A change from land to sea. A chance to do a little cetacean whispering. Common Dolphins were dancing around and under the ship. Narrowly missed out on an Orca. Still that’s the beauty of Scotland … always a chance to return and see more.
A surprising heat to the end of the day saw us celebrating on the patio. After all when you’ve had a successful day you’re allowed a drink in the embers of the evening light. Against a background of parachuting Meadow Pipits we talked of the day we’d had.
I forget now which came first the adult Goshawk doing a flyby with its gushing white undertail coverts or the perched Redpoll but it was definitely the juvenile Goshawk that sailed majestically by next. It was when we were commenting the cottage was an ideal place to stay that the adult White-tailed Eagle decided to flash us that tail trailed by its grey stone plumage. Now that’s the way I like to celebrate a day … but what of the day itself?
It started slow. A false alarm as a Red throated Diver stood proud but bore no resemblance to the White-billed we were seeking. A flat calm sea was beneficial. We changed location further along the coast. A Great Northern Diver was a close call but no cigar. Persistence was the key. Eventually we found not one but two White billed Divers and then just as we thought the diver tally was complete a full summer plumage Black throated popped up just beyond the breakers. A perfect day? Well when you add in the flock of 20 Red breasted Mergansers, 7 Slavonian Grebes, 50+ Long tailed Duck and hundreds of dapper summer plumage Razorbills you’d think that would be it. However, we still had time to gather in 47 Whooper Swans and high Northward bound skeins of Pinkfeet before heading home to celebrate!
You’ve heard of ‘Rogue Capercaillie’. Well today we encountered a ‘Rogue Red Grouse’. Wouldn’t leave us alone. We gracefully retired.
Looking through the porch window today three black blobs came closer and closer. Could they be? Yes! they were … Black Grouse! … almost in the garden. It was the big flock of Greylags that spooked them. Something disturbed the geese and the heads ‘went up’ on the grouse. I’ve never photographed Black Grouse in flight before.
The rest of the day was spent travelling to the coast and searching out a long staying Ross’s Gull. It was Tony that found it. Distant, delicate and ethereal this small plucky gull was dipping down and picking morsels from the surface of the sea as it fended off larger gulls. It never came close but it was still a delight to see.
I’ve now seen four of these rare visitors from the Arctic in Britain. Three of them have been in Fraserburgh. What a delightful little enigma they are.
Back in Scotland for a short break.
After a day of Black Scoter, Black Grouse and Golden Eagles with a liberal dressing of Giant Butterbur we decided today should be a gentler laid back day. We still gathered Crested Tit’s by the armful followed by Crossbills a plenty and a sprinkling of Snow Buntings. Beautiful summer plumage Red throated Divers and a very early Tree Pipit continued our harvest.
To finish the day we arrived at the Ring necked Duck on Loch Vaa … it may as well have been on Pluto. Distant and blob like. That is until a technique of subtle bankside movements taught to me by an old Norfolk Wildfowler were employed. Success.
After some ten years in preparation ‘Norfolk’s Cetaceans’ is now being laid out for publishing later this year. It will be available via the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society.
In the meantime a cetacean species guide is available on the NNNS website at https://norfolknaturalists.org.uk/…/2023/03/Cetaceans.pdf
It’s not without good reason I chose an enigmatic bird like the Alpine Swift as a logo for the company.
With a large influx of birds into the UK on typical March dates it was only a matter of time before one or two of them turned up on the Norfolk coast. Sheringham picked up a bird this morning. A bit ‘gappy’ in the right wing as well as in a certain amount of tail moult, this bird wasn’t as perfect as I’ve seen them. However, it still cut a nice silhouette against the grey Norfolk sky.
There were two birds that ‘got me into’ birding. The first was a ‘drumming’ Snipe. The second was the Lapwing.
I remember the day I took my newly acquired Swift 10×50 binoculars to ‘Pottery Pond’ near the Woodman Inn in Swinton; not too far from where I entered the world.
Pottery Pond was a regular haunt of the pre-teenage me. I used to fish there for sticklebacks as a boy. The pond was a deep steep sided flooded pit that had supplied the clay for the nearby large bottle-shaped kiln of Rockingham Pottery. Long since disused, the kiln had last been fired in the 1840s, the old Pottery and area held a fascination for me. It was on the edge of the South Yorkshire conurbation and heralded the start of the local countryside. I still have a couple of pieces of Rockingham Pottery; marked with their distinctive ‘griffin’ stamp. A reminder of times past.
I remember distinctly looking over the fence, with the pond at my back, into the ploughed field to see a continuous carpet of feeding birds. What gripped my imagination was the crest. That long plume of head feathers. Feathers that quivered and bent in the breeze. How could something so incredibly beautiful be living here, around where I lived? How had I not noticed them before? I sort of knew what they were, but a quick glance in my Observers Book of Birds when I got home confirmed my thoughts. They were Lapwings.
The species has never lost it’s fascination for me. My heart still skips a beat when I see one close-up. That metallic green mantle in good light is enough to take anyone’s breath away. When I see one well I’m always taken back to that day at Pottery Pond fifty something years ago.
Sat in the hide with friends Bob and Bill this week we had independently decided to see if we could see the Water Pipits that had been kicking around Cley for the last few weeks. It was good to be out birding with them both. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an honest days birding together and the next couple of hours reminded me of how good it is to be in their company. I must admit I was paying attention to a 1st cycle Mediterranean Gull in the distance that Bob picked out when the lady sat in front of me asked me what the bird was right in front of the hide.
I was delighted to tell her it was a Water Pipit. Not a particularly well marked bird but nevertheless a Water Pipit. Feeding along the edge of the scrape the bird was working the muddy edge for a morsel or two. It didn’t stop long; but long enough for a shot or two.
A touch of Red-eye. Need to take more water with that Whiskey? This pristine male Pochard just caught the fading light as we sat watching it from the hide last week.
Letter From Norfolk 