Oct 11th

Strong North easterly winds after gale northerlies produced a decent seawatch as predicted. In easterly based conditions I now know the best vantage point seems to be from Gunton cliff from the car where its still, dry and has a high view. A hoped for Leach`s Petrel gave good scope views halfway out and rested on the sea on occaisions as it went north slowly. A northerly passage of Auks was evident from this high viewpoint moving just beyond the white water and 30+ large Auks were seen along with a Puffin. 3 Sooty Shearwaters moved north. 5 Great Skuas and 7 Arctic Skuas were noted. 6 male Eider and a female Red-breasted Merganser went north with a good passage of Brent Geese (150+), Wigeon (50+, Common Scoter (70+) and Teal (30+. 3 Little Gulls went south and 4 Med Gulls were seen. Gannet passage was decent with some incredibly close birds inc one juv just off the groynes. A Brambling was noted at Corton railtrack and a few Redwing and Song Thrush were noted in sheltered spots.

Black Darters

In evening raced to Corton New Sewage works to witness the Suffolk record numbers of Black Darters. At least 10 males were present no doubt blown in by the strong south easterlies of previous days and now showing in calm conditions. Andrew also had a Vagrant Emperor at Gunton beach today, clearly theres been an influx of foreign insects.

Oct 6th

Still pretty quiet. Just a few Firecrests at note including a few regularly at Corton. In sunny weather tried some photography today at Breydon and Lound. At Lound 11 Redwing and a probable singing male Firecrest (not seen) were noted then a very pale Buzzard flew over which I managed to video with the new camera, a video grab appears below. It had a noticable pale rump and tail and had me scrambling for Colins and checking Dutch birding, their bird was still there and this was only a Common. Quite a few Canada Geese are now at Lound having been absent in early part of the year, along with the omnipresent Greylags:

Oct 1st

Day off work due to NUT strike, so gave the patch a grilling, counting the birds as I saw them in my notebook, as I tend to do when I expect stuff. Of course ive expected stuff all week in these easterly winds, but its been pretty poor, probably as theres been no cloud cover or rain to ground things. Firecrest: one seen well in conifers by Corton OSW, 2 along Corton disused railway line. 4 additional crest sp heard but not seen during my rounds at Corton were possibly this species. Wheatear: one along clifftop by Corton old sewage works. Another in the grassy Potters field at Hopton. Lesser Whitethroat: one seen well at Corton disused railway line, dont worry of course I checked it for eastern features, it appeared to be nominate. Song Thrush: 28 Corton area, 7 Gunton. Robin: 21 Corton area, a small increase on recent days. Chaffinch: 12 Corton area. Chiffchaff: 6 Corton area. Meadow Pipit: 11 Corton area. Jay: 4 Corton area Bullfinch: 3 Corton disused railway line. Coal Tit: 2 Corton disused railway line. Blackcap: 3 Corton disused railway line. Siskin: 2 south Corton disused railway line. Green Woodpecker: 2 Corton area.

Birds

In case you had been wondering I have been out most days recently just not seeing anything notable enough for a blog post. Yesterday a nice Snow Bunting was seen sitting on a groyne by Links Hill presumably exhausted after a long flight. Many evenings have been spent seawatching especially after tip offs of birds coming north eg the Sabines Gull off Sizewell, didnt pick up any of them tho. Today went to Burgh castle to try out camera..and was met by thick fog. When it cleared a bit some viz mig was apparent with a small group of Redpolls, 7 Yellow Wagtails and plenty of Meadow Pipits flying over the ruins which appears to be a good viz mig location as they pass along the river valley. I did test the camera at 50x on the very distant Berney Mill: The winds have been dire...a bit of early morning viz mig is all I could muster but possible promising conditions for next week and with a staggering 160 Yellow-browed Warblers on a single Norweigan Island today things could get very interesting....

Sept 22nd

Yellow-browed Warbler seen on the patch today in Sparrows Nest Gardens. Found by Andrew, was elusive but called constantly for a few minutes and showed briefly high up in trees above the bowling green. Hopefully the first of many and an almost certain upgrade to 6pts as ive found at least one every year since ive lived here. Purchased a new bridge camera yesterday, a sony DSC HX-300 which produces great results at x50 optical zoom. I bought it for record shots of self found solo observed rares mainly and for this its amazing as you can get an identifiable shot very quickly and easily which such a small portable device. Heres an example of a cat taken on a neighbours roof in near darkness at 7 pm.

Sept 11th

Up at dawn to seawatch before work. Was raining with poor visibility at dawn so pulled in to Links Road car park to watch from car. It was soon apparent that a large northerly passage of Wildfowl and waders was happening, very close inshore. 100s of Teal and Wigeon, some Mallard, Scoter and Gadwall, 100s of Dunlin, many Knot, good numbers of Grey Plover, some Curlew etc. A close group of 20 or so Dunlin flew past and I got my scope on them and noted 2 considerably smaller, paler waders which were clearly Little Stints, a real bonus. Some extremely close Arctic Skuas were also passing north. As the weather abated and the visibility improved I decided to watch from Corton for a wider field of view. Sheltered by the benches hedge it was very pleasant, the horizon appeared and viewing was very good. Skuas kept appearing, often close. A dainty pale juv Long-tailed Skua flew north with an Arctic, the difference was remarkable with completely different flight action, size and jizz, the Arctic was low and purposefull while the tiny Long-tailed was very bouyant and kept dipping to surface, very Tern like and easily one of the better examples ive seen off here. In total 16 Arctic Skuas went north during the short watch. Most birds were passing north and close but the Gannets were passing south and distant. Then a real patch crippler occured as 2 magnificent Avocets passed close north, easily the highlight of the watch.