Can’t believe it’s close on a month since we returned from our two week package holiday in Goa. This post catches up on the last couple of days birding back at the coast, as well as filling in some of the gaps from earlier in the holiday. Once back at the Marinha Dourada we made full use of our guide Rayman (govekar.rama@gmail.com 9922271840) who certainly knew all the sites and was able to find some great birds for us.

First up, Asian Openbill

Intermediate Egret

Purple Heron

Striated Heron

Pacific Golden Plover

Great Knot, with Greater & Lesser Sand Plover

The gorgeous Small Pratincole

Scaly-breasted Munia

Siberian Stonechat

Long-tailed Shrike

Barn Owl, roosting just above our favourite hotel bar!

Indian Peafowl, easy enough to see in the distance, but surprisingly difficult to photograph

White-bellied Sea Eagle on an early morning ‘fly by’

Female Pallid Harrier

Finally, a couple of species seen on a bit of waste ground close to Panjim City – Desert Wheatear

and to close, the superbly cryptic Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark, contender for ‘bird of the trip’

Blue-eared Kingfisher, Tambdi Surla, 30th November 2014

As part of our Goa package holiday we spent three nights and four days at Backwoods Camp, in the company of our main guide Pramod and, for part of our last full day at the camp, Leio. The camp is set in the hills, amongst sub-tropic deciduous rainforest, about two hours from the coast. Accommodation is in basic individual chalets and the regular, ample and appetising meals are served in the communal dining and general ‘chill-out’ area in the main house. The camp and kitchen staff couldn’t have been more pleasant or helpful. In all, we added around forty five new species at Backwoods, many of which were scarce or ‘difficult to get’ birds. The whole package – accommodation, meals & drinks, guiding and transport, came to around £120 per person, providing excellent value and a welcome break to coastal birding. For anyone contemplating a birding package holiday to Goa, a trip up to Backwoods is a must – details are available on their website or visit their regular stand at the annual Rutland Water BirdFair.
A few of the many superb species seen in this idyllic birding location, including:

Puff-throated Babbler

Orange-headed Thrush

Purple Sunbird

Western Crowned Warbler

Red-headed Bunting

Rufous-bellied Eagle

A nice trio of Green Bee-eater, Chestnut-shouldered Petronia and, in the middle, Grey-necked Bunting

White-bellied Woodpecker, at dusk

Heart-spotted or heart-stopping Woodpecker

Citrine Wagtail – one of two found by us on the trip

Malabar Grey Hornbill

A roosting pair of rare Sri Lanka Frogmouth

and lastly, the iconic but hard to find, Indian Pitta – this bird roosted behind our chalet!

More photos to come in my Goa gallery.

We’ve been in Goa for a week now, staying at the Marinha Dourada hotel near Arpora, and spent most of our time walking to and birding the local sites. We’ve also had a couple of trips out to location less than twenty miles away. Our days start at dawn, around 6.30, when we have our most productive birding seasons before a late breakfast. Then it’s ‘chill time’ over lunch with a beer, raptor watching, and then back out for our late afternoon session until dark, early supper and bed! So far we’ve seen over one hundred and seventy species, many of them ‘world ticks’, with quite a bit of overlap with Thailand, Australia and Britain – the majority being ’self-found’. Tomorrow we go up to Backwoods Camp for some intensive guided jungle birding. Here’s a small selection of the more interesting local birds.

Common Iora

Green Bee-eater

Chestnut-tailed Starling

Indian Roller

Crimson-backed Sunbird

Wire-tailed Swallow

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Brahminy Kite

Red-wattled Lapwing

Lesser Goldenback

Small Minivet

Jerdon’s Leafbird

Jungle Owlet

Oriental Honey Buzzard

Slightly further afield: Bay-backed Shrike

Brown Hawk Owl

Woolly-necked Stork

Pied Kingfisher

and finally, the hard to see Watercock

Hopefully, a further report from Goa on our return from Backwoods.

