Stunning festive Eastern Black Redstart at Sheringham

On Thursday 25th December, Christmas Day, I travelled up to Sheringham. This was because the day before, sensational news had broken of an Eastern Black Redstart had just been found along Sheringham Promenade, but unfortunately I was working Christmas Eve and I wasn't leaving work until 2pm. 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. Journeytime 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, 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 2020 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. Merry Christmas!

2 Redwings over the Burrage Centre

On Tuesday 24th December, as I was walking in at 8.30am, 2 calling Redwings flew low over the Burrage Centre and due south-west.

Shore Larks and Snow Buntings brings festive cheer

On Sunday 21st December, the shortest day, a grey and murky start meant I wasn't out until mid- morning where I drove to Kessingland (my destination Kessingland North Beach) by the Cottages parked up and walked past Heathlands and checking Heathlands copse, I heard a Lapwing call, first I spotted a lone individual which was soon joined by a further 9 and then 10 flew south- eastwards. There was no route through to the Hollies safer steps so I risked the Heathlands steps, a couple of steps were out near the bottom, but they could be safely navigated with care. My trusty wellies meant I could make a beeline straight for the beach traversing the myriad pools, with typically a foot depth of water. I saw a birder intently staring at something, it proved to be the quartet of Shore Larks feeding intently 20 metres in front of us. I respected their distance and managed a few pics albeit in very poor light. The birder stated that he had seen 40 Snow Buntings were to the north and a further 30 to the south. He departed, no sooner had he done so then a magical flock or a flutter of c40 Snow Bunting flew around in a circle, where I was, with the lovely twinkling calls before they flew south. Always a wondrous sound conjuring up the very essence of Christmas! I watched the Shore Larks for a further 10 minutes before they flew north. I decided to amble south to see if I could relocate the Snow Buntings, I couldn't sadly, but I did see 2 very low flying Brent Geese over the beach and they carried on flying south, perhaps Benacre bound. The marshy pool failed to reveal anything other than 3 Magpie and 3 Blackbirds.

Aberrant Stonechat at the Netposts

On Saturday 20th December, I finally caught up with the aberrant Stonechat at Lowestoft net posts late morning. I had missed it and the Purple Sands last weekend, but it was immediately spotted on the northern most Netposts area. Very unhelpfully, the logs piled up have a temorary fence either side which means you have to walk 50 metres north to traverse the west side path of the Netposts. The Stonechat had partially albinistic plumage around its face and was nice to see. It's forehead had 2 circular bits of white a little on the left side crown, with some white on the primaries (right side half the primaries, left side a third of the primaries) and even secondaries (a third on the right side) seen reasonably well in flight. At rest it showed white on the closed wingtips too. On the right side of its face is showed a white 'moustachial stripe'. On it's right side it had a 'white collar' encircling the face/ lower ear coverts. It wasn't particularly obliging except one time late on when I was able to clamber up the mound by the road and get a few shots reasonably close c30 metres away(these are the pics shown). Its wariness hopefully bodes well, it won't be a victim of the killer Sparrowhawk that frequents this area. A fascinating bird and so glad I could study and photograph, it finally. A Wren was seen foraging in the grass and popped up briefly albit heavily obscured by vegetation. A look on the seawall revealed 2 very brief Purple Sandpipers by the inner seaward side ledge which very difficult top observe as the seaward part of that I normally walk on, was lethal and extremely slippery, so for safety's sake, I had to lean over the temporary wooden barrier to view them. 2 Meadow Pipits on the seawall were nice but not obliging at all. Finally, I heard a Grey Wagtail calling in flight again just west of the Netposts but I couldn't see it. Nothing at Ness Point (save an Oystercatcher on the promontary), Hamilton Dock, Wind turbine or Hamilton Road area. Update on the Cotoneater bushes in the garden, the 5 Blackbirds have almost completely stripped the berries on these bushes.

Minsmere Bound & 5 Blackbirds munching berries!

On Saturday 13th December I drove down to Minsmere to buy the newly published Suffolk Birds 2024 being the report on bird sightings in Suffolk in 2024. Nice to have 11 photos (Whooper Swan, Surf Scoter, Shag, Hoopoe, Wryneck, Kestrel, Peregrine, Shore Lark, Rose-coloured Starling, Fieldfare and Lapland Bunting published.Also published was my article about the discovery of a Ross's Goose at Somerleyton way back in 2008, although the identification was in no doubt it was only recently accepted as a wild bird. Driving away down to Westleton, a Song Thrush flew across the road and driving towards Dunwich along the Westleton Heath road, a female Sparrowhawk flew towards the car and right past on the left hand side only being about 2 foot off the ground obviously after prey. On the garden birding front, up to 5 Blackbirds at any one time constantly coming to our berry laden Cotoneaster bush, please leave at least a few for the hoped for Waxwing visitors over Christmas (one can only hope!)

