Last week in Norfolk ... great seawatching and always interesting birds around ...

 One of the great delights of winter on the north Norfolk coast is the seemingly constant presence of  Dark-bellied Brent Geese ... those chortling calls as they feed on the saltmarshes and move to and fro along the marshes ... keeping quiet moments interesting during a seawatch as they fly over the surf this way and that ...

... a crisp juvenile at the front with adults following ...

Holkham Fresh Marsh had several Marsh Harriers and a smart first-winter female Hen Harrier foraging low over the fields ... a wider scan of the area revealed four Great White Egrets and six Cattle Egrets - how unimaginable that would have been a couple of decades ago !  A flock of 100+ Common Scoters were on the sea there along with a single Great Crested Grebe and a few Red-throated Divers ...

A walk from Morston towards Stiffkey Fen produced an incredibly pale winter plumage Spotted Redshank which was frustratingly flushed by a dog just as I was setting up to phonescope it ... I think the Australians are getting it right by banning dogs from beaches ...  four adult Ruffs were nearby on the fen and a late Wheatear turned up ...

Sheringham was a new seawatching venue for me and following advice I turned up fairly early only to find myself the only participant ... a few more arrived later  ... soon an adult pale phase Pomarine Skua headed west in banking arcing flight ... Gannets were all over along with passing Common Scoters, Eiders and mixed groups of Wigeon and Teal ... and then an adult pale phase Arctic Skua was there harrying a gull in dogfight style before winging away east ... and another adult pale Pom. flew east in low level flight.   This was good stuff with a supporting cast of Guillemots, Razorbills and multiple Red-throated Divers.

That same afternoon I walked the East Bank at Cley and the temptation to have another session of seawatching was richly rewarded by a juvenile Long-tailed Skua that flew east very low over the waves ... a presumably new-in Redwing foraged on the shingle bank ...

... on Arnold's Marsh a few gulls loafed ... among these was an argentatus Herring Gull ...

Then to Titchwell and rain !  Another Great White Egret flew over and a Spotted Redshank announced its presence with that characteristic call as it flashed by low overhead ... Cetti's Warblers sang and Bearded Tits pinged away before one perched up in view ...

... the pools were quiet save for a few Avocets and a lone adult Yellow-legged Gull ...

On the coastguards road a wagtail foraged on wet ground ...

... a White Wagtail surely with that pale mantle ... but those flanks were worryingly tainted with grey ... and those wingbars were a bit bold ...

... then it flew ...

... and the black rump said it all ... just a confusingly pale Pied Wagtail ... an educational experience ...

A final visit to Holkham Pines was rewarded by some nice views of a Barred Warbler that had frustrated earlier ...

More Solway Waders ... and also in Northumberland ...

 A visit to the NE coast in late September was prompted by the presence of a Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Boulmer ... initially there was no sign of the bird on the vast expanse of rocks and seaweed ... but then the bird flew in, circled and landed right in front of the small group of us hopefuls ...

... a lovely looking bird with strikingly yellow legs and feet that seemed unexpectedly large ...

At East Chevington there was a group of six Ruff and a nice although distant adult Spotted Redshank.

But back on home turf at Anthorn on the Solway there was more on offer ... this site has been rather quiet in recent years having been a prime location some time ago ... a juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper turned up there in early October to join the Long-billed Dowitcher that was still regularly frequenting that stretch of the Wampool ...

... and nearby another Curlew Sandpiper ... this time an adult unlike the earlier juveniles that had been present ...

... it is so good to see Anthorn back on the map ... along with these birds there was another Ruff feeding on the wet rippled sand ...

Autumn in Cumbria ... Wader time ! ...

 Always an exciting time of year ... and one source of that excitement is the promise of waders ... 

Ten days ago groups of Dunlin were on the move at Bowness Railings on the rising tide ... a flock of thirty Dunlin dropped in on the receding shingle along with a single juvenile Little Stint ... it proceeded to roost straight away near to a moulting Dunlin and two juvenile Ringed Plovers ...

... as the water rose it gave nice views showing those rufous fringes to the dark centred tertials and the relatively long primary projection ... the split supercilium showing better at some angles than at others ...

... and the white mantle stripes showing here ...

Curlew Sandpipers have not always been very easy to find on the Solway in recent years but these two juveniles lingered on the pools to the west of Port Carlisle harbour a few days later on a very murky drizzly afternoon ... nevertheless they were good to see with their lovely peachy tinted upper breasts ...

