Black Redstarts at Ness Point

On Sunday 16th September, It was great to see 4 Black Redstarts in the usual place at Ness Point mid morning, in the usual place at Ness Point this morning, I could hear the adult male singing as I arrived and there was a female bird just the other side of the fence. The male bird was seen around the tractor, what appeared to be 2 immature birds plus an immature male bird not as strikingly marked as the other male. Considering the plumage there could well have been 5 birds present? The 2 immature birds spent a lot of time by the northern fence area. I managed a few pictures but the arrival of the Lowestoft Bird Club chairman and his ringing gear, meant I decided to leave.

Return to usual Lowestoft fare

On Saturday 15th September early evening 5pm onwards, a look around "Flycatcher" (any Flycatcher seen here now would be a red letter day!) Alley, Lowestoft North Denes, Net posts, Ness Point and Corton OSW revealed precisely no sightings. Lowestoft North Denes can be honourably excepted as someone was flying a horrible inexcrable whining (sounding exactly like a Luftwaffe Stuka bomber) drone over the middle of the Denes scaring the wits out of the local 3 Greenfinches seen there. Drones are one of my pet hates, together with the totally unwanted predictive text on sites like this and twitter that converts Denes to Denies! That and dog excellent collected in bags and left on bushes/ floor make up my 3 choices for Room 101! The only reason I am writing this blog post is that I heard a lovely and wonderful Black Redstart sing briefly at the usual place at Ness Point.

Corton OSW finally produces the goods!

On Monday 10th September delighted to see the juvenile female Blackcap, with her chestnut cap a little more pronounced now, showing by the arch near the back bedroom window hawking for insects with a couple of Blue Tits and a Great Tit for company at around 7.45am. She'd gone a minute later so sadly no chance of a photo. On Friday 14th September, hearing that Steve J (the Scores birder) was back and had seen a few goodies at Corton OSW, I tried my luck, I personally hadn't seen anything here all autumn, arriving at 6pm and I immediately saw a Whinchat perched on the eastern most fence which was a great start. As the sun was shining brightly from the west, I decided to walk around the OSW in a clockwise direction taking the southern, then western and as I was walking along the northern fence, a fine and obliging Redstart was sat in a bramble bush, bathed in the lovely golden sun. I managed to get a few pics before it hopped deeper into the bush. Walking along the eastern side, 2 Whinchats seen on the fence whilst 1 Whinchat was seen in the compound, so 3 in total. A dog walker spooked 2 of them who flew to the weeds and perched on the weed tops by the eastern edge of the field just south of the sewage works. Finally a male Kestrel perched on the 30 mph sign by the road and only took flight when the car drew level.

The Legendary Earl Slick at Norwich

On Tuesday 11th September I attended an Earl Slick Q&A session at the Norwich Arts centre, St. Benedicts Street, Norwich. As a big Bowie fan and I also really liked his album with David Coverdale "Into the Light" plus his work with John Lennon on the "Double Fantasy" album, it was a must attend event for me. The format of the evening was a chap introduced him and would prompt him with recollections about his life. The chap made a joke about touring the country at Hull, Colchester they hadn't quite been to Ibiza but here they were at the Norfolk Broads, a nice pun taken from the very famous line from Bowie's seminal classic "Life on Mars!" He started he learnt the American version of "Tales of the Unexpected", he learnt on the guitar as a young lad. At the tender age of 20 he was invited to audition for a big star in New York, he worked out it was for David Bowie replacing the legendary Mick Ronson on guitar. He was asked to play along to some basic guitar tracks supplied by Bowie himself in a darkened room with red lights on the control panel. After about 20 mins Bowie walked in and he knew he had the gig. he joined Bowie for the Diamond Dogs tour. EL stated that Mick Ronson was Bowie's best guitarist. His two favourite licks were both David Bowie's tracks "Stay" & "Valentines day" on the Next day album. He helped compose the hit "Fame" with DB and John Lennon but was off his head for most of the time and when he came to meet John lennon again for the Double Fantasy sessions he arrived around an hour early at JL's house and was shown into a large room, he was a bit start struck at meeting his hero who walked in straight away, who said hi slick do nice to see you again & EL couldn't remember and JL ribbed him about this afterwards. At some stage he tired of rock and roll went into selling houses. Shortly after Bowie rang him to see if he could play with him again and was asked to audition again, this was to see if he still looked the part and could still play and EL stated he wasn't go through all that cr*p, so he was in again! EL said the "Reality tour was one of the best tours he had played on. Asked him why was the Reality tour such a happy time/ best tour he was on. Both he and DB had cleaned up by thenHe said there were no s stirrers in the band then and everyone got on really well. Another chap in the audience asked him about his work with David Coverdale on the "Into the Light" album, he said it was a really good but underrated album, nothing like his Whitesnake stuff and he wasn't going to see DC again soon when he visited Lake Tahoe. He was asked about his name, El said he came from an Italian immigrant family and his name wouldn't cut it in the business, so when he was cooking he put too much oil in the pan and it created an Oil Slick slightly changed to give him his iconic stage name! Finally we queued up to get his autograph and our picture taken with him, I asked him if was doing the Mike Garson Bowie celebration tour to which he replied he didn't know yet (despite his name being advertised as definitely appearing! let's hope he does).

