Minsmere Bound

New Year meant a trip down to Minsmere as I was keen to see the Temminck's again. and to add to my Christmas break feast of avian goodies! I bumped into David B. and his wife (nice to see them both as I haven';t seen them for a while) in the car park who siad it could be seen distantly from North Hide plus Redpoll in with Siskins on the walk to West hide. I made my way to North Hide and at the pond I met Andrew E. Good to see him too. The sun was shining directly at us and it was clear we wouldn't see the bird this way so we walked to the West hide and no sooner had we entered a packed hide, the a chap announced the Temminck's was on the nearest island and so it proved! The fine Temminck's Stint was constantly walking around feeding and as soon as I got onto it walked around the back of the island out of sight! It then flew to an island further away where there were a bonus 2 Water Pipits. The bird then flew back onto an island close to the left hand side of the hide and I took a few pics of it here before it flew once more. A fine Water Pipit flew in reasonably close too. Andrew E. soon left and not long after I saw 4 Goosander straight out in front of island 191, a roosting Redhead and 3 male Goosander swimming right in front of the East hide. Looking around the scrape, Mallard, Teal, a Wigeon and some Pintail too. Walking back by the Alders I spotted a group of c10 Siskin feeding and about a foot down from the top on the left of the main trunk, a fine Redpoll fed too. Back at the Centre, the feeders were full of Blue and Great Tits feeding, joined by up to 2 Coal Tits, shyer than their brethern a wait of 15 minutes and I saw a fine Marsh Tit briefly feed on the more popular left hand feeder briefly. I drove back to Westleton Health car park, emptied my water bottle in the puddle. I walked east to the Archer's archery area and no sooner had I done so than 2 fine Crossbills calling "chip chip" flew over the track and settled just west in trees but I couldn't pick them out again. At Henham quarry over the grassy fields, I saw 6 Curlew and 1 Common Gull. A look around Mutford and Ellough (and College Road failed to reveal any Partidges (fields had a long grassy type crop) other 2 Red- legged Partridge running around in the Industrial Estate and a few flocks of c20, 30, 30 Lapwings around Mutford, plus a male Pheasant by the side of the road. When I arrived home a delightful family of 10 Long-tailed Tits flew in feeding on insects in the front garden bushes literally inches from me, wonderful!

Review of the Year 2025

2025 has been a really good year for scarce birds, particularly in Suffolk! January: The 4th January was my start to the birding year after appalling weather on the first. Henham weighed in with the now rapidly increasing continental coloniser, a Cattle Egret. Compare that with the rapidly decerasing Grey Partridge, a covey of 7 of these delights were seen at Ellough on the same day. Thorpeness Bound on the fifth revealed an American Ring- necked Duck, 2 'Rossicus' Bean Geese in cliff top fields and a Hoodie in fields in the Snape area.

Local Patch birding disturbance x3

On Wednesday 31st December, I started at Mutford Lock, but unfortunately the RT Diver seen by Richard earlier had gone, a child climbing over the railings didn't help. 4 Little Grebes seen and a Redshank seen. Walking along Lake Lothing, I saw 2 well developed Bee Orchid rosettes in the usual place. Checking Ness Point and Hamilton Dock, an Oystercatcher was seen on the finger promontary. Walking along the seawall to Ting Dene static caravan park, I saw a Rock Pipit (unringed) perched on the other side of the seawall but a couple just ahead of me kept flushing it further along 3X it flew back perched up again and then it flew down not to be seen again. As I drew level with the south end of the Ting Dene site, I saw 5 Purple Sandpipers flying in a tight group towards Ness Point but they didn't settle here and they flew back to where I stood and settled on a part of the old seawall before eventually flew up and settled on seaward side of the seawall where they roosted until a dog walker peered over and looked exactly where they were and flushed them as they all flew out to sea.

Black- winged Kite at Ludham Bridge

On Tuesday 30th December I drove and arrived at Ludham Bridge at first light, I parked up and could hear Cranes calling to the west of the road. Instead I walked east to where the BWK had supposedly roosted the previous night. After 2 hours no sign but I did see 3 fine Cranes in flight then they crossed over and flew north. Later on a further 2 Cranes did the same thing. Amazingly, they are my first of the year. 2 fine Bewick's Swans calling flew north behind us, smaller swans with shorter necks and yellow just at the base of the bill. Especially nice to see. Also a Red Kite flew in from the south. Just after 10, the chap I stood next to said the Kite had just flown in and it had settled in a large tree amongst a group of trees amongst some Wood Pigeons and initially it was surprisingly hard to pick up, especially with a main horizontal branch of a tree obscuring its head! But sure enough it was there, the fine adult Black- winged Kite and perched back on for some 10 minutes before it flew to a line of trees where it was very heavily obscured but just about viewable with the white breast feathers blowing in the wind, occasionally the grey back and black shoulders could be seen and even the head too. It then flew again and settled in a bush by a marsh where it could be seen clearly, if distantly. After 15 minutes it flew back hovering then dropping into a field where it caught a bird. It was then seen flying over the river to the north, hunting, hovering and then finally flying to a large tree on my walk back to the car. All seen almost constantly over a 2 hour span. Butr always distant and never close. A fine Jack Snipe flew up and over from one of the dykes, I was the only one to notice it!

