David, Roger and I had decided
to have a day out today as it looked the best day of the week weather
wise. We agreed that we would head for
Titchwell first for a high tide at 10:50 and then head back calling at Abbey
Farm and then Eldernell as both David and Roger had evening commitments.
The weather was a little mixed
on route with a few spots of rain and mainly overcast conditions but was quite
sunny just beyond Kings Lynn. We had the
first of two Red Kites near Morcott with the second near Wansford and a single
Buzzard near Duddington in Northamptonshire and perhaps more surprisingly a
female Marsh Harrier along the first stretch of the Kings Lynn bypass. We approached Titchwell from Choseley where
we had two Grey Partridge and a Corn Bunting.
On reaching Titchwell we
walked along the west bank and a quick check of the now empty Thornham Pool
produced views of the Water Pipit and my only Dunlin and Ruff of the day. A juvenile male Marsh Harrier also flew low
of the reedbed from Brancaster and headed off over Thornham Marsh. A scan of the Lavender Pool produced three
Spotted Redshanks but the water levels on the fresh marsh were very high and
there was very little. We continued on
towards the sea as we wanted to get a good hour sea watching before high
tide. When we reached the beach the tide
was quite well in and there were very few waders on the shore, just a few
Oystercatchers, Sanderling and Bar-tailed Godwits, with most obviously gone off
to roost. The sea also appeared fairly
quiet but we did eventually see twelve Eider, four Long-tailed Ducks, circa
fifty Common Scoter, nine Red-breasted Mergansers, a Red-throated Diver, seven
Fulmars and a Slavonian Grebe. A second
diver that looked quite large and very dark flew off west and we only got a rear-end
view but suspected it was most likely a Great Northern Diver. Walking back at a more leisurely pace we
scanned the lagoons more carefully but it appeared to be rather quiet with few
waders or wildfowl on any of the lagoons, although we did see most of the
expected species, including, Pintail, Avocet, Golden Plover, Grey Plover,
Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Redshank and Turnstone. A walk along the fen trail failed to produce
the hoped for Red-crested Pochard and not surprisingly we there was no sign of
the reported Woodcock.
Immature male Marsh Harrier
Immature male Marsh Harrier
Immature male Marsh Harrier
Dunnock
Brent Geese
Little Grebe
Gadwall
A Hen Harrier and a Merlin had
been reported in the morning and so David suggested we went to Thornham to view
marsh whilst we were having lunch. We
did locate a bird of prey perched on a post on the marsh but the heat haze made
it quite difficult to identify but we all eventually agreed that it was a Hen
Harrier.
Whilst still having our lunch
I heard a Greenshank call but it appeared quite distant but then it called
again and appeared a little closer. I
tried to call it in and it did respond but then went quiet and so I went to
check out the dykes and found it feeding at the far end of one of them and a
Rock Pipit was then observed.
With time pressing we felt we
needed to move on and head off to Abbey Farm at Flitcham. We drove past the parking area and parked at
the end of the track Roger and I had walked in January. There were clearly fewer birds present than
during our last visit and there was no sign of the hoped for Brambling but we
did see a Barn Owl as we approached the barn and one of the Little Owls from
the hide, although there were few birds on the lagoons.
It was finally time to move
off to Eldernell where we hoped to get a good hour in at the end of the
day. We saw a Buzzard near Wisbech and
another alongside the A605 as we headed for Eldernell.
As we pulled up in the car
park we saw a Short-eared Owl hunting over the field and another owl perched on
a post turned out to be a Barn Owl.
Having got our gear on we stood on the bridge to view the washes and had
a good end to the day with thirty Whooper Swans, ten Pintail, four Marsh
Harriers, two Buzzards, two Barn Owl, three Short-eared Owl and a Kingfisher,
although we did dip out on a Crane that flew behind the duck decoy.
It had been an excellent day
out and I recorded ninety-three species, two of which were year ticks.
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