Finished work early to go to Fowlmere on the hottest September day on record to try for the (three) Willow Emerald Damselflies that had been reported last week. Directions were vague: “Near the Spring Hide” and I was up against it time-wise as I needed to go out for the evening at 5:45 having arrived shortly after 4:00.

Until about 5:15 I’d had no luck, so decided, before going home, to have a 30 second scan over the Mere hide to make sure there weren’t any good birds on the mud. I had a very quick scan, just time enough to count 93 Lapwings and glance over the Teal. I was out again in two minutes and bumped into Ade Cooper, telling him I hadn’t seen anything special but hadn’t really looked properly.

I had about another five minutes before needing to go so decided to have a last look from the Spring Hide. A fairly distant Southern Migrant Hawker was buzzing around and it chased a Damselfly. The Damselfly then flew and rested on reed… With it’s wings spread open. This was good news as I’d never actually seen any Lestes species at Fowlmere before! It was fairly distant but I could just make out all the relevant features: Pale pterostigma, lack of blue on last segments.

I sent a text to Ade to tell him of the sighting and he immediately called to say I’d overlooked two Garganey in the Mere Hide! Not good, but it was a very quick glance. I dashed back for a few photos before racing home.

Fowlmere
13 September 2016 16:10 - 17:40
Sunny 30C 8S
Teal, Mallard, Garganey, Kestrel, Water Rail (heard), Moorhen, Lapwing, Woodpigeon, Kingfisher (heard), Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Goldcrest (heard), Blue Tit, Great Tit, Swallow, Cetti's Warbler (heard), Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Blackcap (heard), Wren (heard), Starling, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, Dunnock (heard), Chaffinch, Linnet, Reed Bunting, Large White, Small White, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Willow Emerald Damselfly, Large Red Damselfly, Migrant Hawker, Southern Hawker, Common Darter, Ruddy Darter

Weather system looked very promising for eastern migrants, so a last minute decision was to go to Norfolk for the afternoon with Michelle. Started by dipping a Barred Warbler at Burnham Ovary, and apart from lots of Wheatears (mostly Greenland?)and a couple of Whinchats, there were very few migrants around. After dropping Michelle at Holt I then had a bash around Salthouse. Three Hobbys when I arrived, but still no migrant passerines. A short sea-watch did however produce two Balearic Shearwaters.

Then onto Cley, which was equally quiet so decided to collect Michelle and sit and have a couple of beers and something to eat at Salthouse instead.

First visit for ages. Went with Sam. A single Buzzard and 31 Lapwings were seen.

Even worse than yesterday. A single Teal and a Cetti’s Warbler heard.

We had planned to spend the day cycling to the coast but during the night strong (and rather unexpected) winds came in from the north-east making for a rather sleepless night in our tent. We therefore headed to Sherringham where we enjoyed an excellent long sea-watch:

Gannet – constant parties moving east; hundreds of birds.
Kittiwake – hundreds east.
Bonxie x 4 east (new for Tom.)
Arctic Skua x 3 east.
Fulmar – east.
Sandwich Tern – several.
Common Scoter x 7 west.

Unfortunately we had to stop after about an hour and a half to meet with Michelle and Sam, but after lunch we managed another short session at Cley:

Gannet – similar numbers to before, all moving east.
Kittiwake – as above.
Manx Shearwater x c.200 east.
Arctic Skua – east.
Sooty Shearwater x 3 birds lingering then slowly drifting east; new for Tom.
Bonxie x 2 west!
Fulmar – east.

To top it off, on the North Scrape, were the following:

Red-necked Phalarope
Little Stint – juvenile.
Curlew Sandpiper – juvenile.
Spotted Redshank x 2
Greenshank

Headed with Tom to the Ouse washes, partly in hope of seeing one of the huge number of Honey Buzzards coming inland off the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts. Despite seemingly favourable raptor watching conditions, the best we could manage was a distant Buzzard sp. (only two Honeys were reported in Cambridge all day) and a couple of juvenile Marsh Harriers. The water level was very high, and no good for any waders we were hoping to see, seeing instead several hundred Wigeon. There were however huge numbers of dragonflys (mainly Common Darter, Southern Hawker, and a few Brown Hawkers) and Butterflies (massive numbers of Green-veined White and good numbers of Small Tortoishell and Large White, plus a few Red Admirals.)

We moved south a bit to Ouse Fen and saw a couple of Little Egrets, three Green Sandpipers, four each of Little Ringed Plovers and Ringed Plovers.