Well watched

I had to stop watching the Grey Phalarope today at Titchwell. It was making me dizzy. This living ‘clockwork toy’ of a bird was certainly popular and was attracting a constant stream of admirers.

Wreck of the hesperus

Strong Northerlies push birds circulating in the North Sea closer to shore. Some get buffeted onshore and sit it out on coastal pools. Producing a wreck. A wreck of seabirds. So it was a few days ago with a a party of around forty Little Gulls … with a Grey Phalarope thrown in for good measure. The Little Gull in this shot was photo-bombing the phalarope … or is it the other way around?

Regular

It seems to be a regular occurrence at this time of the year that we get a smattering of Phalaropes along the north Norfolk coast. This Grey Phalarope (or Red Phalarope if you are at the other side of the Atlantic) was at Salthouse when we were on tour a week or so ago. This individual seemed to be suffering a little, perhaps from being wind blown in the Autumn storms; it just wasn’t as active as it should be. However, it was feeding and wasn’t there the following day. So it either succumbed or left!

The Greyest of days

This Grey Phalarope gave us, and others, the run around this week. A flighty young bird if I ever saw one!

I was lucky enough to get a shot of it in defensive posture as a Carrion Crow flew over.

 

Grey Phal.

On several tours recently Grey Phalaropes have made an appearance. They always remind me of wind-up toys; some sort of clockwork spinning top. I particularly liked the one that spent a little time at Cley recently. We saw it on several tours and I enjoyed photographing it.

Fantastic Phalaropes

The other week a windblown waif was occupying one of the sea pools up on the coast.

I adore these specialised waders. A popular little chap this Grey Phalarope swam and bobbed ‘cork like’ around brackish water just on the landward side of the shingle ridge. I guess the pool was not dissimilar to the one he was born on earlier this year, perhaps in Iceland or more likely further into the Arctic Circle; Greenland or Svalbard maybe. As I watched him he fed on tiny fish fry, insects and small crustaceans. For such a tiny bird they are surprisingly pelagic for most of the year only coming ashore to breed, if sick or when pushed ashore by storms.

This is a bird that has probably never seen a human before and was as a consequence quite tame.