Frantic Fog

A few bits were seen as it cleared, including the Chough location below the tall cliffs

Snipe - possibly as many as 56 on the rocks between Near Naze and the café
Chough - located below the tall cliffs (see 16/12 posting) during the mid afternoon and it certainly did not visit the other more open sites prior to that
Stonechat - mobile female along the barrows/headland
The first (and last?) Magpie of the year was ringed by the office!

Yaffling consolation

Wet and warm and misty again today and the Brent Geese seem to have been spirited away and the Chough presumably/hopefully having a day off from the spotlight 

Middleton NR
Green Woodpecker - calling
Cetti's Warbler - western marsh bird singing
Water Rail - 3+

North wall
Czech Med Gull - ring seen and confirmed

Heliport roost
Snipe - 15
Ringed Plover - a creditable 42
Turnstone - similar to the other day - 69
Little Egret - 2
Redshank - 390
Oystercatcher - 5500
Dunlin - 18

Red Nab and area
Redwing - lost bird on rocks below wooden jetty - misty confusion rather than a cold weather movement!
Wigeon - at least 250

Great White Egret adds to the mix

Birding not easy today especially when cloudy weather with fog changed to sunny weather with even denser fog around lunchtime!

Great White Egret - one flew low to the west over Middleton NR at 1053 hours but could not be relocated on the coast
Chough - on pager for midday in the fields above half moon bay and reported by dog walker mid afternoon below the cliffs
Stonechat - female below cliffs at half moon bay
Jack Snipe - one flushed whilst checking mist net rides Middleton western marsh
Pale-bellied Brent Goose - two alternating between Red Nab and Ocean Edge saltmarsh channel
Med Gull - Czech adult around anglers north harbour wall

NHWall feeding area - just 4 goldfinch and 2 linnet.

Chough and Brents still

Half Moon Bay
Chough - in the fields then at its hidey hole below the low cliffs
Stonechat - female

Ocean Edge/Red Nab
Pale-bellied Brent - two
No Stonechat
Snipe - 14

Decent mid-winter fare in the morning

Coverage from Malcolm - thanks

 

Just did two short circuits, first round Half Moon Bay:

Chough calling from Sheep field direction, but didn't see it. 10:10 (see in am by dog walker in same area)

1 Stonechat (female)

3 Red Breasted Merganser (2 males)

31 Pinkfoot (north)

 

Then Ocean Edge and Red Nab

Pale-bellied Brent Goose - oddly just two today

 

39 Common Snipe

1 Jack Snipe

1 Stonechat (female type - but darker than HMB bird) pic attached

 

c20 Linnet

Car potato Chough and Brent surprise

A wet Sunday am and a short bit of mobile hide birding

Chough - in the field just to the north of half moon bay café at least 0945-0956
Turnstone - 67 heliport seawall
Med Gull - Czech adult around the nhw anglers

Ocean Edge and area (Malcolm)
Brent Goose - probably pale-bellied - 3 flew south from OE towards Potts Corner mid-am (per Malcolm)
Common Snipe - 23 OE saltmarsh
Jack Snipe - at least one OE saltmarsh (rather low high tide)
Skylark - one OE saltmarsh

More Chough circuitary

Info from Malcolm this am               
I was out for two hours this morning and located the Chough three times.

Chough time line:

9:55 on Heysham Head cliff tops

10:00 - 10:15 feeding on under cliff of high cliffs at Heysham Head (more on this below)

 

10:25 "cavorting" over rooftops on Worborrow Road (seen from barrows wood)

No sign on horse paddocks

11:05 On fence on south end of Heysham Head sheep field

11:06 Flew into sheep field

11.49 Still in sheep field as scoped from south end of heliport seawall!

No further known observations

Other sightings

Under high steps Half Moon Bay

Rock Pipit 1 - not there at 9:15 but showing well by 11:00

Meadow Pipit -at least 1

Stonechat 1 (female)

PS this is a nice new years day collection of a tricky trio as well as the Chough!

61 Pinkfoot to SE (11:15)

Bit more information about feeding location on high undercliffs:

I thought these high under cliffs would be a good location. There are lots of feeding spots similar to the one at Half Moon Bay, but much more secluded. To this end, I went down to the shore to check from below. I had just got there when the Chough briefly flew over the cliff top then back to the Head. I waited a while but it didn't return. So I climbed out. The Chough was just on the grass above the cliffs. As soon as I got there, it flew to the under cliff. The implication is that it didn't fly there earlier, because I was at the base of the cliffs. This is not in line with my experience at HMB where it came into feed whilst I was much closer than I was today, but perhaps it was just more expectant of people at HMB. 

By the time I got to the point where I could see under cliffs again, I couldn't find chough. I went down to the shore again, but still couldn't locate (there are lots of nooks and crannies here than can only be viewed from certain angles. Presuming that I had missed it moving on, I climbed up to the Head again. It then flew out from under cliffs and headed over the Barrows. It would have been feeding for 15 minutes then, and presuming a similar success rate to HMB it would have a belly full of food to digest.

My advise to birders would be to check these cliffs out from the lower ground to the north of them. The image attached is a view from this point. The good news is that it is very vocal when flying in and out. If they do decide to watch from the shore, they should be aware of tide times. At current heights, there is not a danger of drowning, but easy access and egress can be cut off

Camera shy Chough

Plenty of people about today but no Chough seen today until it appeared along the horse paddock fence at about 1530hrs (thanks June)

Stonechat - the mobile female wandering up and down the low cliffs at half moon bay
Meadow Pipit - 2 in same place
Med Gull - unfamiliar ad with yellow-tipped bill by half moon bay café
Knot - 1200 heliport seawall

Otherwise not a lot - didn't cover the afternoon low tide

Rapidly downhill

The coverage started well with a nice bowl of Jade's soup in HMB café accompanied by views of the Chough in the field just to the north.  Subsequently:

Seawatch - zilch apart from a/the 1CY Shag alongside the north wall.  Too rough to check seaduck

IOM ferry - followed in by common big seagulls

Outfalls - zilch

Middleton model boat pond - zilch

Chough hidy hole

The reason why birders this last couple of days have not been able to find the Chough by concentrating on the horse paddocks and the headland.  It has been feeding below the under'cliff' just to the south of the tall steps leading down to Half Moon Bay and accessible from the Half Moon Bay café end.  Thanks Malcolm for sorting this out (pics taken today).   Obviously please don't 'park the bus' on its feeding area if its not there when you arrive

Stonechat - one female same general area