20250829 Red-backed Shrike, Thornham

 

20250829 Red-backed Shrike
1st winter male.

20250829 Red-backed Shrike

20250829 Red-backed Shrike 
In late afternoon sun.

20250829 Red-backed Shrike
Early morn overcast light.

20250829 Red-backed Shrike

20250820 Arctic Skua, Cley Beach

 

20250820 Arctic Skua
Dark phase juvenile waiting to launch.

20250820 Lapwing
Buckingham Marshes

20250820 Little Stint
Wood Sandpiper & Redshank, Buckingham Marshes.

20250803 Zitting Cisticola & Black Stork, Suffolk Coast

 

20250803 Zitting Cisticola
Male in frequent song flights over reedbed, Walberswick, just out of shot over mill...
Diverted for British Isles tick on way to shoot a Black Stork...
Zitter's first seen in Mallorca 1989 as Fan-tailed Warbler and assumed it would be bagged living on the South coast.
Odd the species is still classed as a Mega Scarcity in Britain?
Following a wide-ranging circular song-flights the bird dived straight into cover...
Proved rather difficult to switch from bins to camera which then locked onto Dragonflies &c.
'ziit' repeated in flight. Or 'tzet' better.

20250804 Black Stork
Juvenile Boyton Marshes.

20250804 Black Stork

20250804 Black Stork

20250815 Greenshank
Juvenile waders showing well at Cley now.  Time for a photo shoot.

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
The second bite of the cherry, and the bird performed well in  frequent circling song flights.
Perched up at a distance but usually dived into cover.
Fanned tail and dark crown of male shows here...

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
Compared notes with a top Vol from the Holkham Est, a very rare birder type, rare info
and very rarely away from the Norfolk Coast...

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
Tail shows as a small triangle when not fanned.
Clean pale yellow ochre underparts and darker head.
Short bluntly rounded wing profile, p3-6 almost equal length.
OM1's bird subject detection locked onto this miniature subject at range in flight... 

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
Climbing into song flight frantically calling.

20250814 Zitting Cisticola
Closed wings during bouncing flight.
Diagnostic shape to the closed tail.

20250823 N Wheatear
1st winter of the autumn at sunrise.

20250823 Zitting Cisticola
Early morn. Female...? returning to the same spot in reedbed whilst male in song flights overhead.
Another Adult seen 100m to the right of this location.

20250823 Zitting Cisticola
4 Juv's emerge from nest site location...!!

20250729 White-rumped Sandpiper & Pectoral Sandpiper, Snettisham

 

20250729 Pectoral Sandpiper
A shy and retiring bird.

20250729 White-rumped Sandpiper

20250729 White-rumped Sandpiper

20250729 Med Gull
A photogenic Gull on mid-lagoon.

20250729 White-rumped Sandpiper

20250729 Pectoral Sandpiper
With Dunlin and Redshank.

20250729 Common Tern
Just fledged juvenile and pair.

20250729 Red Knot
Roosting 2hrs before HT at 1000hrs.

20250729 White-rumped Sandpiper

20250729 Greenshank
2 juv on mid-lagoon.

20250729 Pectoral Sandpiper
Kept very distant unlike the WR Sand. Shots before the heat haze got up are ok.

20250711 Northern Gannet, The Bass

 

20250711 Bass Rock

20250711 N Gannet
Sky pointing.

20250711 Statue to Birding & The Scottish Seabird Centre, North Berwick

20250711 Puffin
The Species doing well on Craigleith.

20250711 N Gannet
On a level with Guga. Photographically better than Bempton...

20250711 N Gannet

20250711 Guillemot

20250711 N Gannet

20250711 The Bass

20250709 White-winged Scoter& Velvet Scoter, Musselburgh Lothian

20250709 White-winged Scoter
First sighting of bird with Velvet flock of males at some distance...
Expertly located by 'Stuart the Bike', so shot away at flock, Big Black at 16890mm achieved ID.

 

20250709 Velvet Scoter
Noted that male Velvets came in close on seawall...
Is this the Brit Isles mecca for Velvet's, and shots?

20250710 Surf Scoter
Early morn of 10th, sea as a mill pond...!!

20250710 White-winged Scoter
Swam inshore to join male velvets diving for food.

20250710 White-winged Scoter

20250710 White-winged Scoter
Passing eclipse male C Eider on its way inshore to join feeding male Velvet flock...
The larger bulk of the Eiders body and head was obvious even at maximum distance,
and when the birds were roosting.
Note the broken nose shape of the White-wing's bill.

20250710 White-winged Scoter
Broken nose profile compare to the Velvet's smooth concave  profile.

20170127 Velvet Scoter
48 off Titch with EB Scoter. As good as it gets in Norfolk.

20161205 Velvet Scoter
With a record Long-tailed Duck flock off Titch.

20250710 Lesser Black Backed Gull
At the mouth of the Esk River early morn.
Intermedius uppers tone this far North... but strong bill and bulky.

20250710 White-winged Scoter
Larger and more rounded head with a very deep bill base.
Sea-duck just off the sea-wall!

20250713 White-winged Scoter
Joined 3 female Velvets off The Cast nr Prestonpans

20250713 Velvet Scoter
Numbers still increasing off Musselburgh after 5 days.