But venturing into more exotic species, this group of Redshanks at Old Anthorn kept company with the regular Long-billed Dowitcher ... the roosting bird showed its greenish legs contrasting with those of the Redshanks as two Little Egrets walked by ... the supercilium also just visible ... the plain dark centres to the tertials also contrasted with the look of the nearby Redshank ...

... in flight the thin white trailing edge to the wing showed well ...

... and as it caught up with the Redshank the thin white line up the back stood out ...

North Uist and the NW Coast ... wind and rain ...

 Crossing to Lochmaddy on 3rd September seemed to hold much promise with wind and rain the previous night giving way to a bright day with a good breeze ...

Gannets are great but something more exciting would be nice ...

... a few small groups of Manx Shearwaters was as good as it got ... I bumped into Peter Stronach on the way off the boat and he had done no better ...

For a day or two the wind was vicious but subsided enough for some seawatching ... a Sooty Shearwater was the main prize along with lots of Manx Shearwaters ...

Approaching the Berneray causeway a large raptor broke the horizon .. Golden Eagle, and there were two ...

... many flocks of Greylags were looking fresh-in and properly wild ... 

Twite were present in some small groups but also forming quite large flocks ... interesting that a few Linnets mingled in with these ... 

There were some lovely Common Gulls in juvenile plumage ...

... and adults now well into winter plumage and progressing wing-moult ...

The beaches held good numbers of Sanderling, some still in summer plumage but most now in smart winter plumage ...

Divers, perhaps unsurprisingly, were fairly scarce ... this distant Red-throated still in full summer plumage ...

Many species assume a different character from that which I see at home ... Ravens are so much less wary here and a joy to watch  ...

... likewise the Starlings seem full of character and always on the go ...  these birds are apparently intergrades between the British race and the Shetland race zetlandicus ...

... and surely these are as close to Rock Doves as you can get ...

Golden Plovers dropped into mown fields in small groups ...

... and flocks of Oystercatchers included moulting adults and some pristine first-winter birds ...

Back on the beach near Balranald and a flock of Tundra-type Ringed Plovers ... slim delicate birds with smart dark mantles and neat little bills ...

The return crossing to Uig was on a calm benign morning and the 7.00 am light just about good enough but conditions gave little hope of anything good ... until a Bonxie flew past the boat ... then a dark phase Arctic Skua followed close behind a juvenile Herring Gull ... and better still, a single Leach's Petrel crossed the bow and headed away into the distance ...

In between the bands of rain coming across the loch at Ullapool the Sabine's Gull remained faithful to the area around the river mouth ...

... in amongst Common and Herring Gulls ...

... a superb looking bird ...

And a hybrid Herring x Glaucous Gull was reported in the harbour ... a search of the harbour produced no gulls at all ... they had taken refuge on the campsite field ...

An interesting looking bird ... aka ' Viking Gull ' features that probably gave away its hybrid nature were its relatively small size, lack of dark head and neck mottling and a wing length that was a bit too long

A few days in Norfolk ... waders ... and some wader memories from July

Wood Sandpipers were present at several locations in Norfolk earlier in the week ... starting with one viewed from across the county border in Suffolk at the lovely Lakenheath reserve ... it was on the Little Ouse Washlands and was quite a testing view at long range in very murky light ...

Further birds were again distantly on the River Glaven at Cley and also at Stiffkey Fen ... the jewel though was one at the interesting North Point Pools, Wells ... this bird showed well as it fed energetically before giving a nice fly over while calling characteristically ...

... this species is generally recorded from late April until early June and then from late July until mid September ... much scarcer in Cumbria, it was interesting to see one at Wedholme Flow on the atypical date of 16th June ...

... two juvenile Little Ringed Plovers also showed nicely at North Point Pools ...

... thinking of waders back in July and the first-summer Greater Sand Plover at Tyningham Bay was a very definite highlight on the first day that travel of distance was permitted in Scotland ...

... a great bird to finally catch up with in the British Isles ... looking strikingly pale in this setting and not as large as I expected when seen alongside Ringed Plovers ...

... then a couple of weeks later the Long-billed Dowitcher flew in to Port Carlisle, first at the water's edge and then among rock pools to give nice views of this striking adult ...