Tales From An Essex Birder

Today was to be the first full day birdwatching in Norfolk - and where better to spend it than one of my favourite reserves in existence; the wonderful Holkham. I usually make an annual pilgrimage to this wonderful place to pick up Norfolk's winter specialities and this year was no different. After waking up at quarter to 7, I made my way towards Lady Anne's Drive underneath the red sky of sunrise.  The first port of call was to be the A149 lay-by just before Lady-Anne's Drive where a sizeable flock of White-fronted geese had been hanging out. Having only seen this species once (this one sighting was also coincidentally at Holkham) I couldn't resist having a go at seeing my favourite species of goose. As I pulled into the lay-by, a large flock of geese was immediately in sight, I raised my binoculars and BOOM - there were the flock of White-fronted Geese .  White-fronted Geese As I was admiring the sizeable flock, a flash of something white and very Owl-like caught my e...

 After finishing my final uni assignment the previous morning, I was finally a free man. This only meant one thing. More time to go birding. It was my favourite haunt of North Norfolk that really wet the appetite, so I decided to book a b&b in Hunstanton for the weekend and have a mooch around a few reserves. Having seen both the long-staying Hume's Leaf Warbler and Long-billed Dowitcher already, I instead decided that I would try and have a bit more of a chilled visit in which I would not do too much chasing. So, after an early start I set off in the beloved twitch mobile (aka the Mini Cooper) in the direction of Norfolk. However, I had in mind a slight diversion on the way. I planned to cross the border into Cambridgeshire to Eldernell where there had been reported an insane 4 different species of Owl over the past few weeks. This was simply too much to resist and only added about an extra half hour or so onto the journey.  I arrived at Eldernell at around half 9ish and ...

After what feels like weeks of westerly winds, the duck finally broke giving way to two days of easterlies on the 19th and 20th. Even better still, a trip to London to see Bob Dylan meant that a trip to Norfolk during this spell of easterlies was possible. For one reason or another I have never been able to get to Norfolk in autumn so to say I was excited is an understatement. The original plan was to go on the Thursday whilst the winds were still blowing to the east, however a very dodgy ankle prevented me from driving to Norfolk that day. This dodgy ankle proved to cost me a Blue Rock Thrush... that typically turned up at Winterton Dunes on the day that I was planning to go! But this wasn't the only goody to be had, as I watched with envy on Birdguides the number of migrants that began to pour into the country - in Norfolk Pallas' Warblers began to turn up in numbers whilst more Yellow-browed Warblers arrived...  Roll on the morning of Friday 21st, I'd manage to gain clea...

Returning home from University in Liverpool brought with it mixed emotions - on the one hand I was gutted to be far away from my uni mates again, but on the other hand was the prospect of some proper meals. Oh. And a closer proximity to Kent, Suffolk and Norfolk for some birding. It was the latter county that proved to be the first to wet my birding appetite when the news was released that up to 7 Bee-eaters were attempting to nest at a quarry in Triminghan. Whilst the birds were reportedly attempting to breed (meaning they'd likely stick around a while) I didn't want to take any chances so set out to see them at the first opportunity. This first opportunity proved to be the 18th June. On the chosen day I set off at around half 7 for the long drive up to North Norfolk in the humid weather (since the heat wave had buggered off) and arrived on site at around 10ish. Upon entering the car park two things became apparent - that the RSPB had done a cracking job at arranging a safe vi...

 Since passing my driving test in April, I have been itching to drive to my first serious twitch. So when news of a Roller in Suffolk was released on BirdGuides, I faced a nervous wait until the Sunday when I was free to twitch the bird. The reasonable hour and a quarter drive from my house to the site coupled with reports of great views meant that I couldn't resist twitching the bird. Luckily the Roller did the generous thing and decided to stay put for the Sunday. Waking up, I experienced the first pre-twitch nerves that I've had for a long while. But after constantly refreshing Birdguides, I saw to my delight that the bird had been reported in the morning. After seeing this, I hastily packed my birding gear into the car and set off to Icklingham (the sight of the twitch) with my Dad. Luckily, the journey was fairly straightforward and very little traffic was encountered - another good sign that I may connect with the bird.  Eventually we arrived at the site. Often it can be...

For a sixth former like myself the Christmas period means only one thing... revision. However, I was gladly able to have a days break from the slog and elected to go birding a bit further afield. After some consideration, I decided I would pay a visit to my favourite nature reserve in Norfolk -  Holkham. This was mainly to try my luck again at the Shorelark and Snow Bunting that I'd unwillingly dipped almost a year to the day, and maybe even jam in on a White-fronted Goose or two. The day started off poorly when - despite it being 7:30 in the morning, my father and I were stuck in standstill traffic. This, and the fact that it was the shortest day of the year, really had me worrying about how much time I would be able to spend birding. Gladly, we eventually managed to get moving again and arrived at Lady Anne's drive at around 10:45. Birding proceedings began promisingly when a Stonechat hopped out obligingly - a matter of metres from our car - and was eventually joined by...

Having known I would be heading on a birding trip further afield during the Christmas holidays, I took a while to choose where I would go. However, I eventually settled with Titchwell in the hope of some seabirds (as this is a big gap in my birding knowledge) and Holkam to try and see some Shorelark or Snow Bunting.  So after a 6 o'clock start and a 2 and a half hour drive, we arrived at Titchwell for the 'Easy Birding' Walk. A brief glance at the feeders outside the centre yielded all of the usual suspects (Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Long-tailed tit) as well as a year tick in the form of a Greenfinch.  The fact that I hadn't seen one yet this year was shocking on my part, especially since they used to frequent my garden feeders, however it's also a worrying sign that these birds are on the decline.  Anyway, we began the walk led by our excellent guide Richard who took us down the Fen trail. On the way to the viewpoint, we observed more Long-tailed tits...