Halvergate

I went to Halvergate earlier in the year to see a Rough-legged Buzzard.  It may have left as there was a sad face against it on BirdGuides this evening.

Rough-legged Buzzard but like ages ago

I went to Halvergate last week to see a Short-eared Owl.  Which I did.

Bloody Hell.

I went to Halvergate on Saturday to see a Short Eared Owl. Which I didn't.   But I saw this.

Blimey

And some of this too.

Mute and Bewicks with Nelson's Column in the distance

Halvergate.  It's alright.  Sometimes.

Norfolk Bird & Mammal Report 2013 - Black Redstart photograph

My copy of the Norfolk Bird Report for 2013 came through the letterbox this morning.  Along with the usual quality that you would associate with such an esteemed organ, I was chuffed to see one of my photos within the esteemed covers!

This one!

Juvenile Black Redstart in the Norfolk Bird Report

There are a fair few Black Redstart photos kicking about on my hard drive, but due to their breeding status they don't get circulated much.  Nonetheless, while we are on the subject, here are a couple more from the session with the now famous bird...

Juvenile Black Redstart

Juvenile Black Redstart 

Juvenile Black Redstart

Got to be one of my favourite birds.

Migration, then not, then an Owl. Weekly highlights 19/10/2014

The beginning of the week was filled with migration, which is brilliant, even when everything is grey.  Thousands of Brent Geese moving past, thrushes overhead, finches coming in off the sea and a couple of out of place Robins to name but a few.

This Wheatear wasn't doing what the usual Wheatears do where they normally do what they do.  Which may or may not be significant, but I suspect it was due to its very recent arrival that it just sat about for a bit.

The next day the sun came out and another Wheatear did much the same thing somewhere else.

And the migrants continued.  This little fellow was still damp from his exertions across the North Sea but seemed very happy with the local fare.

The local population of Meadow Pipits was also swollen by newcomers.

And then the wind turned direction and it all stopped.  Which was rubbish.  So at the weekend I went to see an Owl with long ears.  Didn't manage to get shots without something in front of its face, but nonetheless it was a cracking bird and had views that bettered anything I have had before of one of them.  It was big too.

I dare say that if it hangs around for a couple of days some obliging chap(s) will clear the bracken, put a suitably gnarly perch out with a smorgasbord of freshly killed small mammals available for the bird in order for it to perform for the big lenses gain sustenance in view of all this horrible weather what we are having. 

Oh, and I saw a Phalarope too.  I like Phalaropes.  Anyway, here is a picture of a feather.

Some Geese, a rainbow and a rare bird - weekly highlights 13/10/2014

A funny old week, for various reasons outside the scope of the blog, but with regards to pictures and birds, two things stand out.

Firstly, I took a picture of some Brent Geese and distant waders flying through/past/in/by a rainbow.  This has proved to be very popular.

Secondly, on Sunday I went to see a rare bird, which did a poo and ejected a pellet.

Steppe Grey Shrike, Burnham Norton

My poo list now stands at 42 or thereabouts and is quite eclectic in its contents.  My pellet ejecting list stands and one, and is currently awesome.  Here are some more pictures of a rare bird that I took in poor light, and one of which was taken at 1/80 second.  Don't listen to everything you are told with regard to photography...

Steppe Grey Shrike, Burnham Norton

Steppe Grey Shrike, Burnham Norton

Steppe Grey Shrike, Burnham Norton

In which I actually find a rare bird - Weekly Highlights 28/9/2014

The bird of the week, certainly in terms of ubiquity, was Meadow Pipit.  Everywhere.  Regardless of what I was hoping to see, there was another Meadow Pipit.  Here is one that posed long enough for a decent photo if the foliage hadn't interfered.

Wheatears still regular and plentiful, but evading the range of the lens by being generally flighty.  When I was fortunate enough to have one in range, it was raining.

So I was sitting in a pub garden with the wife, mulling over the menu while keeping an eye on the nearby saltmarsh (like you do) and this bird flies past.  Slowly.  Crikey, I thought, that is a chuffing big Egret and it isn't really flying like the normal ones do and look at its legs and its neck and its beak and its everything really actually.  It then landed in a nearby field an it was HUGE!  I notified my long-suffering wife that the bird wasn't a Little Egret and that the pleasant time in the pub garden was henceforth brought to a close.  In two short words.

Great Egret, Salthouse 25/09/2014

It was then seen to fly from Salthouse, over the East Bank and over Cley Marshes - I do wonder how many people missed it due to the height it was gaining.  It was subsequently reported in Wells and Stiffkey (?).  But fly on it did, hence the record shot that is before you.


I saw other birds on Friday and Saturday too, and did other stuff too.  Here are some of them.

Lapwings!

A Grey Plover!

A duck!

Records committee accept 'my' bird shock!

Some time ago, I did a post about a Skua that I couldn't correctly identify (it is here).  I did the right thing and submitted the description to the good people at the Norfolk Records Committee.  After cogitation, they accepted it to the records as a Long-tailed variety.  Which was nice.

Here is a picture of another bird that I took that day.

And here is a picture of people getting too close looking at the bird above that didn't see the Skua.  Except one, who doesn't yet know that it was a Long-tailed variety.

Black Redstart female on a wall

More pictures of 'rares' on my website - here!

Scandinavian Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus littoralis)?

Was taking some photos of birds on Sunday and some very active Meadow Pipits were among them.  When I was processing some last night this little blighter stood out as not being a Meadow Pipit.  Currently going down in the book as a Rock Pipit of the Scandinavian subspecies littoralis. All views welcome.

Dodgy pic 1

Dodgy pic 2

Not quite so dodgy pic 3

Waxwing, John Innes Centre, Norwich

Same bird, different tree?

Ber Street, last weekend.

John Innes Centre, today

Waxwing, Ber St, Norwich, February 23rd

A few more photos of a female Waxwing and some apples.

Waxwing. Ber Street, Norwich February 15th 2014

A couple of shots of a bird that flatly refused to do what it was supposed to i.e. flapping around on the end of branches just a couple of feet away in the winter sunshine while stuffing berries in it's cheeks.  No, this sat in the middle of a tree, ate an apple that obscured it from view then sat in a nearby branch while doing toilet.  It repeated the process a few times before flying into another tree.  Ho hum.

Glossy Ibis, Martham, Norfolk 8th Feb 2014

A short while ago I went to look in a field in North Norfolk for a bird.  I saw the bird and it looked like this...

File under 'record shot'.

Yesterday however, was a little different.  I was sort of on the way to somewhere that if you took a certain route ended up passing Martham. Evidently, in the delightfully named Cess Road' there had been a bird similar to the bird above that was hanging about there. If I got a wiggle on, I might get there before dark which would be ideal.  So with the winter light quickly running out, I took my chances.  Once located, I had precisely four minutes of time before the bird was flushed by a passer by.  The results this time are little more to my satisfaction.

All on A Priority, f6.3, ISO 800, which in the circumstances could have been pushed higher as the shutter speed was occasionally falling below 1/500s but thankfully the thing doesn't move very fast.