Wild Goose Chase

Managed to see 5 species of Geese today. Tundra Bean at Blackmoorfoot, 2 Eurasian White fronted geese at Ingbirchworth  plus Pink foot at both sites and Greylag and Canada at the latter. Also a large flock of Brambling at Ingbirchworth and plenty of Fieldfare in the field with a few Tree Sparrow and Yellowhammer

                                                   

                                                  

Siberian Accentor and Spectacular Spurn

Our best day ever at Spurn on Saturday. After the mega twitch Sibe at Easington we spent all of Saturday and Sunday morning at Spurn which was alive with birds. As well as the rares the place of teeming winter thrushes, robins and goldcrest. In total we saw over 80 species

                                                Siberian Accentor

Dusky Warbler

                                                   Bearded Tit

                                      Brent Geese and Black Brant (right most bird)

                                                                       Lesser Redpoll

                                                                   Mealy Redpoll

                                                                         Ring Ouzel

                                                                 Pallas's Warbler

                                                                   Radde's Warbler

                                                                 Water Rail

                                                                       Shorelark

                                                           Yellow-browed Warbler

                                                           Tundra Bean Goose

                                                                       Redstart

                                                                  Redwing

                                                                  White Fronted Goose

New Year's Day Norfolk

Great winter day birding in Norfolk. Bearded Tit Richardson's Canada  Goose Hen Harrier Marsh Harrier Brambling Sparrowhawk Barn Owl Eurasian White-fronted Geese Barnacle Geese being the highlights of a total list of 62 species

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

Anglesey Trip

Rather than having a lie in on Sunday I went over to North Wales and Anglesey on Sunday 20th. November with David Evans for some birding. After a foggy start we arrived at Llandullas in beautiful sunshine and blue skies and went sea watching for the velvet scoters that were seen yesterday. Sadly the birds were far out in the bay and there appeared little chance of picking ou velvets amongst the thousands of Common Scoters that could be seen. We did see Red Throated Divers and Goosanders.
We then went to Anglesey in search of the Glossy Ibis seen on Malltraeth Marsh. No show but saw Whooper Swans, Greylag Geese, loads of Ravens and plenty of chipping Snipe. Then onto Llyn Penrhyn for some excellent views of the long staying Red Necked Grebe. We then went to the Alaw Estuary where we looked for the Lesser Yellowlegs. After a failed first attempt on which several birders, myself included tried to convince ourselves that a Greenshank was the said bird, we finally nailed it after a quick visit to South stack to watch the Choughs. We finished off the day at Llyn Coron and saw White Fronted Geese, Tundra Bean Geese but no Siberian Chiffchaff that was reported from there earlier in the day.
In all, an excellent day smashing our day list record with 68 species!