David, Malcolm, Roger and
myself were going to Norfolk today and after meeting at David’s I drove to
Snettisham Country Park, where we were hoping to connect with a juvenile
Red-backed Shrike.
We had seen three Red Kites
before leaving Rutland but hadn’t seen a great deal else when we pulled up in
the Snettisham Country Park car park.
The Red-backed Shrike had been seen during the last two days at the northern
end of the park and so we had a good walk ahead of us. It was feeling quite cool in the fresh
westerly wind as we were getting our gear on when eighty Oystercatcher and five
Sandwich Tern flew over. We went up onto
the sea bank and the tide was high but there was very little over the sea but looking
towards the RSPB reserve there were a couple of clouds of waders in flight,
which were almost certainly Knot but they didn’t come any closer.
As we started our walk north
there was a Marsh Harrier to the east but there appeared to be very few passerines
as we continued. I joined Malcolm on the
sea wall where he had found a large party of feeding Sanderling, which
contained several hundred birds. There
was also about eighty Ringed Plover and smaller numbers of Dunlin amongst the
Sanderling and we did also find three Oystercatchers, a Knot and a Turnstone
and Roger had a Bar-tailed Godwit.
Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
Ringed Plover
Ringed Plover
Ringed Plover
Sanderling
Juvenile Sanderling
Juvenile Sanderling
Juvenile and adult Sanderling
Sanderling in flight with an Oystercatcher, two Ringed Plover, a Knot, a Dunlin and a Turnstone
Adult Sanderling
David and Roger had found a
Whitethroat and a Sedge Warbler just before they joined Malcolm and I and so
Roger and I dropped off the bank and walked towards the tents, which is where
the Red-backed Shrike was being reported.
As we approached the area we found a Whinchat and then four Stonechats
and two Whitethroats before joining Malcolm near the tents.
We spent a good forty-five
minutes looking for the shrike without success and other than a few Swallows
and House Martins passing through and a single Wheatear we hadn’t seen much
else. Malcolm had seen three Stonechats
but David and he hadn’t seen the Whinchat and so we started to walk back. We
did see both Whinchat and Stonechat but on the other side of the pools, where
there was also Goldfinches and I also picked up a single Greenfinch and the
others had a Reed Bunting.
We hadn’t seen much else when
three other birders approached us and said is the shrike further on. We said we hadn’t seen it and they then
informed us that it had been reported but I hadn’t had a report from Birdguides
but when Malcolm checked his pager it had been reported at 09:45, which is
about the time we left the area.
We decided we should go back
and assumed another birder we had been with must have found it after we left
but we met him as we were going back and he hadn’t seen it either. He came back with us and there were now eight
of us and hopefully this would help in finding the bird. As I approached the other birder and Malcolm
a Hobby flew over and as we stood looking for the shrike Roger beckoned us
over. He had found the shrike perched on
top of a bush on the other side of the water.
We alerted David and then we all had reasonable views as it perched on
the bushes, occasionally dropping to the ground presumably to feed, for about
fifteen minutes when it disappeared again.
Record shot of the juvenile Red-backed Shrike
As we walked back we had some
nice views of a couple of juvenile Stonechats but we were all pretty knackered
when we finally got back to the car.
Juvenile Stonechat
We left Snettisham and headed
for Titchwell but other than a Jay we had little of note before arriving at
Titchwell. After lunch, we went to the
west bank and headed out towards the sea, stopping initially at Thornham Pool,
where David I heard and saw a single Bearded Tit. As we walked a little further we had a Little
Egret and a Curlew on Thornham Marsh.
When we reached the Freshwater
Marsh the water level had risen since our last visit and the habitat was less
suitable for the smaller waders. There
were Twenty Avocets and 190+ Black-tailed Godwits resting and feeding on the
marsh but the only other waders observed were fourteen Golden Plover and fifty
Ruff. There were a few hirundine passing
over and a brief observation produced three Sand Martin, ten Swallow and
twenty-five House Martin.
On reaching Volunteer Marsh it
was obvious that the tide was well out but we did find two Grey Plover and two
Bar-tailed Godwit and there was also a single Curlew and at least six Redshank.
The water on the Tidal Marsh
had also risen where there were just three more Grey Plover and a Turnstone.
When we reached the beach, the
tide was well out and on initial scans it appeared very quiet. David then said that he had a shearwater and
indicated that it wasn’t too far out. We
all soon picked it up as if flew rather lazily over the water and proceeded to
come even closer. It was clearly a Manx
Shearwater and a species I haven’t seen here before and quite a surprise. It did appear to have come in from the
north-east and after doing a small circuit proceeded heading west and Malcolm
who had followed it quite some distance saw it flying over the beach close to
Thornham Point. Our first impression
that it was quiet turned out to be correct as after the shearwater we had just
two Common Scoter, two Gannet, two Great Crested Grebe, a Great Skua and a few
Sandwich Terns. There were a few waders
on the beach that included Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover,
Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew and Turnstone.
Two small parties of Grey Plover totalling over twenty flew west but
with the weather looking rather ominous we headed for Parrinder Hide.
We reached the hide just as it
started to rain rather heavily and then spent a good half-hour in there whilst
the shower passed. There were clearly
more Golden Plover on the marsh and probably more than two hundred. Two Swift flew over and there were two Dunlin
briefly just in front of the hide, which were surprisingly the only ones we saw
here. We then heard a Spotted Redshank
call and eventually picked it up amongst the gulls in the middle of the
marsh. David then found a small party of
Bearded Tits feeding on the edge of the reedbed. We contacted Malcolm who had gone and sat on
one of the benches along the west bank who then managed to pick them up from
there. We joined Malcom on the bank and
saw a Hobby over Thornham Marsh as we walked back to the car and then had to
depart as Roger needed to be back by 18:00.
Golden Plover
Black-tailed Godwit
Ruff
We went via Choseley Barns and
saw a Marsh Harrier but other than a couple of Kestrel didn’t see a great deal
else on the way home, although we did run into one or two heavy showers before
we got back.
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