David, Malcolm, Roger and myself had arrange to have a day in West
Norfolk today but David was unable to come but we decided to still go and left
my house at around 06:30. It was still
dark and raining as we pulled of my drive and headed for Uppingham and Malcolm
saw a Barn Owl perched on a hedge just after we passed Wistow but Roger and I
failed to see it. It continued to rain
as we travelled east along the A47 but had eased by the time we reached
Peterborough, although with dawn breaking we could see the sky still looked
rather threatening.
As we approached King’s Lynn there were signs warning of possible traffic
congestion due to bridge repairs, but we sailed straight through these only to
run into traffic on the bypass. We
queued from the A47 almost to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as traffic was
struggling to get into Kings Lynn along Gayton Road and we lost quite some time
but did see a Jay, which was a year-tick.
Our intention was to go to Salthouse to try and see some Snow Buntings
and then make our way back along the coast and finish at Titchwell. However due to the lost time we decided to
head towards Titchwell.
We made a brief stop at Abbey Farm but from the hide the only birds of
note were a couple of Buzzards and we then drove further up the road to look
for Grey Partridge. We found seven
Red-legged Partridge but there was no sign of any Grey Partridge. Whilst we there we had several flocks of
Pink-footed Geese go over, which was a year-tick, two, Egyptian Geese, a
Eurasian Sparrowhawk, a Red Kite and another Buzzard.
We left Abbey Farm and headed for Docking seeing another Buzzard just as
we left Flitcham. Two Egyptian Geese at
Docking were all we saw before we arrived at Choseley Barns. We drove slowly along the lane stopping
frequently to look in the fields for Grey Partridge but again all we could find
were Red-legged, of which there were plenty.
A nice surprise were three redpolls perched in a hedge, but they were partially
obscured most of the time and eventually disappeared. I did think they looked to be possibly Common
Redpoll but didn’t say anything as I was unsure, but they were reported later
as Common Redpoll.
When we eventually reached the coast road we drove west to Thornham
hoping to find the flock of wintering Twite.
It was clear as we drove along the harbour road that the tide was still
quite high and I initially scoped the distant shore and found Brent Geese,
Eurasian Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, Common Ringed Plover, Eurasian Curlew,
Black-tailed Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin and
Redshank, most of which were year-ticks.
With the tide falling the shore birds were gradually getting more
distant and so we walked to the sea wall to look for the Twite. A Little Egret flew over and then twenty-eight
Shelduck flew over but there was little evidence of any passerines. We did eventually have several Skylark and a single
Reed Bunting but there was no sign of the Twite. Malcolm found a Kingfisher hat was perched on
a wire near the main channel and as two jets caused quite some disturbance we
saw a large party of Pink-footed Geese in flight as they dropped back in we
could see that a there was a field near Holme that was virtually covered in the
geese and there must have been several thousand. There was still no sign of the Twite and so
we headed for Titchwell.
After parking we headed to the centre to see what was in the book and the
list of birds reported on the sea this morning was quite impressive. There was also a Brambling reported on the
rear feeders but after a few minutes we decided to get to the sea and look for
the Brambling later.
As we moved down the west bank there was a group of birders viewing
Thornham Pool and when we stopped they said they had a pipit but wasn’t sure
what it was and so we stopped to try and see it. However, the bird they were watching
disappeared and didn’t reappear but as were about to continue to the beach
another birder indicated that he had a Water Pipit. We stopped and soon found the bird and it
wasn’t too far away and we had some nice scope views at it fed amongst the
short vegetation.
We continued down the west bank towards the sea and Malcolm and I stopped
briefly at the Tidal Marsh where I found a Spotted Redshank before we joined
Roger on the beach. The tide was still
quite high as we started to scan the sea but we had noticed what looked like
some wet weather approaching and weren't surprised when it started to
rain. All we had seen before it started
to rain were a few Goldeneye and as the rain got heavier Malcolm retreated to
Parrinder Hide, whilst Roger and I stuck at it.
As the rain eased a found a single drake Red-breasted Merganser and
shortly afterwards a single immature male Eider. I then picked up a single winter adult Little
Gull but was unable to get Roger onto it and then we had three Red-throated
Divers in flight. Malcolm then returned as
I found a small party of Common Scoter and shortly afterwards we were made
aware of more that were in quiet close with at least fourteen Long-tailed
Ducks. We continued scanning and I found
a diver that was showing a distinct rear flank patch and suspected it was a
Black-throated Diver but when I tried to get Malcolm and Roger onto it all we
could find were Red-throated and Malcolm saw a single Guillemot, which we were
unable to relocate. Malcolm went down
the beach to try and photograph the Long-tailed Ducks and shortly afterwards
Roger went to look for the Spotted Redshank.
It wasn't long afterwards that I followed Roger and saw twenty Red Knot
drop in on the Tidal Marsh alongside some roosting Black-tailed Godwits. I caught Roger up who was at the far end of
the Tidal Marsh but there was no sign of the Spotted Redshank and so we went to
look on Volunteer Marsh, where Roger did find a Spotted Redshank.
When we reached the Freshwater Marsh, Malcolm had caught up with us and
we spent a few minutes scanning the marsh, where the water level wasn’t that
suitable for waders, but we did find six Avocets and there must have been at
least 500 Golden Plover resting on what exposed area there was. There was a good range of wildfowl that
included forty Northern Shoveler, two Northern Pintail and twelve Common
Pochard.
When we got back to the centre the rear feeders were devoid of birds and
so we continued on to the car park for lunch.
It started to rain just after we had finished and as the forecast wasn’t
too good for the rest of the afternoon we decided to implement our contingency
and head for Eldernell on the Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire.
There was some quite heavy rain as we headed towards Wisbech and when I
got out of the car to fill up with petrol I was surprised to see how much the
wind had got up and we weren’t too optimistic about seeing anything at
Eldernell; in fact, Malcolm suggested we should call it a day.
However, as we approached Guyhirn I decided we would continue and when we
reached Eldernell the weather had improved but it was still quite windy and
cold and there was quite a bit of flood water.
Roger and I got out to view some distant swans that turned out be mainly
Whoopers with a few Mute. Three Common
Cranes then flew over, there was a single female Marsh Harrier and eleven
Northern Shoveler on the near flood water.
It wasn’t surprising that we didn’t see any owls and finally called it a
day as the light began to fade.
It had been a mixed day with the traffic disrupting our initial plans and
the dipping on the Twite, but we had done quite well at Titchwell and got two
of the target birds at Eldernell. I had
recorded eight-five species during the day, twenty-five of which were
year-ticks with the year-list now standing at 111.
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