I was away on holiday with the
family in Brancaster, Norfolk from Friday 17th to Friday the 24th. Whilst not a birding holiday I was able to
get out early in the morning and also late evening birding and managed to
record 117 species during the week’s visit.
My wife, mother-in-law,
youngest grandchild and I arrived at the cottage early afternoon and my
daughter, son-in-law and oldest grandchild joined us later. Once I had emptied the car a paid a visit to
the RSPB reserve at Titchwell, which is only five minutes away.
I walked down the west bank
only intending to visit the fresh marsh but on hearing of a Purple Sandpiper on
the Tidal Marsh and continued to the end of the path. I was able to watch the Purple Sandpiper down
to a few feet and regretted not brining the camera even though the light was
pretty poor. Whilst walking down the
west bank path I had seen a Bittern briefly as it dropped into the reeds close
to the Reedbed Pool. There was a good
selection of waders between the Freshwater Marsh and the shore that included
Oystercatcher, Avocet, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Sanderling, Dunlin,
Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Spotted Redshank,
Greenshank, Redshank and Turnstone. I
stayed on until dusk seeing seven Marsh Harriers come in to roost and at least
forty Little Egrets and had nice views of a Water Rail.
I was back at Titchwell early
the following morning seeing most of the species seen yesterday but there was
sadly no sign of the Purple Sandpiper.
After some breakfast my wife and daughter were going shopping and with a
Grey Phalarope still at Cley I decided to go and take a look. After parking at the beach car park I walked
the short distance to overlook the Eye Pool where the phalarope was reported to
be. However there was no sign when I
arrived but another birder assured me it was still there but out of sight
behind a small bank of reeds. It wasn’t
too long before it appeared and provided some nice views before it decided to
fly off to the sea. It appeared to land
on the sea but despite a search by a number of birders we were unable to find
it. I went further along the beach to
hopefully see a Snow Bunting, that was apparently giving good views. I joined a small group of birders who were
watching the Snow Bunting down to a few feet and provided some excellent views
over the nest half an hour.
Grey Phalarope
Snow Bunting
Snow Bunting
Snow Bunting
I had already seen a Wheatear
in the Eye Field but a second close to the Snow Bunting provided a photo
opportunity, although it was more mobile than the Snow Bunting and therefore a
little more difficult but I did get a couple of decent photos.
Juvenile Wheatear
Juvenile Wheatear
With little else at Cley I
went to the cottage at Brancaster before going back to Titchwell late
afternoon.
I was stood on the West Bank
at Titchwell when one of the wardens came running by followed by another birder
who was walking briskly after him. I
asked what was going on and he informed me that a Penduline Tit had been
reported near the path to Parrinder Hide and so I followed in quick
pursuit. When we arrived there was a
small party of birders and the bird had been photographed and was indeed a
Penduline Tit. It had however flown
closer the hide and a after a few minutes I went with two other birders to
hopefully get a better view of the area.
Wrong move as the view was restricted and it soon became obvious those
on the path appeared to be watching something.
We quickly returned to find it had been seen again but only briefly and
not everyone had seen it. I trained my
scope on the area the bird was reported to be and I could bits of the bulrush
coming off, which were obviously being released as the bird fed. This continued for a while but the bird was
just not visible when suddenly the activity stopped and I switched to my
bins. Almost immediately I picked up a
small sand-brown bird as it flew out of the reeds and over the water but within
ten feet it climbed almost vertical to quite some height and then flew over the
Fresh Water Marsh to the main reedbed. I
went back down the path to overlook the reedbed, whilst most stayed. Not surprisingly there was no sign of it in
the main reedbed and there was no more sign of it still being close to
Parrinder Hide. It was however reported
late afternoon the following day in the main reedbed but there were no further sightings
by the 24th when I returned home.
Again I made an early morning
visit to Titchwell on the 19th and as usual I walked along the West
Bank Path to the sea. Other than a few
Common Scoters the only birds of note were a Red-throated Diver, which was my
only sighting of the week and a Slavonian Grebe. As is usual there was a good selection of
waders but Knot was the only addition for the week and a Stonechat was observed
from the bank.
A walk to the beach at
Brancaster after breakfast produced twenty-nine species that included three
Little Egrets, eighty-five Golden Plovers, a Snipe, a Bar-tailed Godwit and
perhaps more surprisingly a fly over Grey Wagtail.
Again on the Monday I made an
early morning visit to Titchwell and again walked along the path to the
sea. Other than the usual Common Scoters
being observed over the sea there were two drake Eiders on the sea and a single
Long-tailed Duck and two Red-breasted Mergansers were observed in flight. A
Kingfisher on the Tidal Marsh was a nice surprise but otherwise other sightings
were as expected.
I went to Burnham Norton in
the afternoon with eldest granddaughter in the hope of seeing a Barn Owl. We walked from the small car park out to the
sea wall but unfortunately there was no sign of any of the three reported Barn
Owls, although we did record forty-six species.
