Iceland Gull at Lowestoft Fish market

A tour around Lowestoft this morning revealed nothing on Oulton Broad as the water was smothered in boats, you couldn't have put more on there was so many, no waxwings at Oulton broad north and nothing along the River Waveney along Riverside road. 3 Sanderling in the beach corner of Hamilton Dock showed well albeit almost directly into the sunlight. A close Oystercatcher was also seen through the fence too. At Ness Point 8 Purple Sandpiper were on the finger, but were spooked south when a passer-by took off his jacket! They flew north to the rock just 30 yards past the end of Ness Point. I met Danny P and a big, big thankyou for him taking us, (Rob Wil and I) into the Lowestoft Fish market this afternoon, where he drove to an area just before the car- washer place and I saw a group of gulls just in front of us which included a very close adult Iceland Gull! Inevitably they flew (I found a perched Lesser Black- backed Gull and took a few pics) and we eventually located the Iceland Gull on top of the fish market roof, seated just behind a Great Black- backed Gull. Danny went to buy some bread and no sooner had he thrown it down when the Gull flew over including the Iceland Gull that flew round and settled on the ground, it wandered over before flying up the roof once again. Throwing more bread out it flew down again before flying over to the conceret ramp by the fish market where it perched before flying onto an outduct of Ness Point House. Also in the harbour were 2 Shag, 1 around 30 metres out and one really close in the corner. Finally I hope you like the updated and redesigned interface for the website, definitely time for a revamp!

Wild Swans

Just west of Great Yarmouth, I drove today along the A47 and parked at the first layby south of the road and looked across at a group of Swans. At the front of the ploughed field just beyond a meadow I could see (from left to right) 5 Whooper Swans then 2 smaller Bewick's Swans and then another 3 Whooper Swans, 2 sub-adults and i immature, so there were 8 Whooper Swans altogether. They were busy feeding the immature Whooper had brown plumage and the sub- adults had bleached out white instead of the yellow extending triangle on their bills. Next stop, Covehithe church where I counted a flock of 151 lapwing and walking down the path, there was a reasonably confiding immature Brent Goose (dark- bellied variety) feeding at the side of the meadow and the path that transsects. The bird was only 10 metres away and I managed to get a few pics albeit in poor light. The bird was feeding then sat down to have a doze. On Benacre broad itself, I counted 9 Goldeneye (2 males and 7 females) all diving frequently. Up to 4 Little Grebes were seen at the back and west side of the Broad but the hoped for Slav was nowhere to be seen.. I heard a Dunlin-like wader call and I looked up and saw first one and then 2 Sanderling flying low over the Broad and west, this species has become much rarer locally in recent years. A Heron stood at the back with the 180 strong flock of Greylag Geese. A male Marsh Harrier was a surprise (I was expecting a female bird at this time of the year) bird quartering the reeds at the back. Out to sea, around 10 Gannets (9 adults, 1 sub- adult) flew north often at close range. Walking back on the sea, I counted 10 Great Crested Grebe, all singletons doted about plus 5 Red- throated Divers sat on the sea singularly also. 4 Wigeon (2 males and 2 females) seen bobbing up and down on the waves Walking back to Covehithe Chuch, the immature Brent Goose was a little closer to the track, so I took a few more pics albeit in poor light. By the time I drove to Oulton Broad North railway station, the 4 excellent Waxwings were still there, voraciously feeding on crab apples at the side of the south platform, the light was very poor and it started to steadily rain, my cue to leave.

Mutford Short- eared Owl

early evening on Thursday 16th February a Short- eared owl was perced on the far fence and it flew round the meadow and out of sight. It must have been perched on the side postrs because when I walked back it flew over the middle and back of the meadow again. A Woodcock flew up from the middle and flew west.

Song Thrush again

The Song Thrush was in the garden again, at 8am; this time hunting at the back running to the right on characteristic short runs obviously hunting for food. The Thush then ran a little way towards the house on the western most flowerbed and spent some considerable time out of sight behind a bush, so much so that I had to leave at 8.40am to go to work. The Works Bargain Bookstore at Lowestoft now has 4 copies of "Collins Complete Guide to British Garden Wildlife" Photographic Guide at £4.99 each. Highly recommended! (there maybe copies at the Great Yarmouth store too).

Mass Clear Out!

