Graham Etherington
@britishbirder
Norwich-based birder, scientist (computational biologist), and football fan (Stoke City). Birding patches are Waxham, Potter Heigham Marshes, and Heigham Waterworks. Frequent Shetland and N. America visitor. BOU 512, BOU self-found 323, ABA 688. OM1 user.
The wife and I rented an electric boat from Martham Ferry Boat Hire today. Those electric boats are great! No loud diesel engines so you can't hear any birds singing, and with a bit of steady manoeuvring, this Bittern allowed us to get really close without flushing it. Great morning out!
Yesterday's flying ant hatch produced some really nice birds over my suburban Norwich garden, including 8+ Med Gulls, Hobby, and lots of swifts. No Meds yet this morning, but this partially albino swift, present for its 3rd year, was among a big swarm of around 100 swifts.
Two twitches in three days! An early evening visit to the Oxon Long-tailed Shrike proved fruitful. The bird was fairly close most of the time, occasionally coming down to about 30 metres. Many thanks to the farmer and volunteers who organised access. #ukbirding
Although it's tempting to take the presence of fluffy juvenile Wheatears as proof of breeding, dispersing juveniles from outside the county can be seen in Norfolk as early as the end of June. This bird is a prime example, feeding around the paddocks along Stone Road, Halvergate yesterday.
A short jaunt down to the Suffolk/Essex border today to spend a couple of hours watching the Hudsonian Godwit. Really nice views! Great to spend some time chatting to @deansmatthew.bsky.social and @camstu.bsky.social also!
I've just about recovered from a bad concussion that I suffered in April and am starting to head out into the field a bit. I have a great morning at Hickling NWT today, with lots of waders, Spoonbills, Hobby, etc. Butterflies too, with Swallow-tail and Purple Hairstreak. ebird.org/checklist/S3...
If you're a keen house lister, keep 'em peeled for Curlew today. Much rarer than Whimbrel over Norwich, but at least 2 over the city this morning. Bbut more importantly, one of them was over my house! House tick number 98!
Wow! Popped into the garden to get on a 'Commic' Tern seen by @perilsofbirding.bsky.social over the Waterworks reservoir, only to see what I thought were two high Commic Terns. I rattled off a bunch of photos, only to realise they were Little Gulls!!! A real garden mega in Norwich!!! #Norfolkbirding
Incredible scenes at Sweetbriar NWT today when this female Sparrowhawk took a Jay and devoured it in front of me, much to the indignation of the local corvids!
Great to see the Norfolk Black-winged Kite at Sea Palling this morning. It's getting closer to my Waxham patch! #NorfolkBirding #UKBirding
Made a rare trip 'up north' to North Norfolk today. Lovely flock of 13 Long-tailed Ducks (5 drakes) on the sea, plus Black-necked Grebe, Scaup, Raven, a showy Water Rail, plus lots of summer-plumaged Med Gulls and lots of waterfowl and waders
A neck-ringed White-fronted Goose that I had just west of Gt. Yarmouth on 14 Feb was ringed in north Holland on 12 Dec 23, and was seen in Salmorth, Denmark on 5 Dec 25 and then Haarzuilens, Holland on 18 Jan 26. Full details here (login needed) submit.cr-birding.org/animals/1744... #NorfolkBirding
As well as the Iceland Gull, there's plenty of other stuff at Sea Palling to see, such as 6 Purple Sands, lots of Turnstones, and 5 Caspian Gulls (4 2cy and 1 adult).
Had a great morning looking at gulls at Sea Palling today. Star of the show was this 2cy Iceland Gull #NorfolkBirding
Great to finish up the day with some lovely views of Short-eared Owls in east Norfolk today. Probably up to 10 birds at this one site.
Saw the New Year in at the same place I saw it out - Filby Broad. The female Ring-necked Duck showed quite closely, but always into the sun, and the drake Ferruginous Duck did the right thing and occasionally woke up.
Lovely to see 2025 out at Filby Broad on Wednesday. I was delighted when this Red-necked Grebe popped up out of nowhere, right next to the boardwalk, and then the 3 Eider (1 drake, 2 ducks) swam out into view.
After the run of easterlies we've had over the past week or so, you can now almost 'expect' to find Tundra Bean Geese in large flocks of Pink-footed Geese in Norfolk. Here are two of the five birds that I saw at Wickhampton today. Lots of Russian White-fronts in the flocks too. #NorfolkBirding
What a mega day!! Started by twitching Great Shearwater (Norfolk tick) off Winterton. Sooty Shearwater and Snow Buntings from there too. Then I found 8+ Tundra Bean Geese at Horsey. Then, at St. Benet's Abbey, I had great views of Black-winged Kite, Glossy Ibis, Short-eared Owl, and 7 cranes. Wow!
Now this is my idea of a Christmas Robin! Eastern Black Redstart at Sheringham this afternoon. It remained elusive in the cold easterly wind for most of the morning, but eventually did the decent thing and returned to the ornamental gardens.
A really nice day in the sun out in East Norfolk today. As well as the four Tundra Bean Geese, I also had 2 White-fronts, as well as 6 Bewick's and 29 Whooper Swans #NorfolkBirding #UKbirding
Tundra Bean Geese have been really thin on the ground this winter, so I was really pleased to find four at Horsey this afternoon (an adult, with two first-winters behind, shown here). #NorfolkBirding
The last of three supermoons in 2025 occurred last night. December's full moon is also known as the 'Cold Moon', so you could describe last night's as a #SuperColdMoon. This uncropped image was taken at 6.30am today with a Nikon Coolpix P1100, using the moon mode.
Dusky Warbler! This morning's sunny and calm weather provided the perfect window of bird-finding opportunity. So my pre-work visit to Brancaster turned out to be a good call, when I found this little chap 'tuk'ing away in a hedgerow near the Branodunum Roman Fort. #ukbirding #norfolkbirding
Dawn to dusk birding at Horsey, from the village, out along the Nelson Head track, and south to the Winterton plantations. I never found that 'biggy', but Sibe Chiffy, a VERY late Willow Warbler, Hen Harrier, and fabulous Caspian Gull made it a very nice day ebird.org/checklist/S2... #ukbirding
There's been a really good influx of Firecrests into East Anglia this week, with double-figure counts on the north Suffolk coast. Here's one bird that put on a nice show at Horsey, Norfolk this morning.
I love finding Pallas's Warblers, so I was delighted to find this bird at Sidestrand, Norfolk today. There was also a really nice mix of birds along the coast today, including Firecrests, YBWs, Chiffs, Bramblings and other finches, thrushes, Skylarks, pipits, and more.