David, Malcolm and I set off from Malcolm’s at around 06:30 for a day’s
birding in Norfolk. All we saw on note
on route was a Common Buzzard alongside the A43 near Blatherwycke and we
arrived at Cley at around 08:55. We drove to the beach car park where we
intended to carry out a sea watch.
The north-west wind wasn’t that strong, and it was pretty quiet with the
following being recorded: Eurasian Wigeon; Eurasian Teal; forty-one Common
Scoter; a Red-throated Diver; two Northern Fulmar; eight Northern Gannet, an
Eurasian Oystercatcher, three Red Knot; a Common Redshank and four Sandwich
Tern in just over an hour and there was a Northern Wheatear on the beach. David and Malcolm had a Great Skua, which I
failed to pick up and eventually it disappeared before I got on it.
We made a brief visit to the visitor’s centre seeing a Common Shelduck,
Northern Shoveler, Eurasian Wigeon, four Common Buzzard, twenty-eight
Black-tailed Godwit and four Ruff from the centre. A distant falcon caused some discussion, but
we finally identified it as a Peregrine Falcon.
There had been a report of a Wryneck at Holme and so we headed in that
direction. We called Roger, who was on
holiday for a few days, to make him aware and stopped briefly at Burnham Overy
Staithe to see if anyone had news of yesterday’s Wryneck and Greenish Warbler
but neither had been seen. During our
brief stop we saw a female Western Marsh Harrier, a Common Buzzard and a Common
Kestrel over the marsh and there was a Sand Martin and three Barn Swallow overhead.
As we headed on towards Holme I had a message from Roger’s wife saying
they were at Holme and that the Wryneck had been seen at 08:30 and then only by
a single observer but not since. I called
Roger and he confirmed the message and so we went to Thornham for our
lunch. We didn’t see a great deal with
seventeen Eurasian Curlew and a Common Redshank being the best.
The day wasn’t turning out too good and as we headed to Titchwell we
weren’t very optimistic as recent visits hadn’t been too productive. After parking we set off and checked the book
in the centre, which indicated there had been a good range of species yesterday
but fewer reported today.
As we walked along the west bank we found a European Turtle Dove perched
in a distant dead tree in the centre of the reedbed and there was a female
Western Marsh Harrier over the reedbed.
Twenty-four Common Pochard were on the Reedbed Pool and we could see
three distant Eurasian Spoonbills on the Freshwater Marsh. David then heard a Bearded Tit and we stopped
and after hearing them quite a few times and still not seeing any we moved
beyond Island Hide to view the Freshwater Marsh seeing a male Western Marsh
Harrier as we did so.
There were plenty of birds on the Freshwater Marsh and a good range of
waders that included thirty-three Pied Avocet, a European Golden Plover, three
Common Ringed Plover, a Little Ringed Plover, circa eighty Bar-tailed Godwit,
170 Black-tailed Godwit, six Red Knot, two Curlew Sandpiper, twenty-seven
Dunlin and two Common Redshank. David
moved further down the path whilst Malcolm and I scanned through the birds and
I picked out a first-year Mediterranean Gull.
We could see David sitting on a bench further down the track and so we
went and informed him we had seen a Mediterranean Gull and the Little Ringed
Plover, when a Peregrine Falcon flew over.
When we reached David, we informed of our finds and started to scan
looking for the Mediterranean Gull. David
then found a second-year and an adult, but we were unable to relocate the
first-year bird again. The Little Ringed
Plover was still in the same area but as we watched it looked skywards and then
crouched low and then most of the birds on the marsh took to flight and we
picked up the Peregrine Falcon again. It
must have remained over the marsh for a good five minutes and appeared to be
trying to pick something up in the northwest corner but failed on several
occasions. After it had gone we
continued down the path and found there was a freshly dead Dunlin in the
corner, which we assumed it had killed and dropped and was then too wary of the
people on the bank to retrieve its prize.
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
There appeared to be very little on Volunteer Marsh and so we continued
onto Tidal Marsh where we found a Little Egret, c.100 Eurasian Oystercatcher,
nine Grey Plover, two Eurasian Curlew, 50+ Ruddy Turnstone, eleven Red Knot,
three Dunlin and forty Common Redshank.
There was also another Eurasian Spoonbill and three Little Egrets on
Thornham Marsh.
When we reached the beach the sea, like Cley, was quiet but we did find
three Sanderling and two Red Knot along with more Eurasian Oystercatcher on the
beach and there were several Sandwich Terns off shore. Another three birders then arrived and picked
up a skua almost immediately and it came quite close before settling on the sea
and we were able to confirm that it was a Great Skua. Roger then joined us and shortly after
finding the Great Skua for him two skuas were in evidence, one smaller than the
other. The larger was the Great Skua and
the other an Arctic Skua and we then found three more distant Arctic Skuas and
a summer plumaged Red-throated Diver flew west.
Whilst staring out to sea we had also seen three Common Scoter and six Gannet,
and a Eurasian Spoonbill flew over and a Whimbrel was heard.
As we walked back we stopped again to view the Tidal Marsh but there were
now fewer birds and on reaching Volunteer Marsh the water was rising with
incoming tide and unfortunately there was no sign of a Spotted Redshank Roger
had seen earlier. We scanned the
Freshwater Marsh looking for the Spotted Redshank but was unable to locate but
we did have a nice view of a juvenile Bearded Tit feeding at the base of the
reeds.
Juvenile Bearded Tit
Juvenile Dunlin on the Freshwater Marsh
We didn’t see much else as we returned to the car park and rain was now
threatening and it was noticeably cooler.
We were soon making our way home after a coffee and a snack and Malcolm
decided to go around the coast road. It
was raining on and off by the time we reached the first of the Kings Lynne
roundabouts and just after this the traffic ground to a halt. Several vehicles began turning around and
with no sign of the traffic moving Malcolm did the same and went cross country
reaching the A47 Middleton. The rain and the traffic after this were quite
heavy until we passed the A1 and continued through Corby to reach Market
Harborough.
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