SUNDAY 4^TH MAY – Sunny spells and a cold northerly wind, 10C

Not exactly Spring-like weather for the final day of the tour, but we took on the challenge of trying to add some more different species to the trip list, finishing on a very respectable 122 species. Adjacent Titchwell reserve would be the destination for the morning, but boy it was cold as we battled out into the wind along the West Bank path! We saw a few birds around the reedbed pool area on the way down such as Reed Bunting and Pochard, but we decided to plough straight on down to the beach to have a quick look at the sea and shoreline before coming back with the wind behind us. The sea was actually surprisingly quiet given the onshore wind, but we did pick a single Little Tern up battling west and had super views of two pairs of Sandwich Terns which flew along the beach. There were quite a lot of Sanderlings on the shoreline too, and some very distant Common Scoter, out to the north-west towards the wind farm.

Parrinder Hide afforded some shelter from the wind and here we had good views of Mediterranean Gull, another party of Sandwich Terns, Little-ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and our first Common Terns. A female Marsh Harrier also gave good views, flushing up the breeding Black-headed Gulls before puncing on something on one of the islands. Back around at Island Hide, we saw a couple more Common Sandpipers, another Little-ringed Plover close to the hide, and admired the 25 or so each of House Martin and Swift feeding low over the freshmarsh. Heading back towards the VC then, we called in at the reliable roosting Tawny Owl and could just about make it out hiding in it’s favourite ivy-clad tree – not so easy now the leaves are on the trees!

Given the weather, we wanted to seek a bit more shelter for the last walk of the trip and so after a circuitous route through the local farmland to check a few spots – noting a nice Grey Partridge – we arrived at a rather busy Lady Anne’s Drive in time for an early lunch. Four Whimbrel feeding in the fields on the west side were great to see – it has been a decent spring for them so far. We then walked west, through the shelter of Holkham pines in the sunshine, and added a few nice bits along the way out to Joe Jordan hide including Willow Warbler, Goldcrest and Treecreeper. From the new hide, we enjoyed watching the comings and goings of the Spoonbills at the colony, with both Great White Egret and Cattle Egret in the adjacent fields too. The highlight though was the new scrape which held a whopping eleven Greenshanks – a good Spring total for any site – and three Wood Sandpipers. Given the unfavourable weather for passerine migrants on the tour, a total north of 120 was a great result and we wrapped things up back at Briarfields around 3pm.

SATURDAY 3^RD MAY – Sunny spells and fresh westerly winds, 14C

Today we headed south into the Breckland region, for a blockbuster day of birding in the fens and heaths of south-west Norfolk and North-west Suffolk. Our first location was a scrubland site where we hoped to find Nightingales, and despite the cool wind the sun was shining and we soon heard our first bird singing from the depths of the flowering hawthorns – though seeing it would prove a different matter. Over the next hour we heard at least four singing male Nightingales but we were almost about to give up on a sighting when we spotted one perched through a narrow gap between two trees. Thankfully it sat there long enough for everyone to get a good scope view! Also at the same spot we had excellent views of a Garden Warbler sitting out in the open singing, and on the way back to the car park we picked up a pair of Yellowhammer too.

Nightingale

Read more

FRIDAY 31^ST JANUARY – Overcast with drizzle, 3C

Our final day of the trip started with a visit to adjacent Titchwell reserve. After seeing the Water Rail in its usual spot in a ditch behind the feeders, we headed more or less directly out to the shore to catch the back end of high water. The visibility was poor and the Common Scoter flock were typically distant in a fair swell, so seeing anything amongst them was going to be a challenge! We spent a good while scrutinising them and eventually everyone in the group managed to see both a Velvet Scoter and a Long-tailed Duck – it wasn’t easy, but we got there in the end! Four Red-breasted Mergansers were on the tidal pool and we had really close views of Grey Plovers in the corner of Volunteer Marsh beside the path. Popping into Parrinder, we had great views of all the ducks present including several lovely Pintail, and were able to notch up both Rock Pipit and Water Pipit, though the latter only made a very brief cameo. A male Hen Harrier ghosted past the hide really close but was soon gone off to the east, and a couple of Skylarks were watched on one of the closest islands.

