Week round up: 24th-30th October

The week started in frustrating fashion, with a Monday morning text that an Isabelline Shrike had been present the previous afternoon at Horsey. Most annoying. Anyway, all was well in the end...

Tuesday 25th October. Fieldfares over home and Nunnery. Vapourer at the Nunnery.

Wednesday 26th October. Got up early and pegged along to Horsey. Had a tense wait, due to a train to catch, but at the 11th hour the Isabelline revealed itself and showed splendidly. Appears to be a nominate race bird (same as my previous record, at Holme in 1996). Also a brief Firecrest and 34 Cranes. Then bombed back for the train and spent the day in London with the family at the coolest building in Britain, the NHM. Posh BTO do in the evening too on the Mall.

Thursday 27th October. Nothing much at the Lakes.

Friday 28th October. Little Egret and Water Rail at the Lakes. Decent mothing at home overnight with 25 of 11 species, including Sprawler and Feathered Thorn.

Saturday 29th October. Bit of a waste of a morning really. Went to look for a Grey Phalarope at Breydon south wall and failed. Then up to Horsey for a second look at the shrike, but that had gone. Seawatching pleasant but nothing exciting. Then news of a Grey Phal still at Waxham. Decided to twitch it but in the time it took me to drive north, it clearly flew south and was then showing from Horsey. Went home, Phalarope-less. Walked at Surlingham Church Marsh in the afternoon, where 70 Teal on the pool.

Sunday 30th October. Around home all day. Walk around the fields in afternoon turned up an unusual late sighting of an Aeshna hawker at Stubbs Green Pond but I didn't clinch it. Looked blue spotted, but with spots too large for Migrant, and overall too large. Perhaps a late Southern. Perhaps a mega, thrown away.

Isabelline Shrike, Horsey

Week round-up: 17th to 23rd October

A bit of a quiet week really, with the wind switching back to be more west (or later south). Highlights were:

Monday 17th October. The trap (from the previous night) contained just single Green-brindled Crescent, Turnip and Brown-spot Pinion (and the bulb had exploded overnight in the rain).

Tuesday 18th October. Walk at Nunnery Lakes at lunchtime produced a single Little Egret and an interesting hybrid goose; vague hopes of turning it into a whitefront but photos show that it clearly isn't - it's a big adult goose, presumably containing some Greylag and who knows what else.

Wednesday 19th October. Belated WeBS count at Whitlingham before work included 72 Mute Swans, 13 Teal, 3 Kingfisher, 71 Gadwall, 1 Little Grebe, 3 Shoveler, 2 Wigeon and a Black Swan.

Thursday 20th October. Highlight at work was an adult Whooper Swan on D lake that I found at lunchtime, only my second lakes record and first since 1999. Successfully twitched by Neil, and later by Dave, Chas and Ian, but had gone by the following morning.

Saturday 22nd October. Morning walk around Strumpshaw with the boys - a brief Water Rail by the visitor centre and a brief Bittern in flight by the riverbank that dropped into the reeds before Tom and Dunc ran to catch up. A couple of Fieldfares also along the riverbank, and at least five Cetti's heard. Bike ride to Hempnall in the afternoon produced nothing apart from a sizeable flock of gulls following the plough, mostly Black-heads. Trap in the evening produced single Large Yellow Underwing, Brown-spot Pinion and Beaded Chestnut.

Sunday 23rd October. Lazy morning then, after taking Tom to play football at Horsford, Duncan and I walked through Horsford Woods. Quiet, with just 15 species recorded included a couple of Crossbills over.

Dodgy hybrid goose, Nunnery Lakes

Undodgy Whooper Swan, Nunnery Lakes (is that the dodgy goose with it?!)

Week round-up: 10th to 16th October

Monday 10th. A few Redwings heard passing my office window in Thetford.

Thursday 13th. First chance for a walk down the Nunnery Lakes this week. Six Crossbills flew over, which I thought would be the highlight, until I found an extremely late Sedge Warbler in front of the hide. A real surprise, and indeed my first October record ever. I scratched my head for a while to try to turn it into something rare, including Aquatic, Paddyfield and Pallas's Gropper. But it wasn't, of course. Also of note were at least 2 Chiffs still and five Redpolls that flew over, presumably Lessers.