The Benacre Wryneck & a nice sprinkling of Whinchat too, despite the dogs!

On Sunday 9th September, a walk to Kessingland/ Benacre sluice revealed 3 Whinchat and a pair of Stonechats being hassled by a group of people letting a group of Beagles run riot around the whole area even swimming in the river and hassling a poor fisherman. Over the Benacre side a group of people walking 20 labrador type dogs were running riot around there too. Disturbance on a hitherto industrial scale, this has surely got to stop on a nature reserve where dogs are supposed to be controlled on a lead. Hardly surprising the Wryneck couldn't be seen. Meeting the finders Paul & Jane, Jane informed me Mat D had refund seeking sanctuary along the western ridge of the one remaining pit and walking on the western ridge we saw the bird, the excellent Wryneck, on some thick branches and it hopped to the ground and then it disappeared. It was later seen perched on the branch and then hopped around it then fed on the ground. It then disappeared behind a bush before appeared again underneath it before it disappeared and seen feeding way off to the left.

Wildlife seen on Jersey trip (a non- birding trip)

From Tuesday 4th July to Saturday 8th July, Jenny & I had a mini break in Jersey. On Wednesday 4th July, a Buzzard flew over the entrance to the Jersey War Tunnels. By the west coast by the Nazi gun tower, an incredible tally of 18 Wheatears (a fall of birds?) were seen plus around 6 Linnets flew over. On Thursday 6th July, at Jersey zoo, a Red Squirrel was seen by some trees near the entrance Another 3 singletons Red Squirrels seen too. A Hummingbird Hawk Moth was also seen briefly too. On Thursday 7th July, at Qued dunes just before the nature reserve we stopped half way between car parks and in the dunes by some scrub, I spotted a Jersey Green Lizard, an excellent female Jersey Green Lizard, moved and then I spotted her. (Around Wall Lizard sized, green with bars down the back). For about 30 seconds, she stayed motionless before scuttling deeper into the scrub. On Friday 8th july, at Mont Orguel castle, 6 Wall Lizards seen and a Buzzard flew over distant hill top. On Saturday an interesting caterpillar seen on the Oued Dunes whilst searching for Lizard, plus a flying Wall Brown butterfly and several Sky Larks inadvertently disturbed whilst looking for Green Lizards, to no avail this time.

A half dozen Whinchat

On Monday 3rd September, directly after work, I headed down to the North denies, seeing Rob H, we walked 2/3 of the way south and first one Whinchat popped up and then by the weedy, Alexander planted area, 4 Whinchat perched up and a further 2 Whinchat perched up, proving there were 6 birds in total. They were very wary no doubt being constantly disturbed in this well walked spot. On the beach, 4 Turnstone seen including 1 very fine summer plumaged individual.