The best were four Marsh Harriers, a Sparrowhawk and a Peregrine. A brief visit to Burnham Overy Staithe
produced six Grey partridge but nothing else of note.
The wind had increased
significantly overnight with significant rain fall as the remains of hurricane
Gonzalo passed through the UK. It was
still wet and very windy early morning and so my normal Titchwell visit was
abandoned. The weather improved steadily
through the morning although it remained very windy. I did get out to Titchwell during the
afternoon and as I reached the Tidal Lagoon I was almost blown over. I did manage to find a space to hunker down
to observed the very rough sea, although it was fairly quiet, although I did
see a single Gannet and Great Skua and remarkably a Hen Harrier appearing to
come in off the sea. I went into
Parrinder Hide to get some rest bite from the wind and also as most of the
birds were in the north east corner of the Freshwater Marsh. There were seven Greenshanks roosting in the
corner and a Jack Snipe was observed quite close to the hide. Five Marsh Harriers were observed over the
reedbed during the late evening and appeared to be enjoying the strong wind as
they floated above the reedbed. The only
other bird of note was a drake Red-crested Pochard on the Reedbed Pool.
On Wednesday the 22nd
I did my normal early morning visit to Titchwell and walked out to the
beach. There was a ring-tailed Hen
Harrier over the reedbed as I walked out but after watching it for a few
minutes I continued on to the beach. The
wind was now just north of west and had eased quite a bit but as I scanned the
sea there appeared to be very little. I
walked towards Thornham Point in the hope of finding a Shore Lark that had been
present yesterday. I did find it amongst
the vegetation but it took to flight almost immediately and I was unable to
relocate it. As I began to walk back
several Gannets were observed almost on the tide line and so I stopped and did
a further scan of the sea. It appeared
to be still very quiet when five Great Skuas flew west and then I had another
three further out. Another ten minutes
produced nothing else and so I continued walking back to the west bank. There was very little as I walked back other
than two more Great Skuas and most of the birds on the Freshwater Marsh and the
water were on the eastern edge. I
thought that it was perhaps being drained but apparently they were trying to
get the levels up and the reason for all the water being where it was was due
to yesterday’s strong westerly.
During the afternoon I went
for a walk to the beach at Brancaster and found two Stonechats close to the
Golf Club House and a Brambling as I walked back to the cottage.
The following morning I
decided to go back to Burnham Norton and hopefully see a Barn Owl. When I arrived it was only just beginning to
get a light and there was a Muntjac quite close to the car park. I scanned the area but there was no sign of a
Barn Owl and so I decided to walk east rather than towards the sea wall. I hadn’t gone too far when a Barn Owl flew
out in front of me and back towards where I had parked. When I got back to the car the Barn Owl was
feeding over the marsh and at one point came within ten meters providing
excellent views. The only other bird of
note was a single Marsh Harrier. Seeing
the Barn Owl so early I went to Titchwell and today there was more water on the
Freshwater Marsh and consequently more waders.
As I scanned I could see that many were Ruff and I counted 104 and there
was also thirty-eight Dunlin. Other
waders included Avocet, Golden Plover, Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit and
Redshank. When I reached the beach
another birder informed me that there was a Velvet Scoter but little else. The scoter stood out pretty well and was not
too far off shore and as I scanned the sea I picked up a Merlin coming in,
which proceeded to head off in the direction of Holme. As I walked back to the Freshwater Marsh
hoping to see three Little Stints seen earlier, four Greenshanks and a Spotted
Redshank flew over but I was unable to find the three stints.
When I got back the cottage my
wife and daughter were going off to Holt shopping and so I decided to go to
Holkham for a Surf Scoter. As I drove
down Lady Anne’s Drive a small group of birders were watching a party of
Pink-footed Geese and amongst them was a Lesser Canada Goose, which was proving
a little elusive as it was feeding at the back of the flock, although I did see
it on several occasions. I continued to
end of the drive and after parking walked to Washington Hide before heading out
on to the bay. The tide was well out and
I could see a group of birders in the distance that were hopefully watching the
scoter. When I eventually reached two of
them they had the scoter, which was not too far out, although it often
disappeared amongst the troughs. It was
a nice male, looking really black with the white nape patch standing out
well. I could also make out the orange
and white on the rather large bill, although the white patch above the bill was
less obvious.
I called at Burnham Overy
Staithe on the way back to Brancaster where I saw a Great White Egret and a
Black Brant. There were also at least
three Marsh Harriers and two Buzzards but there was no sign of the reported
Rough-legged Buzzard.
Friday the 24th was
our last day and we needed to be out of the accommodation by 11:00. My wife had noticed a moth that I was able to
catch and photograph and later identify as a Mallow, which was new for me.
I made my final visit to
Titchwell seeing an Eider and a couple of Red-breasted Mergansers over the sea
and all of the usual waders on the shore and from the West Bank. I also had a single Stonechat as I walked
back but there was only a single Marsh Harrier seen today. The journey home was uneventful although I
did see seven Red Kites and a Sparrowhawk.
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