short eared owl - Thorpe Marshes

short eared owl - Thorpe Marshes

Friday 18 October 2013

Back to the patch!

Quick visit to the patch in hope of something "special" to be in among the tit  flocks. I picked up 2 x Gt. spotted woodpeckers as I made my way to the marshes and a calling Cettis . As I scan the marsh scrape which now has some water on it I heard that all familer autumn call over head of a Redwing. Not just one but 75 and as they head east bound they turned back towards the march and dropped in among the trees and along the railway track. 
Nothing much on the marsh other then a single common Snipe and a flushed Meadow pipit. 
I decided bungalow lane was worth a walk with a better chance of a tit flock . I eventually found a tit flock but nothing of note was in there. As I walked up further I heard the crows kickin off- Common Buzzard was the reason . It came over very low and showed some nice markings, juvenile I think. 
Other then a few more Redwings and 2x  Fieldfare over , and a total of 2 more Cettis that was that!
Happy birding ,
 Shaky 

Sunday 6 October 2013

east coast birding

 So I finally got out to the coast and was glad to be joint by Jim. We started up at Caister and from the car park we noticed a flock of 7x  Redwings over including a single Fieldfare and too a rather large amount of Meadow Pipits, at least a 100 if not more passing through and some landing on the golf course. It was then  that we caught up with 3x Stonechats



Then we headed of further up the coast line to where the snow buntings are regularly seen.We didn't get to see them but did get a flock of 4x Brent Geese heading south and a good few Red Throated Divers on the sea. Then Jim spotted a lonely looking Knot on the shore and then as we were heading back to the scrubby heath land ,we had 2 or possibly 3x Wheatears.  In the heathland scrub we had 5x Blackcaps(4x females and a a single male) and a common Whitethroat.
Knot

Wheatear



 Back to the cars and to Hemsby a new area for me .We had a singing Goldcrest ,along with a calling Chiffchaff in the scrub/ woody area but not a lot else. After a bit more searching we had a distant skein of Pink-feet ,a nice returning sound and sure sign that winter is arriving.
 We finally headed off to Winterton and although it was seriously lacking of any migrants did pick up a lifer for me but not of the bird kind, a butterfly- a small copper. Also while we are off the subject of birds, something that we kept coming across was this little fury chap


After a quick email to James(birdsandbeer) he identified it as a Fox moth caterpillar.We saw these every where we went along the east coast and were very welcome sight on the quiet pathways of the Winterton dunes.Also we had Munjunc deer popping out of the bushes as we walked back to the car and that was that, well apart from a bit more birding chat that is!
Happy birding,
Shaky