David, Malcolm, Roger and I were out for a day in West Norfolk and
initially headed Letheringsett as there had been a couple of Arctic Redpoll
present for a few days. We had left
David’s just after six o’clock and arrived near the ford at Letheringsett at
around eight fifteen. There were a
couple of birders already on site and as we were getting sorted we could see
that they were watching something in one of the trees alongside the path. When we joined them, there was a small flock
of redpolls in the trees and we eventually seen one well enough to be sure that
it was an Arctic. They eventually flew off,
but small groups of redpolls periodically returned to the tree and we
identified both Common and Lesser Redpoll and Malcolm found what was a good
candidate for an Arctic, which I saw through his scope on a couple of
occasions. I was unable to locate the
bird in my own scope and could only see Lesser Redpolls. A small group of birders had now assembled
and as the redpolls were returning less frequently we called it a day and
headed for Sheringham.
We parked near the sea watching shelter at Sheringham and then walked
along the promenade towards the town, where we were hoping to find a Purple
Sandpiper. There were very few birds on
the rocks with just three Ruddy Turnstone being seen with six Common Ringed
Plover on the beach. The only other birds
were Black-headed and European Herring Gulls and a few Common Starling and David
had a brief view of a Rock Pipit in flight, but we couldn’t find it again.
With no joy with the Purple Sandpiper we moved to Salthouse and after
parking at the end of the beach road walked the short distance to Gramborough
Hill. As we walked out two other birders
informed us that was a large flock of our target bird, Snow Bunting, on the far
side of the hill. As we moved towards
the hill David located a couple of Ruff in the fields near some Eurasian Wigeon
but other than a large number of Rooks I saw little else. We went over the top of the hill and found a
small group of birders watching the Snow Buntings. They were feeding amongst the shingle and
short vegetation and there were at least seventy with several nice-looking
males.
After watching the buntings for a while we turned our attention on the
sea, where we found a Red-throated Diver and the David and Roger had a
Guillemot, which I was unable to find.
As we started to walk back Malcolm informed me that four Black-tailed
Godwits had flown in and landed in channel at the base of the hill. When I looked I found six and alerted David
as it was a year-tick for him. As he
went to look for them I turned my attention back on the sea hoping that I might
find the Guillemot. Malcolm then found a
couple of Red-throated Divers and whilst looking for these I found the
Guillemot and we also had three Red-throated Divers.
With news of two Bohemian Waxwing still being present at Thornham we
started to head west along the coast road.
As we passed Warham Greens we noticed a group of partridge in a roadside
field and on stopping found they were Grey Partridge, which was a year-tick for
all of us. When we reached Holkham we
stopped again to view the marshes as there had been some Greater White-fronted
Geese recently. There were plenty of
birds including two Great Egrets and at least four Western Marsh Harriers and
we eventually found twenty-eight Greater White-fronted Geese. What was surprising was the lack of
Pink-footed Geese as I only saw three.
When we arrived at the location of the waxwings in Thornham they had just
flown off having been seen quite well.
There were still quite a few birders present, including two of the RSPB
staff from Titchwell. Two Mistle Thrush
flew in, which caused a bit of excitement as initially some thought they were
Waxwing. However just after agreement
was reached on the Mistle Thrushes another birder picked up the two Bohemian
Waxwing some distance away in the top of a tree. They stayed long enough for us all to scope
them but then flew off again and we decided to head for the harbour. However, as David, Roger and myself got into
the car Malcolm announced they were back and closer. I got out of the car to see Malcolm heading
off across the car park hoping to photograph them. When I looked I could see the two birds
perched high in a tree but they were still some distance off and not worth
effort to try and photograph. When
Malcolm returned we went back towards Thornham and turned down the road to the
beach.
When we arrived we found Brian, Roger and Rosie in the car park, who had been to Santon Downham to see the Parrot Crossbills and then come north for the Bohemian Waxwing. They had seen the Twite and indicated where they were and after a brief chat I set off after David and Malcolm. As I crossed the bridge they flew and landed in the car park area but before I could get beck they had flown again and returned to feed on the saltmarsh. I went back to join Malcolm to try and get some photos, although the light was quite bad, but they flew again and this time we were unsure as to where they had gone and we headed off to Titchwell.
After parking at Titchwell we had our lunch seeing a Jay and a Goldcrest
but had just missed a Woodcock as we walked down to the centre. After checking the book, we went to west bank
and saw a Water Rail in the ditch to the right of the path. There was nothing of note on Thornham Pool
and when we reached the Freshwater Marsh the water level was very high and
consequently it wasn’t great for waders but had a good range of wildfowl that
included twenty-seven Common Shelduck, a drake Northern Pintail and eleven
Common Pochard. There were circa forty
European Golden Plover but there were no other waders on view and we continued
onto Volunteer Marsh.
There were a few more waders on Volunteer Marsh that included Grey
Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black-tailed Godwit and Common Redshank. When I caught David and Malcolm up at the
Tidal Marsh they were looking at a probable Spotted Redshank and a few seconds later
their suspicions were confirmed. There
was also circa sixty Bar-tailed Godwit and forty Eurasian Oystercatcher
roosting on the marsh and a single Little Grebe was observed.
Grey Plover on Volunteer Marsh
Redshank on Volunteer Marsh
Having reached the beach, we found the tide was coming in and the main
feeding area for waders were already submerged but there were still a few
Eurasian Oystercatcher, Bar-tailed Godwit and Sanderling. On the sea we found Eurasian Wigeon, circa
twenty Common Scoter, two male and a female Long-tailed Duck, Common Goldeneye,
ten Red-breasted Merganser, seven Red-throated Diver, Great Crested Grebe and a
Black-necked Grebe.
We eventually walked back finding more waders on the Tidal Marsh and also
four Northern Pintail. David had gone to
Parminder Hide earlier and we joined him in the hide overlooking Volunteer
Marsh. I had already seen thirty Knot on
the Freshwater Marsh and there were thirty on Volunteer Marsh, but they may well
have been the same birds but other than a single Ruff on the Freshwater Marsh
there was nothing else new and we went back to the car.
We stopped at Hunstanton clifftop to look for Fulmar and after a few
minutes we had all seen at least one and we then went to the jet ski ramp. Malcolm had said there was a Purple Sandpiper
at high tide yesterday and with the tide coming in we were hoping it would have
returned. When we got to the ski slope
although the water was breaking against some of the rocks there was no sign of
our target bird. There were at least
seven Ruddy Turnstone on the beach and a single Great Cormorant hauled itself
out of the water. It was wary of us but
seemed reluctant to go back into the water and although the upperparts looked
in good condition the breast feather were rather ragged and I suspected that it
was slightly oiled.
With Roger needing to be back by 18:30 it was time to leave and we headed
back after a good days birding that include eleven year-ticks.
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