Grin for John!

John Marchant (Lakes uber-lister), Neil Calbrade and I (both Lakes low-listers) headed out for the penultimate lunchtime Lakes wander of the year earlier today. As Neil isn't in tomorrow, we made a special effort to find the/a Jack Snipe, to no avail. In fact - and against all the odds - the only one of us who got a Lakes tick was John, when a Peregrine flew over and had a half-hearted go at a Mallard! Heard-only Crossbill and a male Goosander were the other highlights.

Merry Christmas to all TEAL Cuppers, and everyone who has been following the action this year! Only 9 days to go...

Jack-on-the-List

Not sure how many times I've squelched round the likely-looking spots this year but it finally paid off today as a Jack Snipe shot out from under my feet! Great bird, and the list moves on to 143 (mine to 130).

Cryptically-patterned waders were the order of the day; a couple of Snipe and a Woodcock were in the same area as the Jack Snipe. The other highlights of a 60-species haul were 4 Goosander and 2 Little Egret.

Snowball

"It's all gone quiet." said Roobarb. "Too quiet." said Custard. So here's something to make a noise about after a 2 week lull in TEAL blogging:

All pics courtesy of Dave Leech

First seen in Jeff and Alison Kew's garden (easily the most nyger-rich spot in Thetford, if not the whole of East Anglia) on 23 November, caught and ringed by Dave and I at the Nunnery Lakes on 26 November.

Shame the rest of it wasn't as white as its head! See comment below as to why it should be described as leucistic (as opposed to a 'partial albino'), and for more information about plumage aberrations in birds, this detailed article in Dutch Birding.

More White-fronts!

Tuesday morning, Nick texts to say he's just had eight Whitefronts over his house. I wandered down the lakes at lunchtime, not really expecting to be lucky, but a flock of 10 flew east over the reserve. Nunnery tick scored back! Now where's that Bean....?

Still clinging on

A walk round Derek Whites Eggs pit on Saturday morning found me looking at three Goldeneye.  And as the mist was clearing I knew I just had to try for them from The Lodge.  Ten minutes later I was squinting at the area of water I'd last seem them in from the plateau at The Lodge.  No sign - they must have moved I thought - then bingo!  A drake popped up right in my field of view.  139.

I wonder if we can find the White-fronts and Egyptian Geese that are currently hanging round the valley too...

Y-fronts

The following text came pinging in from Dawn late this afternoon:

"3 White-fronts, 2 ads and 1 juv flew south 1535 over lakes, dropping down over Shadwell or Barnham. Flew right over Pete's head and I ran out of (the) wood just in time to get them!"

Result! Another unexpected bonus; lots of White-fronts and Bean Geese coming in on the coast at the moment but to get any 'proper' geese here is a real rarity. I belted down on the bike and was able to find where they'd landed... but unfortunately for me the only place from which I could view the birds was about 75m from the reserve boundary. Never mind: that's 142, which extends the lead up to 4 again with just 6 weeks to play!

...and still there this morning! Next time someone shows you a frame-filler and mutters something about it being 'just a record shot', refer them to the following:

Miners strike!

My first trip down the lakes for a couple of weeks today. Rather dull weather, and it felt like a rare waterbird should have dropped in, but the avian highlight was my record count of four Little Egrets.

However, I grabbed a few oak leaves and, as hoped, found a few new leaf-mining micro-moths - Ectoedemia quinquella, E. subbimaculella and E. heringi. The total now reaches 1,785 (1,720 named to species level).