David, Ken, Malcolm and I were
off to Norfolk today hoping to see the Dotterel at Choseley and the Iberian
Chiffchaff at Walsey Hills, NOA site, Cley.
We left David’s at around
06:00 and headed to Uppingham to pick-up Ken and then continued heading to the
coast via King’s Lynn. We hadn’t seen a
great deal by the time we reached King’s Lynn but had received a message
confirming that the Chiffchaff had been trapped and ringed but also that there
was a Black-winged Stilt at Cley.
After a brief discussion with
no news of the Dotterel at Choseley we decided to head for Cley and arrived at
around 08:40. We had seen a couple of Whitethroats as we drove along Old
Woman’s Lane to the coast road and had received no further news of the
Chiffchaff but the Black-winged Stilt had apparently flown towards
Salthouse. We decided to head in the
direction and with other birders looking from the iron road we pulled up. Richard Millington was one of the birders and
he informed us that they hadn’t re-found the stilt and suggested that it might
have gone on to Kelling Meadows. We
continued along the coast road and drove down towards the sea at Salthouse but
there was no sign of the stilt and so we returned to Walsey Hill for the
Iberian Chiffchaff.
There was a Marsh Harrier
hunting over Cley Marshes and a couple of Pochard and a Little Grebe on Snipes
Marsh. We went to the area where the
chiffchaff had been reported most frequently were we found a couple of
birders. They hadn’t seen or heard the
chiffchaff but there was another text message saying it was still singing but obviously
not in its favoured location. Whilst we
were waiting I had a Lesser Whitethroat and on joining Malcolm just outside the
cover saw a distant Buzzard and got some nice photos of Chiffchaff perched on a
log. Ken then called to say that the
Iberian Chiffchaff had been heard back towards the car and Malcolm and I went
back and joined a small group of birders looking for the chiffchaff. We picked up a up a Phyllosopus feeding
on the far side but couldn’t get a good view due to the light and it wasn’t
singing. We went around to the other
side with another couple of birders and I heard the Iberian Chiffchaff sing on
two occasions but it fell silent and the bird we had been watching had disappeared. On returning to it favoured location we spent
probably another fifteen minutes searching for it without success but with the
stilt now confirmed as being at Kelling Water Meadows, we headed off hoping to
catch up with it.
Chiffchaff
Red Admiral
Holly Blue
After parking in Kelling village,
we walked down the track to the water meadows and the bird was still present
when we finally reached the meadows. It
was feeding at the back of the large pool and the hedge between the path and
the pool mad viewing at little difficult but we able to get decent views and a
record shot of the bird.
Black-winged Stilt
With no further sightings of
the Iberian Chiffchaff being reported we moved off towards Titchwell, with the
intention of checking out Choseley despite there being no further reports since
early yesterday.
Swift over Cley
As we approached Stiffkey the
water meadows to the east of the village held a sizable number of Black-tailed
Godwits, with at least fifty being observed as we drove by and a brief stop at
Burnham Overy Staithe produced a Little Egret and a Marsh Harrier.
As we approached the barns at
Choseley another birder informed us that there were at least six Dotterel still
present. After parking we walked west
along the footpath to view the large field.
We found another four birders watching the Dotterel but when we started
to scan the area all we could find were two Red-legged Partridge, an
Oystercatcher and a Lapwing. The other
birders assured us that the Dotterel were there and I eventually picked one up
and we eventually had seven but they weren’t always visible and it is amazing
how they can just seem to disappear and become part of the field. Malcom also found a female Wheatear further
down the field but other than a couple of Whitethroats we hadn’t seen much else
by the time we got back to the car.
We did a circuit via Chalkpit
Lane hoping we might find a Corn Bunting before going to Titchwell but drew a
blank. On reaching Titchwell we had our
lunch before going onto the reserve, hearing a Turtle Dove whilst doing so. We
checked the sighting’s book and found that a Spotted Flycatcher had been from
the Fen Trail and with David and Ken needing this for the year we started to
walk along the trail. Not too far along
the trail there was a group of birders who were clearly watching something and
on investigation some of them had seen the Spotted Flycatcher and they were now
trying to re-find for those that had missed it.
The area was rather restricted and although they appeared to have seen
it again they were slow in moving out and allowing us and others in to view the
area. I eventually manage to get a
decent view of the area and picked up the flycatcher almost immediately, seeing
in flight twice before it landed in view.
I moved aside giving David an opportunity to get in and see it but it
was difficult giving directions and he and the others failed to connect.
We decided we would go to the
west bank and that they would look for the flycatcher again before leaving. As we walked down the bank we found a single
drake Red-crested Pochard on the pool to the right and I saw a male and two
female Marsh Harriers briefly before the male and one of the females dropped
back into the reeds. Bearded Tits had
been showing well but a wait by David and I failed to produce any and when we
caught up with Ken and Malcolm they were viewing the Freshwater Marsh. The water level was now more suitable for
waders and there were plenty of Avocets, twenty-eight Black-tailed Godwits,
seventeen Bar-tailed Godwits and a single Turnstone visible. I then picked up a drake Garganey and a bird
roosting close to it was probably the female but we were unable to confirm this
and moved on towards the sea.
When we reached the Tidal Marsh,
David picked up two Little Terns roosting on one of the small islands and two
Grey Plover flew over.
Little Terns
Little Terns
We carried onto the sea, which
was calm with the tide was receding.
There were twenty-three Sanderling feeding on the shoreline and a party
of thirteen Bar-tailed Godwits dropped in along with a single non-breeding
Knot. The sea appeared quiet with just a
few Sandwich Terns over the sea. Malcom then
found three Velvet Scoters and shortly afterwards we found a single Common Scoter
and a Great Crested Grebe.
With little else we started to
move back to Parrinder Hide where hoping to find Mediterranean Gull but Malcom
and I stopped to view and photograph one of the Little Terns now feeding over
the Tidal Marsh, where there was also a single Turnstone.
Little Tern
Little Tern
Turnstone
We eventually caught Ken and
David up at Parrinder Hide where I saw three Mediterranean Gulls and Malcom
found a rather smart male Ruff. On the
far side David then found a female Shoveler escorting nine young and there were
two female Red-crested Pochards, with one escorting two young.
David and Malcolm went back to
look for the Spotted Flycatcher, whilst Ken and I took a more leisurely walk
back. We had a nice, if brief view of a
close Sedge Warbler and two drake Red-crested Pochards were observed in flight
along with the male Marsh Harrier. There
was a Cetti’s Warbler calling quite close and I heard a Bearded Tit but neither
revealed themselves, although Ken was pretty sure he had seen a Bearded Tit
drop into the reeds but with a few Reed Warblers present he couldn’t be
certain.
When we got back the car David
and Malcolm had failed to find the Spotted Flycatcher and we moved on to Hunstanton
to hopefully see Fulmar before we headed off home.
As we pulled up at the eastern
end of the cliffs I saw Fulmar but we
decided to walk closer to the edge, where I got some superb shots of several
birds as they glided along the cliff top.
Fulmar
Fulmar
Fulmar
Fulmar
Fulmar
Fulmar
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