With the temperatures rising and the thaw truly set in there was larger patches of water around today.
Taking an afternoon's annual leave, first stop Bradwell, no sign of the RS or even the Egyptian Geese, Lound Lakes appeared virtually deserted and still almost completely frozen except for a patch of water near the road for the one by the Ashby turn off, a few Tufted Ducks seen, 8 in all.
The other Lound Lakes were almost completely frozen the"Osprey one" had a fifth of the area as open water and the one east of the Causeway had a small area under the tree dominated by Mallards and 1 Tufted Duck. Oulton Broad was disappointing too, save for the Wood Duck seen on the path by the slipway and 3 Egyptian Geese.
The Anglian water Lake by Gunton Hall now had about a third of the lake with open water and much reduced tally of Gadwall 43 seen, once again the males dominated the females in numerical terms by a ratio of 2:1. 8 Tufted Duck and 5 Mute Swan plus a Little Grebe and 3 Goldcrests heard and 1 seen briefly in flight.
Gunton Hall lake was completely frozen, a Grey Heron stood on the ice, little else seen.

Garden Song Thrush

The Song Thrush was seen perched in the middle tree at the back of our garden early morning and at lunchtime 1.10pm was seen in the tree again. It flew down and fed on some bread by the front western edge of the middle flowerbed, it seemed intrigued when I slowly opened the upstairs window and looked at me curiously as I fired off a few shots (just 6 metres away) of what has sadly become a rare sight in the garden, lets hope this leads to more sightings.

The thaw sets in (eventually)

At Oulton Broad, there was a smallish pool by the yacht club which was full of duck including c50 Tufted Duck. I saw Rob Wil by pets corner and the best bird here was the handsome male Wood Duck feeding on food on the path ahead of us. It was of course completely iced over here too.
From the railway bridge, I could see little on Lake Lothing but by the shore side, 61 Dunlin huddled together with 1 Grey Plover, which promptly took to flight when some dog walkers walked by.
Visiting a very icy Leathes Ham, this morning, I visited the pool to the north of the area where an assotment of duck some 31 Pintail (mostly male with 7 females), Gadwall, Wigeon, Tufted Duck were seen in the water and asleep on the ice and including the weird hybrid bird (Tufted X Fudge Duck?) at the back. The redhead Smew was still active swimming at the back, left and right sides and swimming close into the north-west corner again showing well albeit in bad light. She even got up onto the ice on the eaqst side by the edge of the pool and had a quick 40 winks before going back into the water. Amongst the big gulls asleep at the back was the excellent adult Iceland Gull which spent most of its time preening and again mostly back on.
The Iceland Gull stayed quite a while until some stupid teenagers decided to venture out onto the ice. All the Gulls flew including the Iceland.
Big John B, Neville S and Dick W arrived later.
At the Anglian Water Lake opposite Gunton Hall entrance, I counted 131 Gadwall still a good number and 5 Pochard, 5 Wigeon and 30 Tufted Duck, plus 3 Mute Swan and 1 Little Grebe.
Whilst I was here I received a tweet from jeremy G saying he had a BN Grebe showing very well from Gorleston Pier.
By now it was getting noticably less chilly with the temperature gage in the car reading 6 degrees celsius.
When I first arrived, I could see Jeremy G and Ricky F looking out over the south side of Gorleston Pier.
The fantastic Black- necked Grebe was swimming close in just 10 meters away on the sea, creeping close I managed to get some great shots 60 metres from the end of the Pier. By this time we were joined by Paul & Jane and Rob Wil. As always a wonderful bird with prominent red eye and a black spot for the pupil, delicate black upturned bill and the body a ball of fluff. This bird then swam west directly towards Gorleston beach, where it swam about 10 metres off shore before heading north to the breakwater and then retracing its route east on the sea along the south end of the Pier again.
Other observers were excitedly watching the bird too. Looking north from the Pier 3 immature Brent Geese swam along the edge of the water here too.
The Black- necked Grebe was now heading to the open sea and a cargo boat and its pilot pushed the Grebe over the border and further out to sea off Yarmouth harbour. A reasonably close Great Crested Grebe in partial summer plumage swam south across the sea off the end of the Pier.
Between 5 and 5.20pm, I walked over to Fallowfields and immediately saw a Woodcock fly west and over the garden airspace, it appeared to settle in Parkhill Hotel grounds.
Another Woodcock flew west and again over the garden and again settled in Parkhill Hotel grounds. A further bird got up near the north- west wall and the fourth Woodcock was seen in a private garden get up and flying towards Parkhill Hotel grounds.
What a great day and nice to see the sun again!