We had a decent weather day on the Wednesday the wind had died down just a little, so we parked up on Lady Anne's Drive at Holkam with the view to spend the day. We first walked to see the Shore Larks and Snow Buntings, but the birds were very mobile in the wind and we only had a fleeting glimpse of one Shore Lark and perhaps groups of Snow Bunting zooming around, but never staying put. There were also Meadow Pipits, Linnet and Skylark, but nothing close enough for decent photos so I won't bother putting any on here.
On the way back we stopped at the benches overlooking the dunes at the top of the stairs down to the beach, where some Brent Geese offered some nice views;
Oh I forgot as we left the car a Grey Partridge was busily feeding on the adjacent field;
After the Shore Lark expedition we walked down to the Jordan Hide to see what was about and we had a bit of a Geese fest! But started with a nice Kestrel;
that later flew in front of the hide,
as did this Mute Swan.
Plenty of Greylag Geese of course,
some Barnacle Geese
and some White-fronted Geese
as well as Egyptian and Pink-footed Geese.
The Wells Rough-legged Buzzard put in an appearance and decided to roost up miles away, that is it in the tree honest! Plus a Muntjac in the grass.
Ducks (mainly Wigeon) up in a panic
as one of the many Marsh Harriers pay a visit!
A Thoroughly good day.
The weather wasn't kind to us the following day, the wind just didn't let up, and along with that came a fair bit of rain, so we elected for another mooch day, trawling some nice spots we know along the coast, we started with Brancaster Staithe, it is one of my favourite drop ins because you never know what you are going to find, on this occasion though with the wind being so high, the birds were mostly sheltering elsewhere, but the Turnstones are a hardy bunch and came quite close to the car;
We travelled along the coast, not seeing a huge variety of birds, but did get one or two;
A Bar-tailed Godwit,
Grey Plover,
Little Egret
and Redshank
were the few that were photographable (is that a word?) A Greenshank was seen at Morston Quay, then a huge gathering of Pied Wagtail at dusk at Blakeney Harbour, we are guessing at least 200, one even landed on the windscreen wiper, then looked at us in amazement (not quite sure what an amazed Wagtail looks like!) through the windscreen before flying off.
Last day took us to Sculthorpe more for a nice cold wander around the reserve;
Snowdrops,
Bullfinch,
Pheasant,
Bank Vole,
Long-tailed Tit,
Greenfinch,
Coal Tit
Goldfinch,
Brambling,
Nuthatch
and another Brambling.
So that concludes our Norfolk trip, with 86 species seen, someway behind some of our visits, but not bad considering the weather.
