13th-19th February 2012

Sunday 19th - A second free day saw me heading east to Lowestoft, where as well as the more expected fare of Purple Sandpiper, Kittiwake and Shag, I also had fine views of the adult Iceland Gull in the fish dock; views of this were expedited by the unusual trick of climbing to the top of the adjacent multi-story car park! Later in the day, Med Gulls at Yarmouth and a three-species swan flock nearby on the marshes, but dipped on the Great White Egret at Colney pits.

Saturday 18th - Trudy and the kids went up to Leeds for the weekend, so when the cat's away, the mice...go birding! First stop was Kelling where after a short wait, the long-staying Arctic Redpoll gave great views in a roadside garden. What a stunner! Another 20+ Lesser Redpoll here but nothing that I personally thought looked very Mealy. A little way away, a flock of 400 Brents included at least 3 Pale-bellieds and a leucistic bird.

Next down to Salthouse for the obligatory Snow Bunting flock (100+), then on to Cley where I walked a complete loop (I often feel somewhat obliged to do so, it seems a cop-out just to go to the hides and back). Usual decent selection, although unfortunately the long-staying Western Sand had either died or moved on; most notable were a female Red-breasted Merg on Arnold's, a pair of Stonechats along the east bank, and the same leucistic Brent Goose in from Kelling.

After some craving-filling Fish & Chips, I had distant but prolonged views of the two Rough-legged Buzzards from Wells beach road; one bird exceptionally frosty on the upperwing coverts. Three Grey Partridges also here. At Holkham gap, I failed on the Shorelarks but was chuffed to pick out three Slavonian Grebes on the sea; a probable Black-throated Diver also glimpsed here a couple of times but never clinched.

At dusk, I headed back to Warham Greens where a distant perched Merlin and at least four Hen Harriers to roost.

Tuesday 14th - 20 Bramblings the highlight at the Nunnery Lakes.

Monday 13th - managed to track down Nick's white nun (male Smew) on the river by D lake, but it was seriously flighty, hence the dreadful photo below. A Water Rail was more obliging.

White nun for the White Nuns at last

Water Rail, Nunnery Lakes

Arctic R'oll for breakfast at Kelling - tasty indeed!

 Leucistic Brent Goose at Cley - interesting-ish (but to be honest, not aesthetically pleasing)

Iceland Gull at Lowestoft, multi-story car park tick

6th-12th February 2012

Sunday 12th - a village tick in the shape of four Gadwall on the pub pond! Clearly driven off Whitlingham or somewhere by the cold weather, along with a very high pond count of 38 Mallard! Elsewhere around the village, mostly usual species but I did flush a Snipe within the woods at Joy's Loke, which was a surprise; no Woodcock though.

Saturday 11th - WeBS count at a very icy Whitlingham. The highlight was my first Brent Goose for the site; found here by James Emerson earlier in the week! It was a young bird, rather tame and hanging around with the swans at the usual "feeding beach". Most of the site was frozen over, making for an interesting and intense count! Numbers of Gadwall (302) were way lower than last year's cold snap, but 464 Tufties were impressive. There were also 3 Goldeneye and a smart Aythya hybrid that wasn't a Lesser Scaup, again! Finally, just after I'd given up hope of finding it, a redhead Smew flew along the river!

In the evening, I did the Sutton Fen harrier roost again, with no Hens and 7 Marsh plus most of the other usual suspects - Water Rail on the ice was nice.

Friday 10th - work trip to Newark; a couple of Marsh Harriers at Lakenheath and c200 wild swans on the Ouse Washes, distant as usual. However, the highlight (albeit frustrating) was during my meeting at the HQ of the Wildlife Trusts at Newark, where I spotted a distant Great White Egret flying over the town. Although distant, and seen only with naked eye, this was clearly not a Little Egret, and on checking later I discovered there was wintering nearby, that had been seen a few miles away the previous day. Unfortunately, the meeting was at a rather involved point and wouldn't have benefited from me shouting out the bird!

Thursday 9th - work trip to London; was somewhat surprised to see a couple of Avocets from the train whilst crossing the Stour near Manningtree, I don't think I've seen these here before.

