Dave, Roger and I had decided
to have a day in Norfolk and Dave drove to Cley first. When we arrived we went to the Old Coast
Guards area to carry out a sea watch. The
winds were now in the south west and it was quite quiet but we did see a few
Gannets, a single Common Scoter and twenty-six Sandwich Terns and several
parties of Wigeon and Teal and a single party of Gadwall. There was also a very nice summer plumage Red-throated
Diver on the sea and two more flew west an a single Guillemot was
observed. There was three Ringed Plover
and party of Dunlin flying west and three Oystercatchers also flew west.
We found four Whimbrel amongst
Curlews feeding on the Eye Field and the north scrape produced three more
Ringed Plover and three Dunlin and two Black-tailed Godwits and four Bar-tailed
Godwits were found. There was numerous
wildfowl, mainly Wigeon, Gadwall and Teal and three Shelduck and three
Shoveler.
We returned to car and drove
the short distance to Salthouse as there had been a Red-backed Shrike east of
the beach car park yesterday evening but it wasn’t present today. There were plenty of Swallows feeding over
the fields and we did fine two Swift and single Sand Martin and House
Martin. We also found three Yellow
Wagtails feeding amongst some cattle.
We returned to Cley and the
visitor centre to overlook the pools closer to the road. I son located two Spoonbill and amongst the
large concentration of Black-tailed Godwits, two Pintail. Roger then found a single Snipe and Curlew
Sandpiper and there was also a single Dunlin on the scrape. We also observed at least fourteen Ruff on
the reserve.
With time pressing we decided
to move off to Titchwell and had lunch in the car park before setting off on
the west bank to the sea.
We located two Pintail and a
female Mandarin on Thornham Pool and there were two female-type Red-crested
Pochard on Reedbed Pool. We also heard
Bearded Tit on two occasions but failed to see them.
The water levels had dropped
considerably on the freshwater marsh and there were plenty of birds but there
was a Purple Sandpiper apparently showing well on the beach. We eventually reached the beach only to be
told that the sandpiper had not been seen for some time and we began scanning
the shoreline hoping to find it. There
were plenty of waders including three Knot and three nice summer plumage Grey
Plover. As we were scanning a lady
indicated the Purple Sandpiper had retuned and was on the remains of the old
defences on the beach. We were able to
get some excellent views and eventually approached a little closer to take some
photographs, taking care not to disturb the bird.
The shore held at least 150
Bar-tailed Godwits and there were several Turnstone but we were unable to find
any Sanderling. The sea was rather quiet
but we did locate three Great Crested Grebes, three Eider and Common Scoter and
a single Sandwich tern flew west.
Golden Plover over the fresh marsh
Purple Sandpiper on the old defence building on the beach
We began to return to the
centre and unusually there was nothing tidal marsh and the Volunteer Marsh fared
little better with just a few Black-tailed Godwits and Redshanks and a two
Little Egrets being of interest.
The freshwater marsh did prove
quite interesting, there were twenty-five Avocet still and even more
Black-tailed Godwits and at least thirty Ruff.
There were three Ringed Plover and nineteen Dunlin and I found three
Spotted Redshanks at the back of the lagoon and Roger located a Garganey. There had been twenty plus Spoonbills earlier
in the day but only five remained this afternoon.
Garganey on the fresh marsh
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