Graham Etherington

@britishbirder.bsky.social

Norwich-based birder,football fan (Stoke City) and scientist. Birding patches are Waxham, Potter Heigham Marshes, and Heigham Waterworks. Frequent Shetland and N.America visitor. BOU 512, BOU self-found 323, ABA688. OM1 user. Ise images under CC-BY-NC 4 0

Let the birds come to you! Pleased I resisted the temptation to spend the morning at Horsey to see the Black Stork again. Instead, I went looking for waders on the Yare Estuary and then found the Black Stork flying low around Burgh Castle after losing height from crossing the Yare Valley #UKBirding

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The wife and I rented an electric boat from Martham Ferry Boat Hire today. Those electric boats are great! No loud diesel engines so you can't hear any birds singing, and with a bit of steady manoeuvring, this Bittern allowed us to get really close without flushing it. Great morning out!

Yesterday's flying ant hatch produced some really nice birds over my suburban Norwich garden, including 8+ Med Gulls, Hobby, and lots of swifts. No Meds yet this morning, but this partially albino swift, present for its 3rd year, was among a big swarm of around 100 swifts.

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Two twitches in three days! An early evening visit to the Oxon Long-tailed Shrike proved fruitful. The bird was fairly close most of the time, occasionally coming down to about 30 metres. Many thanks to the farmer and volunteers who organised access. #ukbirding

Although it's tempting to take the presence of fluffy juvenile Wheatears as proof of breeding, dispersing juveniles from outside the county can be seen in Norfolk as early as the end of June. This bird is a prime example, feeding around the paddocks along Stone Road, Halvergate yesterday.

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If you're a keen house lister, keep 'em peeled for Curlew today. Much rarer than Whimbrel over Norwich, but at least 2 over the city this morning. Bbut more importantly, one of them was over my house! House tick number 98!

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Made a rare trip 'up north' to North Norfolk today. Lovely flock of 13 Long-tailed Ducks (5 drakes) on the sea, plus Black-necked Grebe, Scaup, Raven, a showy Water Rail, plus lots of summer-plumaged Med Gulls and lots of waterfowl and waders

Saw the New Year in at the same place I saw it out - Filby Broad. The female Ring-necked Duck showed quite closely, but always into the sun, and the drake Ferruginous Duck did the right thing and occasionally woke up.

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After the run of easterlies we've had over the past week or so, you can now almost 'expect' to find Tundra Bean Geese in large flocks of Pink-footed Geese in Norfolk. Here are two of the five birds that I saw at Wickhampton today. Lots of Russian White-fronts in the flocks too. #NorfolkBirding

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What a mega day!! Started by twitching Great Shearwater (Norfolk tick) off Winterton. Sooty Shearwater and Snow Buntings from there too. Then I found 8+ Tundra Bean Geese at Horsey. Then, at St. Benet's Abbey, I had great views of Black-winged Kite, Glossy Ibis, Short-eared Owl, and 7 cranes. Wow!

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Now this is my idea of a Christmas Robin! Eastern Black Redstart at Sheringham this afternoon. It remained elusive in the cold easterly wind for most of the morning, but eventually did the decent thing and returned to the ornamental gardens.

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Epic recovery report just received! ⚠️ A Turnstone I trapped using a homemade walk-in trap has been recaptured in the 🌍 world’s 🌎 northernmost continuously inhabited settlement. Ringed on 12 February 2024 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex 🇬🇧, it was re-trapped on 08 June 2025 in Alert, Nunavut… 🇨🇦 (🧵 1/2)

Recovery map, showing the distance between ringing (12/02/2024) and encounter (08/06/2025) locationsTurnstone ringed in Southend-on-Sea in February 2024Qikiqtaaluk Region: the administrative region of Nunavut where Alert is located. May 2025.