Cley: Glaucous Gulls, Snow Buntings and Scoters

Yesterday was an "Escape to the Coast" day with friends, spending most of our time at Cley Marshes on the north Norfolk Coast after an early morning (sadly, unsuccessful) attempt to find a Rough-legged Buzzard at Holme Fen near Peterborough.

Cley more than made up for this early disappointment with a superb selection of birds giving great views as we slowly made our way around the circular walk.  Our main objective was to see Snow Buntings along the beach so we walked down the famous East Bank, but made slow progress as there was so much to see - a juvenile Peregrine was sat on an island in the middle of the main marshland pool, with nervous wildfowl keeping their distance.   A juvenile Glaucous Gull, which we'd been told was feeding on a seal carcass along the beach, flew past us and on towards the centre of the reserve.

Further on we hear the distinctive chattering call of the Snow Bunting and looked up to see the wintering flock of about sixty birds fly past us and down towards the beach car park, settling in amongst some tall dock plants.
 
A Curlew delighted us, feeding in a small pool very close to the path, a nice opportunity to watch this often quite wary bird at close quarters.

Curlew

Reaching the beach, we were ready for lunch by now and were able to spend some time watching Red-throated Divers fishing quite close to the shoreline.  A couple of Black-headed Gulls were on the lookout for scraps and gave a nice opportunity to capture a portrait of one just starting to gain more black feathers on it's head: a sure sign that the breeding season is fast approaching.

Black-headed Gull

We continued to see the juvenile Glaucous Gull flying around and then it landed on an island in the largest pool behind the beach.  As we walked towards to get a better view we realised there were actually two juvenile Glaucous Gulls sitting on the island, with a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull in between.  Birders at the viewing screen overlooking the pool and islands had just seen the second bird fly in, possibly a new arrival.  Both gulls were intent on preening and gave some great prolonged views - are rare opportunity to study these scarce visitors from the arctic in a relatively natural setting.  They were normally encountered feeding at rubbish tips or roosting with thousands of other gulls at our larger reservoirs.

Spot the Glaucous Gulls

Two juvenile Glaucous Gulls, with Dark-bellied Brent Geese and Lapwings

juvenile Glaucous Gull with sleeping juvenile Great Black-backed Gull and Lapwings

 

Just behind the viewing screen, back towards the beach, the Snow Bunting flock was not far away.  Somewhat fortuitously, the whole flock flew up and landed much closer to us and started feeding busily amongst the plants scattered across the top of the beach.  They are used to people walking quite close and were fairly tolerant of their small crowd of admirers.

Looking back towards the sea my eyes were drawn to what looked vaguely like a large black oil slick out to sea.  However, closer inspection with binoculars revealed a large and very dense flock of Common Scoter feeding intensively in a tightly-knit group.  We tried to estimate the flock size, gradually increasing our count towards 500 birds.  Then, the whole flock decided to move and flew a few hundred metres across the sea, enabling us to increase the estimate further - to 600 birds - plus a single Velvet Scoter.

 As we completed our loop around the marshes we were rewarded with more waders - flocks of Ruff, Dunlin, Avocets, Black-tailed Godwits and a few Golden Plover.  Pairs of Gadwall and Shelduck were displaying and Lapwings flocks were scattered across the lagoons.   Some great views too of four male Stonechats gathered together along a short stretch of fence, we checked them for colour rings as there is a study going on locally, but all were ring-free. 

Broughton Castle: Bramblings

The grounds of Broughton Castle near Banbury are quite a good place to look for birds in a beautiful setting, with good access.  The extensive parkland is dotted with old oak trees and several clumps of beech trees.  For the past few days a small number of Brambling have been feeding with Chaffinches on beech mast but have been quite difficult to see as they are easily disturbed and the park is also popular for dog walking.  This morning was my first opportunity to have look for them. Walking towards the main clump of mature trees I soon located the flock and my first Brambling, but it was some time before I could get a prolonged view as the birds kept moving on through the trees. Then I had some good fortune - a couple of Brambling flew into the top of a large hawthorn and decided to start preening.  And the sun came out!  So I managed to capture a few images with the phone-scope combination.

