David, Malcolm, Roger and I
left Newton Harcourt at 06:30 and headed for a day’s biding in West
Norfolk. It was murky and misty when we
left and it remained misty with drizzle more on than off all day making birding
difficult.
On route we had a Kestrel as
we approached Guyhirn and three Fieldfares flew over the road on the Wisbech
bypass but there had been little else when we made our first brief stop at
Wolferton, hoping that we might connect with the Golden Pheasant. We didn’t spend too long at the sight as we
weren’t too optimistic in seeing it and soon moved onto Hunstanton.
As we drove along Cliff Parade
at Hunstanton we had a Turnstone and an Oystercatcher, both of which were
year-ticks. We the stopped at the
northern end of Cliff Parade and went to the cliff edge to look for
Fulmar. We soon found one and eventually
had twenty-seven sitting on the sea but the only other birds visible on the sea
were three Great Crested Grebes but circa sixty Oystercatcher and a Curlew flew
by.
As we moved onto our next
site, Thornham, we had a party of c.100 Pink-footed Geese at the side of the
road at Holm Next the Sea, which was the fourth year-tick of the day.
As we approached the coal shed
alongside Station lane at Thornham we noticed several birds on the roof, which
then flew but two returned and we were able to confirm they were Rock
Pipits. Whilst we were watching these
Malcolm noticed a party of passerines in flight near the end of the road, which
we assumed would be the Twite we were hoping for. A car then left the parking area flushing the
birds and they flew towards us and settled in the vegetation just opposite us
giving some nice views.
We moved onto the parking area
and as we started walking along the path leading to the Holme Reserves a
Kingfisher flashed by and there were three Bar-tailed-Godwits feeding in the
channel along with several Curlews and Redshanks. There were also a party of distant Brent
Geese but we were surprised not to find any Grey Plovers. David and I were walking ahead of Malcolm and
Roger, who saw a Buzzard and Water Rail but David and I had seen very little as
we reached the point on the boardwalk where we could observe Broadwater, which
is part of the NOA Holme Bird Observatory.
Our target here was a male Ferruginous Duck, present for some time now
but the visibility was pretty poor and we could only find a single Pochard
amongst small party of Tufted Duck. There were also a few Gadwall and three
Little Grebes on the water but with no luck with the Ferruginous Duck we moved
onto view the sea.
There had been some good birds
reported on the sea yesterday but today we had trouble locating birds with a
just a single Great Black-backed Gull standing out. The mist and drizzle wasn't making viewing
easy but we did eventually find a party of Red-breasted Merganser in the mist.
With the sea failing to
produce any of yesterday’s goodies we went back to have another look for the
Ferruginous Duck. As David, Roger and I
were observing the party of Tufted Ducks, Malcolm summoned us from further down
the path. When we joined him he had seen
something with two distant Pochards but we agreed that it wasn’t the target
bird. I was pretty sure that it would
still be present but we were beginning to lose hope, I scanned the far shore and
picked it up preening amongst a group of Gadwall. The views weren’t brilliant due to the
persistent fog and drizzle but at least it was on the year-list. David also heard Bearded Tits calling but the
rest of us didn’t hear any and they then went quiet and we didn’t find them.
We didn’t see very much
walking back but there was a drake Red-breasted Merganser in the creek that
gave some nice views. We also had
further views of the Twite and there was a Little Egret on the salt marsh.
As we moved onto Titchwell the
weather was still pretty poor and we suspected that the mist was unlikely to
clear. After parking we went into the
visitor’s centre to establish what had been seen and stooped outside to view
the feeders where a Brambling was being observed. However after a few minutes without success,
although we did see a Chiffchaff, we set off down the west bank. There were two Water Rails feeding alongside
the path as we reached the west bank path but a check on Thornham Pool for
Water Pipit proved fruitless.
The Fresh Marsh was pretty
much flooded with few areas of exposed mud and consequently there were few
obvious waders and so we continued onto the sea. I didn’t spend much time viewing the
Volunteer or Tidal Marsh and arrived on the beach just after David, who had
just seen several Long-tailed Ducks fly off.
As I started to scan the sea there was a large party of scoter that were
just visible in the mist but too distant to pick out any Velvet Scoters. A Guillemot was then observed quite close but
just after Roger saw it, it disappeared.
