With the pager cracking off all day with arctic warbler at Holme and a boatload of migrants arriving at Spurn I decided to check the area around the 'good Thornham garden' after work. The wind was a bit too strong really but I did manage several chiffs and 2 spotted flycatchers on the sheltered side. A merlin shot across the road and through the houses an the way back to the car.

The forecast is for wind and rain overnight so hopefully the bushes will be dripping with birds in the morning, then again....

A planned swallow ringing session was cancelled this evening so I headed over to Holme for a couple of hours after work. Missed a new barred warbler (which I would have been able to ring) by 15 mins but did get a nice immature whitethroat. Shut the nets up with Sophie and dropped into Redwell for the phalarope. Cracking little juv bird spinning around the edge of the pool following a couple of blackwits the were stiring up the silt. Two very vocal green sands were also present.

After not going down to Cornwall, I stayed in Norfolk over the bank holiday with a friend to do some sea-watching. Having not been to Cromer before, we decided to give it a go after being told 'it feels birdy'. I should of known as it is normally crap once these words have been uttered. An hour first didn't produce much apart from a strong passage of teal and 1 bonxie. We decided to check some of the scrub around Trimmingham and go back later in the day when the wind picked up. The woods were very quiet so by 11:30 we were back at Cromer in the shelters. Five hours later and telling god knows how many people what we were doing, we had sore feet but a reasonable total. Nothing special but 51 arctic skuas, 6 bonxies and 17 Manx shearwaters was not bad. It didn't help knowing that an adult long-tailed skua and a Corys shearwater had gone past Holme where Dave (it feels birdy) was watching!
Stong winds and heavy rain saw us head to Holme (after the horse had bolted probably) on Monday morning. Dave was heading off to work but said that there were good numbers of skuas passing. The first hours was good but the wind then changed directly to the north and the blowing sand was a nightmare so we moved into the sea-watching hide. There were more birds moving than at Cromer and the highlights were a probable Cory's west but annoyingly too distant to confirm, 2 sooty and 2 Manx shearwaters, 21 arctic and 36 great skuas, juv black tern and oddly, 2 wheaters.

With the main access to the reserve closed for the last 7 weeks we have the chance to look at the Meadow Trail/Fen Trail area in more detail. Most visitors (including myself) usually head straight for the lagoons to look at the waders, nothing wrong with that. By doing that, we have been shown that there are loads of good things in a small area that we didn't know about. Apart from several new plant species we have found 3 convolvulous hawkmoth caterpillars, a reed dagger caterpillar (1st record since 2001) and a mystery yellow larva.

A couple of weeks ago a young boy brought in the yellow caterpillar (or so we thought) into the visitor centre. After a failed search in the internet, a photo was put onto Ispot and I contacted the Norfolk Moth group for advice. An answer came back quickly that it was probably a sawfly larva. After more looking it turn out to be a very rare and under-recorded species called Cimbex luteus and is only the 3rd modern record and 1st for Norfolk. Much interest has been caused and an expert visited the reserve today. Unfortunatly he didn't find any further signs but amazingly he did find another sawfly. This time is was the commoner Cimbex connatus or alder sawfly in the trees by the picnic area.

It just shows what is out there if you look hard enough!

Work is going well with the reserve upgrades and hopefully the path will be open to Island Hide in the next few weeks. Thankfully, nothing too good has been seen but upto 300 dunlin, 9 curlew sands and 3 little stint has been nice.

Planned trip to Cornwall has been dashed by the weather being too nice! Predicted calm conditions made the long journey not worth it. Going to stay in the county as sea watching conditions look good for a trip to Cromer on Sunday and with a few things turning up today a look in some bushes could be productive.

Nutchtch (178) calling around the visitor centre while emptying the moth traps on Wednesday was a very good bird to get and hopefully a blocker for some of the others. Several arctic skuas (179) offshore today were the only other birds of note.

Things have been pretty manic since for most of the month with visitors, work and a lack of Internet access (again). Not had much time for ringing and the garden has been quiet. A nice tit flock through the garden ( including several long tails and a chiffchaff) but only a coal tit managed to stumble into a net. A hummingbird hawkmoth was around briefly on Sunday and a hedgehog was wandering around in broad daylight this evening.

Work on the reserve is mad at the moment with things changing dramaticaly on a daily basis. The freshmarsh improvements have been finished and the habitat is looking peachy. Nothing good has been seen but a flock of 300 dunlin have been present for most of august and has included 3 little stint (177) and 2 curlew sandpipers.

Off to Cornwall sea-watching this weekend so hopefully plenty of news next week.

Bit of a mixed bag this weekend to say the least.

After about a month of monster ringing catches it had to end eventually and it truly did on Saturday. Although overall numbers were good, over 80% of the birds were re-traps from recent weeks. A couple of re-trap chiffchaff and 2 juvenile goldcrests were nice.

Ended the weekend sat in the chair very groggy after recieving a half inch gash to me head from having a fight with a post banger. Even had an ambulance out but they spoilt it by not having their lights or siren on!! For those who care (I am sure someone does), no further damage has been inflicted.

Been a bit of a busy couple of weeks now the Coastal Project has started. The reserve has changed loads and it is amazing what a digger can do in a few hours.
Not done much birding other than ringing and that has been pretty good. Got a few tree sparrows a few days ago and a nice immature tawny owl, complete with downy head, at the weekend.

Hobby hunting over the garden and male bullfinch at the weekend. Also hummingbird hawkmoth briefly on Sunday.