We’re just back from a three week birding trip to Colorado & Kansas – doing the ‘chicken run’. A full day-by-day account of the trip can be found at TrevorOnTour. It’s Matt’s 40th birthday celebrations this weekend before a return to Norfolk and Cley on Monday. By all accounts it’s been a pretty slow started to UK Spring migration so I was somewhat surprised, whilst doing a bit of St Neots garden tidying, to see three House Martin and a Swallow overhead yesterday.
Cley on Monday felt like Spring had arrived – only problem was that no-one had told the birds! The only passerine migrant in evidence were several singing Chiffchaff along the Skirts. A nice selection of waders on Arnolds and prolonged views of the Long-billed Dowitcher on Pat’s kept the visitors amused. Best birds were undoubtably the two Hen Harriers – a ‘ring-tail’ in the morning and a superb male at lunchtime. Yesterday’s sea-watch turned out surprisingly well. Plenty of Scoter on the move, an adult summer Mediterranean Gull – scarce since the influx last Autumn – and our first Sandwich Terns of the year. We’d just packed up and were walking back through North Lodge Park when a flock of c.20 small passerines flew low over our heads – giving a constant ‘insect buzzing’ call. It took me a few moments to work it out – they were Twite! They did a circuit of the park before continuing east along the cliffs. A remarkable sighting. We’re now on a count-down to our departure on another American birding road-trip – this time to the mid-west. This will be my last posting on this site until next month but I hope to publish the odd travelogue on my other website: TrevorOnTour – do follow us if you get the chance.
Little Egret featured in two of my birding activities this week. First a lone bird flew east on our sea-watch on Wednesday then the following day another, this time inland, during our farm survey near Ingworth. The Wednesday sea-watch highlight was a Red-necked Grebe which flew west and was speed-checked at Weybourne – only my second at this location.The only other notable birds on the farm survey were half a dozen singing Yellowhammer. This morning the sea-watching highlights were reasonable numbers of Common Scoter and Red-throated Diver, mostly east, and five Curlew. We’re currently in the process of packing, ready for our upcoming trip to Colorado & Kansas, doing the ‘chicken run’ – looking for various species of grouse and the two prairie chickens. Daytime temperatures out there are little above freezing in the mountains but in the mid-twenties in the grasslands. Multiple clothing layers seems to be the answer but my winter coat takes up half the space in my bag!
A busy couple of days helping the boys progress Matt’s garden makeover. It included a bit of tree planting, which involved lifting a ton and a half Olive tree over the house and into his back garden!
The whole thing in three photos:
The breaking news at the weekend was that the Cromer Peregrines have laid their first egg of 2024! The likelihood is that by now there is a second, but technical issues with the camera system means that it is ‘unconfirmed’ for now. Last night, as part of the Grey Seal Coffee Nature Month programme, Eddy Anderson gave a fascinating personal account of the birds breeding at Cromer – following my discovery of the pair the week before Christmas, 2018. Next week the talk is by NENBC – ‘Birds of the North Norfolk Coast’. All welcome and free but limited seating.
At Cley on Monday it was a case of ‘wanderers return’. The Long-billed Dowitcher, which stayed with us for the best part of a year before disappearing in November returned over the weekend – presumably with Black-tailed Godwits migrating north to breed. Only time will tell if it resists the urge to travel on north to Iceland or, as it did last year, just move further along the coast for a bit. By lunchtime the Dark-bellied Brent flock was back, first on North Scrape and then on the Eye Field. It took a bit of finding but in amongst them was the Red-breasted Goose, which has been frequenting sites to the west of Cley for the last month or so. A Little Ringed Plover – my first for the year – was a worthy supporting cast.
It’s been a busy week with Felbeck Trust – trustees meeting, two talks, bid writing and a student project consultation. Hence very little time for birding! A post by Moss on the NENBC sea-watch WhatsApp this morning saw me leaving my breakfast and rushing down to North Lodge Park in the hopes of catching up with the Cattle Egret flying east. It came past the shelter at 7.22 – 17 mins after it was reported at Weybourne. A welcome addition to my NLP sea-watching list – which is now pushing 90 species.
A couple of mornings ago I went into the garden and heard a plop in the pond. The following day there was our first batch of frogspawn – bingo! Tonight is the second talk in the Nature Month series at Cromer Grey Seal Coffee – ‘A Year at Sustead Common’ – chronicling the development of the site from an over-grown and neglected plot to a biodiversity-rich County Wildlife Site. It starts at 7.00 – do drop in if you are at a loose end.
I’d planned to go early to Felbrigg, to do my duck count, but when I woke at 06.00 it was raining. It didn’t dry-up until lunchtime so I postponed my count to the late afternoon. Unfortunately this coincided with turn-out from the cafe after Mothers Day lunches! Net result – lots of people and very few birds to count. I did manage to flush a single Jack Snipe but there were only two Tufties on the lake, from a flock that has been in the high teens, and no Kingfisher – which I’d seen less than a week ago. It’s Cley today but with the cafe closed for staff training it could be a long slog!
I was out of county at the weekend helping my sons with a garden make-over project. On Sunday Gresham Phil phoned to see if I’d been for the White-tailed Eagle at Glandford. Apparently a ‘genuine bird’, showing extremely well all day. Well I hadn’t! However, our briefing at Cley on Monday was interrupted by news that the eagle had left it’s inland roost and was heading our way, eventually settling near Swan Lake, where it stayed for the next couple of hours. It is a 2cy bird, ringed as a casualty in Holland after an encounter with a pylon – thought to be of wild Belgium origin. That was the highlight of our duty day. Our various UEA student projects have been getting going this week so sometime spent prepping – Bee-eaters breeding in Britain, the rise of Caspian & YL Gull and ‘priority habitats’ are the first ones out of the blocks. Sea-watching on Tuesday produced a couple of useful speed checks and an hour or so at Weybourne yesterday added Snow Bunting to my year list. Today Felbeck Trust volunteers are at Sustead and tonight sees the opening talk, by Cromer Green Spaces, at the start of Grey Seal Coffee Nature Month event.
In case you are at a loose end, here is the programme of nature talks at the Cromer Grey Seal Coffee cafe Nature Month event – I’m directly involved with the Felbeck Trust and Bird Club talks.
Cromer Nature Notes 