David, Roger, Malcolm and I set
off during the early hours for West Norfolk for a day’s birding on the
coast. It was drizzling when we started
off but there had been a ground frost and David was, understandably, concerned
about the road conditions but after reaching the A47 the conditions improved. We saw a Muntjac near Guyhirn and a Little
Owl at Sculthorpe on route before we reached our first destination, Sheringham.
We had decided to go to
Sheringham first had there had been both white-winged gulls and Purple
Sandpipers present during the week.
After parking and getting kitted out we walked east along the promenade
towards the town centre. The tide was
high and there were a few gulls loitering just off shore but they were mainly
Herring Gulls and there was nothing unusual amongst them. As we continued there were plenty of
Turnstones and Roger and I stopped to scan the rocks for Purple Sandpiper
whilst David and Malcolm walked on further.
We suddenly saw then waving to u and on joining them they had found a
couple of Purple Sandpiper, which allowed close approach and good photo
opportunities, despite the poor light.
We also saw four Red-throated Divers heading east before we walked back
west to the lifeboat station. When we
reached the far side of the station it was quiet with just a single Fulmar
towards Weybourne and a few more Turnstones.
As we began to walk back Roger picked up three Eider heading east with
six Brent Geese. With no sign of any
white-winged gulls we headed off towards Cley in the hope of picking up
yesterdays Garganey from the centre.
Purple Sandpiper
Turnstone
After a brief and unproductive
stop at Salthouse we continued to Cley seeing a Little Egret on route and a Marsh
Harrier just before we turned into the car park. We went into the centre and scanned the area
where there were plenty of birds but we couldn’t locate the Garganey, although
apparently it was seen later from Daukes Hide.
Roger found a single White-fronted Goose amongst the large flock of
Pink-footed Geese and there were several Avocets and Black-tailed Godwits and
David found a single Ruff.
With no joy we continued west
calling at Wells Harbour before moving on to Burnham Overy Staithe. There was very little in the harbour except
for hundreds of Brent Geese and a few commoner waders.
As we approached the parking
area at Burnham Overy Staithe we saw a Marsh Harrier and a Buzzard and shortly
after parking Malcolm found a Short-eared Owl.
As we scanned the marshes we found a Little Egret, a Red Kite, a couple
Marsh Harriers and several Buzzards and eventually our target a Rough-legged
Buzzard. There were also a good number
of Pink-footed Geese and Brent Geese with plenty of Lapwings and Golden Plovers
and small numbers of Curlew. A nice male
Marsh Harrier flew over the road and headed inland, flushing four Snipe as it
did so.
Our next target was Twite and
we arrived at Thornham seeing circa fifty almost immediately but three Skylarks
flushed and the Twite followed them and disappeared into a tidal channel and
were not seen again.
Reed Bunting
The weather remained overcast
and it felt rather cool in the northerly wind but we were optimistic of some
good birds at Titchwell. We arrived and
set off down the west bank towards the sea with Roger and I seeing a Water Rail
as we walked along the first part of the path.
Thornham Pool was still drained and we found a Water Pipit almost
immediately but it remained at the back of the pool for most of the time.
A nice surprise was two
Bearded Tits that were feeding close to the Water Pipit on the mud and there
were several Ruff, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwits and Redshank and a single
Ringed Plover on the pool. We also had a
female Marsh Harrier and a male flew over heading east whist we were observing
the pool. We continued down the track
and saw that the water level had fallen on the fresh marsh where there were
plenty of birds. We continued to the new
Parrinder Hide but viewed the marsh from outside as we don’t find the new hide
birder friendly. There were quite a few
Pintail and Shelduck on the marsh with smaller numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Mallard
and Shoveler and a single Goldeneye roosting on one of the islands. There were three Avocets, two Grey Plovers
and a Knot as well as several Ruff and Black-tailed Godwits. We did enter the hide overlooking the
Volunteer Marsh but other than Redshank, a Grey Plover and two Knot we saw very
little. The Tidal Marsh produced more
Black-tailed Godwits and Redshanks and a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits and a
pair of Pintail provided some close views.
Drake Pintail
There had been all three
divers on the sea at high tide this morning but there appeared to be very
little now at low tide, although we did find a few Common Scoter, several
Goldeneye and three Red-breasted Mergansers.
There were a few Oystercatchers, Sanderling, Bar-tailed Godwit, Redshank
and a single Turnstone on the beach. A
party of circa thirty Snow Buntings was perhaps the highlight as they few west
along the tide line and c.200 Dunlin flew in and alighted further down the
beach. We scanned the lagoons as we
walked back, hoping for the illusive Spotted Redshank but without any joy but
Malcolm did find an adult Mediterranean Gull on the fresh marsh and we had
closer and better views of the Water Pipit on Thornham Pool.
It was a nice surprise to see
quite a few birds feeding on some sugar beet at Choseley Barns as t has been
rather disappointing here recently. They
were mostly Yellowhammer but there were also a few Corn Buntings and I managed
to get views of two.
We decided to call at Roydon
Common on route home seeing a single Grey Partridge on route. On reaching Roydon we parked off the road
where we had an excellent view of the common.
It wasn’t too long before Malcolm picked up a ring-tailed Hen Harrier
and shortly afterwards we had a second.
David then thought he might have had a male, which Roger then picked but
it turned out to be a Barn Owl, which was a nice close to the day with ninety-species
recorded.
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