pinned down. There were plenty of Red Throated Diver both on the move and offshore, pretty much all still exhibiting a large proportion of their breeding plumage.

A Peregrine headed off out to sea after a snack and Johnny caught sight of it having a dart at one of the passing Little Gulls which was pretty cool!

Other fairly standard fare consisted of several Common Scoter, Razorbills and Guillemots, Gannets, Brent Geese, a group of Pintail, Wigeon, Teal and several Turnstone son the beach.

After a fruitless wander around Gramborough Hill and Salthouse, Johnny headed home. Gareth, Dan & I then finished the day at Titchwell and to be honest it was pretty good. The juv Rosy Starling appeared amongst the large numbers of Starling on the freshmarsh at dusk. A Cattle Egret hung around on the freshmarsh for a bit and 1-2 Great White Egrets came into roost. A late Reed Warbler surprised Dan and I, appearing in the reeds close to the path. Finally the gulls provided interest late on, with at least 2 Caspians, 8+ Yellow-Legged and a 1w Med Gull too.

We spent all of our time around the freshmarsh. It was a real hub of activity with several Avocet still about, lovely close views of several hundred Golden Plover, as well as Black-Tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Ruff and plenty of Teal among other things.

My last day in Norfolk (11/10) was the most fruitless of the three. There was a chance the sea may produce something with a NW wind on the cards. But in reality, there was probably a bit too much W and it was dire - barely a bird on the move and a stark contrast to the previous morning. Dan and I resorted to throwing a few lumps of leftover bread into the surf to spice things up a bit. But after creating a 'frenzy' of 3 Herring and a Black-Headed Gull, we promptly ran out of bread and the fun was over! Pretty much summed up our bird-finding exploits up to that point! What was nice though, were both close Red-Throated Diver and Razorbill.

Before I departed for home, we had one last look at North Point pools, digging out nothing too new other than an adult Med Gull and a Greenshank. The Dell then got one more going over - we knew full well it would be pants and so it proved. Dan dug out a Blackcap (yes, wow a Blackcap!), but Gareth and I didn't even see that.

Anyways, despite the lack of migrants, I had a wicked couple of days, spending some time with great mates. Can't nail it every autumn!

Petrel shortage?

A rare opportunity arose to see a Northants Leach's Petrel as one was discovered at Pitsford Res on the morning of Saturday 02/10.

'Dropping and running' to see a bird isn't very compatible with my life as a relatively new dad. But as luck would have it, we were due to be heading in the direction of Northampton and a little diversion was duly negotiated!!

Thankfully it evaded the local gulls and I was immediately onto it from arrival, roughly two thirds of the way along and north of the causeway. It was fairly distant to begin with but a bit of a nudge from a local Great Crested Grebe and then a far more persistent Common Gull, allowed for much closer views, albeit at the expense of a good chunk of the poor little Leachy's energy resources.

Another 2021 county tick for me and actually only my third Leach's ever so a very worthwhile visit - even more so as I missed the worst of the rain!

Exe Estuary

Spent a super nice few days in Topsham, Devon, in mid-September. Not a birding holiday, but you can't fail to see birds there, being right on the Exe estuary and just a short walk from Bowling Green Marsh.

Nothing mad seen, just really nice birding with a cream crown Marsh Harrier, a couple of flyover Tree Pipit, a Hobby, Yellow Wag, stacks of Black-Tailed Godwit, a few Barwits, 3 Knot, 4 Ruff, good numbers of Pintail & Wigeon, Water Rail, a Med Gull, several Greenshank, 2 Garden Warbler, juv Peregrine chasing waders, a Common Sand, couple of Stonechat, plenty of Swallows through and lots of Chiffs. Very enjoyable!