No folk like Norfolk (Part 2 - Salthouse and Cley)...

After sharing some of our lunch with the previously mentioned 'tame' birds in the Titchwell car park we hit the North Coast road to head to Salthouse. Paul and I discovered the delights of Salthouse last year when we were both desperate to see snow buntings and a helpful local birder said casually that if we went there, the birds would be feeding in the car park. We didn't believe him and were subsequently amazed when we pulled up and a flock of 20+ snow buntings landed no more than 20ft from the car on a grass covered bank to feed!

After that experience, it was a definite stop on this trip. As we arrived we saw some large camera lenses pointed at the bank on which the buntings were feeding last year, but this time the birds didn't instantly arrive. We took a walk up the shingle bank and looked back to see a good sized flock of at least 40 snow buntings circling around the car park and eventually coming down to feed on the bank. From this position I took this photo.

Snow Buntings - Salthouse - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Not the greatest photo I will ever take, but I quite liked the action of it. More interesting was this next photo.

Snow Buntings - Salthouse - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

It wasn't until after I looked at this on the computer that I realised there was a bird who was already significantly through it's moult and was very white. If I had realised at the time, I would have spent longer trying to get a really good shot of it. Final snow bunting picture I like because it's not often you actually get to see snow buntings on snow, so here you go.

Snow Buntings - Salthouse - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

We then headed over the shingle bank to have a look over the sea which was now incredibly calm and still. A scan over with the binoculars revealed plenty of wigeon, some gulls and an interesting grebe. I could instantly tell it was either a black-necked or slavonian grebe, but it wasn't until plenty of um'ing and ah'ing whilst looking through Paul's telescope that I was 75% sure it was a slavonian. This was quite exciting for me because I'd never seen a slav grebe before - but at the same time this made me vary wary about my identification. Thankfully at that point a more experienced sea watcher than myself arrived and was able to confirm it to be a slavonian - very happy Mike at this point! Shortly after we left, dodging the dunlins and turnstones that had also taken to feeding in the car park, to travel those couple of miles back up the road to Cley.

Unfortunately we arrived the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's famous Cley reserve a little later than planned and the setting sun was always against us. It was a bit of a whistle-stop tour of which the undoubted highlight was a group of ruff. Unfortunately we didn't have time to get around the edge of the reserve to the beach where Paul and I had seen this shorelark the previous year.

Shorelark - Cley NWT - Feb. 2011 - Mike Ixer

That said, none had been reported there on Saturday, so we would have in all likelihood been disappointed. As the sun was disappearing a few skeins of geese flew over which included a few groups of pink-feet - but nothing on the scale of what we witnessed last year when at least a thousand flew low overhead and appeared to go to roost in a field near the Cley visitors centre.

And so ended our trip. Having left the flat a bit before 6am, we got back at 8pm and I was knackered. Well worth it for the 78 species of bird we saw which, as I have explained, included some real crackers.

No folk like Norfolk (Part 1 - RSPB Titchwell)...

So after the indecision of midweek about whether to make the effort to do the day trip over to North Norfolk on Saturday, the snow never really came and I decided that we should make the effort - very happy with that decision!

Having been woken up by someone who very much resembled an excited child on Christmas morning at 5am, Beth and I picked up Paul and Natalie from near to the Valley at just after 6am and we headed off towards Norfolk with high hopes of a good days birding. I have to admit that after passing through our n'th mile of dense mist in sub-freezing conditions in Cambridgeshire and then Norfolk even I was starting to wonder whether this trip would be a complete bust. However, just as we were getting up towards the coast the mist began to clear and there was even some glorious sunshine - things were looking up (still bloody cold, but up none-the-less).

Having previously decided not to do the 4:30am start to make it in time to witness the 'wader spectacular' at Snettisham, we bypassed it and headed straight for the famous RSPB Titchwell reserve. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a number of very tame 'garden' birds in the car park who had clearly been driven to what was essentially begging for food from the arriving birders because of the cold. Seeing as I can't resist a photo of a robin, here is one.

