Dave, Roger and I set off for
a day’s birding in West Norfolk and our first port of call was to be Holkham
and despite some heavy traffic we arrived at just after nine o’clock having
seen a Buzzard close to Tugby, Leicestershire and three Red Kites from the A47
in Rutland on route. There was hardly a
breath of wind when we arrived and the sun was shining brightly. As we got ready set off to the Washington
Hide and the beach, ten Golden Plover and a Snipe flew over and five
Black-tailed Godwits dropped in. We had
seen several skeins of Pink-footed Geese as we approached the coast and we
could hear birds calling on the marsh but few were visible.
As we set off down the track
to towards the hide Dave and I heard a Kingfisher call from a dyke but it had
disappeared before looked along the dyke.
There were parties of Starling passing over and we did see at least one
small party of thrushes but were unable to identify them. A more open area on the path contained a
party of passerines, which were mainly Long-tailed Tits but also containing
Blue and Great Tits and a single Goldcrest and Coal Tit. As we approached the beach we could see the
tide was well out and it was quite a walk to reach the shore. We scanned the sea for the Surf Scoter,
finding plenty of Common Scoter and a few Velvets but there was no sign of the
Surf. There were still a few Gannets
around following yesterday’s northerly wind and there must have been at least
ten Red-throated Divers. Roger who was
now scanning further west located a couple of Guillemots and then he thought he
caught sight of the Surf Scoter but couldn’t relocate it. We walked further along the beach to get a better
view and we soon found the Surf Scoter amongst more Common and several Velvet
Scoters. There were quite a few Sanderling
on the shore and a single Knot but other than a single Oystercatcher there were
no other waders, although distant flocks of waders in flight over the sea were
a frequent sight. As we continued to
scan I picked up what I thought might be a Little Auk and with both Dave and
Roger getting on it as well it decided to fly in towards the shore and landed
just a few meters off shore where we were able to get decent scope views. We eventually called it a day and walked back
to the car with the intention of going to Burnham Overy Staithe for lunch and
hopeful a Rough-legged Buzzard.
When we arrived at the parking
area at Burnham Overy Staithe it was a little difficult to park but as we got
out of the car several birders departed and we assumed the Rough-legged had
just been seen. There were still four
birders looking over the marsh and they indicated it was still present but
viewing where they were looking just produced a Buzzard. One of the four said they thought they had it
flying east and so I started to scan back from the pines and picked up a
Buzzard in front of the biggest dune.
White base to the tail and dark band were clearly visible as were the
dark carpel patches. It went above the
skyline when the characters were less distinctive when Dave and Roger got onto
it. It then proceeded to drift off to the
east before we lost it some distance away.
Whilst scanning the area I found a single Barnacle Goose amongst the
masses of Pink-footed Geese and there were also two Egyptian Geese. We also had a single Marsh Harrier and two
more Buzzards. Another buzzard was the
pickup straight out from the watch point, which was clearly a Rough-legged and
considering where the first had gone, it was probably a second bird. Whilst having our lunch Roger spotted five
Grey Partridge and there was also a single Red-legged Partridge in the same
field.
Having had good views of the
Rough-legged we moved off to Thornham in the hope of seeing some reported
Twite. Initially there appeared to be
very little other then three Little Egrets but we then saw several birders on
the sea wall in the direction of Holme.
As Roger and I walked along the top of the bank we had a party of
Linnets flying over the salt marsh and I was pretty sure the flock contained
Twite. They landed on a couple of
occasions but almost immediately took to flight again but eventually some
dropped quite close to Roger and fortunately they were all Twite and we counted
at least twenty. It was now feeling a
little cold but we decided to go to Titchwell before heading off home.
When we arrived at Titchwell
and started to walk down the west bank the wind appeared to have dropped but it
was just wishful thinking as it picked up again as we became more exposed. As we continued down the track we had a
couple of female/immature Marsh Harriers and there was a single Pintail on
Thornham Pool. There were plenty of
Golden Plovers on the Fresh Marsh, where we also found more Pintail and several
Ruff and Black-tailed Godwits and a few Dunlin but little else of note. There were more Black-tailed Godwits and a
single Bar-tailed Godwit on Volunteer Marsh as well as quite a few Redshanks
and a single Grey Plover. There were
more Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank on the Tidal Marsh as well as another
Grey Plover.
On reaching the beach Dave
quickly picked up a couple of Kittiwakes following a trawler and we eventually
counted eleven. The sea was otherwise
pretty quiet, although there was plenty of Common Scoter flying west some way
off shore and I picked up four Red-breasted Mergansers heading east. Two Sandwich Terns were a pleasant surprise
but they didn’t hang around too long.
There was a good selection of waders on the beach that included
Oystercatchers, Grey Plovers, a Knot, Sanderling, Bar-tailed Godwits, Curlew,
Redshanks and Turnstones. I counted
twenty-seven Ruff as we walked back to the centre and there were also three
Avocets. A male Marsh Harrier was observed
over the reedbed and a Spotted Redshank flew over us calling. A search Brambling back at the centre proved
fruitless but we did see another Marsh Harrier as we were turning onto the road
to head home.
It had been an excellent day’s
birding with ninety-four species recorded, including three year ticks.
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