David, Roger and I set off for
a day in West Norfolk and after picking Ken up at Uppingham we continued on to
Thornham, where we were hoping to find some Shore Larks that had been present
for a few days. As we passed beyond
Peterborough it became misty and between there and Docking we passed through
several areas of mist and fog but just beyond Docking the mist cleared and it
became bright and sunny.
When we arrived at Thornham we
hadn’t seen anything too special on route but as we drove towards the parking
area we found a couple of Rock Pipits.
Once we had kitted out we set off along the track towards Holme seeing a
couple of Black-tailed Godwits and several Redshanks in the channels of exposed
mud. There was a party of circa twenty
Linnets on the salt marsh and as we looked through them they flew to the far
side but with several dropping into the vegetation just the other side of the
creek. We could only see a couple at
first, which were clearly Twite but we eventually had five. We continued along the track seeing a Little
Egret and Grey Heron and there appeared to be Skylarks everywhere. We eventually reached a track leading into
the dunes, which we used to access the beach.
When we reached the beach we found a lark immediately but it was just a
Skylark but then David noticed a couple of birds further along. We got the scopes on them and were able to
confirm that they were Shore Larks and soon realised that there were actually
three. As we walked towards them they
were flushed a couple of times by a dog walker and eventually flew out of
sight. We continued on to try and see if
we could locate them but we couldn’t see into the area very well and started to
walk back only to find them on the beach closer to Holme. We approached them slowly and with the sun
behind us we were able to get quite close and had some excellent views and I
took a few photos before they flew off back down the beach.
Shore Larks
Feeling pleased with the views
of the Shore Larks we stayed a while scanning the sea. We had fourteen Common Scoter in flight,
eight Red-breasted Mergansers on the sea, Roger found a Red-throated Diver and
then had twenty-four Gannets and two Kittiwakes. There were a couple of Oystercatchers, eight
Grey Plovers and sixteen Bar-tailed Godwits on the beach and seven Sanderling
and a single Dunlin flew west along the shoreline. Other than a party of
Pink-footed Geese feeding towards Holme we didn’t have anything else new as we
walked back to the car.
Brent Geese over Thornham
Brent Goose over Thornham
Skylark at Thornham
Our afternoon plan was to
visit Snettisham where a juvenile Pallid Harrier had been performing yesterday
and there was also news of a Waxwing on Beach Road just off the A149. As we approached Hunstanton we noticed several
partridge in a roadside field, which turned out to be five Grey Partridge.
On parking on what we thought
was Beach Road at Snettisham we pulled into a small parking area hoping to see
the Waxwing. There were plenty of
berries on one side of the road but there was but as there was no sign of the
Waxwing we decided to have our lunch before moving on to the RSPB reserve at
Snettisham. With still no sign of the
Waxwing we moved off towards Snettisham and then realised we were on Common
Road as we reached Beach Road and so drove back a long Beach Road to the
A149. However another birder informed us
that it hadn’t been seen for a while and so we went to the RSPB Snettisham
reserve.
After parking we set off to
the far end of the reserve to hopefully catch up with the harrier, which had
been showing well this morning. As we
walked along the side of the pits we saw very little as the tide was well out
but there were c.2000 Golden Plover on the exposed mud.
On reaching the viewing point
we learnt that the harrier had flown off to the south and hadn’t been seen for
a couple of hours. A Spoonbill on the
salt marsh was little as compensation as we settled down hoping that the
harrier would return. We did see a
ring-tailed Hen Harrier on a few occasions to the south of the viewing point
and there was a male, which we saw on a couple of occasions over the salt
marsh, where there was also a couple of Marsh Harriers. As we continued to scan I had views of two
Sparrowhawks, one passing quite close and a Stonechat was also found and six
Whooper Swans passed over. As we were
beginning to think we might be unlucky with harrier there was some excitement
to our left as a ring-tailed harrier appeared from the north. It was soon confirmed that it was the Pallid
and it performed very well and not too far away. It spent some time flying around obviously
trying to disturb something amongst the dense vegetation but without success it
eventually came to rest on a fence post.
After a brief period it flew around again but again returned to a
different post after another unsuccessful sortie but this time was almost out
of view. With news of four Waxwings at
the site where we had taken lunch, David, Roger and I set off back to the car
agreeing that Ken would follow in ten minutes.
Juvenile Pallid Harrier
We walked back at a steadier
pace seeing a couple of Goldeneye on the pits and several Pintail out on the
tidal mud. Ken caught us just after and
apparently the harrier had flown again but this time just flew away. We saw another Goldeneye as we continued and
c.2000 Pink-footed Geese had come off The Wash and headed in land.
When we got back to the area
where we had taken lunch we were informed that the three Waxwings were present
just a few minutes earlier and were advised to view the area from the main
road. There was no sign of them when
they suddenly flew in and landed at the top of polar and we were able to get
good views.
It had been an excellent day
with both target birds being seen with a good supporting cast in what had been
a fine day weather wise, particularly during the morning.
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