Birding Thetford

The day before yesterday I drove down to Thetford in Norfolk to spend a day birding with my mate Paul Stancliffe. The plan was to drive down in the evening, drink beer and whisky that night, get up early the next day (!) and have a day birding Lakenheath RSPB reserve. That plan was scuppered before I set off as news came through that the RSPB had closed the reserve for two days due to expected high winds. Presumably they were more than a bit worried about trees blowing over and crushing your optics...or worse. So we decided to stick pretty much to the beer and whisky bit but just do a bit of local birding around Thetford before the gales and torrential rain arrived. According to the Met office this was expected around one o'clock in the afternoon.
On Tuesday I set off and decided to call in at Twyford Woods in Lincs. to have a look for both Grizzled and Dingy Skipper butterflies as these are pretty much a certainty at this site in early May. But obviously not when the wind was gusting at around fifty mph, the rain was coming in in horizontal sheets and the skies were leaden. I spent three hours waiting for the weather to improve, got a photograph of a Butterfly Glade sign to remember the place by and a picture of a weird tower in the distance and then gave up. I did hear my first Cuckoo of the spring though and it sounded very much like Chris!

Clear and obvious sign indicating good place for butterflies. No butterflies in high winds, rain and general miserableness!

 Not a bird or butterfly to photograph so, in desperation, I resorted to taking photographs of anything that I thought worthy and this big tower was about as good as it got!

Great big tower thing near Twyford Woods. Water tower? Something to do with the old airfield? Used for shooting deer/pheasants/rabbits? Perhaps a butterfly observation tower!

Back onto the A1 to be confronted by " Long delays between junction 17 and 15." There had been an 'incident' and traffic was at a standstill so I headed off into unknown territory before junction 16. The Sat Nav took me through more fens, villages and hamlets than you could shake a fair-sized stick at but I did manage a couple of ropey photographs of a Red Kite battling with the wind in a village called Piddle-Down-The-Drain or some such.

Red Kite in the village of Piddle-Down-the Drain, Cambs.

Same bird coping better than me with the wid.

I arrived at Thetford around four o'clock and had a wander around the rivers looking for otters but there were none to be found so I took a stroll down to the BTO reserve at Nunnery Lakes. The wind had dropped, the sun was shining and there were at least seven species of warblers singing. Three species of hirundines and Common Swifts were hawking insects at various heights over the lakes and a muntjac deer took a look at me as I sauntered along. Not much from the hide but this Curlew stopped by for a quick bath.

Curlew from the hide at Nunnery Lakes

This bird was present for nearly a minute!!!

The beer and the whisky went as planned - very moderate, sensible and proper grown-up adult like approach adopted and so we were out and birding by 0800 the following morning. We racked-up the first 40-50 species at a lake, the name of which I have forgotten, not too far from Thetford. The most interesting birds were an adult and a first-winter Yellow-legged Gull, both too far away for photography, but which were accompanied by an adult Herring Gull for comparison. As far as photo opportunities went I could have taken pictures of, literally, hundreds of Mallards or a Pied Wagtail. The wagtail won and nothing else came near even though I was using a 400mm lens on a cropped sensor Canon 7D MkII.

Pied Wagtail.....near Thetford!

Next stop was a site not too far away for Nightingales. This was a small site comprising mainly, gorse, bramble, hawthorn and dog-rose and although it was close by the road and seemingly popular with dog-walkers we heard three singing males and had decent views of two birds. I even managed a few reasonable shots of one of the birds delivering its song. This is a species that, I think, is better heard than seen. I can stand around for hours listening to these birds.

Nightingale singing. You can tell that we are near the BTO HQ in Thetford...the bird's been ringed!

Whilst at this spot I managed to get photos of two species of butterfly: Orange-tip (female) and Small Copper but there was no sign of Green Hairstreak which is known to frequent the area.

Finally...a butterfly. Female Orange Tip

And another... Small Copper.

We set off for Lynford Arboretum before the threatened downpour - so far it had been dry and sunny, and very  warm at times. Fortunately Paul was suitably dressed in Wellington Boots. waterproof over-trousers, two fleece jackets and a Jack Wolfskin waterproof overcoat. So he was not feeling the heat at all!! Still he was ready for the deluge. At Lynford our aim was to see Firecrests and take some award winning photographs. We did indeed see a couple of Firecrests eventually when the wind stopped howling through the tree tops long enough for us to hear the calls. Photographs were never going to be. We were in a wood, it was dark, the birds were high in the trees, the trees were coniferous and dense, the birds were minute and everything was blowing about...forget photography. A better bet was a Chaffinch that dropped down to take at look at my camera lens.

Chaffinch... clocking me clocking him!

The weather forcasters were certain that the wind and rain would get really bad - that's why Lakenheath was closed. It had remained warm and sunny all morning but the wind was getting stronger and the skies were getting darker so we called it a day around twelve. On the way home it didn't rain once!
P.S.  check out Paul's new book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_9/279-7893031-7606964?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bto%20guide%20to%20british%20birds&sprefix=bto+guide%2Caps%2C146

This is the brand new Collins - BTO guide to British Birds. This is volume one which deals with the commoner birds. Volume two, which tackles the rarer and vagrant species, is due in the summer.













