31st December 2025
A quick potter out with my parents for a bit of fresh air
took us down to a sunny but somewhat chilly Links Road where we walked the front
most of the way towards Ness Point. I
had neglected to pick up a camera battery so of course the nine Purple
Sandpipers that we saw were really close.
Dad said ‘What’s that?’ and I looked up to see a winter pale Arctic Skua barrelling past at head height just off shore. I seemed to drop down on the Denes Oval but a few minutes later was flying low towards us along the prom! I grabbed my phone and videoed it as it came by and over us but alas I had swiped the screen and only videoed bits of my face, hat, feet and the sea. It was just one of those mornings but a fine couple of birds to finish up the year.
Dad had brought his strimmer up with him and we spent the
afternoon getting my meadow ready for 2026 with a much needed serious haircut. With the way the weather turned it was not a
moment too soon.
While we were out earlier I was told of the sudden passing of Malcolm Rush - a stalwart or RSPB Rainham Marshes volunteering since the dawn of time and a processional drinker of coffee and teller of (mostly football) tales. It had been a torrid few weeks with the loss of birding friends from across my ornithological life with in November Frank Cackett - the hub of Cliffe birding and lover of all wildlife and John Tilbrook who with Peter Gurr (still going), we enjoyed many Kent and Essex days out in my formative years. Paul Bashford - a Rainham regular and all round lovely chap was taken in early December followed by London legend Andrew Moon and then Alan Hall one of my original Boozy Birders from my early years of taking people out for the day - despite the name I think we only made it in a pub twice! There have been a few glasses raised for absent friends but I suppose I am getting to an age now when it will happen more often.
1st January 2026
I am not sure the last time that I ventured out on the New
Years Day? I was always working at Rainham
Marshes on that day and the incentive is now usually dampened by the pervading
weather that day. However, my parents
were still with us so a poodle out into the East Anglian countryside on a cold,
grey and windy day was insisted upon. ‘We
could go to Sheringham and look for that bird you were talking about?’ says
Mum. ‘Oh ok…’ says I.
About 90 minutes later we arrived and I wandered off around
the houses while Andrea stayed snug in the car and the Parentals froze
themselves on a stroll along the front.
There were many people notionally looking but most were down on the esplanade
and with the onshore wind, no self-respecting Eastern Black Redstart was going
to be down there. The local streets
(including the one where the Mother-in-Law’s family get together was held in
September) looked best and after bumping in Dave Farrow (with the expected ‘Kon'nichiwa’)
we walked the lanes, alleys and roads for a while but I was conscious of
lunchtime and soon left him to it. Nevermind.
So much along the coast was shut for New Years Day (not that
I think they should be open!) but I have to admit to being very pleased indeed
to discover the welcoming sight of open doors of the Old Reading Rooms at
Kelling. Phew. Lunch was enjoyed in the
media dead zone that is Kelling and it
was not until I was inland a little way afterwards that I saw that the EBR had
been relocated. Five minutes later I was
back at the spot and a whole minute of walking took me to the bird as it
actively fed in a tiny front garden. He
was not bothered about us in the slightest and neither it seemed was the chap
inside his living room looking out which was a bonus.
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| Eastern Black Redstart |
This was my first EBR in the UK (I can’t remember why I did
not go to see the Margate bird in 2011) and it was very much appreciated but I
had had ample opportunity to go up and see him since before Christmas but the
urge to do was simply not there. Just
ten days before I had been watching them in Oman including full slate, black
and orange adult males singing from an old village way up in the Al Hajar
mountains. How different to watching one sitting on the heads of two concrete tortoises
in a Victorian seafront garden.
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| This... |
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| or this? |
Like it or not my travels now temper my feelings towards
unusual birds in the UK and I really have to fancy seeing them or simply be close
enough that it was be silly to ignore. This
was one of those – the excuse was made for me.
After a few minutes this eastern straggler bounded back off
into the houses with a flash of a fiery tail. The light was already going on a
day when it could almost not be bothered to get up so we started back to
Lowestoft. I had been thinking about the
Ludham Black-winged Kite on the way down and just how it had been giving
birders the run around for several days, ranging well over a mile either side
of the main road but I recalled that it had been seen pre-dusk back near the
bridge itself and so as I came past Potter Heigham I swung a right and was soon
parked up. I was only going to have a
look from the bridge and Dad and I joined about 15 other birders waiting forlornly. It seemed that some had been chasing the Kite
all day with no luck.
I scanned around and picked up a few Marsh Harriers,
Pink-feet and then four Cranes feeding to the north. It looked better that side for the Kite and
then a lone figure on the towpath was waving and almost everyone just ran
off. I looked but could not see it so we
walked down along the muddy path with just bins in hand. A very kind chap popped it in his scope for
me and I watched it circle and hover by the poplars before it dropped in to
roost. Fifteen minutes and job’s a godd’un – time to go home for a cuppa but
still with time to add a Great Egret over the Acle Straight on the way.
2nd January
I dragged myself out in the bitter cold down to Ness Point
as I fancied getting my revenge on the posing Purps. The tide was almost full in and the waves
were crashing over the top with proper white horses blowing back out to sea. Amazingly there were four Purple Sandpipers
on the weedy platform behind the breakwater and I cautiously spent some time
with them with one and half eyes on the waves.