Woodcock

Read more

TUESDAY 7^TH JANUARY – Moderate westerly winds and sunshine. 3C

Another bitingly cold winter’s day but one which offered up some crackerjack birding! We started the day with skeins of Pink-footed Geese heading west against the morning sunrise as we loaded the van ready to head along the coast to Old Hunstanton. A young Glaucous Gull had been coming in there to a dead seal and commuting off to Gore Point, so we wanted to try for that first before the beach got too busy with dogs and people. As we crossed the dunes onto the beach, we could immediately see the Glaucous Gull standing proud on the tideline. A brute of a bird with classic latte-coloured plumage and an ink-tipped pink bill, it didn’t hang around long before flying back north towards Holme. The beach was also full of waders, especially Sanderling which were scurrying around right in front of us. Single Grey Plover and Ringed Plover, lots of Turnstones and a flock of Knot were also noted, as well as a couple of Fulmar flying south offshore. While scanning the beach, we then picked up the six wintering Shorelarks on the shingle ridge – a great spot as they were very well camouflaged against the sand and shingle! The light was good and despite the cold wind buffeting the scopes, we had some decent views of them before they disappeared back up the beach – a lucky start to the day!

Green-winged Teal – our first view of the drake bird at Holkham, 7th January

Read more

I set off on a fact-finding trip to Peru on 3^rd December 2024, meeting up with my good friend Juan Carlos Figueroa who many of you will know from our Ecuador tours. Juan Carlos flew in from Quito and we made our rendezvous in Lima, ready to start what would be an adventure for both of us! My preparation levels had been pretty low due to a very busy autumn period, but we had a good ground agent on our side who had set up all the logistics – we just needed to keep everything crossed that our mission-critical internal flights went to plan! This didn’t start off particularly well, as our already once-changed flight from Lima up to Chachapoyas in Northern Peru, originally scheduled for 0840 the day after our arrival, had now been pushed all the way back to 1330, effectively meaning we’d lost the first afternoon. Never mind, we would use the time constructively by taking a taxi from the airport down to the coast to look for Inca Tern – it was only 8km, so would be fine? Wrong! We spent 2hrs sat in gridlocked traffic around the city and eventually gave up and returned to the airport having seen nothing more than a West Peruvian Dove! Hopefully that was all our logistical glitches out of the way right at the beginning!?

Long-whiskered Owlet – our first big target scored in the north!

Read more

THURSDAY 28^TH NOVEMBER – Frosty start with east wind picking up later, dry. 5C

We rose to another cracking sunrise but it was distinctly colder at a nippy -4C first thing! We had only a short journey this morning, along the back lanes alongside the sprawling Loch Ken to the RSPB car park at Mains of Duchrae. Here we planned to spend a couple of hours walking down to the hides and back where we hoped to find Willow Tit. Four Greenland White-fronted Geese flew in yapping as we set off along the track, and we had already seen several Red Kites along the drive down. The woodland was really quiet with everything covered in a hoar frost, but there were a few passerines to be found including Goldcrest, Redwing, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and several Bullfinches. Willow Tit was heard giving its distinctive nasal call but we were not lucky with a sighting – this was compounded by the fact that the feeders have now all been removed from the site rendering the chances of actually seeing one here now extremely unlikely. A single flyover Crossbill, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Redpoll were the other scant highlights here, plus another Great White Egret flying along the loch (we’d seen another from the vehicles at the sluice on the River Dee earlier).

Bullfinch at Ken-Dee Marshes

Read more

FRIDAY 4^TH OCTOBER –  Overcast with a fresh southerly wind, 12C

Today we had a fairly leisurely day exploring Orkney’s West Mainland, ahead of our afternoon departure south on the Hamnavoe ferry to Scrabster. We started at Loch of Stenness just a short drive from our hotel, and here we found our first Common Scoters of the trip, plus a selection of other wildfowl including a nice close female Long-tailed Duck. Up at Aikerness beach overlooking the sound towards Eday, we had a superb view of a Red-throated Diver still in summer plumage, plus an assortment of other seafowl including diving Gannets, Red-breasted Mergansers and lots of Shags. Working our way around the top of the island anti-clockwise we checked some large Golden Plover flocks carefully from the roadside, but couldn’t find anything more interesting with them. Lunch in the hide at The Loons produced a fly-by ringtail Hen Harrier, but not a lot else in the cool wind.