Brambling, Broughton Castle grounds

Later I realised I was also being watched - by the local Tawny Owl!

Tawny Owl

Earlier in the morning I took advantage of a couple of spare hours whilst my car was being serviced in Banbury and took a walk up to Grimsbury Reservoir and the Upper Cherwell Valley as far at the Borrow Pit pool.  Quite a few Song Thrushes were singing and when I got to Grimsbury Woodland nature reserve I soon located a couple of Marsh Tits but sadly no sign of a Willow Tit (and none reported so far this year).  Up at the Borrow Pit five Little Grebes were in residence and good numbers of gulls were bathing. Redwings were also in evidence in the canal-side hedgerows and scrub.

View of the Oxford Canal near the Borrow Pit.

Nice lighting on the trees behind the Borrow Pit.

BTO English Winter Bird Survey: Moreton Pinkney

Thank you to everyone who had been reading my blog over recent years, I've now passed 40,000 views, and currently standing at 41,157!

This morning I was out surveying what is normally my breeding bird survey square near Moreton Pinkney in south Northants - but this time as part of the BTO's English Winter Bird Survey.  This was my second of, hopefully, four visits in the period Dec to March. The aim of the study it to shed more light on why the majority of our farmland birds continue to decline.  There is also an emphasis on recording Brown Hares and other mammals.

It was near perfect survey conditions this morning - calm, sunny and fairly mild.  Robins and Great Tits were singing and Great Spotted Woodpeckers were drumming.  It is quite interesting to see "my" survey square in winter, with a different mix of species including our winter thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfares. Last month, on my first visit, I glimpsed a Kingfisher speeding along the small stream and saw several Jays.  It was rather sad to see that a large field corner that had been left to go wild for a few years had been ploughed up, especially as Common Spotted Orchids had started to colonise last year.  Small losses of habitat like this, if repeated across the landscape, can have a big cumulative effect on bird populations - removing valuable year-round foraging areas rich in seeds and insects.

The continued absence of any Tree Sparrows was not really a surprise given the widespread disappearance of this species in our area recently.  They are not helped by the recent conversion of many derelict barns to new homes, but this is not the main fain factor affecting them - it is the loss of good winter feeding sites (cereal stubble, game strips etc.) that is by far the main cause.

These barns used to be home to chattering groups of Tree Sparrows, but they seem to have died out now.

The watery sunshine cast a warm glow across the landscape and the illuminated the view across to the church at nearby Canons Ashby.

View towards Canons Ashby

Winter random square: thrushes and tree sparrows; plus Wardington Common Buzzards

Common Buzzard, Wardington

This weekend was Winter Random Square time again - the long-running winter bird count organised by the BOS for many years, and really easy to do: just spend at least two hours in your allocated 1km square (they all have reasonable public access via rights of way) and count what you see.

I recorded 31 species in my square, centred on the tiny hamlet of Plumpton tucked away in the south Northamptonshire countryside.  Most prominent were thrushes - lots of Redwings (at least 200) and plenty of Fieldfares, feasting mostly on the remaining berry crop but sometimes dropping down onto the fields to search for worms and other invertebrates.  Also good numbers of Skylarks and Yellowhammers, though raptors were is short supply, just a solitary Red Kite.

Driving out to the survey square I stopped off at a couple of places I used to see Tree Sparrows quite reliably, but couldn't find any - though there was a nice gathering of Lapwings and Golden Plover in a winter sown cereal field.

Golden Plovers, near Weston, Northamptonshire

I tried one last spot on my way back - a strip of game cover that looked promising - and sure enough, mixed in with about 50 Yellowhammers were a scattering of Tree Sparrows - about ten in total.  In the past few years Tree Sparrows have become noticeably scarcer in our area and they have disappeared completely from my BTO Breeding Bird Survey Square in nearby Moreton Pinkney.  So good to see them still around.

I hope to see Tree Sparrows in my garden again over the winter, but at the moment the most interesting birds around the village are the Common Buzzards, which like last year, have gathered in the big arable field at Top Dawkins.  My peak count so far is 19 birds.  One was particularly confiding, feeding quite close to one of the gateways.  They make short flights or a quick run, then pounce on their prey in the soil.