A Birding Weekend in Norfolk

I spent the whole of last weekend birding in Norfolk trying to find wintering species and at the same time trying to keep as warm and dry as possible. On Friday morning I drove down to Thetford and met the rest of the guys in the car-park at Nunnery's. The first target bird was the long-staying Black-bellied Dipper Cinclus cinclus cinclus. This bird is an example of the nominate north European race with the black/brown underparts (as can be seen in the picture below). The mainland British race, gularis, has a strong chestnut area below the white breast. It was easy to find but not so easy to photograph as the light was really poor and, stupidly, I had not brought a tripod. So hand-held, 400mm lens whacked up to 1600 ISO and I could only manage 20th sec. Hence slightly blurry shots. Still, good views of the bird and a good start to the weekend's birding. Jay, Kingfisher and Marsh Tit also put in an appearance to add to the list.

Black-bellied Dipper Cinclus cinclus cinclus Thetford

A real bonus was a sighting of an Otter working its way down the bank of the river Little Ouse (I think!). It was more-or-less permanently underwater but by following the bubble trail it was possible to follow the beast underwater and plan ahead to take a picture when it momentarily broke the surface. Again the light was poor and so is the photograph.

Otter Lutra lutra on the Little Ouse in Thetford.

After Thetford it was off for a couple of hours walk around Lakenheath Fen RSPB reserve on the Suffolk-Norfolk border. A brief sighting of Bittern and a lone Whooper Swan were good to start with but we failed to see any Common Cranes. There were swift views of Bearded Tits, a couple of Stonechat and at least five Marsh Harriers hunting over the extensive reed beds. A powerful Peregrine Falcon belted along the river hoping to catch an unwary Teal or wader and so were we! But there weren't many waders to be seen apart from hundreds of Lapwing on the move - as were Fieldfare. After a good period of grubbing about at Lakenhath it was time for the mini pork-pies and then the drive to north Norfolk to our weekend's accommodation.

Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus. The lone bird at Lakenheath

By the time we arrived at our digs it was getting dark so that was the cue to start worrying the wine that needed tackling before setting off to the local boozer for beers and food. Then it was back to do damage to the Talisker single malt!
The following morning saw a bitingly cold and strong wind with rain in the offing. But being as tough as commandos on a mission we were up and at it down at Titchwell RSPB reserve fairly early (After a leisurely full cooked breakfast, coffee, juice toast etc. - commando food) It was freezing and spitting with rain but we managed to rack-up a number of species including a female Red-crested Pochard, a good number of Brambling but unfortunately not a lot on the sea. Sea-watching was difficult as the sea was cutting-up and the wind was whistling in from the North-east blowing optics and people all over the place. It didn't seem to bother the birds though as this shot shows:

Oystercatcher  Haematopus ostralegus battling against the wind and waves at Titchwell

After Titchwell we drove down to the beach at Holme to search for a flock of approximately 80 Snow Buntings that had been reported from there. It didn't take long to locate these birds as they were very flighty and there were a lot of walkers about. We finished the day at Holkham trying to see Woodcock and Tawny Owl before heading back to the digs for more wine and more whisky.
Sunday and the wind was colder and stronger than yesterday and it was bloody freezing. Still being commandos we were out at Choseley drying barns early morning (after a leisurely full cooked breakfast, coffee, juice toast etc. - commando food). This was a good decision as we had great views of a Merlin as it came zipping through the fields and we passed a flock of at least 5 000 Pink-footed Geese searching for suitable feeding fields - a great spectacle as they flew over us in the early morning light. The hedges held good numbers of Yellowhammer and Brambling and there were a few Corn Buntings hanging about.
From Burnham Overy Staithe we walked the sea wall out to the dunes and saw virtually nothing apart from a couple of Common Scoter and a couple of Red-throated Diver out at sea. So we set off for Holkham Pines to look out from the Tower-hide for White-fronted Geese - duly found; Rough-legged Buzzard - not found and Barn Owl - found. There were at least seven Marsh Harriers competing for food over the marsh as well as three Common Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk, a couple of Kestrel and a Barn Owl. Who'd be at the bottom of the food chain?!
We twitched a Purple Sandpiper feeding in a pool in a field at Cley. Strange habitat for a Purple Sandpiper we thought but apparently feeding in freshwater pools by the sea is a well-known feeding strategy of these birds.
On the way back we had great views of a Barn Owl feeding by the side of the A149 and a number of cars had pulled over to enable the occupants photographic opportunities. So we joined them. Again poor lighting and poor photographic skills prevented me from securing some decent shots.

Barn Owl Tyto alba feeding by the side of the A149

We had to cut the birding short as the pub was calling...as was the Talisker and yet more wine. We popped into the supermarket at Wells for some milk and came out with three more bottles of wine...just in case.

Pink-footed Geese Anser brachyrhynchus - Part of a flock of at least 5 000 birds near Choseley

The tally for the weekend was 114 species which was not bad considering the iffy conditions. We had seen anumber of mammals too and quite a lot of dead things!