5th February:
I was awoken by the Tawny Owls once again and Bullfinches
and Siskins joined us over breakfast. It was glorious and cold and crisp – a
complete contrast to the windy gloom of yesterday. I resisted the urge to head
straight back to Sedgeford and stuck to my plan. Within the hour I was pulled
up in the little layby on the outskirts of Wells with a small group of people
looking for the Rough-legged Buzzard. None had seen it despite it being
‘guaranteed’. A beautiful ghostly Barn Owl was systematically working the field
margins but it took almost ten minutes for the RLB to pop back up onto his
favourite bush off towards the harbour wall.
He was a fair way off but the scope ate up the distance and
the light was with us. A striking bird almost cut into a light top half and
almost black lower half. He never flew but looked quite content and even the
presence of Buzzards and Marsh Harriers above him did not tempt him into
flight.
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| Rough-legged Buzzard |
A pair of Goldcrest foraged alongside the car and Curlews
stalked the fields before I packed up and moved west to Lady Ann’s Drive.
I was completely blown away with the habitat work that has
been carried out on the previously simple damp fields alongside the drive. They have been landscaped with rills and
channels, pools and mounds in a very similar way to what we set out to achieve
on Wennington at Rainham but with the guarantee of a vast number of wintering
wildfowl, geese and waders to pretty it up.
It was truly a sight to behold and hats off to the management team.
A scan round revealed a few scattered Pinkfeet and a host of
Wigeon before I made my way down to the Gap and the beach passing a Firecrest
in the first Holm Oak on the way. As usual the tide was miles out and it was a
fair walk to where I hoped the Shorelarks and Snow Buntings would be.
I was not to be disappointed and soon had five yellow faced
shufflers in the glasswort and grasses. And every now and then they would
emerge into view before grovelling off once again. The Snow Buntings were
further out but we could count 55 scrummaging around on the sand.
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| Snow Buntings |
I soon moved to the beach proper and a small dune occupied
by John and Janet Cadera and Andrew Self had room for one more and we stood
there and scanned the vast flock of several thousand Common Scoter drifting
with the tide like a living slick of black and brown avian petroleum. Velvets were amongst them and I picked up two
adult male, an imm male, two adult and one imm female. Two dapper drake Eider and six Mergansers
were seen but the only grebes were Great Crested and the only diver, a single
Red-throat.
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| Scoter flock |
A good group of gulls close in contained and adult Med and
Sanderlings and Oystercatchers were along the tideline. The Snow Buntings chose that point to bimble towards us and landed on the sand below us for a quiet scurry and scamper before taking to the air again in a micro blizzard of tissue paper and heading back towards the Shorelarks.
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| Oystercatchers |
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| Snow Buntings |
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| Snow Buntings |
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| Snow Buntings |
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| Snow Bunting tracks |
I ambled back to the car with a couple of Red
Kites above me and a scan around the marshes produced at least 15 Marsh
Harriers and ten Buzzards. I collected
Andrea and ambled back to the new Visitors Centre to find 12 noisy Grey
Partridge just outside. The males were resplendent and were keeping a watchful
eye on their covey of females.
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| Red
Kite |
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| Grey Partridge |
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| Grey Partridges |
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| Grey Partridges |
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| Wigeon |
The drive back out produced another mini stop (thanks to
Ashley from Oriole Birding) and
the regular hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent was seen with a small flock
along with a single Pale-bellied too.
Lunch overlooking the Burnham Overy Dunes end of the
freshmarsh produced not much before deciding that I really should have another
go at the wagtail. Ten miles and cross
country later and I was almost back at Sedgeford. I
had to wait up the straight road to allow three humungous tractors come up the
hill. I could see the huge heap and half
joked that I hoped they had not scared the wagtail off. Three minutes later
this is exactly what I was being told had happened.
However, on this occasion my luck changed and this 1cy male
Eastern Blue Headed Wagtail materialised, not on the heap but alongside the car
in the ploughed field where it showed stunningly well over the next ten
minutes. Being able to watch this species at close range gave a different
impression to the flighty grey and white bird of late September 2018 on
Shetland. The jizz felt slightly
different to the normal ‘ Western shape’ with perhaps a slightly larger head,
heavier bill and perhaps a longer tail as well as those obviously very long
hind claws. He was decked out in shades
of sulphur yellow, olive and steely blue grey and almost felt like a Blue Head
jammed into a Pied Wagtails body – if that makes sense.
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| Eastern Blue Headed Wagtail |
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| Showing the logn hind claw very well |
He called every time he flew – a loud and long buzzy dzeeeep
and soon returned to his favoured roadside poo mountain.
Five Red Kites played around the trees and a dapper male
Grey Partridge showed far better than they did here in the gloom of yesterday.
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| Red Kite |
Elated at this sunshiny success I headed back the way I had
come to the Coast Road and then to the BOD lay by where we had lunch where I set
about sloshing my way down through the mud to the river wall for an hour of
productive scanning around.
Geese and wildfowl were all around with about 400 each of
Pink-feet and Brent (inc a Pale Bellied) and I picked up 24 Russian
White-fronts just before they landed out of view which is exactly what then
happened with about 25 Barnacles!
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| Pink-feet |
Ten Ruff were dotted amongst the Lapwings and Curlews along
with a smattering of Dunlin, swirling wisps of Snipe and about 50 Golden
Plover. Marsh Harriers were quite literally everywhere with at least 25 seen
along with ten perching Buzzards and a minimum of five Barn Owls that were
already out and about and cruising the hedgelines. A female Hen Harrier circled
off towards the heronry.
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| Marsh Harrier |
Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer quietly grazed and
Brown Hares lolloped around the earthy fields and eventually I found the eight Cattle Egrets way off in the distance in the horse paddocks of Marsh House but
they looked great even at that range!
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| Cattle Egrets on full zoom with the RX10 IV - seven in view |
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| They even crop down and look more like Cattle Egrets! |
The light and temperature began to drop so I headed back
with the Barn Owls for company with the intention of heading back but at the
last minute I diverted down the Stiffkey Campsite track for a dusk look at the
saltmarsh. I had just missed a silver
male Hen Harrier but was quite content with a perched female Merlin, two
ring-tailed Hens and nine Marsh Harriers in the dwindling gloom while 31 Little
Egrets massed on the marsh and a Song Thrush started up to sing the night in
and ended another long day.
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