Norfolk

As is customary at this time of year, I headed up to Norfolk with some friends for a few days winter birding. It's all low-carbon so we went on the train to Kings Lynn and then bus to Hunstanton where we were staying for three nights.

The first afternoon we walked south along the beach towards Heacham and back. The tide was just out far enough so there were waders on the beach and we checked in vain for Purple Sands amongst the many Turnstones.

Sanderling

There were plenty of Sanderling, Oystercatcher and Redshank while offshore were several hundred Common Scoter and a couple of Gannets. A single Brent Goose flew past as did a few Canada Geese, the first ones we've seen here. 

The following morning we had an hour's vismig on the beach during which time about 5,400 Starlings flew past heading into The Wash. Some went overhead at tree-top height while other large flocks skimmed the sea. There wasn't much else moving, just a few finches, Mipits and Fieldfares along with 120 Woodpigeons. More unusually we saw a flock of eight Egyptian Geese flying over the sea; although they're relatively common in parts of Norfolk I've never seen them on a seawatch before.

After breakfast we took the bus the short distance to Titchwell. We decided to spend the whole day here as the weather forecast was good for today. It proved to be the right decision as we recorded 83 species. We might have added a few more but they've stopped putting out food for the birds around the centre which seems an over-the-top reaction to a few rats that were feeding on the scraps.

Brent Geese: a low-flying messy flock

Pink-footed Geese: high-flying and typically in v-shaped lines

Geese and waders were the order of the day with constant movement of Brents and Pink-feet while every patch of water held waders and we think we saw all the waders that were present with 18 species logged including single Knot, Spotted Redshank and Greenshank. The highlight though were the Golden Plover; we hadn't seen any until lunchtime when a few dropped in in front of the hide and they continued to pile in with maybe a couple of thousand by the end of the day.

Curlew

Greenshank

Common Redshank

Spotted Redshank

We spent an hour on the beach looking out to sea and picked up a couple of Velvet Scoters in the large wheeling mass of Common Scoters. Just one Red-throated Diver flew past and a couple of juvenile Gannets vied for scraps with the gulls as a fishing boat hauled its nets in. We got word of a couple of Snow Buntings so went looking for them and soon found them scurrying around by the dunes. I feel they are badly named and should be called Sand Buntings as they spend most of the year on beaches.

Snow Bunting

Out in the distance I saw a flock of swans heading west. Eventually they got close enough to see they were were Bewick's Swans, coming here for the winter from Russia and heading to the Ouse Washes. Later in the day, three Whooper Swans flew inland giving us the set of swans for the day.

Bewick's Swans

Whooper Swans

We stopped at the cafe mid afternoon for a hot drink and a rest then went back out along the main track to watch for birds coming into roost.

Late afternoon looking towards Thornham Point

Marsh Harriers began to drift in, the early ones flew around for quite a while looking for a pre-roost snack before dropping into the roost but the last ones to arrive just flew straight into the roost. We counted 23 Marsh Harriers, often groups of five or six would be in the air together. While we watched a few come in, another bird appeared with them - a ringtail Hen Harrier. It flew around for a while before dropping into the roost. Towards the end a single Great Egret flew overhead and landed in the reeds.

Great Egret

Surprisingly, there were no owls on show, even when we scanned the fields from the bus stop at dusk.

The next morning we were out on the beach again although we were under the shelter as it was raining. The scoter flock had increased ten-fold to 2,000 birds and today's exotic goose was a single Greylag. Despite the rain, another 10,000 Starlings flew past.

On the bus to Holkham we saw a covey of Red-legged Partridges, our only ones of the trip. It rained a few times during the day but it wasn't heavy enough to stop us or get us wet. A heavy squall passed over during the afternoon but luckily we were sat in the hide at the time.

We went looking for Shore Larks which had only arrived the previous day but there was no sign in the roped-off area. It was fairly quiet out to sea  with around 200 Common Scoter and a couple of Red-throated Divers. We stopped at the cafe on the way back and then walked through the woods. The weather kept most birds down and even the marshes were unusually quiet with no egrets around. We couldn't find the White-fronted Geese by the Joe Jordan hide but did find a little flock of Barnacle Geese. The White-tailed Eagles that have been here for a while failed to show but that was hardly surprising in this weather. It did eventually stop raining which allowed the Starlings to start moving west again but we took an early bus back.

On our last morning there was just time for a pre-breakfast visit to the beach. Starlings were taking advantage of the clearer weather and piled through in huge numbers. We estimated 44,000 during that hour including one enormous flock of 18,000 that covered the sea like a oil slick. During the course of our trip we reckon we saw about 65,000 Starlings going past. Chaffinches were also moving today with 50 counted going overhead but there wasn't much else. The last new bird of the trip was a Black-throated Diver which flew past close inshore giving us a total of 108 birds for the trip, along with four species of deer (Roe, Fallow, Muntjac & Chinese Water), Grey Seal and Hare. 

Challenge results

Now that I've reached my total of birding 100 sites in London this year, I thought it would be interesting to look at the results. In total I saw 125 species just on my initial visits. The ten most frequently seen birds were:

1. Robin at 95% of sites visited

2. Carrion Crow 93%

=3. Woodpigeon 90%

=3. Blue Tit 90%

5. Magpie 85%

6. Ring-necked Parakeet 83%

7. Wren 81%

8. Great Tit 78%

9. Blackbird 72%

=10. Feral Pigeon 69%

=10. Goldfinch 69%

Robin, Horsenden Hill

I asked my followers on Twix to guess the  top three and while Crow and Woodpigeon featured highly, no one mentioned the humble Robin. The noisiest bird in London, the pesky parrot, came in sixth showing how ubiquitous it has become, ten years ago I doubt it would have been in the top ten. The humble pigeon just scraped into the top ten; although common in most parks it is largely absent from woodlands and rural areas on the outskirts of the city.

Pigeons at Beam Parklands

I think for me, the biggest and most disturbing result is the omission of Starling and House Sparrow. They would probably have occupied the top two positions if I had done this 30 years ago. This year, Starling was 19th, seen at 48 sites (behind Great Spotted Woodpecker) and House Sparrow was equal 29th, level with Egyptian Goose and Jay, seen at just 37 sites and scarcer than even Goldcrest.

I saw 29 species only once during these visits, some are not surprising, like Red-backed Shrike and Bittern but just one Bullfinch shows how much they've declined recently. I don't think it will be long before they get added to the list of 'former breeding birds of London' like Turtle Dove and Tree Sparrow.

As for birds of prey, Kestrel is still the commonest, albeit only seen at 15 sites, just ahead of Buzzard (13 sites) and Sparrowhawk (12 sites) and Red Kite a bit further back at eight sites. I wonder if Red Kite would be the commonest raptor if I repeated this challenge in ten year's time?

Kestrel, Warren Farm

Red Kite, Warren Farm

Unsurprisingly, I saw the most species at London's premier site, Rainham Marsh (65) and the fewest was seven species at Rainham Three Crowns, which to be fair was only a short walk. I enjoyed the challenge and visited many sites for the first time, some of which I'll be going back to regularly like Beam Parklands and Havering Country Park and a few sites I'll try to avoid returning to like Burgess Park. I visited 24 of the 32 London Boroughs.

With this challenge now over the year, I've been concentrating my birding at my local patches of Dagenham Chase and Rainham Marshes. 

I had a superb vismigging morning at the Chase on October 9th when I found a Richard's Pipit, the first record for the site. Another patch-tick for me later in the month was a female Goosander on the river.

Goosander

There's been a good influx of Short-eared Owls into London and on October 20th I saw two at Rainham Marshes.

Short-eared Owl at Rainham