A day’s birding in Suffolk and Norfolk - April 21, 2012

David, Roger and I set off for Foxhole Covert in Suffolk, picking Ken up on route.  The journey over was pretty uneventful except negotiating some ridiculously narrowing of the road with concrete blocks in Corby.  It was rather daunting, especially as many marks could be seen where they had been scraped by other vehicles.  We made it through in one piece fortunately.  A single Red Kite from the A14 and a Sparrowhawk near Newmarket were the only birds of note on route.

We arrived at Foxhole Covert and parked off the road and no sooner had we got out of the car when two Woodlark dropped onto a grass triangle no more than thirty meters away.  They provided some excellent views and were our only contact and unlike in previous years they were silent.  David then found a single Stone Curlew some distance away and we heard a second calling.  As we scanned for others we located two Wheatear and two Curlew and after some time managed to see eight Stone Curlew.

Woodlark at Foxhole Covert

From Foxhole Covert we moved to Lakenheath Flashes and had rather nice views of Jay along the entrance road.  We walked the short distance to the flash and hearing a Whitethroat singing to the right we managed to find two and hear a third.  As we climbed the bank I heard a Sedge Warbler singing and saw it dive back into the reeds.  David had climbed the back a few minutes before us and informed us that he had seen a drake Garganey and a Barn Owl but neither were showing now.  We did eventually have good views of the Garganey both on the water and in flight but the Barn Owl did not reappear.  We saw four Marsh Harrier, a male and three females and two Sand Martins flew over the flash.  As we were getting ready to depart a Peregrine flew over the car park.

It was now feeling quite cold in the brisk westerly wind and we decided to head straight to the coats and Titchwell.  We ran into some fairly heavy rain as we moved north to the coast but it stopped before we reached Kings Lynn.  We cut across country from Kings Lynn and found three Grey Partridge before we reached Choseley drying barns where we had ten Corn Bunting.

We had lunch before we set off down the footpath to the beach at Titchwell and hoped to see a Spoonbill that had been reported but it appeared to have gone and there was no sign.  There were a few ‘Islandica’ Black-tailed Godwit on the fresh marsh, where we also found a Little Ringed Plover, four summer plumage Spotted Redshank and a moulting Ruff.  There appeared to be fewer Avocets than in recent years and I suspect that the reserve is still recovering from all the work that was completed to protect the fresh marsh from the sea.  The fresh marsh was pretty full and the brackish marsh was still pretty dry and uninviting.  The sea was also remarkably quiet two Sandwich Terns was the highlight and the only bird on the sea was a single Great Crested Grebe.  There were plenty of waders on the shore including good numbers of Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, Sanderling and Bar-tailed Godwit and we found two Knot and seven Turnstone.

We started to return to the car park but took shelter in the new Parrinder Hide where we had closer views of the Black-tailed Godwits and Spotted Redshanks.  A Herring Gull also provided some entertainment and it tried to break open an egg, presumably a goose’s, by dropping it onto the ground.  It tried repeatedly but the ground just appeared to soft as the egg landed safely but it did persist and eventually probably had a bit of luck when the egg caught a stone and smashed open, allowing the gull a feast.  A male and female Marsh Harrier were observed over the reed-bed on several occasions.

As the rain ceased we headed back and were rewarded with a Bearded Tit on the edge of the reeds, a drake Red-crested Pochard in flight as it came in from Thornham Marsh and a Short-eared Owl hunting over the grass field to the west of the path.

We decided to call at Snettisham Country Park as there had been some Ring Ouzels present this morning.  We drove along Hunstanton cliff top road on route where we saw four Fulmar.

When we arrived at the country park we walked north and not too far when I saw a male Ring Ouzel flash across the path clearly seeing the white gorget.  We had several more fleeting glimpses of the bird but it never really performed as it always dived into cover.  There was a Grasshopper Warbler calling but only intermittently and it never showed itself.  A Chiffchaff was observed and a second was heard.  We took a quick look over The Wash were there masses of waders with many too distant to attempt to identify but we did see Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin and Bar-tailed Godwit.  A Little Egret flew over as we were preparing to leave.

Roger, David and I made a brief stop at Eye Brook Reservoir after dropping Ken off in Uppingham.  As we drove around to the Leicestershire side of the reservoir a Short-eared Owl was observed in flight close to the bridge and as we got out of the car a Greenshank was observed in flight and on the ground.  We also found four Ringed Plovers and there were circa fourteen Swallow over the water.
Despite migration still appearing to be slow we did manage 106 species between us, which is a pretty good total.