Bay of Skaill on the west coast was surprisingly sheltered and a nice selection of close waders including some lovely juvenile Sanderling, lots of Ringed Plover and a couple of Dunlin. Loch of Skaill held three more Goldeneye but then better still from an island perspective, we bumped into the Great White Egret which had been seen the previous day elsewhere, on Loch of Clumly. A nice herd of Whooper Swans were here too, perhaps twenty or more. We called next at Ring of Brodgar and then just as we were leaving, an adult large gull with white wingtips flew alongside the van as we were driving – a Glaucous Gull! We had good views as it crossed the road in front of us, clearly showing grey upperparts with a distinct white trailing edge and wingtip. Its bulk also helped to rule out the possibility of a leucistic Herring Gull and we managed a few photos as it flew off across the fields. As it turned out, the bird had been around on 5^th September and previously, so maybe over-summered in the islands. That bit of excitement was our last as we made it down to Stromness for the 1645 departure, and eventually made it to our overnight at Inverness around 2100.

Distant record shots of the adult Glaucous Gull at Stenness

Read more

Between the 1st and 8th September 2024 we were lucky to witness an unprecedented and amazing spell of birding here in Norfolk. Each autumn our attention switches to the weather charts, looking for patterns that are likely to produce arrivals of migrants drifted across the North Sea. Mostly these are fairly small events, and it is always difficult to predict how good any ‘chart’ will be and what species might be involved. In recent years, with declining bird numbers, often you might go out and only see one or two migrants but they might both be rarities that have travelled farther. The big falls of so-called ‘common migrants’ tend to be fewer and farther between – whether that is only linked to declining populations or also changing weather patterns due to climate change is hard to be sure of. The events that unfolded over the last week though were quite special and produced a fall of migrants like nothing we’ve witnessed in the last two decades at least. Read on for Ashley’s account of an amazing few days!

1ST SEPTEMBER

Nick and I headed out to the Norfolk coast on this, the first day of the spell of winds with an easterly element. A nice high pressure area had now developed over Scandinavia (the origin of our East coast drift migrants here in Norfolk) but on our side of the North Sea, we were bathed in clear blue sky and warm sunshine. Normally in these conditions, birds keep going and other than the odd thing here and there, not much is likely to make landfall. We instead normally hope for poor visibility caused by mist or rain to ground birds that have just made the sea crossing (encouraged to do so by the fine weather on the other side). But the 1st did not follow this form book!

Nick and I made a leisurely start at around 1130 and made the first circuit of our chosen area of coastal dunes and scrub. 3 Whinchat, 3 Willow Warbler and singles of Pied Flycatcher and Redstart were very encouraging and a Dotterel called four times as it flew west high above us unseen in the blue sky. We felt that little tingle of excitement that maybe something was going to happen and as we walked round the same area of bushes again, an extra Pied Fly and now a Spotted Fly had appeared – game on! 

Spotted Flycatcher newly arrived under blue skies

Read more

Want to join us for a guided birdwatching tour in Norfolk, but cant spare the time for a full tour? Can’t fit in with any of the tour dates of our scheduled trips? Or just want to come along and see what Oriole Birding is all about? Our customised guided birding days are designed as both a taster for new customers and an opportunity for existing customers to connect with a target species or visit a new area. Everyone is welcome, and the tours include fully licensed transport by air conditioned minibus. Tours will typically meet at 0830 at a pre arranged meet point (but can be flexible), and typically conclude around 1700. Please bring your own lunch, appropriate clothing and footwear and optics – we’ll do the rest! To book, simply drop us an email to check availability and pricing.