Thursley common 12/12/20

 The tale of Thursley Common 12/12/20

I have been gripped by these buntings at Thursley common for a couple of weeks now, trying to persuade my Dad to take us with no luck as we are "busy surveying". So when Isaac West said he was going and offered me a lift, I took him up and what a great decision that was! I ended up with two life ticks and one extra year tick, bringing my life list to 254 and my year list to a personal record of 220 (previous best 200). 

The day started at 6:30 at the Oxford service station, where Isaac picked me up and we were off, though little down hearted as it was raining for about half of the journey and we thought it was going to be like the disastrous Otmoor trip we had in the spring. Luckily, as we got to lovely Guildford the weather started to clear up and we had hope! We managed to find the car park very easily with the help from Finley. As I got out of the car, the first bird I had was a crossbill and from then on we knew it would be a good day. Not all started well though; as we were about to go, Isaac some how managed to snap his tripod head leaving him scopeless for the whole day... I did offer him my glue stick that some how ended up in one of my boots but we decided that probably wouldn't of worked!

So we set off out onto the common following the twitchers with massive lenses. As we got to the first clearing, we had our first redpoll of the morning going over. These were in good numbers over the day but only in flight. We also quickly found out that we probably should have put our wellies on rather than walking boots as the recent rain had made the common very wet. On the way to the twitch, lots of geese were leaving the roost which we religiously checked for white fronts but no luck (we later found out that there was one there but we didn't see it). As we arrived to the twitch, all the twitchers were on their phones or looking away which is never a good sign. Turns out we had missed both the buntings together in the same tree by about 10 mins. Luckily, it didn't take long for the little bunting to show very nicely feeding on the ground. As we were watching the little bunting some Egyptian Geese flew over and suddenly everyone turned round not sure why! About 10 mins later we had lovely views of our first woodlarks of the day as one sat on a tree and performed amazingly, with some lovely sub-song. For some reason me and Isaac decided to leave the twitch for a bit to go and sound record the woodlark! We needed it for our new Ichos twitter account (go give it a follow @Birdingichos). As we got back, someone had managed to get on the Rustic Bunting so we got nice (if a bit short) views of that until it flushed with the other Reed Buntings. At this point, we had the news that the Great Grey Shrike (GGS) had been re-found so us and David Bevan decided to go on a shrike hunt...

A Lee Evans type photo courtesy of David 

Little Bunting

Egyptian Geese emerging from the dark 

We ended up walking a full lap of the common because every so often I would get a text from Arjun saying it had moved! We picked up lots of lots of lovely birds while wandering round like Dartford warbler and Crossbill. Me and Isaac stood and tried to photo a Dartford for ages, which eventually caused us to miss the shrike at the twitch. We stuck around that area for a while but no luck; however we did get our shots of the Dartfords. We decided that missing the shrike was not an option, so we carried on hunting until I eventually clocked eyes on the stunning GGS, right in the middle of the common. Always distant but showing well so no complaints there!

Male Crossbill

Dartford Warbler

Great Grey Shrike

Isaac looking at some nice mud :)

That concluded our trip to Thursley! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope you enjoyed reading about it and seeing my amazing record shots. Feel free to comment on here or on my Twitter!

Norfolk 8/10/20-11/10/20

Norfolk

So the annual Marriner Norfolk trip has come round again. The boys birding trip went very well considering the placid SW winds. We ended up on 126 species across the three days which was very enjoyable. of those 126, 7 of them were year ticks taking our year total to 217 which smashes our previous record by 17 when we finally broke the 200 barrier last year. Enjoy!

Thursday 8/10/20 Cavenham

Thursday started off at school and I have to apologies to my geography teacher if I seemed like I want paying 100% attention to your lesson ( I promise I was) I was too exited about leaving!!! 2:30 arrives in a flash and we are off, I wont bore you with our amazing car Banta but as we got near Swaffam my dad said " I wonder if there are any Stone Curlews still around." so I quickly consulted the group chat and to our luck there was Calum Urquhart with the swift response that there were some still at Cavenham. as we arrived we could see 20+ stonies from the car window!! in the end they showed within 30m!! big thank you Calum!

