Let's Twitch Again

Like We Did Last Summer

As far as the weather was concerned it was perfect for a Twitch or anything else for that matter. However, with overnight temperatures still hovering in low double figures it was though that too may have attracted a Moth or so but no such luck.

We are blessed with having all 3 of the more common Owl species (Tawny, Barn and Little) either resident or of the latter semi-resident, so no surprises then when the Twitch kicked off with the familiar hooting’s of the former, which is the usual way of things on such days.

TAWNY OWL

Rising properly at 06:00 from Song Thrush to Blackbird were either seen or heard from the doorstep before venturing to the bank of the River Stour no more than 300 yards away. The much hoped for Reed Bunting and Kingfisher were both ‘no shows’, the later remaining that way throughout but the Bunting being ‘ticked’ later at the Irrigation Pond. The Cetti's Warblers have not returned so far as we can tell.

WATER RAIL (heard only)

 COAL TIT

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER  

A Cormorant made the usual meal of getting airborne we had reached the point of Common Buzzard. Only Mallard and Goldfinch were disappointingly addition across the southern part of the RA so time to venture into Bournemouth International Airport territory which all counts. There, a number of considered new-arrival Lesser Black-backed Gulls had seemingly moved in since our last visit with the almost guaranteed Stock Doves and dozens of Rooks hitting the log almost simultaneously.

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL

Driving to the northern part of the property the least expected and ‘the’ bird of the day started ‘singing’ as walking the bridleway and soon showed itself as a male Blackcap. Not unusual for one or two of these Warblers to overwinter here but a bit of a task locating them. Tufted Duck numbers had for the second day running increased by one, this time a male, while the Little Grebe prove to be no problem at all so onward, at 11:00 to the Sewerage Works fence-line where expectations are always high. All species up to Chiffchaff, which have now reduced to about a dozen or so, where seen here with the Long-tailed Tits being almost in blizzard proportions.

BLACKCAP

 TUFTED DUCK

 STARLING

CHIFFCHAFF

 FIRECREST

GOLDFINCH

 GOLDCREST

 LONG-TAILED TIT

Our beat of the Moors River also came up trumps with a nice bunch of Teal along with the first Geese (Canada's) of any description for a couple of weeks now plus the only Mute Swan of the day which is unusual. Expectations from the Heath were nonexistent as it has been by and large baron of late produced just singles of Stonechat and Dartford Warbler making for ideal ‘bonus birds’. 

NUTHATCH

 GREENFINCH

 DARTFORD WARBLER

Controversial or not, the smart looking Feral Pigeon joined the list before an all too long lull, after which both Kestrel and Grey Heron were seen from the homestead. The Twitch ended on a none too shabby 53 from this relatively tiny postage stamp - if I have counted them correctly??

PS - some of the images are from our archive to spice things up a bit……..

The Last Knockings of Norfolk

so the continuation of Norfolk after the News
It has become traditional, during these 6 years parked on my friend’s lawn, to undertake a Mini-Twitch (a dedicated chase after Birds to log as many as possible over a given period) on the first day of each month (it’s a boy thing) which I will busy myself with today, but before that……..

On yesterday's findings alone it looks very much that the above will amount to

Slim Pickings

This bit wount take long, but something of a good start as the overnight weather conditions remained much as the day before, save for a hike to +11°C during the hours before midnight and producing both a

PALE BRINDLED BEAUTY

 along with this

BLACK CLOCK BEETLE

thought to be something 'new' to me?

Otherwise, there was an addition to the Tufted Duck community involving one more male bird

which were additionally augmented by a pair of Teal

 male

female

along with a few signs of Spring across the RA 

 SNOWDROPS
and

CROCUS

  Followed by our final day in Norfolk was altogether better weather-wise and to make it almost perfect the birds also turned up. Back to the coast and after wading through a regiment of those nifty little Waders 

scattered across the car park and sea wall,

 TURNSTONE

 The first addition to the Year List of the day

Dave immediately picked up on the object of our desire a ‘first calendar year’ (juvenile) Caspian Gull. A scarce visitor to our shores this Gull, a close relative to our own Herring Gull, can present
some identification difficulties.

 CASPIAN GULL 

(lower) with adult

 HERRING GULL

for comparison

 Caspian Gull World Distribution Map

 The

 CORMORANT

 was just incidental

but as such a fine specimen thought worthy of inclussion here.

 Further inland, at yet another location slipped from the memory bank,

it took no time at all to spot the sought after

WAXWING

which stayed put for just 2 clicks before disappearing, never to be seen again.

Unusual to see just a singleton, they do like flocking, and such poor representation

is surely worthy of a better shot from the archive!

Before zooming off to the

we make time for a little Journalistic Licence as we have forgotten to include 

one of the most important species of the whole trip, from day one!

 Nobody Told Me You Had to PAY!

Good numbers of

TREE SPARROWS
viewed from this window. 

Few, if any, resident in Dorset these days?

Over the Bridge of Sighs to rest my eyes in shades of green,

under ‘dreaming spires’ to Itchycoo Park, that's where I've been

 The Small Faces

and much better views of

WHOOPER SWAN

MUNTJAC

We should have mentioned before, not only RARE, Norfolk is the only place in Great Britain
that I have ever encountered this enigmatic raptor and on this occassion the closest ever
with first opportunities to both photograph and video (all be they poor) it was the weathe Sir!

ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD

This sort of opportunity doesn't visit you every day!

Across the board there are thought to be even more of the 'unclicked' species from Norfolk,
tucked away in the archive, which, when time allows, we will present for your pleasure.

PS

For now, we thank you wholeheartedly for tuning in and already we have an assurance 

from one our former regular readers to introduce us to the 800+ people on his Twitter Account.

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