Robin - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Having checked the field at the end of the car park and found lots of reed buntings and dunnocks, we actually headed into the visitors centre. Whilst in there I couldn't resist trying the new RSPB HD Scope and whilst looking at the feeders outside, the cry went out that there was a water rail scuttling around amongst the vegetation below. This caused quite a bit of excitement for one of our small group. Beth had a problem with water rails, or up until Saturday "the one that shall not be named" - it was a proper bogey bird. I got into a position where I could see not only one water rail, but two, and as she raised her binoculars to her eyes next to me they both darted back into cover - unbelievable! However, a few minutes patience was rewarded as she got her first proper views of the little beast. One happy customer; in her eyes the trip was already worthwhile no matter what happened for the rest of the day.

As we set off around the reserve and off towards the beach, it was all to evident that any freshwater pool was going to be completely frozen - and it certainly was.

Frozen - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer (iPhone)

I waited for a short time to try and see the Coue's Arctic redpoll which has been hanging around with a mixed redpoll flock on the reserve, but I lost patience waiting having seen lesser and a couple of mealy.

Lesser Redpoll - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

There was no shortage of waders on the Brackish Marsh with redshanks, black-tailed godwits, grey and golden plovers, dunlins, a curlew, avocets and lapwings all showing themselves but the undoubted highlight here was when three redhead smew all came serenely swimming into view for a short time before flying off to a more concealed location. A couple of the waders posed nicely for photos.

Common Redshank - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Black-Tailed Godwit - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

We forged our way on towards the beach (via a spotted redshank on the tidal marsh) and right down to near the waters edge to join a number of telescope wielding birders who were spotting all sorts of things on the fairly calm sea. Whilst admiring the waders on the tide line and rough outcrops (oystercatchers, bar-tailed godwits, turnstones, sanderling and numerous gulls) the call went out "there are a couple of long-tailed ducks on the sea just to the right of the two gulls". This would be a lifer for me, so of the hundreds of assembled gulls, which two were they referring to? I scanned across the sea, a couple of gulls with two ducks near them - nope, they are goldeneye ... but then two more ducks popped up next to the goldeneye, and although not a good view, they were definitely the long-tailed ducks I was after. After admiring the distant views of the two ducks, a male scaup also passed by a little way away and we decided to start walking back towards the centre.

As we walked past the marshes on the right, there was some commotion (cause unknown) which sent a snipe on it's way, some skylarks decided to have a disagreement, and, most interestingly, a flock of finches took to the air and then landed at the top of a small bush. Initially the lighting was terrible and then as I changed position for better light, the distance became the issue. I'm stuck between linnet and twite - streaky fronts make me lean towards twite but patterning on the back makes me think more linnet, any help would be great.

Twite/Linnet - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Further along the path and the telescopes were again lined up - this time it was because the three smew from earlier had reappeared. Unfortunately they only came close enough for this record shot.

Smew (2 of 3) - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

The contrast in size between these two birds was quite pronounced which leads me to believe that the right hand bird may have been an immature male and the left a female. Our final treat (and what a treat) came as we were coming towards the end of the West Bank Path when again the telescopes were all lined up, but this time it was for that most prized sighting, a bittern. It was at the other end of the pool but clearly a bittern and when viewed through a telescope it was a fantastic sight. Again, unfortunately it was record shot only distance (I particularly like the little black dot which is a water rail skidding around on the ice).

Bittern (and water rail) - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Then, as we were all admiring this bird, TWO more bitterns flew out from the nearby reeds chasing each other! That's three, yes, three bitterns simultaneously - crazy! We turned to walk away after the exposed bittern finally disappeared into the reeds - after a few yards I turned to have one final look over the reedbed only to see a bittern flying straight towards us! camera reactions allowed just one shot to be fired, and it turned out like this.

Bittern - RSPB Titchwell - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Damn, oh well, there's always next time :-/

To be continued...

There's snow Valley like Sandwell Valley...

So Saturday came around and it was time once again for the monthly guided walk which I lead alongside fellow volunteer Alf. I have to admit to being a tad apprehensive when I read the weather before bed the previous night and saw this.

Wind chill of -12, that's ridiculous! My spirits were lifted when I arrived at the Valley and saw just how crisp and beautiful it looked in the surprisingly still conditions; and news that up to eight ring-necked parakeets had already been seen just served to buoy my mood further. Seeing as the South Bank is now closed for the planned surfacing works, we had already decided to take the walkers a short way down the colliery road in search of parakeets, so the news that they were there and not being too shy was encouraging.

