Poor Seawatch

With the winds still blowing from the north I had high hopes of goodies being seen past Ness Point. There were but as usual I didn't see them, too late I should have got their earlier than late morning. I had 2 Shelduck flying south and groups of 5, 15, 5 and 6 Common Scoter flying north.

Around 12 Teal settled on the sea before flying south another 8 Teal flew south and that's all I saw in a half hour seawatch. 

Wryneck

Yesterday, Saturday 28th August not feeling well (another migraine!) I was limited to watching the back garden late afternoon and a female Whitethroat worked her way down the west hedgerow to the Holly tree.

Today, a male Whitethroat was seen on the bramble over next door's fence.

A BINS message about 2 local Lowestoft Wrynecks (one at Gunton well found by Rob Wil, one at Carlton Marshes excellently found by Chris M) soon had me looking around Gunton Beach dunes where I saw Rob Win, Rob Wil and Andrew E. The Wryneck had been seen briefly by Rob Wil and Andrew E had seen a probable Barred Warbler in a sycamore tree just east of a sycamore tree I had found one in some 15 years ago!

Peering intently in all I saw were several 3 Whitethroats, a fine pair of Blackcaps and several Linnets and Greenfinches. 

More people arrived, including Ricky F, whilst the 2 Robs and Andrew left and after we had thoroughly scoured the area, as I was talking to other birders present, at 12.45pm a distinctive bird got up and flew presumably from the bushes behind (west of us) over the grass and I got my bins on it quickly, it was the excellent Wryneck, it flew down into a great swathe of brambles and out of sight never sadly to be seen again.

The 7 note whistle heralded a Whimbrel flying south over the sea.

Jon E then joined us, and showed us his usual excellent pics. In my opinion, he is one of the top 2 Suffolk photographers and I can only aspire to get the sort of quality shots that he regularly obtains.

An afternoon walk around Corton Old rail track and sewage works revealed few birds due to the very strong westerly winds. All i saw were several Migrant hawkers, Common darters,& Speckled Wood butterfly plus 3 very large Mushrooms/ toadstools by the copse.

Back in the garden, a Red Admiral brave the high winds & I heard the distinctive call of an overflying Whimbrel whilst in the house but could not pick up when I went outside.

Windy conditions and more Garden Delights

North- east winds led to 7 calling Whimbrel flying south over Gorleston Library car park and the Lowestoft rd area at 8.55am on Thursday 26th August. A seawatch in the evening revealed 3 Arctic Skuas flying south over the sea with little else seen.

A seawatch again from Ness Point early on Friday 7.30 to 8.40am on the 27th revealed 2 probable Pomarine Skuas flying north separately but they were virtually on the horizon, the squat body shape and flight pattern suited this species. A further 3 Arctic Skuas, 2 and 1 respectively flew south. Whilst sandwich tern flew south and rafts of 30, 10 and 10 Common Scoters and a lone female later flew north. 

A walk down Corton Old rail track revealed nothing save for 2 Migrant Hawkers but when I arrived home the garden was alive with birds again, with 15 Blue Tit and 10 long- tailed Tits very active again all over the garden they were joined loosely by up to 3 Chiff- Chaff, 2 of their number even bathed for some time in the bird bath.

Best of all was a wonderful Hobby, only my second garden record, which I was alerted to at 6.22pm by the alarm calls of the local House Martins. This very agile, slim Falcon scythed its way quickly over the Fallowfields and west over the garden, clipping the garden airspace before disappearing all too quickly west and out of sight. This has been my only Suffolk sighting of this species this year so far.

Not to be out done, another second record for the garden was seen in the form of a Lesser Whitethroat they fed around the Wisteria close to the garage. I managed a few shots of the bird. One Long- tailed Tit ventured even closer frequenting the Honeysuckle in front of the bedroom window. A Robin was also seen later.

Garden visitors galore!

Around 8 o'clock this morning I heard the familiar harsh grating "chuck chuck chuck" cry of a Grey Squirrel, only the third I have seen in the garden (3 times too many!) and I went out to investigate and saw it perched on the back fence, it ran off next door when our cat came out to chase it off, hurrah!

Cleo, our cat, is very well trained she doesn't catch birds but chases off Grey Squirrels!

In the evening, at around 6pm when it started to rain, a whole horde of Blue Tits of around 15 in total, were very active feeding on the insects on the honeysuckle just outside the conservatory and by the holly bush in front of the kitchen window and all over the garden. They were joined by around 5 Great Tits.

But I was delighted to add a new species to the garden list, a fine male Lesser Whitethroat that was seen in the Copper Beech at the back, it later reappeared and I managed to obtain a record shot of it. We also managed to see a fine Song Thrush our first in the garden since the very cold spell during the wintry weather and encouragingly a brief glimpse of a young Song Thrush on the apex of the garage roof. Plus 2 Blackbirds, 1 female and i juvenile bird. Not to be outdone a very obliging male Whitethroat fed on the honeysuckle right by the conservatory and was phot'd in very poor light (it was raining) Why so much activity? I can only assume the rain had driven some insects out as the garden was alive with avian visitors and forced down the migrant Lesser Whitethroat.

It also helps our neighbours are on holiday and thankfully they have taken their two very noisy children with them, so we are blissfully peace and quiet at the moment, instead of having to put up with their constant screaming and shouting the whole time.

Whinchats, Wheatears & Mystery Bush Cricket finally ID'd

Taking TOIL this afternoon, because I had to work in the evening, I did a bit of a seawatch off Ness Point hoping to see a Cory's or at least some Skuas, there was a good passage of Terns, with 100 or so Common Terns seen and 4 Sandwich Terns flying mostly south, but little else. Usual seawatch fayre for me and I gave up after half an hour. Having better luck on the North Denes autumn migration has finally started, and both Robert Wil & I saw 3 Wheatears by the Net posts several Swallows flying around the sea wall including some of their number resting on the west facing slopes. Several Linnets seen on the Denes and around 10 Pied Wagtails and between the Oval and the Links rd car park.  4 fine Whinchat perched on top of the weedy vegetation, 2 perched on the same plant even.

On Sunday 22nd August in the garden, a calling Chiff Chaff was seen around the garden and even perched on a rose just 2 feet from the open conservatory doors, whilst 2 Migrant Hawkers flew around the garden feeding on insects.

Take a bow, Mr John H who has identified a mystery Bush cricket that I saw at Lake Scotini path in Corfu, last August and has remained a mystery for the past year until today.

Lake Scotini was one of the regular childhood haunts of one of my heroes, the late great Gerald Durrell who has done so much for wildlife conservation and also wrote some really entertaining and educational books too.

John has ID'd it as a Eupholidoptera chabrieri. I'm sure he's right. There is no English name, but I found someone on the Net calling it Chabrier's Bush Cricket which sounds appropriate.

Anyway, well done & thanks very much John for your help.

Southern Hawker

A birdless walk along the Corton rail track late afternoon today, revealed up to 5 Hawker dragonflies, 4 Migrant Hawkers and 1 superb Southern Hawker which spent a lot of time investigating me, it was a stunning male, sadly it was never seen perched. The reason for so few birds were the rather windy conditions.

Butterflies seen included up to 4 Holly Blues on the wing.

Meanwhile, in the garden a calling Chiff- Chaff was heard at the back.

Young Lesser Black- back

On Wednesday (18th August) early morning, a young Lesser Black- backed Gull spent some time running around the Library car park, it was "squarking" quite a lot and its parents were keeping an eye on it from nearby rooftop promentary. I managed to fire off a few shots of the bird before it eventually flew up to join its parents on the roof.