Two divers were then found and initially I thought that they were both
Red-throated Divers but another birder was rather insistent that one was a
Black-throated Diver. They both came a
little closer and on closer inspection one did appear to be slightly larger
both in size and bulk and there was no visible white above the eye suggesting
that it might well be a Black-throated Diver.
Malcolm then picked up a third bird, which was further out and on closer
inspection it was obviously a Black-throated Diver. I went back to have further views of the
other two birds but couldn’t find either of them but whilst looking, a drake
Long-tailed Duck flew into view but continued heading east. There were two Sanderling on the beach and a
Grey Plover and two Knot flew by.
Another large flock of scoter then flew in from the east and landed on
the sea but there was no obvious Velvet Scoter amongst them and we therefore
walked further west to try and get closer to the first flock. As we were scanning the flock Roger saw a
Velvet Scoter raise it wings and we all then managed to see the bird. Once aware of its location it was clearly
visible as it was larger than the nearby Common Scoters and we could even see
the white on the closed wing.
We eventually called it a day
on the beach and started to walk back along the west bank. There were few waders on the beach, mainly
Oystercatcher with a few Turnstones in addition to those mentioned and there
didn’t appear to be too many on the marshes either. The others had seen Avocet on the Tidal Marsh
as they walked out and there were thirteen there as we walked back. There were also two Black-tailed Godwits,
which were the only ones I saw, and several Bar-tailed Godwits. Malcolm and I also looked to see if there was
a Spotted Redshank as he had seen one earlier on the Volunteer Marsh but there
was no sign. David and Roger had already
reached the Volunteer Marsh and when we caught them up he had seen a Ringed
Plover, which had disappeared but there was no sign of the Spotted
Redshank. We did locate the Ringed
Plover and there were a few Grey Plover and Dunlin along with several more
Bar-tailed Godwits and Curlews. Another
birder then informed David that there was a Spotted Redshank on the Tidal Marsh
and we retraced our steps to view the marsh.
David found the bird feeding
in the very area Malcolm and I had looked but shortly after we saw it, it moved
to edge of the water and then flew back over the bund and out of sight.
With reports of Water Pipits
being seen from Parrinder Hide we walked out to view the area where there were
c.400 Golden Plover and three Pintail but there was no sign of any Water
Pipit. Malcolm and I checked Volunteer
Marsh again and found another Avocet and when we caught up with David and
Roger, David had heard a pipit, which he thought wasn’t a Meadow Pipit and
Roger had seen two pipits that appeared to come down on the Fresh Marsh. We soon found the two pipits bathing at the
edge of a small island but they were Meadow Pipits and so we continued to make
our way back for lunch.
A Firecrest had been seen by
the Fen Trail but it hadn’t been seen for a while and so David and I returned
to view the feeders but again there was sign of the Brambling.
After lunch we agreed to go
back to have another look for the Firecrest but all we had seen after a good
thirty minutes was a Goldcrest and a Chiffchaff and we called it a day at
Titchwell.
Our plan was to go to North
Creake to hopefully find a party of White-fronted Geese and then go onto Roydon
Common to finish the day. We saw quite a
lot of Red-legged Partridges on route to North Creake but not the hoped for
Grey Partridge.
As we approached Creake Abbey
I could see geese in the field next to the road and there was a rather
convenient turn at the end of the field with a gap in the hedge and were able
to park and view the birds. They were
all White-fronted Geese and 291 had been counted earlier and I suspect that there
was still a similar number present.
With time pressing we set off
for Roydon Common but on arrival, although there was still plenty of light it
was still quite misty and as the light begin to fade it became quite difficult
to view the distant area where we have seen harriers in the past and we called
it a day and headed for home, having seen just Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow,
Blackbird and a single Stonechat in a thirty minutes stay.
Despite the weather it had
been a reasonable day as I had recorded eighty species, which included
twenty-two that were new for the year, taking my year-list onto 142.
When we left Roydon just
before 16:30 we would have expected to be home before 18:30 but due to an
accident on the A1, which also caused chaos on the A47 I eventually arrived
home just before 20:00, which was a good ninety minutes later than expected.
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