David, Roger and I left Newton
Harcourt just after 06:00 and headed for Uppingham where we were picking up Ken
before continuing to Norfolk. There had
been a severe weather warning of fog in the East Midlands that extended to The
Wash but it was clear when we left and we had a Barn Owl just after passing
through Great Glen. There was still no
sign of any fog when we reached Uppingham and picked up Ken and other than a
little mist between Peterborough and Wisbech it was a good journey. Our original intention was to go to Holkham
as there had been five Yellow-browed Warblers and two Firecrests reported
yesterday but late news yesterday of a Marsh Sandpiper at Cley and a Blyth’s
Pipit at Stiffkey could alter all that.
On reaching Kings Lynn we decided to head for Fakenham, which would then
give us the option of heading for any of the sights depending on the latest
news. The first tweet indicated that the
Blyth’s Pipit had been present but had flown off north and as there was no news
on the Marsh Sandpiper we headed for Holkham.
After parking at Holkham we
set off towards Washington Hide seeing a Marsh Harrier and Kestrel before we
reached the end of the road. Ken was speaking
to Tony who informed him that two Cranes had flown over Salthouse and were
heading this way. I said that they
wouldn’t have reached here yet but a few second later David, who had gone on
ahead, shouted Cranes and we saw that they had gone over Lady Anne’s Drive and
were continuing west. Apparently we then
established that Tony had been at Stiffkey and not Salthouse when Ken spoke to
him. Having watched he Cranes go a
considerable distance we continued along the path towards Washington Hide seeing
a Jay and hearing numerous Goldcrest before reaching the pool of water on the
left. There were four Little Grebes on
the pool and we saw another Marsh Harrier and a Buzzard beyond the pool. On reaching the hide there was a party of
passerines feeding in the trees, which was made up of mainly Goldcrest and
Long-tailed Tit and there was nothing unusual but we did see a Great White
Egret on a pool overlooked by the hide.
We walked the short distance along a boardwalk to view the sea and saw
six Common Scoter and ten Gannets and there was also thirteen Ringed Plovers on
the beach. We retraced our steps back to
the path and continued along the track towards the cross roads but there was no
sign of the intended targets and so we continued on to the western end of the
pines. We had established that the
Cranes had come down on the marshes between the end of the pines and Burnham
Overy Staithe and had reasonable views once out of the pines. We also had a couple of Blackcaps and two
Song Thrushes close to where we stood and another party of passerines appeared
but were again mainly Long-tailed Tits, with a few Goldcrest and Blue Tits and
a single Chiffchaff. We the saw the
Cranes in flight again and watched as they circled and gained height before
appearing to head off to the south.
Cranes over Burnham Overy Staithe
As we walked back to the car
we established that both Firecrest and Yellow-browed Warbler had been seen but
were unable to locate them and were disappointed that we hadn’t managed to
connect with either. There was also a
report of the Marsh Sandpiper dropping onto the North Scrape at Cley but Tony,
who had joined us, was casting doubt on the identity. Apparently the identity hadn’t been confirmed
by local birders and the suspicion was that it was a juvenile Greenshank and
with no further news on reaching the car we headed for Titchwell.
On reaching Titchwell we had
our lunch before setting off down the west bank to the sea. We had seen another Jay whilst we had our
lunch and found a couple of Stonechats before we reached Thornham Pool. There was a Ruff, a snipe and a Redshank on
the pool, which is still pretty dry, and two Dunlin dropped in. We also had frustrating views of a pipit
towards the back of the pool, which I thought was a Rock Pipit, although we
hadn’t seen it well enough to rule out Water Pipit. We continued along the bank and after hearing
Bearded Tits we had nice views of a juvenile and a male at the top of the reeds
and when they flew they were joined by a third individual. There were plenty of birds on the Freshwater
Marsh, which included three Pintail, an Avocet, c.120 Golden Plover, a Grey
Plover, circa sixty Knot, nine Dunlin, two Ruff, thirteen Black-tailed Godwits,
100 Bar-tailed Godwits and a Yellow-legged Gull.
Ruff
Ruff
Ruff
Ruff
There was a Little Egret, a
Ringed Plover, four Grey Plover, twenty-two Dunlin, eight Black-tailed Godwit,
a Bar-tailed Godwit, a Greenshank, numerous Redshanks and a Turnstone on
Volunteer Marsh. The Tidal Marsh
produced more waders with some still roosting following the high tide, which
included three Grey Plover, a Knot, ten Dunlin, six Black-tailed Godwits and
twenty-eight Turnstones.
On reaching the beach the tide
had gone out some distance but the flat calm sea made it ideal for seeing any
birds on the surface and we found a Common Scoter, seven Red-throated Divers, a
Black-throated Diver and several Great Crested Grebes. A Gannet flew west and there were two
sizeable flocks of Knot on the beach and five Sanderling were observed in
flight.
As we reached Volunteer Marsh
on the way back a Peregrine flew over and causing some disturbance but it
didn’t hang around and the birds soon settled back onto the lagoons. We saw nothing additional as we made our way
back and found out that the pipit we had seen earlier on Thornham Pool was in
fact a Rock Pipit.
A brief stop at Choseley
drying barns before we headed off home produced nothing of note. We were a little disappointed in not
connecting with any of the targets but had enjoyed a good day birding in
beautiful weather and had recorded ninety-three species.
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