There had been a god selection
of birds in West Norfolk over the last few days, so Dave, Roger and had decided
to have a day to try and catch up with some of them.
Roger drove and we set off in
some very heavy rain, which had stopped by the time we reached Uppingham in
Rutland. The only bid of note on the
journey to Burnham Overy Staithe was a Red Kite between Morcott and Duddington.
We arrived at Burnham Overy
Staithe with no report of the Booted Warbler but the Barred Warbler was still
present. A single Pink-footed Goose flew
over but we must have had at least 2000 during our stay. As we walked down the initial path to the sea
wall there were a few Skylarks and Meadow Pipits flying over and a few Wrens,
Robins, Dunnocks and Linnets and as we approached the sea wall nine Bearded Tit
flew across the path. We climbed the
wall and found a number of Redshank, two Grey Plover and two Curlew feeding on
the tidal marsh. There was also a distance Marsh Harrier, which turned out to
be my only sighting of the day. We
continued walking along the wall to the sea and as we approached a group of
birds we could see they were actually watching something below the sea
wall. They indicated that we should drop
below the wall in order to get to them, which we did but as we approached them
a walker went by along the bank and had flushed the Booted Warbler. We did have a distance view of the bird
perched and a couple as it flew further away.
We decided to continue to the boardwalk and hopefully connect with the
Barred Warbler and get the Booted on the way back. Roger and Dave had brief views of the Barred
Warbler in the bushes but all I managed was three flight views, two of which
were pretty good. We continued into the
dunes where we had good views of a male Redstart, a juvenile Whinchat and a
Wheatear.
As we walked back along the
sea wall we had quite a few views of the Booted in flight and several distance
views of it perched in the sueda. As we
were trying to see the Booted Warbler a Greenshank flew over calling. There was now a single Knot and two Dunlin
present on the tidal marsh as we returned.
We had lunch when we
arrived at Titchwell and then set off down the track to the sea. There were plenty of waders present on the
fresh marsh and we soon found a juvenile Little Stint and shortly afterwards a
juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper. Other
waders included Oystercatcher, Avocet, Ringed Plover, Lapwing, Knot, Dunlin,
Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew Redshank and a single
Turnstone.
It was during this time that
David and I noticed a large group of Starling in flight over Thornham Marsh and
picked out a smaller and pale bird close to the front of the flock. They dropped into the marsh on two occasions
and we picked the pale bird out both times.
We were certain it was a Rose-coloured Starling and one had been
reported at Home yesterday and earlier today.
Despite a prolonged search we couldn’t relocate the bird and assumed it
must have left when a Peregrine flew over.
We continued to the sea and
saw more Bar-tailed Godwit and Turnstone in flight with many of the Turnstone
roosting on the tidal marsh. The tide
was clearly coming in and on reaching the sea was quite high. There were still a few Bar-tailed Godwits on
the shoreline with a few Knot a single Sanderling and Greenshank and there must
have been at least 250 Oystercatcher.
The sea was generally quite although we did have five Red-throated
Divers, four in flight and one feeding just off shore. There was also several Great Crested Grebe,
seven Gannet, a few Cormorant and two Common Scoters.
As we walked back there was
still no sign of the Rose-coloured Starling but we did locate a single Spotted
Redshank on the saline marsh and five Spoonbills were now present on the fresh
mash and the Little Stint was now much closer.
As we walked back to the car park a Cetti’s Warbler burst into song but
as is usual it was not seen.
There was a report of the
Rose-coloured Starling still being at Holme so we headed off only to find out
later that the report was erroneous and that it had been seen again at
Titchwell later in the day.
It had been a successful day
and I recorded ninety-two species and saw four of the five we had hoped for
with only Red-breasted Flycatcher eluding us.
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