Friday, January 29, 2010
After the incredible photos on the previous post were taken, Mrs Thing and I began to make our way to the exit of Surlingham Church Marsh. When we arrived, there was a couple there that were obviously birders. And they had a fair bit of gear with them. Actually they had all the gear with them. Top notch scopes, bins, tripods and everything - they must have had about eight grands worth of optics between them. We roll up with a knackered pair of twenty year old germans between us and a bag containing a drawscope in a leather case. The beauty of a patch like Surlingham is that most days you don't need a scope. With half decent skills and a pair of clean binoculars you can comfortably ID everything. And if you need the scope, there are plenty of posts about and a hide. This means that you can travel light, and enjoy the visit without walking around in some crazy lopsided way, loaded down with large chunks of metal and glass. So we asked them if they were looking at anything interesting in the church yard. There are often Brambling in there they said but none today. He looked at my optics, and I think that they may have confused him but he asked the secret birders code question - 'anything about?'. My answer obviously identified me as a birder (of sorts) because I used a turn of phrase that made him realise that I was the real deal, or something close to it.
"Oh there isn't much about, the lagoons are still frozen, there are some ducks in the dykes but there are a fair few confiding Fieldfare near the hides"
Confiding Fieldfare. That's what nailed it. You may not see anything rare, but there is a good looking bird that you can get close to - proper birding.
Because of this he gave us a tip off - there was a Great Northern Diver on a stretch of water not far away (which we had already toyed with going to on the way home) and I think that if I hadn't described the Fieldfare as confiding he may not have bothered.
Stay with me dear reader, there is more. At the Diver site, which I suppose technically may be described as a Tw*tch (Lord have mercy on my soul for I have sinned against the Holy Patch) there were birders and there was a Diver and a Smew and some other ducks and stuff. Very, very nice indeed. Just to the right of the throng (or whatever the collective noun for twitchers is - a page?) some bloke blurted out a sentence with a great deal of excitement. This being Norfolk, you will now put your best Norfolk accent on for maximum effect....
"Eye gort a Kengfeshur en moy scoooop!"
Pretty much everyone stopped looking at the Diver, the Smew and the other birds and got on to the Kingfisher. Because everyone likes a Kingfisher, and as I have said before, any day you see a Kingfisher is a good day.
Have a picture of that bird.
A Kingfisher doing en a scooop.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
...watch the Wetland Centre - they've got 6 Bitterns. That's right kids - six Bitterns. Billy has done photos and stuff earlier on. They were on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning (the Wetland Centre, not the Bitterns per se) and now they (the staff) are talking about irruptions too! Waxwings and the like. Which will be nice. Nice for us, obviously it's a bit stressful for the birds, having to fly across the North Sea for a bit of food and all that.
With another week of harsh weather predicted this could be the time when the patch turns up trumps so I'll be heading out everyday to see if I can pull in a Smew or something even more exotic. Yesterday I went out for the obligatory first day to see what was about and there was actually quite a bit of bird life. At least 50 Tufties, 3 Pintail, a couple of Gadwall, at least a hundred gulls of various species. I managed to get 3 types of crow but the best find (considering it was the first day in the patch) was a Kingfisher kicking about by the house boats. But isn't a Kingfisher always good?
A Kingfisher doing good.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Yesterday was quite unusual on the patch dear reader, as there were actually some interesting birds. No, honestly, there was.
First thing in the morning there were two Swallows flying through. Very nice. And then a Grey Wagtail showed up. Since the successful breeding of this species earlier in the year they left, which makes me think that the habitat in the area is only just good enough to sustain a pair. They'll probably be back in the winter, so maybe they've just gone to the Wetland Centre to get fat for the winter.
Lunchtime was good too. On the Wandle there were two Kingfishers which flew downstream and onto the Thames, they flew directly over the attenuation ponds (remember them?) which makes them by far the most interesting species to 'use' the area. And then there was this.
The more avid identification freaks amongst you will note that this is a picture of Fulica atra, also known as 'Coot'. But look at the bird on the left.... It is, in fact, a bloody juvenile! A juvenile Coot in my patch - something that I have not seen before and thus a first. Be assured that it certainly did not come from any breeding attempt round here, so this bird is population movement in action. Superb.
In the afternoon I saw a Yellow Legged Gull.
You were probably expecting something more exciting as a patch first, shame on you.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Rather than getting fixated on a dodgy gull I actually did some birding today and the signs of spring are present and correct! Well, singular rather than plural.
This Blackbird was singing! Not the full blown lungful, but I think he was fooled by the sun, which made a miraculous appearance at lunchtime. Or practicing.
As well as the ‘sign’ of spring there were the malingerers from winter. Ten Tufties, 16 Gadwall (a patch high count), 2 Goldcrests (perhaps three, but they were pretty mobile) and a Chiffchaff which I even managed to get a shite photo of...
All of this rounded off by hearing a Greenfinch, and seeing a Kingfisher bombing it down the Wandle (no picture of that of course) which brings it up to 42 on the patch for the year.
Just as I finished loading the pictures up, Obama is being sworn in. Cool huh?
