Glaucous Gull Part 3

With the Glaucous Gull again at Sheringham I couldn't resist another visit to see it, and to take a few more photos.

Cley and another Waxwing

A brief visit to Cley started well with a Red Kite flying west through the reserve, and then a walk along the East Bank produced some showy Bearded Tits and a Pale-bellied Brent Goose in with the usual Dark-bellied birds feeding on the sepentine, where there was also a Water Pipit and a few Ruff.

 

There is a small population of Fulmars on the cliffs at Cromer, and they were watched flying round over the beach and sea before landing up on the cliff-face.

 

Over at North Walsham, a Waxwing was present in the car park of one of the leading supermarkets.

Glaucous Gull Part 2

With better weather and the wind swinging round away from the cliffs, the Black Redstart at West Runton was far more showy today as it fed along the cliff-face, and even appeared to be singing at one point, although due to the noise of the waves crashing on the shingle behind me I could only see its beak moving rather than actually hear its song.
 

The Glaucous Gull seen previously here on the 18th Jan, and which had been touring the coast down to Cley since, spent the afternoon by Cromer pier, showing very well on the groynes and beach there.

Great Northern Diver

A visit to West Runton produced a Great Northern Diver, my first of the year on the sea close inshore, which I got a few visiting birders on to before it drifted further out. Whilst the occasional one will be seen flying past during a late autumn seawatch, its always nice to find one on the sea, especially one that was showing this well.

 

The Black Redstart had become increasingly elusive as its stay continued, and today was no exception, although we eventually managed to see it briefly before it headed off along the cliffs.

A Kestrel that was hunting the cliff-face probably didn't help the matter much, but it did provide a good photo opportunity.

Waxwings

Today I visited Cromer to help a birding friend relocate a flock of 4 Waxwings that had been seen in the town centre early morning. As I arrived there was a flock of 5 or 6 briefly perched in a tree before quickly moving off, so we walked around the back streets to try to refind them, and eventually found a couple feeding in a crab apple tree as pictured below.

Whilst we were watching these, they flew up calling loudly and joined a much larger flock of birds which were flying over, and from what I could see the flock of birds that they joined were Waxwings too. They disappeared over the rooftops towards the town centre, but it wasn't clear whether they had carried on or not, so I decided to have a further look for them.

Eventually I located them feeding on some cotoneaster berries in a back garden of a house, and after much trying to count them, eventually established that there were 24 present. I phoned the news out and there was a regular flow of birders arriving for the rest of the day as they periodically came to feed on the berries and also sat on the adjacent rooftops and telegraph wires.

Black Redstart

A trip along the coast produced a flock of Shorelarks at Holkham Bay and a few assorted waders at Titchwell including Avocet, Ruff, Spotted Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits, plus Mealy Redpoll and Water Rail.

Back on the patch a visit to West Runton produced the hoped for Black Redstart on the clifftop near the car park as it was getting dark, which had been present albeit very elusively for the last week or so.

 

As it was virtually dark when I saw it, I returned next day to try to get some photos of it, and eventually located it feeding on the field where the sheep had been recently, and where it was seen to be feeding on the flies around the left behind droppings. It was pretty active but I managed to get the two pictures below of it.

 

Nearby a few Fieldfares were feeding on the playing field on the edge of the adjacent caravan park.

Back in the car park the wintering Med Gull was easily attracted to some bread, and I took a few shots as it flew round us.

Redpolls and Bramblings

There has been a fairly sizeable finch flock near Roughton this winter with at least 20 Bramblings in amongst the Chaffinches, and a good number of Linnets also present in the same weedy field. I regularly check the flock for anything else of note and on the 9th found at least 2 Lesser Redpolls there, my first on the patch this year.

I returned to the site on the 11th to have another look for them, and to check in case there were any Mealy Redpolls there too, which the site had hosted last winter, but unfortunately couldn't find any Redpolls on this visit but the Bramblings were showing well as they flew up into the adjacent trees and bushes and I took a series of photos some of which are included below.

Early Feb

February got off to a rather quiet start, the Tundra Bean Goose stayed until the 2nd, and a couple of Firecrests continued to delight in Felbrigg Park.

With a warm and sunny day on the 7th I ventured into the east end of Felbrigg Park in the hope of finding a Marsh Tit, and I wasn't disappointed with one or two birds calling away and giving good views.

Although I had seen quite a few auk sp's (Guillemots/Razorbills) flying distantly past out to see, I hadn't specifically identified any to species, so a Guillemot on the sea off West Runton on the 8th was a new addition to the patch list for the year.