David, Roger, Ken and I had
decided to visit West Norfolk today and as it was my turn to drive Roger and I
met at my home and then picked David up.
We then drove to Uppingham to collect Ken seeing two Little Owls and a
Common Tern on route.
We saw very little else until
we arrived at our first port of call, which was Choseley Drying Barns. Whilst we were getting our kit organised
Roger found a single Grey Partridge and a Blackcap was singing close to the
parking area. We walked east along the
public footpath to view the large field to the north where up to eleven
Dotterel had been reported yesterday and we found twelve present today. There was also a female Wheatear in the field
and we saw a Corn Bunting singing in the hedge alongside the footpath. To the north we picked up a male Marsh
Harrier and a couple of Buzzards and a single Swift flew over. After having had reasonable views of the
Dotterel, eight of which appeared to females we headed off to Titchwell.
We checked the book in the centre
at Titchwell and found that a Spotted Flycatcher had been seen along the trail
to Fen Hide earlier today and so we headed in the that direction. There was no sign of the Spotted Flycatcher
but we did have two drake Red-crested Pochard on Patsy’s Pool and we also heard
Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat and Sedge
Warbler. As we walked back to the centre
we took the Meadow Trail back to the West bank where Roger and I had a nice view
of a Cetti’s Warbler in flight as it flew across the boardwalk.
On reaching the west bank we
saw a couple of Reed Warbler and a Sedge Warbler but very little else, except
for a couple of female-type Marsh Harriers over Thornham Marsh.
Sedge Warbler
When we reached the Freshwater
Marsh the water level was quite high and there appeared to be very few
birds. As we scanned around we found a
male Scaup but other wildfowl were rather thin on ground, except for Shelduck
although there were a few Gadwall, Mallard and Shoveler. There were quite a few Avocets but other
waders were few and far between, with just a few Oystercatchers, five Little
Ringed Plovers, Lapwing, a Dunlin, a Bar-tailed Godwit, a Common Sandpiper, a
couple of Redshanks and ten Turnstone.
We did locate a Little Tern and four Sandwich Terns on one of the
islands but it was also eerily quiet with little noise from the few
Black-headed Gulls that were on the islands.
Sandwich Tern
Sandwich Tern
Avocet
The tide was still receding
but there was plenty of newly exposed mud on Volunteer Marsh but again other than
a few Shelduck there was very little with just a couple of Redshank and an
Oystercatcher and the Tidal Marsh produced even less.
On reaching the beach we were
even more surprised that it was also almost devoid of birds with just a few
Oystercatchers. As we were scanning a
party of two Grey Plover, a Knot, twelve Bar-tailed Godwits and six Turnstones
flew in and we also fund a couple of Sanderling further east along the shore.
Out at sea there was a steady passage of Sandwich Terns heading west and we
also saw two Little Terns and a couple of Common Terns.
Walking back to the car park a
Little Egret was the only addition and although we recorded sixty-five species
during our visit it was the number of birds that was rather surprising in what
should be a peak passage period.
With so little at Titchwell we
decided we would go to Kelling Heath in the hope of finding a Dartford
Warbler. We stopped at Cley on route
briefly where we had a Spoonbill, a Marsh Harrier, more Avocets, a single Ruff,
eleven Black-tailed Godwit and a couple of Redshank but again there were few
birds.
When we got to Kelling Heath
the sky looked rather threatening but we took a risk and walked to an area
where the Dartford Warbler were being seen.
As we approached the area I noticed a bird perched on top of a dead
tree, which turned out to be a Woodlark that was carrying food. Dave and Roger then heard a Turtle Dove but I
had gone on to get a better view over the area and didn’t hear it. Roger then located a female Stonechat but
just afterwards it started to rain and so we found some shelter under some
birches that didn’t really provide too much shelter at all. Ken and wandered off with Tony, who we had
met us there, but when they got back with no sign of the rain stopping we
headed off back to the car and called it a day.
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