Chris Lansdell's Birding & Nature Diary: November 2020

A quick twitch! 21 November 2020

Due to work commitments and dark nights birding during the week is a no-no at this time of year. Luckily the adult male Desert Wheatear at Gramborough Hill, Salthouse did the decent thing and hung on all week for me! I have seen double-figures of these in the UK including 2 others at Salthouse but this one beat the lot in terms of looks as all the others have been 1w birds. It was blowing hard on the coast and consequently the bird was favouring the sheltered north side of the hill by the beach. The high tides of two days ago had wrecked all manner of starfish, fish and crabs on the beach there including a Hermit Crab which had set up residence in a Whelk shell.

We had to get back to Norwich to help my aged parents with some things but there was time on the way back to call in to Horsham St Faiths for the 2 Glossy Ibis in wet fields on the northern edge of the village. They showed well albeit rather distantly.

Desert Wheatear

Glossy Ibises

Hermit Crab

Sea Urchin

Dusky Warbler at Lowestoft North Denes, 14 November 2020

Looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow it was clear that it had to be today that I ventured out birding!

The Dusky Warbler found 6 days ago on the bracken-covered slope at North Denes was a bird I'd wanted to catch up with and sure enough I managed to get some nice views of this typically elusive individual, helped by the fact that is was calling fairly frequently. All my views were of it in flight but they included some quite lengthy flight views at close range. After having a catch up with Rob Wilton and Andrew Easton I walked down to Ness Point and the turbine yard and failed to find Purple Sandpipers or Black Redstart! A nice 1w Caspian Gull was my only reward as the weather closed in and I made the wet walk back to the Links Road carpark. Here I was greeted by 5 Mediterranean Gulls and managed to photograph 3 of them from the dry refuge of the car!

A brief call-in at Carlton Marshes on the way past revealed a very promising first visit to their cafe! The rain was steady by now so I scoffed and left.

Mediterranean Gulls

Whitlingham CP, 13 November 2020

A Friday stroll around Whitlingham after a visit to my elderly parents to drop off some goulash!

It wasn't exactly all go and I failed to find Blue Roundhead but nevertheless 2 new ferns for me brought my UK plant list up to the 650 milestone. They were Hart's Tongue Fern and Scaly Male Fern. Around the slipway the resident Barnacle Goose was looking fed up and a drake Mandarin showed rather too well on the return walk!

Hart's Tongue Fern

Scaly Male Fern

Barnacle Goose

Mandarin

My first Greater Yellowlegs for 25 years, 8 November 2020

Having flown off the previous afternoon I wasn't expecting to head for the coast to see Greater Yellowlegs on Sunday. Amazingly it returned to it's favoured pool on Dingle Marshes north of Dunwich and with the news getting out early it was unexpectedly game on.

The trudge on the shingle north from Dunwich beach carpark was rather leg-sapping but luckily the bird was present on arrival. And what a bird! A lovely moulting adult that was confiding, often venturing towards the front edge of the pool and dwarfing a nearby Redshank.

There was, of course, another reason for visiting this stretch of coast - 2 Eastern Yellow Wagtails incredibly only a couple of hundred yards from where there was one this time last year. Jus and I walked further north from the yellowlegs to the spot where the 2 birds were seen in lengthy flight and calling within just 10 minutes. Despite seeming heading high south they doubled back and both birds went on to give some great views on the back edge of the shingle and in a ditch. One bird, presumably an adult was very yellow underneath while the other was a paler, greyer bird (presumably a 1w) with just a hint of yellow on the central breast and vent. It really was a bit of deja-vu! Other than a Stonechat, Reed Bunting and plenty of Sea Mayweed it really was a bit of a dirty twitch!

Greater Yellowlegs

Eastern Yellow Wagtail, adult

Eastern Yellow Wagtail, 1w

Sea Mayweed

Waveney Valley wander, 7 November 2020

Out of neccesity we needed to take it easy with walking this weekend so a 3 mile slow wander in the nearby Waveney Valley near Mendham seemed like a good choice. The weather was gorgeous and the temperature up to 15 degrees so it was very pleasant indeed. Birds seen/heard included Common Buzzard, 2 Green Woodpeckers, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Redwings, Fieldfares and Bullfinch.

Most pleasing however were 2 new fungi for me - an Oak Bracket on the base of an oak in the lane showing typical 'weeping' on the surface and the superbly named Splendid Rustgill in the woods. Flowers still in bloom included some nice Lesser Burdock.

Oak Bracket

Splendid Rustgill

Lesser Burdock

Halesworth amble, 1 November 2020

Needing some exercise we enjoyed a good walk around the Halesworth area on Sunday. Doing several loops we discovered some completely new areas to us and some interesting habitats. It was also nice to 'find' remnants of the long defunct Southwold Railway and walk a section of the old track route.

Surprisingly, the year just keeps on giving from a botanical angle and I saw 3 more new plants for my burgeoning list - Common Polypody Fern, Late Cotoneaster and Larustinus. Into the bargain there were also quite a few unusually late flowering plants - Wood Avens, Sweet Violet and Wild Clary! Butterflies aren't quite finished for the year either - a Red Admiral was seen