Ken, Malcolm, Roger and I were
off to Norfolk today hoping to see Montagu’s Harrier at a site near
Docking. Roger drove to Malcolm’s and we
then went in Malcom’s car to Corby to pick Ken up before continuing to the
Montagu’s site.
We arrived on site at just
before 08:30 and were joined by a local birder just after we arrived. He gave us some indication as to where to
look but it must have been close to 10:00 before I picked the female Montagu’s
Harrier up in a slightly different area.
It then performed quite well for a while and was seen carrying nesting
material but was dropping down in a different area but in the same field. The local birder was surprised and assumed
that the first breeding attempt had failed.
Whilst we were waiting for the
Montagu’s we had seen at least three Buzzards and there were two Barn Owls
hunting periodically over the field where we had parked, which were presumably
a pair feeding young. After seeing just
the female Montagu’s Harrier Malcolm was a little disappointed having not seen
the male but we eventually called it a day and walked back to the car. Malcolm was ahead of Ken, Roger and myself
and was trying to photograph one of the hunting Barn Owls but without much
success. I then saw a harrier over the
field at the top of the hill and realised it was the male and alerted the
others but it flew behind a tree and out of sight. We then picked the female up again but the
male didn’t reappear. We did think about
going back to observation point but eventually moved off to Titchwell.
Roger needed to back early and
so we had an early lunch to maximise our time on the reserve. It was quite warm as we started walking down
to path towards the sea. There were
eight Red-crested Pochards on the pool to the right of the path and good
numbers of both Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits on the fresh marsh with a
few Knot feeding amongst the Bar-tailed.
There were also plenty of Avocets but I only saw one tiny chick and presumably
they hadn’t been that successful.
Roger picked up a couple of
Mediterranean Gulls and we eventually saw seven before we continued towards the
sea. When we reached the Volunteer Marsh
the tide was obviously quite high and surprisingly there were four people in
canoes in the channel but there was little birdlife.
When we reached the beach, it
wasn’t particularly a high tide but the water was flat calm. We found several Great Crested Grebes and a
small party of Common Scoter some way off shore. I then found a summer-plumaged Red-throated
Diver, which was a bit of a surprise and Malcolm picked up a Gannet, which was
my first of the year. There were quite few
Sandwich Terns off shore and Malcolm and I walked down to the shore to try and
photograph them, which was quite successful and I also managed a couple of shots
of a Little Tern.
Sandwich Tern
Sandwich Tern
Sandwich Tern
Sandwich Tern
Sandwich Tern
Little Tern
Little Tern
Ken and Roger had started to
make their way back along the path and as we caught Roger up he had seen a
second Red-throated Diver in flight but hadn’t seen anything else.
We agreed it would be a good
idea to go and stand to the left of Parrinder Hide to view the marsh as we
would be able to get some shelter from the sun.
Roger found a Little Ringed Plover and I counted twenty-five
Mediterranean Gulls on the island but we couldn't locate any of the three
first-summer Little Gulls that were apparently on the marsh.
Ken and Roger decided to go
back to the car park to look for a Turtle Dove and it wasn’t too long
afterwards that Malcolm and I started to make our way back. Malcolm then found one of the first-summer
Little Gulls and whilst observing this we found a second but there was no sign
of the third.
Moulting adult Black-tailed Godwit
Moulting adult Black-tailed Godwit
We didn’t see a great deal
else as we walked back with a couple of Marsh Harriers being the best. Roger then called to say that he and Ken were
watching a Turtle Dove near the far gate in the car park. It must have taken Malcolm and high about ten
minutes but as we approached the area we could see that they were still
observing the bird. However, when we
were about fifty meters away it flew out of the hedge and disappeared and we
just had a brief flight view.
Female-type Marsh Harrier
It was now approaching 14:00
and following a drink and bite to eat we set off for home seeing a Corn Bunting
singing near Choseley Barns.
We didn’t see a great deal else
on the way back except for a few Red Kites as we approached Corby.
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