Seeing as I didn't have my camera with me (because it would be pretty bad form to be photographing while in theory leading and saying 'interesting' things) there are unfortunately no photographs of any of the birds we saw but I can confirm that we did indeed catch up with the parakeets - we saw one and heard a couple more. The other bonus was a very obliging kingfisher who was happy to just perch beside the river for everyone to admire through Alf's telescope - in fact he followed us up the river (the kingfisher, not Alf - though come to think of it, he also did). His tolerant disposition was of course indicative of the freezing conditions rather than his natural temperament and we found a few more 'obliging' birds along the rest of the walk.

It was sufficiently cold that only a small area of water remained free from ice and this was viewable from the hide. These freezing conditions can provide fantastic birdwatching and photographic opportunities, but I would implore people to stay a respectful distance from the birds because they require every ounce of their fat and energy reserves to survive - they do not need to be wasting energy flying away from perceived dangers! In this small area of open water there were numerous water birds vying for position and this gave the walkers a brilliant opportunity to study all the differences between the different species. There were goosander, goldeneye (which kept disappearing for prolonged periods, presumably diving under the ice to feed), shoveler, tufted duck, gadwall, wigeon, mallard, coot and black-headed gulls.

All-in-all it was a very successful walk which resulted in two year ticks for moi and 41 species for the viewing delight of walkers. Here is the full list:

Walk Sightings - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

As we finished the walk the snow was just beginning to fall and by the time we were leaving the reserve, the chances of returning on the Sunday to lead a work party were looking increasingly remote.

Sure enough, as I was thinking about removing myself from the sublime warmth of bed on Sunday morning I received the phone call to say the reserve would not be opening and therefore I would not have to try and motivate people to remove blackthorn scrub in the snow - I would be lying if I said I was disappointed at this news. So after a lazy morning the white blanket outside had receded faster than an ageing man's hairline and it seemed like a waste not to go out and have a walk on what was turning out to be a fine day.

Beth and I wrapped up, packed up and headed off for our chosen destination ...... Sandwell Valley! Why bother you may think, having been there the previous day. Well we decided to explore the other side of the Valley and had a fantastic time doing so.

First we hit the Forge Mill Farm Trail which didn't have too much to offer by way of excitement until a flock of at least 75 fieldfares flew over noisily 'chucking' at each other. Then there seemed to be a lot of disturbance amongst the birds who were previously trying to keep a low profile. Blackbirds, redwings, lapwings (which presumably had moved to the slightly thawed field from the frozen lake), many smaller birds and even the magpies were sent scattering for an apparently unknown reason - unknown up to the moment when a large female sparrowhawk flew straight down the opposite path which we had earlier been walking along. As we finished the trail we (and by we, I mean Beth) spent some time feeding the pony who lives with the goat on the farm which provided surprisingly large amounts of entertainment - I would post the video but I think that would lead to a displeased girlfriend!

Next off to Swan pool for a loop around the lake, down Salters Lane, through Sandwell Park Farm, through Priory Woods, past the Paddocks and back to the car park. The lake was almost completely frozen and so there was very little of interest, but Salters Lane held my highlight of the day. In the field on the right just after you cross the M5 were half a dozen golden plovers with the lapwings. Despite the fact that they are by no means a rare bird, these were the first I had seen in the Valley and it showed that what I had heard about golden plovers being "a cold weather bird" was true.

Golden plover - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Not only a new Valley bird (have to be careful how I use that expression) for me, but also another year tick - doing well with three in a weekend. Sandwell Park Farm provided a brief energy boost in the form of a Mars Bar and into Priory Woods we surged. The herons at Ice House Pool seem to have reconsidered their early nesting urges which I wrote about a few posts ago; their numbers dropping from 25 a couple of weeks ago to just 4 in the heronry on Sunday. The pool itself was virtually completely frozen with the small bit of open water being watched by some gadwall, mallards, coots, a single little grebe and this very attractive male goosander who resembled a naval destroyer when patroling the water.

Male goosander - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

The Paddocks were still well frozen so the bird life had moved elsewhere to feed and again, frustratingly there was no sign of a little owl anywhere! On the home stretch around the final bit of Swan Pool heading towards the car park this kestrel was kind enough to pose for a couple of pictures. Unfortunately my photo fun was brought to an abrupt end before I could get the shot I wanted because my battery died and I made the school boy error of not bringing a spare.

Male kestrel - Sandwell Valley - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

And so concluded the weekend. Much fun was had by all and many birds were seen.