Scoter off Hopton

On Wednesday 10th December, I left work at 2,30pm and drove straight out to Beach Road, Hopton and I soon located the Common Scoter flock around 60 strong but try (a little too far out for me and the light was going which also didn't help) as I might I couldn't pick out a Velvet and only a few flapped their wings none with white showing. Mostly half were males and half females.

Return to Cymisfael stream

On Sunday 7th December, after visiting Judy and seing my sister-in-law. I drove to Llanddarog, my late Mother's last home village and had a nostalgic visit to Cymisfael stream. On the journey over, in misly rain it was lovely to see a Red Kite circling over Cross Hands roundabot. There was misly rain and a keen westerly breeze which sadly put the birds off as all I saw was a Redwing calling and flying south, I heard Goldcrests and that was it, no sign of the hoped for Dipper or Raven.

Eurasian Scops Owl sensation at Dunvant Park, Swansea

On Saturday 6th December night mid evening, a tantalising text stating a magnificent Scops Owl had bee seen in Dunvant Park, Swansea, just 20 minutes from where I was staying at North Swansea Premier Inn had me intrigued it had been seen in neighbouring gardens and flown into a Eucalyptus tree along the Western edge of Dunvant Park in the Killay district of Swansea. I got myself ready and no sooner had I done so than another text camethrough saying it had just been seen 9.50pm. I have always been intrigued and wanting to see a Scops Owl in the UK ever since Richard Millington had put an entry in his wonderful "A Twitcher's Diary" book and he had even included a fabulous drawing of the one he had seen in Dummer, Hampshire, quite a few years ago. Of course, I had suffered a double dip with John H. and Tony S. when we had missed both the Yellow Warbler and Scops Owl sightings in Kent in December 2024, we had gone and failed to see both. Within 30 minutes, I was driving along Dunvant road, having seen the sign to the entrance to the park, I parked behind 4 cars mounted half on the pavement which looked suspiciously like birders cars! (They were!) It was pitch dark but I followed the obvious track heading west dissecting the middle of the parks environs and I was on the look out for people specifically birders. A gaggle of 4 people could be seen at a cross section of the path and one raised binoculars, I knew I had found them. Suddenly a powerful light lit up the park and illuminated the lower right hand frond of a tree around 150 metres to the right of us, perched on a branch was a small Owl, was it... it? I raised my bins and saw the delicate subtle greyish- brown plumage, small size (like a very slim small Little Owl!) and lovely yellow eyes, it was the magnificent Eurasian Scops Owl! Native to the Mediterranean, this nocturnal huneter is a rare vagrant to these shores. No sooner had we seen the bird in the powerful torchlight then the light was abruptly extinguished like a sudden order for a blackout. These were Swansea birders, proper field birders who were concerned and rightly so not to disturb the bird or its intended hunting regime for the following evening. They were armed with thermal imagers and they could easily pick out the bird, which with the naked eye was near impossible to locate. The bird must have flown left as it was then seen in another tree on the extreme western edge of the path and the birders waited until their Carmarthenshire birders arrived just 10 minutes later and the light pierced the darkness once more and richly illuminated this magnificent Owl particularly when it looked at us with its piercing yellow eyes, and incredible sight! It appeared totally unperturbed by the light and looked around and remained on this perch for the duration of my stay. One further couple appeared (I later learnt this was one of the excellent Birwatch magazine's correspondents who obviously lived nearby!) and again the Owl was illuminated once more again for a short duration of a couple of minutes before most of us decided to leave. Unfortunately, I had not brought my camera set up, so no pics of this bird I'm afraid. Instead, I have some Library pics from photos I took of a Scops Owl in Lesvos Spring 2014. LIBRARY PICS OF EURASIAN SCOPS OWL LESVOS SPRING 2014 BELOW

Kites seen on journey to Wales

I took my usual journey over to Wales on Saturday 6th December, to see my sister Judy and along the way, I noted Red Kites drifting over the M25 (2) with particular concentrations at Reading, Newberry and the Swindon Hill 2, 3 and 2 respectively.

Benacre dip

On Wednesday 3rd December, leaving work early I drove straight down to Covehithe, A Dunnock near Benacre Broad. I had to walk through the weedy field, as cliff erosion meant the well worn path was on the very edge of the cliffs. As I walked to the srea, dog walkers had just gone through, not a good omen. I checked the area both the beach, cliffs and cliff face right up to the pillbox in the sea, no sign of the Twite, one Robin was on territory by weeds in the area where they had been seen. Back at the Broad, loads of 300+ Teal and 200+ Wigeon plus 2 male Pintail and finally an immature female Marsh Harrier quartered the reeds at the back. Disappointing, especially as they had seen 40 minutes before (at 2pm) I had arrived at 2.40pm.