Roger and I were planning to
go out locally today but when I called Malcolm he said he thought we might go
to Norfolk as north-west winds were forecast.
I checked the forecast and found that there were north-west winds forecast,
not that strong but up to fourteen miles per hour and gusting up to
twenty. After a chat with Roger we
thought it might be a good option with nothing new locally being reported and
agreed to meet at my place at 06:00.
We had a Red Kite approaching
Peterborough and another near Harpley in Norfolk and I had a Sparrowhawk over
the car along the Kings Lynne bypass and a Kestrel as we approached Guyhirn.
As we turned onto the beach
road at Cley there was a male Stonechat but when we got out the car at the
beach car park, we were surprised to find the wind was very light and coming
from the west. Another birder was just
leaving informing us it was very quiet, but we joined another birder in the old
shelter in the hope it might pick up. We
spent ninety minutes in the shelter during which time we had eighteen Brent
Geese, a Wigeon, three Teal, seven Common Scoter, a female Red-breasted Merganser, five Red-throated Divers, ten Gannets, six Redshank, a Great Skua
and three Guillemots. There were a party
of c.100 Brent Geese on the Eye field, along with fifteen Golden Plover and I
saw a single Snipe in flight with a flock of Starling.
There was a report of fifteen
Snow Bunting on Gramborough Hill at Salt House and so we decided to go and have
a look. As we parked I could see a flock
of Turnstone on the beach and counted fourteen, but another birder informed us
that the Snow Buntings had flown over and he hadn’t seen them despite walking
beyond Gramborough Hill.
Turnstone
Turnstone
We made our way across the
shingle towards Gramborough Hill and found another male Stonechat feeding from
the fence as we reached the base of the hill.
Stonechat
Stonechat
All we found on the hill were
a few Meadow Pipits and there was no sign of the Snow Buntings and on reaching
the far side we scanned the shingle bank to the east. Malcolm though he had seen something that
might have been a couple of Snow Buntings but as we started to move towards the
area a party of Snow Buntings flew over and I counted seventeen. They went over the top of the hill and out of
sight and we were unable to relocate them and on getting back to the car decided
to head for Burnham Overy Staithe where we would have lunch.
Two Cattle Egrets had been
reported in the cattle field just east of Stiffkey and we saw these as we drove
by but hadn’t seen a great deal else by the team we parked at Burnham Overy
Staithe. Initially there appeared not to
be many geese but there were at least a hundred Pink-footed Geese some distant
away and a flock of at least twenty-four Barnacle Geese amongst them; a female
Marsh Harrier and a single Buzzard were also observed. When a checked a tweet on my phone I found
that there was a Cory’s Shearwater in the North Arm at Rutland Water. This seemed an incredible record, but Andy
Mackay had tweeted it out and we suspected that it was probably true. I tried calling Andy but was unable to get
him and had no joy with Tim either. I
did manage to get through to Steve who said it had been found by Andy and he
was about to set off to see it. With the
news confirmed I called David as I knew that it was a UK lifer for him. I got through and he hadn’t seen the news and
was about to go to Stanford Reservoir but understandingly was now heading for Rutland
Water.
When we got down to the
shoreline there was no sign but a group of birders on the end of the peninsular
appeared to be looking at something. I
looked to see if there was anyone there I could call and saw Colin and Chris
and got failed calls to both of them, which was rather frustrating as we still
couldn’t see the bird. I called Colin
again and this time got through and he confirmed that the bird was the other
side of the church, which explained why he couldn’t see it, but said it was
heading towards them. We rushed into the
fisherman’s harbour area where we could see the church better and Roger then
said I got it and I just saw it as it disappeared behind the church again. It soon reappeared and continued to fly
towards us and we then rushed back to our original position. It flew right past just thirty meters off shore
and we had a wonderful view as it headed for the yacht club. The flight was rather slow with just a few
flaps followed by periods of shearing with the tips of its wings cutting into
the water as it turned. I went to get my
camera hoping it would comeback but when I returned it had gone off further
into the South Arm and had been lost from view.
Cory's Shearwater (Brian Moore)
Female/immature Goosander, one of two at Normanton
David then called to say he
was in Lapwing Hide and could see it on the water near the island, so we
decided to go to Teal Hide. When we got
into Teal Hide it had disappeared again and was last seen heading for Manton
Bay. We then spent some time scanning
the area looking for a party of Whooper Swans when Roger said the shearwaters
back but to the east of the hide. There
was quite a crowd in the hide and it was surprising to see how it had gone back
up the arm without being seen. It was
interesting to see how the gulls, of which there were several thousand, reacted
when it was in flight as they got up from the water and wheeled around above
with a few appearing to mob it. It
settled on the water several times before disappearing again in front of
Brown’s Island and whilst scanning for it I found the party of Whooper Swans in
front of Goldeneye Hide. Two adults and
four juveniles had been reported but there were now six adults and four
juveniles and there were seven Great White Egret in Manton Bay.
With no further sign of the
shearwater and the light now fading we returned to the car and were having a
coffee when Lee Evans turned up saying the traffic had been awful and he shot
off to the hide still hoping to see it. A
Nottinghamshire birder who we had seen on Tuesday then came back having not
seen it and we felt rather sorry for him when three birders he had left in the
hide returned to say that they had seen it again after he left; he took it on
the chin but was clearly disappointed.
The Cory's Shearwater was obviously a new bird for the VC55 (Leicestershire & Rutland) and my forth and perhaps the least expected county lifer for the year moving my total onto 276.
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