Holkham to Wells and back.. and a little bit more!

With good weather forecast and the prospect of a crayfish bap for lunch we made a plan for a walk from Holkham to Wells-next-the-Sea and back finishing at the Jordan Hide at Holkam.

The start at Holkham was pretty much as expected with Wigeon, Teal, Oystercatcher and Brent Geese about, but we were surprised by a flyover of a Red Kite, Marsh Harrier and a Buzzard:

The walk to Wells didn't produce a great deal in Birding terms, it was just a fabulous walk in the sunshine, with a Muntjac showing well followed by the promised Crayfish.

 Whilst enjoying our lunch took a few snaps of the locals:

 After lunch we walked up to the beach, seeing lots of Oystercatchers and other waders in the distance:

 Then along the beach for a bit before dropping into the woods to walk back through the trees

The woodland walk was very uneventful, but we had a swinging time!

We eventually popped back out onto the main path and stopped for a coffee. We were all squeezed onto a bench enjoying our beverage, when Jimmy shouted.. Barn Owl, we all caught a glimpse is it swept past the other side of the hedge, so we asll scrambled up the bank and scanned the adjoining fields, where we found it happily quartering the field in the sunshine:

We spent a good 20 minutes watching this Owl until he drifted away. So onwards back to Holkham, we dropped a few things off at the car before, heading off to the hides, but as we headed back to the paths, we glanced across an adjacent field, to find the Barn Owl having a breather!

So off to the Jordan hide about another mile along the paths. Never having been to this hide before, it seemed like we were never going to get there. But eventually we did and then typically after a day walking we opened the 'windows' and thought, there was nothing there! We were wrong...................

After a few minutes another Barn Owl appeared, plenty of Pheasant, then Red-legged Partridge, 

then the Cormorants started arriving. Directly in front of the hide, probably about a quarter of a mile away was a row of trees, which by dusk was full of Cormorants. As we were scanning with bins a large white bird flew into my field of view, everyone nearly had a heart attack when I shouted 'Spoonbill' sadly it didn't stop and just kept going heading Brancaster way!

Still another cracking day!  More to come..........