Tree Sparrows are now virtually absent from east Norfolk and have suffered a massive general decline across the whole county over the past two decades. With nothing better to do and needing it for my Norfolk Year List we set off on Sunday, in the pouring rain, to search for them. I’d been given a possible location to the west of our place, in a rural village which appears to have largely missed-out on the agricultural revolution – winding lanes with lots of small fields bordered by overgrown hedgerows. It didn’t take us long before we bumped into a very friendly resident who, on hearing of our quest, announced that he had Tree Sparrows on the feeders in his garden and that we were welcome to look! Sure enough, half a dozen birds were buzzing in and out of the nearby hedge and on to his feeders. They didn’t seem to mind the weather but it sure hampered the photography!

Tree Sparrow, at an undisclosed mid-Norfolk location, 16th November 2014

Pod of Pilot Whale passing Cley East Bank, 10th November 2014 

Monday is my ‘duty day’ at Cley NWT. I’d checked out the birds on Pat’s Pool and taken a slow walk down East Bank. I was just returning from looking at the female Long-tailed Duck at the back of Arnold’s when I met Steve & Sue. Whilst Steve and I were talking about the Desert Wheatear ‘fest’ at the weekend, Sue was looking out to sea when see noticed a group of large cetaceans moving east. Steve quickly identified them as Pilot Whale and we counted at least fifteen travelling in a pod about two thirds the way out towards the wind farm. They spent the afternoon gradually making their way past Salthouse, and Weybourne arriving at Sheringham by about 4.40 – their numbers increasing to 28 at the last count.

Apparently this is the first record of live Pilot Whale off Norfolk – all seven previous records have been of dead beached individuals, the last of which was in 1992.  So forgive the rather poor quality digipics but they do capture a small piece of Norfolk cetacean history!

For more and better photos click here to view Steve’s website  and for more background see Carl’s, Letter from Norfolk.

Male Desert Wheatear, Lowestoft, 8th November 2014

Two days ago a male Desert Wheatear turned up in Lowestoft – just over the border, in Suffolk. Then yesterday a female was present on the sea front in Gorleston, NORFOLK. A leisurely breakfast this morning and ‘bingo’, the pager rings out that the bird is still present – we pack up and head off. Half way there another message comes through that the bird has flown north across the river and has been lost to view, in a huge fenced-off area of the docks. By the time we arrive, the scent has gone well and truly cold – oh well. We decide to go and look at the bird in the neighbouring county anyway, which is said to be ‘showing well’ – this proved to be something of an understatement! Enticed, no doubt, by the regular supply of meal worms this handsome winter male sat, unperturbed on the sea wall, surrounded by an army of admirers. We’d just about had our fill when the news percolated through that the Norfolk bird had relocated back to the beach at Gorleston. Off we go again and this time, success – a nice female, nestling in the shelter of the sea wall! Two Desert Wheatear in one morning – one of which was a Norfolk Year Tick, not a bad little outing.

First a few more photos of the Suffolk male

‘What are you guys all looking at?’

Now for the equally lovely NORFOLK female

Finally, a grab shot showing the all dark tail in flight

Lately I’ve been having a pretty good run of ‘Norfolk ticks’ – yesterday it was the turn of Surf Scoter to get added. As has been the way of things recently I was out of the county when it first showed up but fortunately it decided to stick around, with a couple of Velvet Scoter, off-shore in Holkham bay. My timing wasn’t great, arriving three hours after the morning high tide, so the bird was very distant but, on the plus side, it was bright sunshine which meant that it’s distinctive black and white headed pattern and garish beak stood out well against the dark sea. No photo opportunities I’m afraid, unlike last years bird in Yorkshire, which was by comparison close.

It’s out there somewhere – honest!

Last year’s bird at Filey, on the Big Year – see Rarity Round-up, June 2013, for more

Also saw my first Snow Bunting of the autumn, by way of a bonus.

I went out this morning to look for the Pallas’s Warbler at Snipes Marsh Cley NWT. It was seen first thing and again, fleetingly, mid-morning but hadn’t showed itself by the time I gave up and went for lunch. Another day, another dip – same old, same old.. There was a nice Long-eared Owl and a Yellow-browed Warbler in near-by Walsey Hills though and the Grey Phalarope was on the pool at Eye Field – but skulking in the reeds when I went to see it.

First, a terrible digipic of probably the same Grey Phalarope, when it first appeared last Monday at Cley NWT, on Simmond’s Scrape, in the middle of a deluge

and now, todays offering, Yellow-browed Warbler and Long-eared Owl, both in Walsey Hills

Same old, same old they maybe but – ‘you gotta luv em!’