January 2022

 January 2022

I had a fair bit of work to do in January and so birding was very limited to dog walks and garden, and on top of that it was a quiet month. Nearly every morning I woke to the sound of the Goldfinches calling from Dot and Johns Cherry tree, one count got up to 50 birds before they took flight! The lone male Brambling stayed around our two gardens for a couple of days but moved on, and what was likely the same bird a couple of days later associating with Chaffinches along Church Lane. On the days I did see it from the garden it was either tucked up against the branches or on the other side of the tree posing a challenge to get any photos, and besides that the weather was dull and grey and most birds only appeared as a silhouette, but I did manage a shot and there’s no mistaking a male Brambling with it’s lovely orange plumage.

Every so often we would see the Roe deer in some field or wooded area, and the last time we saw them this month there were 5. The ploughed fields and short crop field along off middle street still held a large number of Lapwings, and usually the flock held 300 plus birds! A group of 50 or so Golden Plover flew overhead one day and seemed to join the Lapwing in an adjacent field, not seen too many of those this winter. One day whilst talking to a neighbour at the back of our garden, I saw 3 Mute Swans fly from the coast direction, they then proceeded to turn and fly low overhead and follow the coast road southeast, quite a few swans had been reported around the the same time along points of the coast so a definite movement, which brings me to the final entry of the month and on a day that saw a decent amount of Red Kites reported from here to Overstrand. I saw 3 Kites low together that passed our garden enabling me to get a few images, a handful of Common Buzzards seen distantly towards Sidestrand, no doubt taking advantage of the blue skies and better weather, but the count from Overstrand were 11 Red Kites circling over the ridge. 

2021 The Rest of the Year rounded up.

 I can't believe where the end of last year went!! With stuff at home and a busy schedule working in the studio it seemed a lot of the time I wasn't able to venture out unless walking the dogs. So here is a catch up for the rest of 2021 in images I was able to get. Happy New Year to everyone and I'll aim to keep things updated more frequently 😆 (fingers crossed)

SEPTEMBER

Pipistrelle found outside the church

Why the feeders get low!

Found this lovely Red Breasted Flycatcher and a Pied Flycatcher in the churchyard.

Pied Flycatcher

OCTOBER

Painted Lady

Willow Emerald

A few pairs were seen over the garden in tandem, nice to see one on the ground

The Pinkfeet have returned

A friend found this Yellow Browed Warbler just around the corner from the house, always a cracking bird to see

Over the space of a few days there seemed to be a mass feeding frenzy with the gulls picking out insects in the air, most of those over the garden were Med Gulls, so nice to have the Meds doing this routine every year over the garden. 

A report of a drifting Long Tailed Duck heading towards Trimingham had me running round to the clifftop, and sure enough it drifted past me.....a NEW patch tick 🙌🙌

NOVEMBER

There were a lot of Starlings gathering and moving along the coast, a decent sized group didn't take long to clean the berries off a neighbours tree, picked clean in 2 days.

One morning when setting out on the dog walk I found this Black Redstart in the churchyard, so close to getting a garden tick!

DECEMBER

This male Sparrowhawk swooped through my garden checking the feeders then decided to rest up on the neighbours fence, unusually it stayed for some time enabling me to grab the camera. 

End of 2021

August 2021

 August was a split month for the weather, the start was warmer than expected or indeed forecast and then the last half took a grey and windy turn for the worse, but I still managed to obtain some decent sightings and photographs. First up at the start of August was a message of 15 Spoonbills heading east along the coast from Cley, Spoonbill was a new species for me to see here or from the garden but I haven't managed to get a photograph of any as of yet, so as the birds were being tracked along the coast and they reached Cromer still heading my way along the coast I took my Dad, staying at the time, and headed for the clifftops and looked towards Overstrand eagerly awaiting their arrival. It wasn't long before we distantly saw the group all lined out following the cliffs, as they reached Trimingham they seemed to head inland....!! It seemed I wouldn't be getting any photos this time either. But they came back into view and seemed like they couldn't decide on what direction to take, just circling around, luckily they kept to the shoreline and proceeded towards me. 

Happily I now have my Spoonbill photos.

On the 7th Sarah and I watched a lone Red Deer along the lanes towards Gimingham, and also a single Banded Demoiselle along Church Road. I had a few sightings of Curlew moving along the coast during the second week. 

During the warmer days at the start of the month it was very noticeable that Peacock butterflies were having a fantastic year. I have never seen so many, the garden seemed full of them, along with a couple of Commas and Small Tortoiseshell and just one or two Painted Lady's.

This Southern Hawker rested up in our holy tree for a short time.

And a Banded Demoiselle kept hanging around the garden one afternoon, a real delicate and beautifully coloured Damselfly.

My second only Garden Tiger moth (both being seen in Trimingham) this one was crossing the lane on our morning walk, I carefully placed it amongst the side verges.

The second half of the month saw the winds pick up and blow in continuously from the North, sea birds and wildfowl started to move through in numbers, Gannets, Wigeon, Teal and quite a few numbers of Skuas were being reported from along the coast, but mainly distant. Double figures of Swallow passed the coastline on the 21st, probably the last ones to be seen this year?

In July we saw a remarkable number of Mistle Thrushes together, and on the 29th we counted another 9 together heading southeast. Not a packed month I thought but remembering the Spoonbills made it a rewarding one until the last day of the month that is....it all escalated then!

On the morning of the 31st Sarah said to me that she had seen a bird flit over the garden fence into the neighbours, not sure what it was she described the tail as being a red colour, I thought Redstart or Black Redstart, the latter would be new for the garden if it was still hanging around, and sure enough as if on cue the bird flew onto a shed roof and displayed  itself as a Common Redstart, still a lovely bird and only the second one from the garden. I rushed inside to get my camera to get a photograph, it had probably just arrived that morning and as I clicked off a few images it was to be the start of 40 minutes of awesomeness! Not only did it hang around but it began to feed and pose around our garden, over 400 photos later it flew off. What a momentous visit though.

Being a newly arrived bird I thought that I would go and check around the churchyard to see if any other birds had dropped in.

Heading into the churchyard after the episode with the Redstart I was eager to see if maybe a Pied Flycatcher had arrived too. I moved onto the east side and having only been there a minute I saw a bird flit out from under the small yew bush, catch an insect and then zip back in. I picked up on buffish colours on the underparts and thought maybe it was the redstart again, but it was slightly smaller and as it flew out of cover again I immediately saw white in the tail, not a redstart then, and I knew  that I was watching a Red Breasted Flycatcher. Panic set in and I ran straight home, just across the road, to get my camera, this was another species I had seen before and in Trimingham but a photo had eluded me so far. I headed back towards the churchyard and met a fellow birder/friend at that precise moment and eagerly stated "Red Breasted Flycatcher".... we moved on around the church and I located it still in the same yew bush feeding. For the next hour we patiently waited to see this lovely little, elusive and flighty bird move around the trees and give itself up every now and again but it was dull and it kept to darker areas of the trees causing a lot of manual adjustment settings on the camera to be made and a big headache,  happily for me I managed to grab a couple of photographs. It was mentioned that this was the first one to be seen this year which put a silver lining to the day and indeed month.