Norwich Birding (1 Viewer)

[James Emerson]

Now relocated on the River Yare in the Strumpshaw area. There is a precedent for this, the 2009/10 bird started off on the river near Buckenham and lingered in that area for three weeks if memory serves, before working its way to Whitlingham where it stayed for a couple of months.

per Birdguides the Rockland Broad Great Northern Diver flew off towards Norwich at 11h15 this morning. Worth checking Whitlingham?

 

[93Birder]

If it could come to UEA broad that'd be great.

In the mean time,a stunning drake Goosander performed for most the day today, showing wonderfully in the final minutes of light today. Flew off not particularly high and appeared to drop down somewhere near Earlham or maybe Colney? Found by Drew Lyness.

 

[JCL]

There is a 1st-winter Med Gull at Thorpe St Andrew currently, the first one I've seen around Norwich. It was seen yesterday at the riverside green by Justin Lansdell, and returned there this morning with a large flock of Black-headed Gulls (2 ringed ones). At around 9.30 it flew across towards Whitlingham, but it is presumably commuting between the two places. Also a Little Grebe on the river opposite the Rushcutters.

Dougal McNeill and I popped along from the office to enjoy this bird yesterday. It appears to think it is a pigeon. The headshot is barely cropped; the iPhone was greater use!

 

[mxhornet]

Managed to catch the Med Gull at River Green this afternoon, I thought I'd missed it at first, then noticed around 10 gulls in the Rushcutters beer garden who waited for me to walk round before flying across to River Green. However the Med Gull was now present

 

[RonMac]

Whitlingham CP

Nice walk around Whitlingham CP this morning, started with a single waxwing flying overhead, at the little broad , probably heading towards the city.At the eastern end of the great broad a green sandpiper, while I was checking through the gulls from the birdwatching screen I spotted a bittern while I was looking west just past some wooden platforms in the reeds.The bittern was spooked a bit by a grey heron landing right next to it and the bittern disappeared behind branches and reed.At the western end of the footpath along the riverside I spotted a pair of foxes across the river.Attached some record digiscoped shots.

 

[James Emerson]

Lovely photos Ron. A shame that Bittern wasn't around on Sunday though :-C

Nice walk around Whitlingham CP this morning, started with a single waxwing flying overhead, at the little broad , probably heading towards the city.At the eastern end of the great broad a green sandpiper, while I was checking through the gulls from the birdwatching screen I spotted a bittern while I was looking west just past some wooden platforms in the reeds.The bittern was spooked a bit by a grey heron landing right next to it and the bittern disappeared behind branches and reed.At the western end of the footpath along the riverside I spotted a pair of foxes across the river.Attached some record digiscoped shots.

 

[RonMac]

Whitlingham CP 22nd Jan

Checked out Whitlingham again today; couldn't find a bittern but did see chiffchaff,snipe, bullfinches, fewer duck on great broad and an otter swimming across the east end of great broad being mobbed by black headed gulls, attached some poor pics (very low light).

 

[HarassedDad]

So just as I came on to the road to the southern bypass just up from county hall this morning, there was a large raptor (buzzard sized) flew over with something bizarre about its tail. It looked like some material had caught in it and was stretching out behind it - though it might have had it in its claws, or it might have been extremely frayed jesses? Very odd - if it's still around and anyone gets a better view I'd love to know what I was seeing.

 

[James Emerson]

Two good birding spectacles around the city at the moment - a large Starling murmuration can be seen just before dusk in the Chapelfield/St Stephen's Street area, and in the past few days there have been 300+ Pied wagtails roosting in trees near Norwich train station.

 

[Shaky09]

Starlings

Two good birding spectacles around the city at the moment - a large Starling murmuration can be seen just before dusk in the Chapelfield/St Stephen's Street area, and in the past few days there have been 300+ Pied wagtails roosting in trees near Norwich train station.

Meant to post about this last week but been soo busy !There has been some great views around 4-4.30 of them gathering with pukka murmuration . U gonna guess a number?! I thought around 3,000?

 

[Shaky09]

Just a mention of some good roost sites for those who may not know and be Interested - firstly the Starlings are gathering over the city still making for a good spectacle ( ok the st Stephens car park is no Leighton moss but hay) and the pied wagtail roosts at Asda's & Tescos(harford bridge) are fantastic too. Actually the roost at Norwich station too is also a good look! And that's not mentioning the glorious corvid roost at Buckenham which I haven't done this year but will do hopefully. The great thing about any of these events is that u can try and catch one of these on your journey home , they last only 15-30 minutes and your stil in time for dinner- perfect end to a day I think!
Happy birding ,
Shaky

 

[JCL]

Just a mention of some good roost sites for those who may not know and be Interested - firstly the Starlings are gathering over the city still making for a good spectacle ( ok the st Stephens car park is no Leighton moss but hay) ... And that's not mentioning the glorious corvid roost at Buckenham ...
y

A couple of pix of the corvids and starlings taken this month. Haven't tried anything similar at the wagtails yet; hard to get any sense of movement, i imagine...

 

[93Birder]

The Starlings were performing wonderfully above Chapelfield this evening. Being from Brighton I'm sort of use to the spectacle that is the starlings however it was especially wonderful to see so many people stopping and staring up.

 

[JCL]

I enjoyed the Pied Wagtail roost at Norwich rail station last night; pleasant experience after a long day in London. Perhaps 300 birds? A wee phone-camera capture here. Will go back with some proper kit.

 

[Shaky09]

Wagtail roost

I enjoyed the Pied Wagtail roost at Norwich rail station last night; pleasant experience after a long day in London. Perhaps 300 birds? A wee phone-camera capture here. Will go back with some proper kit.

I was thinking around 150+ when looked on Thursday but was really hard to see what was coming in as it was dark so wouldn't surprise me if it was !
Also of note the med gull is still at Thorpe green and giving good views. Picture on my twitter feed @shaky_theHammer

 

[Lightthiscandle]

Wagtails

Excellent picture!
There was often a similar-sized roost outside the old Pilch's in Gentleman's Walk: I videoed it back in 1999 and you can see 800+ birds in one frame!
Where do they all go in the daytime!

 

[Lightthiscandle]

Med Gull!

Since Linda hadn't yet had the pleasure, we stopped off at Thorpe riverside to look for the long-staying Med Gull. It duly obliged, with such close views that Linda was able to take these photos with her phone!

Since it was coming so close (almost to bread, in fact!) we could hear that it was making an un-gull-like high-pitched squeak: really cute!

Oh! The 'Harley Restaurant' opposite is pretty ace, too!

 

[Shaky09]

The Starlings were performing wonderfully above Chapelfield this evening. Being from Brighton I'm sort of use to the spectacle that is the starlings however it was especially wonderful to see so many people stopping and staring up.

Great picture of the wagtail roost mate! Speaking of the Starlings , it was Great to see people with all there shopping bags , rushing about and busy on there gadgets and then brought to a stand still by one of natures spectacles . I over heard a couple asking each other what they were among the small crowd of people looking up and a fella said" there pigeons , bloody loads of em here!" I had to politely correct him and ended up speaking about this wonderful birds for around 10 minutes and even suggested em popping down to buckenham for the corvid roost as they seemed so interested to which they said they would this weekend. Great stuff! U gotta love nature, wherever u are its there if u choose to look for it.
Happy birding
Shaky

 

[Connor Rand]

Absolutely Ricky, I've really been enjoying the Starling spectacle of late but what was even more amazing was the amount of shoppers opened mouth looking upwards in awe!

 

[NoSpringChicken]

Out of interest where do the Norwich Starlings actually settle to roost?

Ron