Wednesday 8th - went searching the Nunnery Lakes at lunchtime for Nick's pair of Smew, and eventually picked up the female only, in flight and then briefly on E lake (although it then disappeared inexplicably). Also now at least 30 Bramblings and 10 Lesser Redpolls around.

Tuesday 7th - just the one egret at dusk tonight

Monday 6th - The snow had the immediate result of bringing three Bramblings to the feeders by the Nunnery, my first around here of the winter I think. In the evening, three Little Egrets flew downstream along Shotesham Common at dusk, my highest count for here.

Pub duck-tick! Gadwalls in Shotesham, who'd have believed it?

Aythya hybrid at Whitlingham, cunningly hiding its bill-tip most of the time (although it's tuft is perhaps a tad outrageous for a putative Lesser Scaup!)

...and speaking of outrageous - Whitlingham Brent Goose!

30th January-5th February 2012 (Snow!)

5th February - hooray, 6 inches of snow fell overnight transforming the world! Juvenile I know, but I always love it (for a bit at least). The Little Egret looked fantastic on the snowy common, but the weather wasn't enough to dampen the song of Dunnock, Robin, Great and Marsh Tits and Chaffinch around the village.

4th February - a walk on Shotesham Common, testing out our developing BirdTrack phone app - Little Egret, Buzzard, Snipe and Little Owl the highlights.

3rd February - a nice find; as I drove home along the A11, a distant raptor crossed the road in front of me. I caught it up, pulled in to a lay-by and jumped out to see a Red Kite drifting across the forest, my first East Anglian kite of the year!

2nd February - continuing the duck theme, a high count of 15 Goosanders at the Nunnery Lakes, plus 31 Cormorants.

1st February - high count of 12 Gadwall at the Nunnery Lakes, plus Brambling and Barnacle Goose.

30th January - pair of Pochard at the Nunnery Lakes, relatively unusual here.

Good numbers of Goosanders at the Nunnery Lakes this year.

Snowy Egret - or at least, egret in the snow. Well camouflaged!

Shotesham Common transformed by snow

Little Egret trying to find a spot to fish on Shotesham Common

23rd-29th January 2012

A quiet week - too much work!

29th January - Tom and I went birding! A failed look on the Acle Straight for winter swans, but a good selection of waders at Breydon east end, including 10 Knot and 20 Grey Plovers. At least 40 Med Gulls along Yarmouth beach, always a thrill, but the highlight was the female Velvet Scoter that has been kicking around off the South Denes for a few days.

28th January - another quick look for the Whitlingham Fudge duck / hybrid but it seems to have gone.

Velvet Scoter off Yarmouth South Denes (a bit of a stretch for my camera!)

16th-22nd January 2012

22nd January - Tom had a footie match at North Walsham in the morning, so I took the opportunity of a quick seawatch at Mundesley; quiet as expected but Red-throated Diver, Guillemot and Gannet were new for the year. Also, a Kingfisher was on Shotesham Common in the evening, not all that regular here at present.

21st January - high hopes for my WeBS count at Whitlingham today, as a Ferruginous Duck had been found recently. However, when I finally saw the bird in the bay by the island I was rather non-plussed, as it seemed to have a distinctly blocky head-shape. It flew before I could get a photo, although I later relocated it more distantly on Thorpe Broad, where it still looked rather hybrid like. Surprised that no-one else seems to have questioned it, but anyway, it aint going on my Whitlingham list with a head shape like that. Otherwise a fairly uneventful WeBS count, although 300 Teal was a good total, and the hybrid Wigeon x Gadwall was present.

17th January - made a pre-work quick check of the Nunnery Lakes, but failed to relocate yesterday's Short-eared Owl; failed similarly at lunchtime too. Highlights were 10 Goosander, 23 Cormorants and 100+ Siskin, plus some obliging Lesser Redpolls on Jez's feeders.

16th January - meeting with CEH in London, but a notable sighting was a House Mouse scurrying between the rails at Victoria tube station - I don't recall seeing one for yonks. Couple of Little Egrets near Stowmarket at dusk from the train on the way home also.

