October. The month of dreams. The month where anything is possible. The adrenaline rush of stepping out of your door and walking into the patch expectantly, knowing that you might find a brilliant rarity, or be treated to a fantastic migration spectacle. The reason we live here and the reason we do what we do.
Not this October though. With the exception of one or two brighter moments, this October was basically a depressing continuation of the Great Birdless Autumn of 2021, with the added downer of a huge auk die-off happening on our very shorestep, with a supporting cast of dying divers forlornly shaking their heads in the surf. But it wasn't all completely depressing, so please do read on!
We watched the sea at the start of the month as the bushes contained literally no birds, and flyover passerine migration consisted of the odd Swallow, Meadow Pipit or Siskin. Little Gulls were present in reasonable numbers on the 2nd, and there was a close-in Bonxie flypast. On the 3rd on the south beach dozens of Swallows were sitting on the sand, flying short distances as dog-walkers pushed them on. It was bizarre and a bit unsettling, and reminded Sean of seeing several Hobbies doing the same in the Spring, when he mused that they were having to resort to looking for insects on the beach. The Swallows didn't seem to be feeding though. Also that morning Mick had one of the star birds of the month - an immature Sabine's Gull going south at 9.30am. We later found out that it (or another) had been seen going south at Sea Palling around 45 minutes earlier. Mick also saw a Pomarine Skua south on his seawatch that morning, and Colin, Peter and Sean noted several rather late Swifts on the patch.
On the 4th Mick had a Goosander south and a Wheatear in the car park, and on the 5th after the rain had stopped Sean had Lesser Whitethroat, House Martin and Willow Warbler, plus Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps in the valley - a notable increase in migrant passerine numbers, though still miniscule. There was also a Red Kite in the north dunes, and a reasonable passage of Swallows through.
On the 6th the wind was a fairly strong northwesterly, and there was a notable movement on the sea - lots of waders and wildfowl, plus Bonxies and Arctic Skuas, a Sooty Shearwater, Little Gulls and an excellent Great Northern Diver which landed close in off the car park. In the early afternoon, as seawatching continued, a bedraggled Redstart came in off and landed briefly at our feet! Lapwing also arrived in off. Later in the afternoon, after the rest of us had gone home, Barry arrived for another seawatch and a visiting birder told him he'd had a Red-necked Grebe. Scanning the sea for it Barry did indeed pick up a grebe, but it turned out to be a Black-necked Grebe! The visiting birder was a warden at Pagham Harbour so has had a lot of experience with grebes, and he was clear that this was not the bird he'd found earlier. So that makes two rare grebes seen here on the 6th! Sean returned to look for either (unsuccessfully) and had a Manx Shearwater south in the later afternoon, and he and Pat also had an Arctic Tern, an Arctic Skua, Red-breasted Merganser and Pintail. Meanwhile Maynard had a Red Kite over his garden.
The early morning of the 7th saw an incredible spectacle of many hundreds of Little Gulls moving through close inshore. Barry and Sean believed the number involved was in total over a thousand, and yet by 8am it had completely stopped and there wasn't a single Little Gull remaining, but while it had lasted it was a truly extraordinary spectacle! Later in the morning Mick had several Short-eared Owls, a Goldcrest and a Kestrel in off. Incredibly, the Goldcrest was one of only a handful any of us had seen this Autumn. Sean had another Kestrel out at sea, and also a Marsh Harrier heading south nearly a mile out! Pete flushed a Jack Snipe in the North Dunes, and the Swift was still hanging around low over the village, quite often receiving a lot of hassle from the Jackdaws. Pat had Redwing in the valley and House Martins and a Swallow from his garden.
The next morning (8th) Mick had a further 12 Little Gulls moving south, along with Kittiwakes, and a Great Crested Grebe going north, and in the valley Sean noted that there seemed to have been a small arrival of Song Thrushes alongside slightly improved visible passerine migration with Siskins, Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits all in better numbers. At the south end of the valley a single Redstart was a further slight surprise for Sean and when, on his way home, he also found a Lesser Whitethroat and a Pied Flycatcher in a garden abutting the dunes just north of Beach Road, it seemed certain that for whatever reason there had been a little fall of migrants in the rather foggy conditions, with a slight southerly breeze.
The next sequence of events shows how often the finding of a decent bird is down to a lucky combination of factors. As Sean was watching the Pied Flycatcher he could see Colin's hat bobbing about in his garden a short distance away. He thought of calling out that he had got a Pied Flycatcher but thought it might disturb the bird, so he WhatsApped the local group instead and then headed off. A few steps later Murray called him on the phone. Murray was actually in Colin's garden with him, and it transpired that Colin still needed the flycatcher for his patch year list. Sean agreed to walk back and meet Murray and Colin where he had seen it to show it to them. The three met up at the spot and Colin got onto the flycatcher very quickly, but Murray was having a bit more trouble (must be those rubbish NL binoculars he has recently bought 😁). As Sean was giving him directions, a movement in the bramble tangle growing against the garden's cobblestone wall immediately in front of them both caught Murray's eye instead - a flash of a greyish warbler disappearing into the bramble and momentarily revealing what he thought might have been a hint of a barred under-tail. "Wait! I just had something else - it looked like it might have been a Barred Warbler!" Murray announced, and all thoughts of the flycatcher were put on hold. We all waited and watched, and Murray began to wonder whether his briefest of glimpses might just have been the Lesser Whitethroat... But no! After a few minutes, just a bit further along the brambly wall, out popped a fine immature Barred Warbler, giving great views for us all. So a combination of chance factors which led us all to be in the right place at the right time, plus an excellent display of split-second identification skills from Murray, had resulted in the discovery of what was definitely one of the star passerines of the autumn! It remained for the rest of the day; a tricky bird to get on to at times but most (though sadly not all) of our little band eventually caught up with it.
