Caspian Gull

Went over to Orgreave lake near Sheffield this lunctime and had good view of the adult Caspian Gull.

Sublime Norfolk

Yesterday myself and Dave Evans had an early start for a day's birding in Norfolk. We got to the Wolverton triangle by 9 and spent an hour going round and searching on foot to no avail. We decided on one more circuit before moving off to the coast and unbelievably there by the side of the wood on the grass verge was a magnificent Golden Pheasant. I rushed to grab the camera but by the time I had it in hand a horse rider had gone past and spooked the bird which returned into the undergrowth not to be seen again.
We then moved onto Burnham Overy Staithe and quickly saw a large flock of 50-70 Lapland Buntings. They could be viewed in flight but when they landed in the stubble field they disappeared underneath the grass! It was obviously not going to be the best day for photography. We moved along the coast to Holkham in search of firecrest and rough-legged buzzard but the trees appeared lifeless and it seemed hopeless to find a small bird in the large wooded area. We went 100yds west of the end of the drive and suddently saw a small bird fly into low undergrowth and start flitting about in true gold/firecrest behaviour. As we had earlier seen a Goldcrest we needed a good view and the Gods were with us as it moved up into the tree where it ws clear we were watching a beautiful Firecrest. The bird books really dont prepare for you how bright and exquisite this little gem looks in the flesh. A truly unforgettable experience to see my first one and this rivals the first Hawfinch I ever saw.
No rough-legged buzzards were seen but there was a Common Buzzard close by and an unusually raptor like Wood Pigeon !
We moved to Wells and quickly saw the Black Brant present with Dark-bellied Brent Geese. There was another goose that intermediate features between a black brant and a brent goose.
It was then onto Buckingham marsh where we had a distant scope view of the long staying Lesser white fronted goose present with 70-80 Taiga Bean geese. A nice male Marsh Harrier flew by on the walk back to the car. We then drove the short distance to GreatYarmouth and incredibly we had parked at the exact point along the coast where the Velvet scoter was present about 50m out to sea!
Finally we went to Bradwell and saw a fine looking Ruddy Shellduck in a group of Egyptian geese. Quite an incredible day where we were successful in all target birds. Norfolk continues to be a mecca for birding and will no doubt draw us back soon

                                               Above a very approachable Pink-footed goose.

                                            Above is the Black Brant goose hiding his head!

Above is a shit picture of the Firecrest we saw!

Above are the pretty Egyptian geese

                                           This is the even prettier Ruddy Shelduck

                                                Record shots of the female Velvet Scoter

                                                          Male Marsh harrier

Dipper

Dipper seen this morning on the local river in Greenfield

Ring necked Parakeet

Friday 20th. Jan.
Went over to Fog Lane Park in Manchester in the rain and got good views of 5 noisy, colourful parakeets

Greenland White Fronted Goose

Caught up with the Greenland goose at Anglers C.P. this lunchtime amongst some greylags. Also got good views of the American Wigeon at the main hide. Several Fieldfares and Redwings were feeding on berries.
The  2 pics below were digiscoped through my Leica Televid 62 using a pretty old Minolta Dimage X50

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and more!

What a great Sunday 15th. Jan. myself and Dave had. We drove to Rufford Park and were almost straight onto 2 or 3 Lesser Spotted woodpeckers drumming and moving around in the trees near the carpark. Theye were joined by Greater spotted woodpeckers which was great to comapre the drumming and the size difference. The drumming is very muffled and they are half the size of their bigger brothers!

Then onto Frampton RSPB where there wer good numbers or ducks, several Whooper and 2 Bewick swans. There were hundreds of dark bellied brent geese and one Barnacle goose. Also present were godd numbers or Golden plover and a nice mixed flock of Linnet and Greenfinch.
We walked to the view over the Ouse marsh and were very lucky to see a male Hen Harrier hunting. Shame it didnt come closer. Dave could see at least another male hunting way out in the distance.

Finally we headed to Millenium green in North Hykeham to check the gull roost. We quickly located to adult Caspian Gulls and saw our compulsory Sparrowhawk in the failing light to round off a top day's birding     

American Wigeon

Managed to  get over to Anglers country park at luncthtime Friday 13th. January and see the longstaying American Wigeon. Other highlights were the drake Smew on the adjacent Wintersett reservoir and plenty of noisy Tree Sparrows

Taiga Bean Goose

Went over to Fairburn Ings on Wednesday 11th. January. Eventually picked out the Taiga Bean goose amongst the hundreds of Greylags and 2 Pink footed geese. Other highlights were a drake Ruddy duck and some Pintail

Bean Geese in West Yorkshire

I popped over the border into West Yorkshire this lunchtime to have a look at the Tundra Bean Geese which thankfully are still present at Broadstone. There were 4 present and they kept themselves separate from a flock of 50-60 Pink Footed Geese and this made a good comparison of the subtle differences between the 2 species. Nice to see such a scarce species locally

Raptor feast on the Wirral

Myself and Dave went over to the Wirral on Sunday 8th.January for a day's birding. We were treated to a great display of Hen Harriers (ringtails), Short Eared Owls, 2 Merlins, a Buzzard,  a Peregrine Falcon and a Kestrel. Other highlights included a lovely male Stonechat, 2 Tundra Bean Geese, good views of the long staying Great White Egret, Snipe, Whooper swans and Stock Doves

Snow buntings

This is a picture of the large flock of Snow Buntings seen on the beach at Holkham Gap on our trip to Norfolk kindly provided by Dave

Norfolk

Myself and Dave couldn't resist the lure of Norfolk so we had an early trip yesterday 2/1/12. We arrived in good time at Cley and quickly located the long staying Western Sandpiper and also had good although distant views of a Water Pipit. The're were thousands of Dark bellied Brent Geese although we did spot one Pale bellied Brent Goose as well. The numerous Marsh Harriers put in a good aerial show. We then travelled down the road to Holkham Gap and saw a large flock of 60-70 Snow Buntings before connecting with the 4 Shorelarks which looked fabulous in the low sunshine. We then went to Titchwell and viewed the Arctic Redpoll feeding in the Alders alongside a Mealy Redpoll. As the light faded we saw plenty of geese  heading to roost including Eurasian White fronted Geese, Pinkfooted geese and Greylags. A stunning male Merlin was observed hunting and by the marsh we could see a Chinese water deer. On the journey home we also saw a Barn Owl. In all 62 species were seen and there's no doubt that we will return to Norfolk very soon for some outstanding birding