David, Malcolm, Roger and I had planned to go the Brecks today, but with
a Snowy Owl in Norfolk yesterday, which was a lifer for Malcolm, we changed the
plan slightly. Roger picked David and I
up and drove to Malcolm’s, who then drove for the day.
Our plan was to head for Wisbech, and then decide what to do depending on
the news on the owl. We left Market
Harbour at around 06:30 and headed for the A47 but took a slight diversion to
Blatherwycke Lake where we were hoping to connect with Mandarin Duck. As we parked up it was raining quite hard,
but David volunteered to get out of the car to use his scope and found a Male
Mandarin Duck, which we all then saw but there was little else of note.
As we continued onto the A47 we saw a couple of Red Kites and another
from the A47 near Castor. As we
approached Wisbech there was a message indicating that the owl hadn’t been seen
and so we took the A1101 towards Downham Market with a plan to then head
towards Cockley Clay for Goshawk and Woodlark.
As we were passing through Outwell, I received another message
indicating that the owl had been relocated on Thornham Point and so we turned
and headed back to the A47. I checked
Bird Guides app as we were going along the King’s Lynn bypass and found that the
owl could be viewed from Thornham Harbour, although distantly.
We decided to head for Titchwell, as if the owl remained where it was, we
would get good views from the point.
Malcolm was also concerned that parking would be a problem as the news
had now been out for over an hour. When
we arrived parking wasn’t an issue and we were soon heading out along the west
bank towards the beach. However, when we
scanned the bushes on the point we could see that the owl was no longer perched
in the dead tree. We decided to slow
down and stopped to look on Thornham Pool but there was nothing, but a male and
two Western Marsh Harriers were observed over the reedbed. When we reached the Freshwater Marsh, we
could see that birders were gathering further along the track and when we
joined them, we found out that the owl had been relocated and was on the ground
and could be seen from the path although it was distant. I was a little surprised that there were no
birders visible at the point and most seemed to be watching from where we were and
from the end of the path near the beach.
Lee Evans was talking to a couple of the wardens when he suddenly saw
about five birders quite close to where the bird had been and shortly after we
reached the beach he decided that it would be ok to go out to the point to try
and see it better. David, Malcolm and a
few other birders followed him, whilst Roger and I had a quick look on the sea
before setting off, finding fourteen Long-tailed Ducks.
As I approached a group of about thirty birders it was clear that they
had found the owl and when I joined them it was perched on a post on the beach
but was quite distant. Lee then
suggested that we should try and get a couple of hundred yards closer and to
his credit informed everyone what the plan was and that we should move together
and not get above the skyline. The whole
group moved without anyone digressing and we got closer without disturbing the
bird and we were able to get good views through a scope. I took a few photos, but it was still quite
distant and having to use a high ISO resulted in considerable noise, which made
the photos of poor quality but the bird was identifiable.
Snowy owl
Snowy owl
We watched the bird for quite some time and it did fly briefly on one
occasion before settling on what looked like a branch off a conifer, where it
remained until we started to walk back.
When we left, the crowd had increased significantly and many more birders
were hurrying along the beach to see this megger Norfolk rarity. We scanned the sea on several occasions seeing
three Greater Scaup, a Common Eider, four Common Scoter, eight Red-breasted Merganser
and a Guillemot. We had also seen
numerous Eurasian Oystercatchers, two Common Ringed Plovers, circa twenty Knot
and a few Bar-tailed Godwits and Ruddy Turnstones and an obliging female Snow
Bunting that we were able to photograph.
After a brief watch from the beach and not seeing much we went back
along the track.
Snow Bunting
Snow Bunting
Snow Bunting
There were three Northern Pintail on the Tidal Lagoon but with just a few
of the commoner species of wader on view we moved on. When we reached Volunteer Marsh we looked along
the channel on the northern edge and David found a Greenshank and Malcolm then
found a Spotted Redshank. There was
another party of Red Knot on the marsh and a good number of Common Redshank
along with a Black-tailed Godwit and several Grey Plover.