Stone Curlew 8/10/20

Stone Curlew 8/10/20

Friday 9/10/20

With the winds being a placid SW we knew that we had no chance of finding any nice migrants so we deemed Friday to be our "twitch" day. So we set off at 7am to Salthouse which helpfully was only 10 minutes from where we were staying in Blakeney to see the Red-Necked Phal which showed quite distantly - no where near as nicely as the Tring bird but still great to add it to the trip list! We then had a cracking sea watch with all 3 diver species and this amazing Golden plover fly in and flop on the beach infront of us!! We then drove over Wighton to (eventually dip on) the Hoopoe😓. After that low we headed of to wells woods where we saw only my second ever Red Backed Shrike; and what amazing views we got of it we stood watching this fence line for about 20 mins, then someone turns round and there it was sat right behind us!! We then wandered back up the track when a Peregrine falcon stooped over the flood waters causing absolute carnage, with 100s of teal and lapwing going absolutely crazy!! We then had a wander from wells woods to Holkham finding a couple of Yellow Browed warblers (none of them showed only called) so we didn't feel quite contempt with the year tick but it was a tick none the less. We also had an unexpected Fem Redstart which was quite cool! When we got to Holkham we checked RBA and the Hoopoe had been reported again so we decided to try for it again and what a great decision that was!! I had the best views ever of the Hoopoe who was pleasing the socially distant twitchers. Back to Salthouse at dusk where we had amazing views of two Short Eared Owls hunting together over the fresh marsh!!1 Back to the pub after an amazing day!!

Hoopoe Wighton 9/10/20

Fem Redstart Wells 9/10/20

Short Eared Owl Salthouse 9/10/20

Golden Plover Salthouse 9/10/20

Red Backed Shrike Wells 9/10/20

Short Eared Owl Salthouse 9/10/20

Saturday 10/10/20

Saturday we headed over to Cley for a sea watch First thing. it was quite quiet but we saw a few nice Scoter flocks and there was a lovely and close in Red throated diver, which showed its main diagnostic feature of the upturned bill. My Dad also picked out some nice Sandwich terns feeding in the surf which were nice. We then headed over to Titchwell in the aim of adding most waders to the trip list, which we did very well. the Main highlight though was at lunch time sitting outside the café and having 4-5 Brambling feeding in the trees around us! These were the first birds of the autumn for us. We also saw a very obliging Wheatear on the beach which looked like it had come in off. At Titchwell we then saw that the elusive Barred warbler had been seen again, where Burnham dunes meet Holkham pines, so we wandered out into the dunes and found the hollow it had been residing all day and after about 20 mins we thought we had it, with a skulky Sylva, but it turned out to be a lesser whitethroat. A nice bird, but not the one we were looking for. we then gave up and moved to the next hollow along and then after 10 mins, there it was a cracking Barred Warbler feeding on the blackberries what a stunner !!  Whilst being around we also picked up our third Short eared owl and some Cattle Egrets. Then the long walk back made a whole lot easier when we picked up a cracking Ringtail Hen Harrier hunting over the fresh marsh. this was my first for two years and what a cracker it was!!!

Ringtail Hen Harrier Burnham Overy 10/10/20

Lesser Whitethroat Burnham Overy 10/10/20

Brambling Titchwell 10/10/20

Barred Warbler Burnham Overy 10/10/20

Wheatear Titchwell 10/10/20

Red throated Diver Cley 10/10/20

Sunday 11/10/20

Our last day in Norfolk😓 with the winds changing to NW we thought we would try our luck with a sea watch then a walk around Burnham and Holkham. The sea watch was very slow with not a lot moving but a couple of blackbirds in off was a cool sight to see also 2 Eider and 4 RBM.
We then headed off to Burnham Overy, where the dunes yielded little. however, we had two YBW in Holkham Pines and finally seeing one!! we can now feel like we can tick it properly. On the path back from Burnham, we had great views of the waders including a very confiding Grey Plover which I think is one of my favourite  waders in the UK. we also had very nice views of a Great White Egret. They have become quite common in Norfolk but still great birds to see. We also saw my dads favorite wader being a Sanderling. 

Sanderling Burnham Overy 11/10/20

Great White Egret Holkham Pines 11/10/20

Yellow Browed Warbler Holkham Pines 11/10/20

Grey plover Burnham Overy 11/10/20

Grey plover Burnham Overy 11/10/20

I hope you enjoyed our account of the three days in Norfolk. Also i would be grateful for some feedback as this is my first every blog. Should I do more? Here are some token pics of me enjoying Norfolk 😂

Me enjoying some crisps at Holkham 

Pre Barred Warbler twitch re-enacting an old photo