The Annual Birding Visit to Norfolk - Part 1

The weekend of Storm Ciara we were booked to go to Norfolk, we drove down on the Saturday in glorious weather calling in at Salthouse before going to our digs to find the Waxwing that had been showing well there. We got there about 3pm and had a good a good wander along with a few other birders, but there was no sign, although looking at twitter etc. there were some nice photos of it from earlier in the day! It must have settled down somewhere to get out of the impending storm, which in retrospect we should have done the following day!

On the Sunday all the reserves were shut. So we ended up mooching along the coast and as a result, and a long story I got covered in mud and we nearly had the door of the car blown off, so we will consign that day to the rubbish heap as far as birding is concerned.

Monday was different story, we checked with the RSPB at Titchwell and headed there, it was still windy but nothing like Sunday. The birds didn't seem to agree though and the lagoons were very sparsely populated, with most birds staying in or near the reeds. So not many photos for what was mostly a dull day:
Blue Tit,

 Little Grebe,

 Avocet,

 Teal

 and Knot

We only clocked up 32 species for the day there. We did pop to Holkam in the off chance that some remaining Pink-footed Geese would turn up to roost, but again with the high winds and snow! The only geese seen were Brents and Greylag. Although a Barn Owl and the Marsh Harriers did brighten the evening up for us.

Tuesday saw us go to Snettisham for the day, again it was very windy, but a lot brighter. Cutting across country from Wells where we were staying, we saw plenty of Hare, which was very nice;

and Red-Legged partridge in good numbers;

At Snettisham it was very windy to say the least, so the hide windows facing the sea remain firmly shut! The pools on the other side of the hides were quite busy though. With plenty of Goldeneye;

Wigeon,

 Lapwing,

Greylag,

 Great Crested Grebe,

 Turnstone,

 Little Grebe,

 Cormorant,  Mute Swan, Tufted Duck and Shoveler. Two Peregrines put in an appearance that got the smaller Wildfowl excited;

There were brief visits by a pair of Egyptian Geese and a Little Egret that helped the day along nicely.

On the Seaward side on the mud were plenty of Shelduck, Knot, Dunlin, Golden Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover.
Grey Plover

and Redshank.

Most were much too distant to photograph. The sunset though was worth photographing:

This post is I think long enough for starters I will do the rest tomorrow!

Norfolk Day 1 - RSPB Titchwell & Holkham

We have just returned from a wonderful week in Norfolk, despite two or three days of  bad weather. I will start with our first day, when we had the best weather of the week, with glorious sunshine, but shall we say the wind made it a tad on the cool side (actually read that as bl**dy freezing!)

We were down there as usual with Jo and Jimmy, but were joined for the first two days by our great friends Tim and Wendy. As they hadn't done a birding trip to Norfolk before we elected to start with RSPB Titchwell and then head down to Holkham for the Pink-footed Geese arriving at dusk.

Titchwell was brilliant as usual with plenty of waterfowl and waders. We started by heading down to the screen in case there was anything of note on the pool, on previous visits we have seen Waxwing and Red-crested Pochard down there and with this being a Waxwing year we had our fingers crossed, however nobody had told the Waxwings we were coming! Never mind.

We did find some Red-legged Partridge down in the field, though proving to be a bit camera shy.

The pool was pretty much empty apart from Mallard and Coot, so we went back and walked to the main part of the reserve, stopping at the first hide, walking on to the shore and then back to the main hides and here are a few shots of some of what we saw on the way:
Marsh Harrier

 Greylags

 Teal, Wigeon, Lawpings.....

 Little Egret

 Teal

 Ringed Plover

 Dunlin

 Black-tailed Godwit

 Little Grebe

Redshank

 Common Gull

 Sanderling

 Shoveler

 Snipe

 Whooper Swans

Bar-tailed Godwit

Plus much more of course, we left Titchwell about 2.30pm to drive down to Holkham and get set up in the hide for the Pink-footedGeese coming in. There were plenty of Wigeon, Lapwing and Geese already there:

The Geese did come in, but not in the numbers that we have seen in the past, can't win them all!

More to follow!

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..........