Now on to the birding. Almost all my bird watching was done on Caister beach as it was last year, I hoped I would see good numbers of Little Tern as I have done every time I have birded at Caister but this year to my surprise there was literally none. I was very surprised to see not one Little Tern in an area where they are known to annually nest. I also was alerted to the fact that the area that was once cut off for the birds to nest has now been re-opened to the public so anyone can walk across the dunes. The only real explanation is that the birds have just not decided to nest there this year or I was a little to late to see them, either way there was none about this year.
However still on the subject of Terns I did get my second Tern tick this year on Caister beach. We all decided to relax on the beach for a couple of hours and like a true birder I decided my Bins should be with me while we were on the beach. about an hour into the sit down on Caister Beach I noticed virtually constant small groups of Terns flying right low on the sea. I got my bins out and eventually came to the conclusion that the Terns could only be Sandwich Terns the pictures I will show you this. The yellow tip to their quite long black bill proved it to me.
I had not prepared myself to see this species so at first had no idea really what I was looking at, when we returned to the Caravan I referred to my Collins 2nd edition bird guide which confirmed the birds were Sandwich Tern. I was very happy to see them and I continued to watch them flying by in groups throughout the week.
On the first evening of the holiday I went birding on Caister Beach, when I was about to go back to the Caravan I noticed a black gull like bird chasing after Gulls and Terns far out at see, at the time I had no scope to ID the bird but I noted it down as a possible Artic Skua. Then on the second to last day of the holiday I saw a definite dark morph Artic Skua flying right low over the sea, I was pleasantly surprised to see it and it was another tick for me, I was then further surprised to see what I can only presume to be the same individual flying over my head and off north into the distance, I had to shout at myself for not bringing my camera out on that occasion due to the memory becoming almost full.
Early on in the week I had good views of Ringed Plover but they seemed to disappear as the week went on. There were plenty of Common Gulls about throughout the week as there usually is on Caister. In terms of variety there was very little but the birds that were about were seen less by me personally so I enjoyed the birding. Heres the sightings day by day on Caister Beach,
Day 1 3rd of August- Ringed Plover x3, Common Gull (multiple), Pied Wagtail x1, Possible Artic Skua x1.
Day 2 4th of August- Sandwich Tern (Multiple), Commn Tern (Multiple), Common Gull 10+, Herring Gull x1, Ringed Plover x1, Swift 20+.
Day 3 5th of August- Sandwich Tern (multiple), Common Tern (Multiple), Common Gull 10+, Black headed Gull 10+, Lesser black backed Gull 10+,
Day 5 7th of August- Oystercatcher x1, Common Tern (multiple), Cormorant x2, Sandwich Tern x2, Pied Wagtail x1.
Day 6 8th of August- Sandwich Tern (Multiple), Common Tern (Multiple), Common Gull 5+, Herring Gull x3, Lesser black backed Gull (M).
Day 7 9th of August- Sandwich Tern x6 (on beach), Arctic Skua x1, Common Tern 5+, Cormorant x3, Herring Gull 10+, Lesser black backed Gull 10+, Common Gull 10+, Black headed Gull 10+, Collard Dove x2, Oystercatcher x2, Swallow x2.
Day 8 10th of August- Cormorant x5, Oystercatcher x2.
So you can see I had a good birding week overall, On our final day we had an Ice cream in great Yarmouth while enjoying the sea view, I looked down on the beach and right in front of us was two adult Med Gulls which was another nice surprise for me, I had heard the area is famous for having a Med Gull roost but had never seen the species in the area but it seems now I have. While flicking through some of the holiday photos I found one where I was attempting to photograph a ship and a Med Gull had flown in front of the camera with out me even seeing.
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| Sandwich Tern Caister Beach |
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| Sandwich Tern Caister Beach |
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| Sandwich Tern Caister Beach |
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| Sandwich Tern Caister Beach |
Hope you like those pictures cause there's a few more coming...........
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| Common Gull Caister Beach |
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| The surprise Med Gull Great Yarmouth |
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| Med Gull on Great Yarmouth beach |
Well that most of the photos up. But to end this mammoth post I want you as birders to help me out. On our last morning at Caister I decided to do half an hours birding, I almost instantly got on to a Wader quite close to the sea feeding on the beach. I noticed it may have been in eclipse plumage, it had some rusty brown/red colour to its face and part of its chest, and grey/ white feathers on its back. It also had a short black bill with a white under colour. I really can't find what this species is, I looked the waders section in my book up and down an cannot find the bird. I did online searches on species I thought it could be and still have had no luck.
So if you know what species this is please comment with your answer it would really help me out. Bellow is the picture of the bird, its not a great photo because I had the wrong lens on but if you can see what it is drop a comment with its ID thanks,
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| Mystery Wader Caister Beach. |
It could easily be something I have seen before but I know for a fact I have never seen a bird in this plumage before, any help on what he bird may be would be great, I'd love to know if its something new for me, and seen as I'm still a young birder ID on this bird could help me out in the future.
Anyway that's the massive post on my holiday to Grt Yarmouth complete I may be posting in the week and there is unlikely to be a post next Sunday.
Thanks for reading- WMBB
Sounds like you had a good weeks birding! I went to Great Yarmouth in early April but wasn't as lucky as you in seeing the Med Gulls :-(
ReplyDeleteGreat blog by the way.
I had a good weeks birding, it really got me liking sea bird watching more, I have heard that Great Yarmouth is better for when the Med Gulls roost at night, I guess I was just luckier with the two I had. Also I'm glad you like the blog and thank you for your lovely comment.
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