We stopped at the Fresh Marsh where there were twenty Pied Avocets along
with a couple of Eurasian Oystercatchers and several Black-tailed Godwits. We could see several Mediterranean Gulls on
one of the island and decided to go to Parrinder Hide to get a better view.
There were at least twenty-eight Mediterranean Gulls, most of which were
on the islands and I managed to get a few photos, although they were quite
distant.
Adult Mediterranean Gulls
As we walked back we found several Mediterranean Gulls resting on another
exposed area of mud, but they didn’t stay too long and I fired off a few shots
of one as it flew off.
Adult Mediterranean Gull
Adult Mediterranean Gull
We hadn’t seen a great deal else as we reached the visitor’s centre but
then spent a few minutes observing the feeders.
There were plenty of Common Chaffinches with a few European Greenfinch
and European Goldfinch visiting and I then found a nice male Brambling perched
in one of the trees behind the feeders.
It did drop onto the feeders very briefly but flew off and out of sight
almost straight away.
Walking back to the car for lunch we found several birders looking for a
Woodcock and one birder then said I’ve got it.
He provided directions and I found it but could only see its rear
end. I tried seeing it from different positions
without any success, but the finder then got it in his scope and we all had
excellent views as it roosted.
Whilst having lunch we discussed what to do next and agreed to go to
Thornham again for Twite, then onto Hunstanton clifftop for Fulmar before
trying the jet-ski slope for Purple Sandpiper and then head for Eldernell to
finish the day there.
When we arrived at Thornham there were quite a few birders viewing the
Snowy Owl, although it wasn’t possible to pick it up in the bins. The news regarding the Twite wasn’t good as
they hadn’t been seen, but as we got to the first bend on the seawall another
group of birders said they had seen them close to the next bend, and so we
continued along the bank. As we got
close to the next bend we picked up a flock of birds in flight that turned out
to be twenty Twite and they eventually dropped down in front of us to provide
some nice views.
After getting back to the car we drove the short distance to Hunstanton
and soon had a couple of Northern Fulmar but a scan out to sea produced just
ten Red-breasted Mergansers and a few Great Crested Grebes and we were soon on
our way to the ski-ramp. Unfortunately,
the tide hadn’t come in far enough and there wasn’t any sign of a Purple
Sandpiper or any other waders and so we left for Eldernell.
It took close to ninety minutes to reach the Nene Washes and seeing a
party of swans in a field we pulled into a convenient layby. As I got out of the car a Peregrine Falcon
flew over, which I called, but only Malcolm saw it. It was clear that most of the swan were
Whooper’s but despite us all thinking we had a couple of Bewick’s we eventually
decided that they all were Whooper’s and moved onto March Farmers.
The area at March Farmers was flooded but there were fewer birds than
expected and I suspect that the ‘Beast from the East’ had moved quite a bit out
and little had returned. There were good
numbers of both Gadwall and Eurasian Wigeon with smaller numbers of Eurasian
Teal and Mallard and I counted twenty-seven Northern Pintail and six Northern
Shoveler and David picked up a distant Western Marsh Harrier.
We moved onto the Eldernell car park and found a group of photographers
photographing a Western Barn Owl, but it had moved off by the time I got out of
the car. There were nine Common Crane to
the east of the duck decoy and David also picked up a second Western Barn
Owl. One of the Western Barn Owl then
came reasonably close and this time I was able to get a few shots before it
drifted off again.
Western Barn Owl
Western Barn Owl
Western Barn Owl
Western Barn Owl
There were three female-type Western Marsh Harrier and a male to the west
and another female-type to the east and another birder picked up a Short-eared
Owl sitting on the ground. Another
birder then indicated that it had moved to the other side of a small stream but
then we realised that there were two on view.
They both eventually started to hunt but flew off quite quickly to the
west. Whilst standing on the bridge
there were c.500 European Golden Plover observed to the west and another 1000+
to the east.
Short-eared owl
It had been an excellent day’s birding with ninety-seven species recorded
between us of which I had seen or heard ninety, four of which, Woodcock,
Greenshank, Snowy Owl and Rock Pipit, were all year-ticks, moving my year list
onto 154.
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