Ebrington Hill

After all the not so local birding that I have been doing recently, I decided to spend a couple of hours this morning round the Ebrington Hill area.  It was a fantastic morning in terms of the weather which certainly showcased the beauty of the Warwickshire countryside in all it's glory.  However, on the birding front, despite me finding some nice lusicious bushes laden with berries which I thought may have attracted a few birds, I just could not find the birds.  The only birds of note that I could find were 2 Willow Warblers and some Ravens overhead, a bit disappointing but "hey" you can't have everything and the one thing I have learnt this year is that more effort should be put in locally and perhaps less effort chasing after other's finds.

Marsh Sandpiper Twitch

Marsh Sandpiper

After seeing that a Marsh Sandpiper was frequenting a field not that far from Slimbridge, myself and my birder's wife decided to spend the day in Gloucestershire mixing a day of viewing wild and captive birds.

It was great to finally see a Marsh Sandpiper which has been a bird I have been longing to see for several years now.  Not the best of views but it was lovelly to watch the bird for a while taking in the way it moved, it's plumage, bill length and size compared to the other birds in the field which were Ruff and Greenshank.

Norfolk Trip Report

Friday 22nd saw us heading up to the North Norfolk coast straight after work and after a horrendous 3-4 hour journey battling our way through the bank holiday rush, we arrived at our rental cottage in Stiffkey and met up with our companions for the week, including Jumble the Irish Terrier.

The following day after a very boozy first evening, we departed for a walk from the cottage east that took us past Stiffkey Fen, along the coast path to Morston, where we had a Crab Sandwich lunch and then continued our walk to Blakeney.  We took a coffee break in Blakeney, then continued along the path which circled round the marshes ending up at Cley.  After stocking up on provisions from the Cley deli, we caught the Coasthopper bus back to the cottage, all exhausted.

Black Tailed Godwit

We decided to take Sunday as a rest day and drove to Morston then ambled back to Stiffkey Fen where we took in some delights along the way and on the Fen which included Spotted Redshank, Curlew Sandpipers, Ruff and Spoonbills.  After a lunch stop at Salthouses at the famous seafood hut, we strolled to the sea along the public footpath then sat on the beach watching Sandwich Terns being attacked by two Arctic Skua and a Great Skua flying by before walking back to the car down the beach road.  On the way back to the cottage we stopped by Cley east bank car park and strolled out to the sea again, watching Bearded Tits, Sedge and Reed Warblers along the way.

On Monday, after an early start at Stiffkey Marshes where there was a mini fall of migrants, mostly Blackcaps, I went off on my own for some birding (which proved to be fruitless due to torrential rain) and my birder's wife and the other members of our party visited Blickling Hall.  The next day we decided to do another big walk and opted that time to travel west from the cottage along the coast path, making it all the way to Holkham with another trip on the Coasthopper bus back home.

Grey Plover (in the middle)

Pied Flycatcher

Wednesday was to be our big day with us tackling Blakeney Point and back.  The way out seemed to be fairly easy and we were rewarded with good views of two Wrynecks.  We had our lunch looking at the plantation, watching two Willow Warblers, a Pied Flycatcher and a Whinchat.  The way back seemed to go on for ever...................................When we finally returned to the cottage I then opted for another walk out to Stiffkey Marshes to try and look for a Greenish Warbler that had been seen there earlier but despite an extensive seach by myself and other birders, we could not relocate the bird.

I jumped out of bed on Thursday morning at 6:30am (or more like creaked out, as I was aching from the previous day) and walked out to the coast path near Stiffkey Marshes to look for the Greenish Warbler again.  After 90 minutes of nothing, except for a brief call (which I was beginning to think I had imagined), I decided to give up and began walking back towards the car.  At that moment, a warbler flew across the path emitting the unmistakeable call of a Greenish Warbler.  I managed to obtain brief views over the following couple of minutes before it disappeared for 20 minutes only to call a few more times giving tantalising but brief views.  The rest of the day, I spent round the Gun Hill area and Burnham Overy dunes seeing nothing much at all except for Whitethroats and a Whinchat.  Before heading back to the cottage, me and my birder's wife decided to try and look for an Icterine Warbler in Wells Woods.  The search proved to be fruitless but I did meet another birder who also had seen the Greenish Warbler in the same place as me, a bit later on in the morning between 9:00am and 10:15am.

After saying goodbye to our good friends and Jumble on Friday, we made our way back home, stopping by Titchwell for a final walk to the sea and back with the highlight being a Great White Egret in the reed bed.

Loads of butterflies but no birds

Speckled Wood

Comma

This morning I decided to head oop north to Napton on the Hill to search for the Spotted Flycatchers and Redstarts that many of the local birders have been mentioning recently.  As I have not been there for about three years, I needed directions from Dan and was soon at the relevant location.

Red Admiral

Unfortunately for me, it was very windy and everything was hunkered down, I gave up and looked for some sheltered spots on the footpath down by the Windmill but even there could only pick up on a family of Bullfinch and a couple of Whitethroats.

After returning home and a leisurely lunch with my birder's wife, we headed out to Hampton Wood for a stroll which again was birdless, so I decided to change my approach and searched for butterflies instead.  We managed numerous Speckled Woods, some Large Whites and Green-Veined Whites, a single Red Admiral and a single Comma.  We also chanced upon three Fallow Deer and a Kingfisher.  Later on, we then took a stroll on the Racecourse which again had nothing except for the Goldfinch flock which is now at about 25 birds.

Kingfisher

Lighthorne and area

As I left work earlier than normal, I thought I would go over to Lighthorne Heath for a poke around.  As per normal, I was the only one on the heath and a quick search round the nearest pool to the footpath gave a fairly good mix of species (although nothing spectacular).  Birds seen and heard included Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Linnet, Reed Bunting, Robin, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Bullfinch, Reed Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and Barn Swallow.

I then moved onto the Kineton area which was very unproductive with just Yellowhammer, Skylark and a Weasel running across the road in front of the car.

A quick walk on the Racecourse also produced nothing...I hate days like this.....

More Local Birding

A couple of intense evenings birding trying to nail some local good species for Warwickshire saw me trampsing around last night and hearing a Quail call twice from some fields about 5 miles from home and watching the local Corn Buntings going to roost.

A quick look on the Racecourse after the rain gave me two juvenile Reed Warblers which are a first for that area and a classic Reed Bunting being very inquisitive.

Reed Bunting

This evening I went out with Matt and Dan to a local site and despite me discovering that my scope is broken (in that I can no longer attach it to my tripod) we managed some good birds with 13 Green Sandpipers, 3-4 Common Sandpipers, Snipe, Grey Patridge, Dunlin, Turnstone, Cuckoo and Kingfisher.

Reed Bunting