Just managed to squeeze in a pre-work seawatch at Waxham where a few wildfowl and waders were on the move + both Manx and Sooty Shearwater south.
Rob Smith
@robertsjsmith.bsky.social
🔬 Naturalist 🦢🦋🌺 📍 Norfolk, England 💼 Wildlife conservation 💻 https://rs-ecology.blogspot.com/
Slightly slower morning at Waxham today, though there was still some movement. 18 Jays south, along with 189 Meadow Pipits and a Redpoll. A flock of Pintail and Teal came in off, while yesterday’s 4 Little Gulls lingered with 3 additional birds. House Martin still present in the village.
H/lights from Waxham this morning: 2 Redpoll S, 4 Little Gulls north and 2 Great White Egrets in off. A Short-eared Owl also came in off, while a Hobby flew thru N. 18+ Jays and 4 Great Spotted Woods thru.
Waxham this AM: 22 Brent, 50 Wigeon, 65 Teal, 34 Common Scoter and 2 smart drake Eider on the move offshore as well as two Black Terns, Arctic Skua and Sooty Shearwater.
More snaps of yesterday evenings Caspian Gulls at Cromer...
Enjoyable morning at Waxham. 1CY Caspian Gull along dunes, some vis-mig featuring mainly Jays, Mipits and Linnets. 2 Great White Egrets inland and a Shoveler offshore.
A non-birding day on the coast ended at Cromer, where two Caspian Gulls remained, including the Dutch-ringed bird “O:S”.
This mornings offerings from Waxham...Given that I was out doing a bat survey last night prehaps I should have stayed in bed! Hoping next Thursday holds 🤞
Pottered around East Norfolk today...light passage of Mipits & Swallow at Waxham first thing then c.200 Swallows/ House Martins feeding over Dunes with single Swift in the PM. Ten Cattle Egrets on Potter Heigham Reedbed and a approachable Med Gull at Walcott.
Just managed to squeeze in a two hour seawatch before work which saw 24 Arctic Skuas south past Waxham + a Bonxie and Sooty Shearwater north. Very quiet besides that.
Curlew Sand south offshore this PM, along with recent additions of Caspian Gull, Common Sand and Razorbill, takes my Waxham yearlist to 117. Other recent h/lights: 3 Greenshank north today, c.150 Swallows south last night with 5 Swifts, and a Med Gull count that probably just crept into 4 figures!
Several enjoyable sessions at Waxham over the past 3 days peaking last night with at least 5 Pied Flys, Redstart, Spot Fly, and 6 Willow Wblrs all north of S-lC.
A slight improvement last night with 182 of 50 spp.. NFG Udea ferrugalis + Ethmia quadrillella, 65+ Scrobipalpa ocellatella, Plutella xylostella and 2 Dark-bordered Pearls. #norfolkmoths
44 spp. out of 127 moths during night of the 13th in NR7. Hightlights were 4 Scthropia crataegella, Cydia amplana, Ypsolopha sequella, 11 Scobipalpa ocellatella, Orange Swift and Figure of Eighty.
Smartish looking Turnstone from Waxham the other night.
More photos from Dungeness: Tree Cricket, Helops caeruleus and Coleophora galbulipennella.
Went to checkout Arnolds Marsh at Cley this afternoon and found another very obliging Great Green Bush-cricket in East Bank car park.
37 spp. in NR7 last night inc. 2 Evergestis limbata, Plutella xylostella, Small Mottled Willow, Silver Y, several Scrobipalpa ocellatella and new to me - Gypsonoma minutana. #norfolkmoths
The other bonus species...2AMish just settling down after some moth trapping and a phone rings in the Obs. Next thing David and I are in the car heading out to join the others and arrived just in time to here the last two burst of song.
Nice one! However it is unfortunately the third! We heard an individual at Lydd-on-Sea on Saturday night, but was waiting till we could see the cricket before we put news out.
Large Conehead, Dungeness. We returned to a spot in daylight where we’d heard them singing the previous night and our luck was in!
On our way home after a fantastic trip to Dungeness to look for Orthoptera (& moths)! We managed to see all our targets: Large Conehead, Sickle-bearing Bush-cricket, Southern Oak Bush-cricket and Tree Cricket. We even had a couple of bonus species, including Blue-winged Grasshoppers near Folkestone!
Back at @dungenessbirdobs.bsky.social for 48hrs and things have started well! 📷 Med. Stick Insect, Eastern Bordered Straw and Striped Hawk-moth.
At least one Queen of Spain Fritillary still showing well at NWT Ringstead Downs this afternoon. Lots of Hummingbird Hawk-moths on the Knapweed on the way down!
Another Hummingbird Hawk-moth but this time an adult. Taken just over a week ago in Oxfordshire...
Hummingbird Hawk-moth from Saxlingham Nethergate today.
A good haul in NR7 last night - 120 of 48spp and counting. H/lights Small Mottled Willow, Nephopterix angustella, Clay Triple-Lines, Ethmia quadrillella, Tawny-barred Angle, Ruby Tiger, and Epinotia ramella...#norfolkmoths
From the Haddiscoe area today...Vestal, Volucella zonaria,Stratiomys potamida, Wasp Spider & Hummingbird Hawk. cat. which picked up a hitchiker...
Two Broadland specialist from Friday night - Dentated Pug and Small Dotted Footman.