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| The Purple Surfer at the end of his run... |
I am sure that they must be related to geckos with secret suction cups on their feet as well as some sought of uber mathematic mind that allows them t guess whether a wave with reach them or not. Only once did I see one get caught out and the little dude simply body surfed in on the spume and continued feeding undoubtedly earning may ‘cool points’ from his buddies.
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| Some serious bits of concrete prom had been removed by the waves |
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| Natural lighting |
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| playing with mono |
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| Can you see the white horse's head at the front? |
The sea was rough but quiet with just a Gannet and not one
Diver so I drove down to Links Road for a look. The Oystercatchers were there
but little else but I had fun looking through the gulls in the car park before
picking up a white ringed adult Med Gull loafing offshore with some Common
Gulls.
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| The sandy beach of the 31st was now all shingle |
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| I drove through all the puddles and the gulls all immediately came in for a drink |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Carrion Crows investigating the 'new' beach |
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| Med Gull |
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| Med Gull |
I had a quick shufty around Gunton Warren where there was a
large gang of Carrion Crows and a Tit and Goldcrest flock and after looking at
few expected Holm Oak leaf mines I came back home for lunch; cold but pleased
to have gotten out.
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| Ectoedemia heringella - and so the mothing begins |
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| Acrocercops brongniardella |
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| Gorse |
4th January
The snow stated at 10am on the 3rd so it very
quickly became a home day but with a fresh fall overnight I dragged myself out
on foot for a walk down to Tom Crisp Way to see if anything had been pushed
into the stream that runs alongside it.
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| Little Egret |
It was simply but rewarding loop and I found two Jack Snipe
and one Common Snipe along the margins of the largely still flowing stream
where quite a few local Mallard had congregated as well as a couple of Moorhens and a single Little Egret that had
chosen a shady spot in a leylandii to rest and preen. It was already fully plumed up with swishing
aigrettes on its back.
The back gardens here are incredibly long and some are well
vegetated and I can only imagine the wildlife they get through them. I spooked three Muntjac too which of course I
would not want in my garden!
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| A grey cheeked House Sparrow |
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| I do love the oddness of Wood Pigeon eyes |
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| Starling - exquisite |
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| Starling - a whole tree of songsters |
There were several Tit flocks too which included the odd
Coal Tit and Goldcrest and hopefully when my trees grow up behind my garage I
might also be able to birds to linger.
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| More snow |
7th January
There was more snow overnight on the 5th and it
got down to -7c but by this morning the subsequent rain had dissolved almost
all of it leaving only the icy pavements to navigate. We drove out late morning
simply because we were fed up of being cooped up indoor and made our way into
the Broads passing all the waders and wildfowl on Breydon on the way.
The blue sky and sun was being gobbled up from the west at
an alarming rate and by the time I was walking down at Filby Broad the temperature
had dropped to 4c, the sky was leaden and the wind had got up. I gave it my best shot but nearly all the
duck were jammed down the far end but I did somehow pick up the male
Ferruginous Duck with the Tufties as they actively fed around a huge ball of
Coots that were weed pulling. There was
a pair of Goldeneye and quite a few other year ticks for the list I do not keep
before the cold drove me back to the car where Robins and Mallards were begging
for scraps.
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| The sheets of ice were grinding and squeaking around the pontoons as the wind got up |
I next tried Thurne for a scan from the church over the marshes towards St Benets Abbey but I could find any wild Swans or Cranes and just a few Chinese Water Deer and Marsh Harriers. I had a tiny hope that I may even find the Black-winged Kite from here. I was pleased to then find a pair of Cranes alongside the main road just before getting to the A149 but there was no where to stop. The pics would have been great!
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| The view from Thurne |
A quick shop in Lathams and then onto the main back roads to
Sea Palling. I avoided the Hickling by-roads and given the state of the main coast road it was probably a good
thing. Some of the bends were compacted
sheet ice and there was plenty of verge evidence of those that had taken things
too quickly. I could not find any Swans
but there were a few Pinkfeet around but nothing that I could check so we
pressed on and then just by Waxham Sands a male Hen Harrier ghosted up
alongside the car. This time I could
pull over and a joyous three minutes were spent watching him effortlessly
quartering the fields. There really is something extra special about a male Hen
and it always drags me back to my early years when I would see them on any winter
day out along the Essex and Kent coast.
A huge flock of Pinkfeet at Poppylands were checked but I
could find nothing with them but it was special to hear that sound from the warmth
of the car. Past Horsey Mill where they seem to be doing some major EA work and
then a male Marsh Harrier caught my eye mobbing a much small agile raptor. Alarm bells went off and I simply stopped and
put my hazards on.
It was the Black-winged Kite. Suddenly my previously empty road was full of
cars and I fumbled for my camera to try and get something from inside (my
window does not go down either) before leaping out onto the icy road to try and
capture the moment. The light was abysmal
but at least I remembered to press record after taking a few snaps. Within a
minute or so it had drifted off over the willows towards Hickling and was on a
line for the dead trees where I saw it for the first time back in September. Six cars came by and two stopped to ask if I was ok which was appreciated. I did not try to explain my overly happy state!
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| Black-winged Kite |
I was over the moon.
It does not matter that it was (presumably) the relocating Ludham
bird. I had found a Black-winged
Kite. The male Hen Harrier would have
won the day but a last minute winner by the Kite took all the points.
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