There was also a Short-eared Owl in the North Dunes on the afternoon of the 9th, and a tantalising, seemingly rather short winged Acro, clearly just arrived as it was hiding in the marrams on the dune ridge nearest to the sea, which Sean chased around but was unable to pin down.
On the morning of the 12th it was seawatching time again and the first Woodcock of the Autumn came in off.
In the early afternoon Sean went back for another seawatch. Four Brent Geese and a Pintail came past immediately and it was clear that there was some movement on the sea. The Little Gulls had also returned, and up the coast a little way north of the concrete blocks Mick had a Grey Phalarope right over the dune ridge. At 1.30pm a Short-eared Owl came in off, and just a few minutes later, just as Barry was arriving, Sean picked up a large diver going north not too far out. He got his scope on it as it came right past him straight out and in the good light the most obvious thing about it was its huge yellowy-white bill! Pandemonium ensued as he screamed White-billed Diver! and shouted incoherent directions to Barry, who managed to get on to it but only as it passed inside the Cockle Light to the north of where they were standing, so was unable to see the bill. In the panic and in his attempt to get Barry onto it Sean had not really studied its plumage, so didn't note the neck colouration or anything much else which might be useful for a description submission! Apart from the humungous bill, the other most noticeable things about it were how much 'lankier' and less compact it had seemed compared to typical views of flying Great Northern Divers, and just how large its trailing feet were. Overall it had also seemed rather pale in general rather than dark. Dave R from Lincolnshire, one of our regular visiting birders, had just arrived and had been walking across the car park during the sighting, and casually asked if we'd seen anything... He was somewhat gutted to learn what he had just missed! Coincidently, the last White-billed Diver occurred here four years ago, almost to the day, and with a similarly huge passage of Little Gulls. Also of note sitting on the sea that afternoon were four Velvet Scoter, and yet another Short-eared Owl in off.
Sightings of the diver continued intermittently over the next couple of weeks, and it seemed to be on something of a routine, seen mainly going south around mid-morning and north in the early afternoon. Eventually most of us, plus a few visitors, got on to it. But despite seeing quite a few Great Northern Divers over the coming days, Sean wasn't to see it again until the 21st October, when he, Barry, Neil M and Dave R had excellent views of it flying south close in, in the warm afternoon sunlight. In addition to the completely obvious bill, the dark/light/dark pattern of the neck with its smudgy pale collar was noted, and Barry also noted the pale face. Once again it looked very lanky with those great trailing feet and long neck, somehow more like a huge Red-throated Diver than the rather more bullet-like shape of a typical Great Northern in flight. We didn't notice any neck wobbles or anything like that as it flew. Dave R had the presence of mind to capture a stunning image of the bird which he later shared on Twitter here 😁.
So after the 12th a lot of seawatching was done by our members, and in addition to the star bird a good range of species was seen including several Great Northern Divers, quite a number of ducks including Red-breasted Mergansers, Tufted Ducks, Eider, Goldeneye, Pintail, Teal, Wigeon etc. Great and Arctic Skuas came by regularly in small numbers, plus a few Manx Shearwaters and an excellent Sooty Shearwater on the 15th which drifted north almost in the surf. At least three of the four Velvet Scoter remained offshore and gave lovely views from time to time. More Short-eared Owls came in off and solo Little Auks went north on the 14th and the 22nd. Snow Buntings also began to appear, often noted initially by call as we were seawatching, and Rock Pipits also began to be noted. On the 17th Barry and Maynard had a Red-necked Grebe. Brent Geese were also beginning to appear in good numbers as the month progressed, and a first year Arctic Tern hung around for most of the month.
Despite the range of good seabirds, it was at times hard to bear the sheer numbers of Guillemots that were dying out at sea, in the surf and on the beach. Razorbills were present in record numbers which was also a worry - were they going to go the same way? The reasons for this huge die-off are not currently completely understood, although disrupted ecosystems and food chains due to global heating is the number one suspect, according to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
One ringed Guillemot found dead on Winterton beach didn't even make it through its first four months of life, poor thing:
Away from the sea, Mick had three Great White Egrets on the 17th. On the 19th there was a House Martin over the village, and small groups of Song Thrushes and Redwings were arriving in the valley. Redwings had been arriving in Norfolk for over a week but almost all of them had simply overflown us here and been noted inland.
Sean took himself off to Scilly for half-term week so was away on the 24th when Mick found a first year Caspian Gull near Bramble Gap. On the same day a Ring Ouzel was reported in the South Dunes, though not seen by any of us.
On his way home that day Mick heard a Yellow-browed Warbler call at the eastern end of the Holmes Road. It has been the worst year for a very long time for these autumn gems; apparently they are scarce right across Europe this autumn.
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