David, Malcolm, Roger and I
had planned to go to Norfolk today for a day’s birding, initially in the Brecks
and then on the coast, in an attempt to pick up some long staying wintering
birds and early spring migrants. We met
at David at around 06:30 and then, with Malcolm driving, we set of for Cockley
Cley and specifically Cockleycley Wood in the hope of finding a wintering Great
Grey Shrike and some Woodlarks.
We parked at firebreak 107 and walked a short
distance along the track and observed a recently cleared area, where the shrike
had been seen regularly. As we walked
through the woodland near the road we heard Goldcrest and Nuthatch but hadn’t
seen too much by the time we reached the clearing. The clearing was fenced off and so we were
viewing the area through the fencing but there was no sign of the shrike. I walked further along the side of the fence
when a military plane flew over and induced a Woodlark to sing. I alerted the others but none of them had
heard the Woodlark but it sang again as they approached and Roger then found it
on the ground in the cleared area. As we
watched it, it flew towards us and landed on a wire behind us where we had good
views and were able to photograph it before it returned to the cleared area. It repeated this process on two more
occasions and when it returned to the cleared the last time it was joined by a
second bird.
Woodlark
Woodlark
Woodlark
Woodlark
With still no sign of the
Great Grey Shrike we decided to walk around the edge of the fencing to ensure
we had covered the whole area. David
heard a Fieldfare calling and we suspected that there would be a few but we
were struggling to locate any and then a single bird flew out of the tree we
were stood next to before perching at the top of another tree on the far side
of the clearing. We were a little
surprised to see just a single bird but it became clear after a few minutes
that it was a lone bird. There was also
another singing Woodlark perched at the top of a dead tree.
Woodlark
We had heard four Chiffchaffs
by the time we had completed the circuit but still hadn’t found the Great Grey
Shrike and on getting back to the car felt it would be better to move on rather
than go looking for the shrike at firebreak 109.
Our next stop was another area
near Cockley Cley, which is a good area for Goshawk and where a Stone Curlew
had been seen last weekend. When we arrived,
we scanned the field but there was no sign of any Stone Curlew but Malcolm
continued to look and was Rewarded when he found two hunkered down that were
revealing just their heads. Having seen
the Stone Curlews, we turned our attention to the forest and found several
Buzzards displaying and I picked up an accipiter, which suddenly just plunged
into the forest before anyone else got on it but my view was that it was a
Sparrowhawk.
Malcolm and David then thought
they had a Goshawk but Roger and I were having difficulty locating them but
they were clearly looking at different birds.
We both managed to get onto Malcom’s bird and agreed it was a Goshawk
and probably a male. It then performed
well for about ten minutes before eventually disappearing to the west. Whilst we were observing the forest we had a
least six Buzzard and also a Kestrel and we had a Red Kite as we came through
the village.
Our next target was a juvenile
Pallid Harrier at New Holkham and so we headed north through Swaffham and onto
Fakenham and then onto to New Holkham.
We just had a couple of Kestrel on route and on arrival after visiting
two lookout points opted for the first, which gave us an excellent view of the
fields that the harrier had been seen in.
There was another birder present but he hadn’t seen the bird today and
left shortly afterwards. We settled down
to view the area whilst having our lunch during which time we four Grey
Partridge, including some territorial activity, two Red Kite, a female-type
Marsh Harrier, at least four Buzzards and a Kestrel but unfortunately not the
Pallid Harrier.
Grey Partridge
Grey Partridge
Red Kite
Red Kite
With no sign of the harrier in
almost two hours we called it a day and headed to Titchwell via
Wells-next-the-Sea. There had been a
tweet regarding two Spoonbills at Burnham Overy Staithe and as we were passing
the lookout point we stopped to look. We
found six Pink-footed Geese amongst a party of Greylag Geese and about ten
Brent Geese were visible on the saltmarsh.
I picked up a distant Red Kite over the dunes but there was no sign of
any Spoonbills. We were about to leave
when David cried “three Spoonbills flying right” and we then followed them as they
continued towards Holkham.
Please we had got the
Spoonbills we continued onto Titchwell, where I was hoping for a Water Pipit as
several had been seen recently with David seeing four last week. When we arrived two had been reported on
Thornham Pool and so we made our way down the bank to view the pool. There was no sign of any Water Pipits but we
did have three Little Ringed Plovers and a couple of Red-legged Partridge.
As we continued along the west
bank we saw four Marsh Harriers and found three male and a female Red-crested
Pochard along with a Pochard and Little Grebe on the Reedbed Pool and just
before reaching Island Hide David heard a Bearded Tit call several times but I
only managed to hear it once and it didn’t show. Three Sand Martins then flew over heading
west.
When we reached the Freshwater
Marsh, we found a single Grey Plover and a Ruff in the fenced off area and
there were three winter Knot and two Black-tailed Godwits resting a little
closer. As I started to scan through
some gulls I found a Mediterranean Gull, which initially looked like and adult
but on closer inspection we realised that it was a second-summer bird. There was also another Little Ringed Plover
on the same island.
Second-summer Mediterranean Gull
There were plenty of Avocets
on the Freshwater Marsh and a few on the other marshes as we walked on toward
the sea. Volunteer Marsh produced two
more Knot, a second Grey Plover and a few Curlew and Redshank.
Knot
Knot
Knot
Brent Geese over the Freshwater Masrh
The Tidal Marsh was rather
quiet but Malcolm and I did have a female Pintail fly over and there was a
superb looking Red Kite that landed briefly on the far side of the marsh before
heading off east.
When Malcolm and I reached the
beach David and Roger had seen Long-tailed Duck, Common Scoter and Velvet
Scoter and after getting some directions I found the three Velvet Scoter they
had seen and quite a few Long-tailed Duck and a raft of Common Scoter. Malcolm decided to go down the beach to the
shoreline to try and get a better few and shortly afterwards David found a Red-breasted
Merganser. The beach to the east was
devoid of waders and most appeared to be feeding to the west. I finally decided I would go and join Malcolm
at the water’s edge and when I reached him I realised how many Long-tailed
Ducks there actually were and suspected that there were at least forty. I took a few photos of the birds closest on
the sea and got several shots when a flock flew by.
Long-tailed Duck
Long-tailed Duck
Long-tailed Duck
As I looked down the beach at
the waders there were mainly Oystercatcher and Curlew but there was also circa
twenty Sanderling, two Bar-tailed Godwits and six Turnstones. Malcolm then picked up two gulls he thought
might be Little Gulls and on getting them in the scope I could see that they
were, a first- and a second-year birds.
Malcom and I then headed back
and joined David and Roger, who had seen much the same as us but unfortunately
hadn’t seen the Little Gulls. We made
our way back but other than a Little Egret added nothing new for the day and a
further stop at Thornham Marsh failed to produce a Water Pipit.
We made a brief stop at
Choseley Barns on the way home but couldn’t find any Corn Buntings and saw very
little else.
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