Norfolk Trip Report
Hi All,
Had a fantastic trip in Norfolk, saw 9
*lifers* and all the other birders we met were very friendly and helpful. Will definately be back soon to explore some of the other sites. Thanks all for your help, thought I'd post a brief trip report.
Friday 29th Sept - Shortly after arriving in Wells and enjoying some fish n chips we set off to Titchwell RSPB. Quickly spotted our first lifer, a pair of
*Marsh Harriers* over the saltmarshes. Also spotted a number of curlew and little egrets on the marshes. Plently of teal, shoveler, gadwall and other wildfowl on the pools. Spotted and easily identified a
*Common Sandpiper* from the Island Hide redshanks also about. A sparrowhawk flew low over the reeds and avocets could be seen on the far side of the pool. On the walk down to the sea spotted a
*Grey Plover* and many BT Godwit. On the beach there were plenty of oystercatchers, turnstones, a few brent geese and 2 more lifers -
*YL Gull* and
*Sanderlings* on the shoreline. Returned to the hide on the way back and was rewarded by a view of a perched peregrine on a post (pointed out by other birders) and a flock of circa 50 linnets which settled for a nanosecond in front of the hide before swirling off again. A pleasing start to the trip :girl:
Sat 30th Sept - By far the best day - the longest list and longest time spent out birding. Boarded Bishops Boats at Morston, plenty of swallows about. On the boat out to Blakeney spotted little egrets, redshank, brent goose, curlew, GC grebe, cormorants and assorted gulls. Blakeney Point - what a fascinating place! Very sad to have to leave after only 45mins and nearly missed the boat lol. Next time will spend the day out there. There was a
*Guillemot* sat on the grass and our delight at viewing such a beautiful bird at close quarters quickly turned to dismay as we realised the bird was sick and couldn't fly away :C Flocks of wigeon and oystercatchers visable. Saw what I think were 2 winter plumage black terns flying at great speeds (not sure, not ticked). Saw an adult
*Arctic Skua* sat on the beach. Went out on boat to visit the two seal colonys. Two arctic skuas chasing down a common tern for fish. On way back saw the additional birds of GBB Gull and female eider. Without a pause for breath we were off to Cley Marshes. Constant and stunning views of Marsh Harriers there, at one stage 4 at a time. On the brook up to about 8 Little Grebe - I know they're common enough but up until a couple of weeks ago I had found them extremely elusive, but now there were adults and juvs just a few feet away
There were 3 ruffs and 100's of lapwings on the scrapes and assorted waterfowl. The best sightings were from the banks leading up to the beach this included many redshank, 10 or more avocets (one really close see pic),
*Sandwich Terns* and also stunning views of a
*Spotted Redshank* (see pic). To top all this off a peregrine came over the carpark whilst we were packing away :king:
Sunday 1st October - Sadly no lifers today, but our luck continued to hold out with the weather until mid afternoon. The weather had treated us well so we couldn't complain as the weather forcasts had been very grim. A bit more wind to bring unusual migrants would have been nice though o
In the morning we did Holkham Pines. Saw several members of the tit flock - blue, great, coal, along with a female blackcap, wrens and goldcrests, allthough not their mate the yellow browed warbler lol. Little grebes, shelduck, teal etc on the pools. Overhead we saw 5 jays fly over, 2 sparrowhawks, a peregrine and numbers of migratory sand martins. From the hide we could see a pair of Marsh Harriers hunting and one stopped in a field with its kill.
I was a bit confused about the geese though, had heard there were a big flock of pink-feet in the area, we could certainly see a few large flocks of geese (possibly a few hundred geese in total), but most of them were far off and it was a bad light to distinguish them from greylag. There were smaller groupings of geese in the foreground (in groups of 5-7ish) and these ones were definately greylag. Please could anyone tell me if the larger flocks were pink-feet or are there also large flocks of greylag in the area? This was around lunchtime. Went up to Holme Bird Observatory (NOA), however our luck ran out with the weather, the skys opened and there was some thunder and lightning. Didn't see much up there at all, but was interested to observe an almost completely leucistic female pheasant. Had an interesting chat with the staff there who told us about their work and the best times to come back. Had to leave then to drive back to brum as time was getting on and it was raining again. Last notable sighting was a rather windswept kestel on the drive out of Holme.