I was out with Dave and Roger
today and we had decided to go to West Norfolk and call at the Nene Washes on
our return journey.
We saw very little on route
but as we approached Roydon Common Roger spotted two Grey Partridge at the side
of the road, which is now always a good bird to see.
Dave parked the car on at the
entrance to the common and we started listening for the expected Woodlark but
all we heard were Skylarks and a Mistle Thrush that we eventually saw. There was also three Buzzards to the
northwest of the reserve. At the end of
car park is the entrance to the reserve an we followed the path along the
western edge, which initially took us through a small plantation of mainly
silver birch before opening out into more heath land habitat. There were quite a few birds in the birches
but mainly Redwing and Goldfinch. I then
found a female Brambling perched in a small bush but there was still no sign of
any Woodlark. As we were scanning a nice
flock of Fieldfare and Redwing Dave heard a Woodlark and so we continued a
little further and Roger then saw a bird fly over and land not too far
away. We scanned the area but there was
no sign of any birds so we walked a little closer when a party of Goldfinch and
a single Fieldfare flew from the area.
We scanned the ground again, which still appeared devoid of birds and
Dave wondered off to where we thought the one heard was. Roger and I took another couple of paces and
a single bird took to flight. It was
clearly a lark and the short tail identified as a Woodlark that was then
confirmed as started calling. We
followed it as it flew a considerable distance to the southwest. As we walked back we found five Siskin
feeding with the Goldfinch in the birches but there was nothing else of note,
although the day had started well.
Our next port of call was
Hunstanton cliff top where it is now rather difficult to see due to additional
fences and vegetation. There were a few
Fulmar and we did pick up at least eight Red-breasted Mergansers on the sea.
As we were doing quite well
for time we decided to go on to Titchwell.
On arrival we checked in the centre but nothing had been reported today,
although there were a few interesting birds yesterday, including a Jack Snipe
and a Water Pipit.
We walked down the track and a
Water Rail was feeding in the ditch on the left and the Thornham Pool was now
flooded again. There was a Marsh Harrier
perched in a tree on the eastern edge of the freshwater marsh and there were
plenty of birds on the marsh and Roger and I also had brief flight views of a
Cetti's Warbler. We decided to go to
Parrinder hide as this is where the Jack Snipe had been yesterday. When we reached the turn for the hide was saw
two Spotted Redshanks and three Bar-tailed Godwits feeding on the Volunteer
Marsh and we then found a few Knot.
There were plenty of birds visible for the hide area, although I opted
to few over the wall as I am not an avid fan of these hides. There was a good selection of waders fairly
close including Oystercatcher, Avocet, Ringed Plover, Golden Plover; Grey
Plover; Knot; Dunlin, Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank and there was a
single Ruff. Roger then located the female
Long-tailed Duck resting on one of the islands.
There was also a few Pintail and Shoveler and numerous Shelduck and
Brent Geese. We checked out the
Volunteer Marsh from the hide but saw nothing unusual and the birds also
appeared quite restless.
Just as we were approaching
the beach Dave picked up a ring-tailed Hen Harrier over towards Thornham but it
dropped down before Roger managed to see it and despite a short wait failed to
reappear. On reaching the sea there was
very little on either the sea or the beach, although we did eventually find
four Sanderling and circa fifty Turnstone.
It was quite misty out to sea and the only bird other than the odd gull
was a Great Crested Grebe.
As we walked back there was
still no sign of the Hen Harrier but we did have further views of the waders
and a female Red-crested Pochard was present on reedbed pool and we also found
nine Ruff and five Pink-footed Geese on the meadows to the west of the path.
Grey Plover on the Volunteer Marsh
Curlew on the Volunteer Marsh
Female Pintail on the tidal creek
Male Pintail on the tidal creek
Spotted Redshank on the Volunteers Marsh
Spotted Redshank on the Volunteers Marsh
Black-tailed Godwit on the Volunteers Marsh
Avocet on the Volunteers Marsh
Brent Goose on the freshwater marsh
Drake Shoveler on the freshwater marsh
Curlew over the freshwater marsh
Snipe over Thornham Marsh
It was now approaching
lunchtime but we decided to go Choseley Barns before taking lunch. When we arrived there was a nice male
Brambling in a bush with several Chaffinch and we eventually had three Corn
Buntings and another Grey Partridge.
Dunnock at Choseley Barns
It was no time to move off to
the Nene Washes and as we approached the March Farm turn there was a
concentration of swans on the left. We
were able to stop close by and found that most were Whooper Swans, although
there were a few Bewick’s with them as well.
On reaching March Farmers there were more swans and again mainly Whooper
and just a couple of Bewick’s identified.
We also saw two Buzzards and a single Little Egret. At Eldernell there were more distant swans
with again both species being present.
There was little else a single Pintail and few Shoveler being the best.
Despite the overcast weather I had recorded ninety-six species, which is not a bad total for any day of the year and it had been a great day's birding.
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