Friday 14th. Seeing as so many Yellow-browed, Great Grey Shrikes and (especially) Short-eared Owls had turned up on the coast on Thursday, I took Friday morning off and went to thrash Horsey/Waxham. A nice few hours, although the hoped-for Hawk Owl failed to materialise again. A fine pair of Cranes were present by the entrance track at first light, but more spectacularly, my largest ever flock of 38 were later seen distantly to the west flying south and dropping in to the marshes; I think it was reasonable to think this amounted to 40 birds. At least 2,500 Pink-feet came up from roost also. A short seawatch from the gap was unremarkable except for 4 Little Gulls and a very distant falcon dive-bombing gulls over the waves - probably a Peregrine but I couldn't really rule out Merlin at the range. Walked north then, with many redpolls around - speaking to ringers later they'd caught about 120 Lesser Redpolls, so pretty safe to record to species today. A Lapland Bunting also called in flight overhead in a small flock of Chaffinches. After much searching however, I was delighted to find a silent Yellow-browed Warbler creeping around the north end of the Waxham Sands bushes - always a real thrill. Just one Wheatear around the pipe dump, then another short seawatch produced a Bonxie and a Sandwich Tern. On a little further to the bluetail bushes, but not much else to show for it, and I turned back and headed home. Other migrants here today included 2 Brambling, 2 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff and 1 Swallow. Annoyingly, I got home and discovered that a Radde's had been seen that afternoon at Waxham churchyard. Then news broke from Warham...

Saturday 15th. Up at 0430 and Stu and I drove up to reach Warham in the dark, where about 300 birders had gathered in hope of relocating Britain's third Rufous-tailed Robin. It was not to be, however, the bird having done a bunk in the clear skies overnight. Only a Brambling here of note, as well as Grey Partridge calling pre-dawn. Stu had to get back, so we headed home. After taking the kids skiing, and then a quick look round the Wild About Norfolk event, we had a family harrier roost evening! We met Richard Mason at Sutton Fen, which is out of bounds to the public, to take part in a national Hen Harrier roost survey. Bit quiet in the event, with no Hens and only about three Marsh (roosting across the river anyway), but a Peregrine was a bit of a surprise, and three Swallows were also rather late. My first Fieldfares of the autumn came over too.

Sunday 16th. Bit tired so shamelessly bunked off the WeBS and slept in. Lazy morning and then we spent the afternoon canoeing from Wroxham upstream and back. Failed to hear any Yellow-broweds from boat, the meagre highlight being a single Barnacle Goose with the hordes of Greylags (and 44 Egyptians).

Birders at Warham, not seeing Rufous-tailed Robin

Family at Sutton Fen, not seeing Hen Harriers

Week round-up: 3rd to 9th October

Following the excitement of the Sandhill Crane chase, this week was rather quiet:

5th October - confirmed the continuing absence of Sandy Stilt Puffballs in Stoke Holy Cross (trying to check once per month this year). Walked around the Nunnery Lakes and saw nothing of note.

6th October - drove to Oxford with Andy Clements for meeting with Paul Jepson. Traffic fairly tedious but 21 Red Kites along M40 (with a few just into Oxford) on the way there, and 12 on the way back again.

7th October - Nunnery Lakes: the returning Barnacle Goose that had been added to the TEAL list the previous day, along with 3 Teal and 2 Snipe. Moth-trap in the evening gave 17 moths of 10 species, including Green-brindled Crescent new for the year.

8th October - at last, Redwings arriving with 40 over Poringland in the morning and 4 at home in the afternoon.

9th October - excellent views of the juvenile Woodchat Shrike at Lowestoft beach car park. We were in a bit of a hurry to get Tom to a football match so no time to search for the Yellow-browed Warblers, but a brief seawatch produced quite a lot of Brents (Landguard apparently had 9000 today!) and my first Bonxie of the year (finally putting my year-list on 200). We later had a look at Breydon, but saw little of note with the tide right out, except for a Wheatear. A quick look off Yarmouth beach produced lots of Gannets and 150+ seals on Scroby Sands, as well as at least 10 Med Gulls around the beach and offshore.

Woodchat Shrike, Lowestoft

Mediterranean Gull, Great Yarmouth