No show Shearwater and drake Smew

On Saturday 27th December, I was shopping at the sales in town with Jenny & Matthew at Marks in the town when I heard of a drake Smew at Carlton Marshes and eventually I arrived at Carlton Marshes carpark, I then looked on the phone and it said a Great Shearwater seen earlier at North Norfolk had been seen going south from Winterton and if it continued on its current trajectory it would with great luck be seen shearing south off Ness Point at 12.10pm, with the hardened seawatchers assembling at Ness Point, I immediately diverted and reached there at about 11.40am. Despite a concentrated seawatch until 1.05pm no sign of the hoped for Shearwater, Scroby sands probably forced it further out to sea. Great Shearwater is a big bogey bird for me having missed them off the Scillies on a Pelagic years ago, I will have to try again! The only birds seen was a Diver on the sea and several c10 Divers flying past and c5 large Auks flying past too. Also seen on the sea were around c50 Wigeon, a group was on the sea together. After I left I drove back to carlton Marshes and a large group assembled just beyond the Moorings Hide revealed the fine male Smew at the back of the lagoon due west of where we stood. In the same area as the RN Grebe earlier in the year. The bird was a fine 'white nun' with white plumage black 'cracking lines' on its plumage, black on the top of the back and a black face patch, a stunning bird as always (but they are never close, I would dearly love to get a nice pic of this bird). The bird swam left and the gradually right until out of view. Also seen was a Great White Egret flying left, a female Marsh Harrier quartering the reeds and a Buzzard that flew low over the marsh.

Aberrant Stonechat still at Netposts

On Boxing Day Friday 26th December, late morning I checked Hamilton Dock, Ness Point area and very little was seen. A keen east wind and very high tide provided very bracing conditions. At the Netposts, the newly cut Denes area east of the Netposts a dog was running around and flushed, 4 Meadow Pipits, they were joined by another quartet of Pipits and settle in the northern section of the southern netposts. Resigned to a poor walk around, I was loading the camera in the car and the Pipits flew up joined by a Chat and the latter bird settled on the exterme south=east corner post of the nortern netposts, it was the fine aberrant Stonechat. Another pair of dog walkers were walking up to it but I consoled myself by the just admiring for a minute before it flew and totally disappeared, I didn't see it again, despite a thorough search. Later on 10 Meadow Pipts were on this part of the Denes. A look at Links Road car park revealed around 30 immature Herring Gulls, c10 adults, 20 BH Gulls and 1 adult unringed Mediterranean Gull plus an assortment of Carrion Crows with one showing white bar on its secondaries on both side of its wings.

Stunning festive Eastern Black Redstart at Sheringham

On Thursday 25th December, Christmas Day, I travelled up to Sheringham. This was because on the day previously, sensational news had broken of an Eastern Black Redstart which had just been found along Sheringham Promenade, but unfortunately I was working Christmas Eve and I wasn't leaving work until 2pm, just too late to arrive within daylight. With us only just past the shortest day of the year, light was at a premium and I knew daylight would start fading just after 3pm. The journey time from Gorleston was about 1 hour 20 minutes at least, the light would have been going and with no optics I decided to play it cool and wait until the bird had been seen the next day. So on Christmas Day as soon as the first notification that the bird was still there, 8.38am, I leapt into the car and on the drive up I saw a fine Red Kite flying over fields just south-west of Repps with Bastwicke village, up to 4 Kestrels (in differing locations) seen hunting low over the road and 4 were seen on the journey back too plus 2 Buzzards seen flying over too. By 10am, I was pulling into at Sheringham. Parking just by The Esplanade (free for 24 hours), there were some birders looking around some cultivated gardens area just north of thge seawatching shelter. The bird had been seen here but wasn't currently on show, a lady had seen the bird on the beach, so I went down there no sign of it. Back at the top, by the cultivated gardens, I saw a Robin, Dunnock and by a concrete stream area, a Grey Wagtail was feeding then it flew inland. By this time 1 hour and 15 minutes had passed, so I walked down onto Promenade again and walking up to the Lifeboat station saw Paul & Jane F walking back, they had just arrived and seen the bird 6X but for them always it had been disturbed by passers by. We teamed up and I hoped the famous Ferguson luck would rub off onto me. Initially, we went up to the cliff top as we thought someone was waving to us saying they had the bird. False alarm so we walking past some closed chalets and I was slightly ahead of them past the last closed chat was a little alcove and incredibly the fabulous Eastern Black Redstart flew down and flopped onto the ground barely 2 metres away from me, an absolutely wondrous bird, with grey head, back, black breast and vibrant brick red underparts, what a stunner! I saw it for all of 5 seconds, marvelling at such a beautiful bird, before it flew up to the roof of the closed chalets but it vanished. So Paul, Jane and I after searching along the beach front walked up top again. The bird was seen just left of the ramp up to the cliff tip and a green grassy area bordered by a concrete path and railings by the cliff edge, the fantastic male Eastern Black Redstart was feeding along the edge often underneath the seats and it constantly right along, I joined some photographers and the decided to position myself on the right hand end of the green. This proved to be a wise move as the bird was constantly running this way and it fed right in front of us for sometime before it met a fence, it then ran left a little before feeding again to the right, again giving superlative views and taking many pictures and in perfect light too! It then flew up to a wall perched here for a minute or too before hopping down and then out of sight. Looking closely at the bird and the wide gape, yellow at the base, plus brown fringing on the greater coverts, it might just be a young bird born this year so maybe a 1st winter male? The bird then disappeared onto the steps and hopped out of view. It was amazing to see this Chat constantly for 10 minutes, this particular sub- species is one I had always wanted to see hearing famous tales of bird at Salisbury Cathedral, one I couldn't go and see during lockdown in January 2021 at Snettisham, this particular bird exceeded all expectations and I was thrilled with the pics I was able to obtain too, conditions were sublime, the weather was perfect and the bird was particularly obliging for all of those magical 10 minutes, especially when it fed along the Promenade. Merry Christmas to one and all!