With Malcolm driving, he
David, Roger and I headed for Hunstanton cliff top hoping that there might be
some visible migration whilst we waited for any birds news. A Jay flying over the road near Wolferton was
the highlight of the journey and we arrived at Hunstanton at 08:45.
It was pretty quiet in terms
of visible migration, although we did have two Sand Martins, a Swallow, four
House Martins and eight Meadow Pipits during our hour stay. There were quite a few Gannets and Sandwich
Terns over the sea and we also had a couple of Brent Geese, twenty-five Common
Scoters, a Fulmar, several Cormorants, a Great Crested Grebe, circa 200
Oystercatchers, a few Lapwings, sixty Knot and an Arctic Skua.
There had been a report of six
Yellow-browed Warblers at Warham Greens and so we left feeling quite optimistic
that we would see at least one. We drove
to the parking area at the end of Garden Drove and then walked along the
footpath to reach the area where they had been seen. There were quite a few birders around but
none of them appeared to have seen any Yellow-browed Warblers and there
appeared to be very few birds in the small copse. As we settled to observe the copse an
immature Peregrine circled overhead and gave some nice views.
Peregrine
Peregrine
After a good forty minutes or
so we had seen very little, with the best being a brief view of a Willow
Warbler and there hadn’t been any sign of a Yellow-browed Warbler. We walked further east to view an area of
scrub but the best there was a Reed Bunting and so we called it a day and
headed back to the car. During our stay
we did see at least ten Little Egrets on the marsh, three Marsh Harriers over
the end of Blakeney Point and up to 200 Golden Plover in flight and a Grey
Wagtail flew over just as we reached the car.
We stopped at Burnham Overy
for lunch, where c.150 Pink-footed Geese flew over, found two perched Buzzards
and had at least another fifty Golden Plover.
With no further news of note
we continued on to Titchwell where we knew there would be a good range of birds
and hopefully a Pectoral Sandpiper that had been seen several times over the
last few days.
After parking we went into the
centre to check the book and found the Pectoral Sandpiper hadn’t been seen and
that there wasn’t a great deal else. As
we started off along the west bank we heard a Water Rail call and there was a
Grey Plover, Snipe and Redshank on Lavender Pool. There were plenty of birds on the Freshwater
Marsh but as we were going through them a Peregrine swept low over the lagoon
and a lot of the waders, not surprisingly disappeared. I had seen four Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit
before the mayhem but we then decided it would be best to continue towards the
beach hoping that the waders would have returned by the time we made our way
back.
There was very little, either
on the Volunteer or Tidal Marsh and on reaching the beach we found that the
tide was still going out. There were a
lot of birds on the shoreline, mainly Oystercatchers, but there was also good
numbers of Knot and Bar-tailed Godwits and flock of thirty-one Turnstone. There was clearly some movement occurring as
we had twenty-four Brent Geese and several parties of Wigeon over the sea,
along with a single party of Teal. There
were at least ten Common Scoters, a single Gannet and three Sandwich Terns
observed and Roger found a Red-throated Diver, which was still in partial
summer plumage. Scanning the shoreline there
was also two Ringed Plovers, several Grey Plover, four Black-tailed Godwits and
several Curlews. An immature Wheatear
dropped right in front of us briefly and I was able to get a few shots of it
before it was disturbed by a walker.
Juvenile Wheatear
Juvenile Wheatear
Juvenile Wheatear
It was just after the Wheatear
disappeared that I had a tweet indicating that the Pectoral Sandpiper was
showing in front of Parrinder Hide and so we set off back down the bank. Just before we reached the hide another
birder informed us that it was there but had gone into some long grasses and
disappeared. Malcolm went into the hide
but I, David and Roger went and stood outside the left, which I certainly
prefer. David found the Pectoral
Sandpiper almost immediately feeding on some short grass on the nearest
island. We were then able to watch it
for quite some time and also get a few decent record shots. I did go into the hide briefly as the bird
was clearly closer but the photos I took weren't as good as those from outside
and so I went and joined David and Roger again.
David then went and joined Malcolm inside and shortly afterwards I found
a Spotted Redshank on the far side, right up against the reeds and just after
Roger saw it, it called and flew and we couldn’t relocate it.
Pectoral Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Adult winter Ruff
As we went back along the west
bank there were clearly more waders than after the Peregrine paid a visit
earlier and there were at least 150 Golden Plovers and fifty Ruff and there
were still good numbers of Black-tailed Godwits. I found five Dunlin and a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper
that David had seen just before the Peregrine flew over, had returned and was
feeding quite close to the path.
Turnstone on the Volunteer Marsh
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper
Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper
Moulting juvenile Black-tailed Godwit
We continued along the path
but saw very little else of note and decided to go home via Choseley in the
hope of finding some Grey Partridge. We
looked down the field edges and stopped at the barns to look more closely and
then again at the bend in the road but there was no sign of our target
bird. We did see a few Red-legged
Partridges and there were three Buzzards and a juvenile Marsh Harrier visible
from the bend in the road but we saw little else before arriving back home.