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Norfolk birding (55 Viewers)

Have you got any photos John? Be interested to see what the second bird looks like in terms of the colour of the belly compared with the original bird. I dipped both birds this afternoon.

Dawn,
There were about a dozen photographers today and I could only look over a shoulder-to-shoulder phalanx with my bins; the second bird I glimpsed but briefly because it remained frustratingly just round a bend in the stream. Didn't see any evidence of antagonistic behaviour from the other bird, which I assume is the long-stayer, and which was very active.
MJB
PS Two Red Kites at Lynford Lakes at 1430, rising in a thermal and drifting east across the northern end of Mundford. One kite had very ragged flight feather and a scruffy tail
 
Have you got any photos John? Be interested to see what the second bird looks like in terms of the colour of the belly compared with the original bird. I dipped both birds this afternoon.

Sorry the light where they were was not good enough to get much, plus when I was there what was probably the new bird was too far up the stream in the private area.

John
 
Sorry the light where they were was not good enough to get much, plus when I was there what was probably the new bird was too far up the stream in the private area.

John

The light wasn't good but it did look nice and dark from what I saw of it and certainly no lighter than the other bird. Not quite as confiding as the first bird, though didn't appear shy either. It may of been more concerned of its proximity to the other Dipper than the folk watching it.

Despite the cold and overcast weather that stretch of river through the town is a hive of wildlife activity at the moment. Nice to see.

David
 
Binary fission in Black-bellied Dippers

2 Black-bellied dippers just west of middle nun's bridge at 8.30am this morning. Weird as I seem to remember this happening with the glandford bird, it being present for months and then turning in to two birds!

I found one reference to the River Glaven bird 'turning in to two' on BirdGuides, posted on 31/01/09:

Natural Surroundings NR
30/01/09 08:00
two birds reported together yesterday on the weirs


BirdGuides has 30 subsequent (positive) reports of a/the bird on the River Glaven, the last one being 16/03/09, but no other reports mention/confirm a second bird.

I skimmed through all 220-odd Black-bellied Dipper reports on BirdGuides (not incl. the Thetford birds, now reported 137 times!) and did a very limited Google search, but couldn't find any other reference to more than one bird at one place/time in the UK, nor any corroboration of the River Glaven 2-bird report. Anyone know if a sighting of two (or more) Black-bellied Dippers together on this side of the North Sea has ever been confirmed?
 
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Titchwell March 22nd

Today’s highlights

White fronted goose – 3 (2 adults) on grazing meadow
Peregrine – 1 over grazing meadow
Avocet – 82 on fresh marsh
Hen harrier – ringtail over reedbed mid afternoon
Chiffchaff – 2 in bushes near visitor centre
Red crested pochard – female in reedbed
Med gull – 2 adults on fresh marsh
Eider – 4 offshore

Paul
 
2 Black-bellied dippers just west of middle nun's bridge at 8.30am this morning. Weird as I seem to remember this happening with the glandford bird, it being present for months and then turning in to two birds!

Two birders went into Nat Surroundings one day and claimed to have had two birds together. Nobody had any idea who they were, but presume they put it on a newsline. Certainly nobody else did.

John

www.kellingnature.zenfolio.com
 
I could- but I won’t.

The first Dipper I ever saw was a Black-bellied bird at Bawburgh in 1984 and there was a second bird present, which quote the NBR for 1983 - was a bird of the British/central European race. In the 1984 report it is listed as a British bird and was apparently found dead there in October.
 
Dippers

Here's a couple of pictures of what I believe is the 'new' Dipper, it looks a tad darker on the belly in the field. At lunchtime today it was favouring a small stream down river from the 3 nun's bridges. The 'old' bird was just down river from the bridge inn pub.
 

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The gulls at Sea Palling were really quite impressive today, with a couple of gems hidden among them.
A summer plumage Little Gull, adult Yellow-Legged Gull and Juv Glaucous Gull all gave good views.
The Purple Sandpipers there were also nice to see.
A few photos attached.
 

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The gulls at Sea Palling were really quite impressive today, with a couple of gems hidden among them.
A summer plumage Little Gull, adult Yellow-Legged Gull and Juv Glaucous Gull all gave good views.
The Purple Sandpipers there were also nice to see.
A few photos attached.

Lovely, atmospheric pictures Oliver:t:
 
A pair of Red-breasted Mergansers at the Shellfish Shed and Peregrine on the tower at King's Lynn Docks this afternoon in the snow blizzard from my car window;).

Full update on blog.

Penny:girl:
 
Given the decidedly un-spring like weather today, it was a gull that was the highlight of my mornings birding too, in the form of this rather smart yellow legged argentatus Herring Gull on the beach at Sheringham.
Love the Glauc. shot by the way Oliver, as Penny said, very atmospheric.
 

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