Lesser Redpoll on feeder by the Nunnery

9th-15th January 2012

14th January - in the afternoon, stopped briefly at Ludham airfield where a fine flock of 66 Bewick's Swans (but no Whoopers). Then went on to Sutton Fen to do the Hen Harrier roost again, and yet again failing to find any Hens (but 8 Marsh, Peregrine, 5+ Water Rails etc)

13th January - woke feeling a bit rough, but livened up by breakfast in the ridiculously ornate dining hall at Exeter College (Tolkien's college apparently!) Rest of the day in continuing proposal discussions before getting train back.

12th January - train to Oxford, with seven Red Kites on route. Spent the afternoon discussing proposals for smartphone recognition of bird song, followed by a fine meal in an Oxford college, and a few beers to finish off with.

11th January - up at High Lodge again, with just a single flight call adding Crossbill to my year list.

10th January - we had a management training event at High Lodge in Thetford Forest today. Less than an hour before we had to leave to go there, Neil Calbrade texted that he had found a female Scaup on E lake! Nightmare, as I knew I would have no other chances to get there for about a week, so had to hightail it down there. Was worth it though, a top find by Neil and my 153rd species for the Nunnery Lakes. Unfortunately, in the process of twitching it, I accidentally heard a House Sparrow; I'd been hoping to get to 100 for the year list without HS, but it came in at no. 96! Snipe and Marsh Tit also added today though.

2012 at last: 1st-8th January

OK, so have failed to get round to updating this blog for a couple of months. These things happen. I was, as usual, trying to get all my notes in order from 2011 and, also as usual, I'm failing to complete this task. So will just try to be resigned to this, and plod on from here. Anyway, looking back in my notebook, this is what I was seeing a few months back...

Sunday 8th - a couple of hours in the morning spent at Haddiscoe bridge, scanning for the Rough-legged Buzzard without success, although nice to see two Short-eared Owls and variety of other species. Gardening in the afternoon, although the local Little Owls were calling nearby mid-afternoon.

Saturday 7th - we popped over to Ranworth again in the afternoon and failed to even see the RN Duck this time; nothing much else of note.

Friday 6th - work trip to CEH at Wallingford (Oxon), with (as expected) a glut of Red Kites along the north edge of the Chilterns; probably about 50 seen in total.

Wednesday 4th - back at work, but nipped down to the fields near Livermere at lunchtime where I failed to find the reported Iceland Gull.

Tuesday 3rd - the boys and I popped over to Ranworth Broad in the afternoon. However, conditions were poor; strong wind and bad light meant that although I did see the female Ring-necked Duck, views were fairly abysmal (and the boys and a couple of other observers failed to get onto it). A quick look at Strumpshaw on the way home failed to produce either of the two hoped-for specialities: Bittern or Hot Chocolate. More notable though was a flock of 20 Golden Plover west over Poringland as we drove home at dusk.

Monday 2nd - took advantage of some fantastic winter sunshine, and the bank holiday, to spend a few hours at Buckenham in the afternoon, where the adult Lesser White-fronted Goose was seen well with at least 64 Taiga Bean Geese but only 18 White-fronts. Also seen were 2 Peregrines, 20 Ruff, 10 Blackwits and a Dunlin, whilst a Short-eared Owl was observed at dusk across the river at Claxton; initially flying very high to avoid to unwanted attentions of a Carrion Crow.

Sunday 1st - First bird of the year was a nocturnal Robin singing at 0020. In the morning, went to Swillington with Dad where we got a decent selection of species for Jan 1st, most notably the two Twite showing well from Astley Hide, a Sparrowhawk in a somewhat unseasonal display flight, 20 Tree Sparrows and 3 Scaup along the river. We then drove to Bingley for a family party in the afternoon; a few more species added during a short rainy walk in a local cemetary. We then drove back to Norfolk after dark, and on returning, walked around the block picking up calling Tawny and Barn Owls, bringing the day total to 70 species.

Greater White-fronted Geese, Buckenham (the Lesser was too distant!)