Scraping the ice of the car at 5.45am, I then set off for Norfolk. The forecast hinted at sunny conditions and a warm, possibly 15C day. This was totally inaccurate as I arrived in Wells for a coffee in temps touching 3C and then headed to Cley Beach for a sea watch where the sun appeared for a while before heavy grey clouds rolled over threatening rain. I had no waterproofs with me so fingers crossed.
A large line of sea watchers were already present upon my arrival so I set my scope up a little away from this group as I wanted to find my own birds, not be told where they were. One chap in particular was calling every bird, position, direction, height, which buoy etc which sometimes can be helpful whilst other times I can live without it.
There was certainly a steady stream of birds: Great skua, Little auk, Guillemot, Red throated diver, Great crested grebe, Little gulls, puffin and brent geese. Ringed plover and wigeon, along with cormorant were particularly visible and there was a steady stream of gannets. It was too windy for hand held photos so I set off for a check around Walsey Hills and East Bank with a view to check Arnold's Marsh. A snow bunting was noted on the Beach Road.
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| Ominous clouds at Cley Beach, early morning |
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| Little egret, East Bank, Cley |
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| Herring gull, Brancaster Harbour |
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| Turnstone by name, Turnstone by nature |
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| Brancaster Harbour in good light |
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| Another turnstone |
Very little seen, a few Bearded reedlings "pinged" from the reeds and a Spotted redshank dropped into The Serpentine but everything else was as expected, so off to the Visitors' Centre for double espresso.
With the clocks having gone back, I knew I only had a few hours for photos so headed west, checking Lady Anne's Drive before arriving at Brancaster Harbour. Here the first Black tailed godwit of the day as well as turnstones, redshanks, a variety of gulls and two distant bar tailed godwits.
I moved on, checking Choseley Drying Barns but just added finches to the day list so off to Titchwell. I arrived to find a very full carpark having forgotten it was half term.
I checked the day list in the centre and headed off to the Island hide. All as expected here, with the sun appearing giving an afternoon blue light tinge to photos of regular waders and wildfowl.
I headed for the beach, checking Thornham Marsh on the left. Plenty of Brent geese and Little egrets as more bearded reedlings pinged away, out of site.
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| Sleeping drake teal |
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| Bright eyed shoveler |
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| Overhead Golden plover |
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| Superb plumage on a drake teal |
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| Dunlin |
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| Ruff |
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| Meadow pipit |
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| Suspected Water Pipit |
The beach was superb with a great variety of waders on the tide line including the first Sanderling, Grey plover and Oystercatchers of the day.
Then, with the sun sinking, off to the Parrinder Hide. Here, pipit confusion as several birders were all calling pipits but different ones and trying to explain which ones were where. A quick check revealed 1 Water pipit, 2 Rock pipits and a fair few Meadow pipits. 200 Golden plover descended on to the island and an unseen predator put everything up. I checked the dunlin but they were just dunlin! Plenty of ruff, avocets, a few Ringed plover and numerous teal and shoveler. A flock of 30+ linnets landed in recently cut reeds for the seed heads before I wandered off back to the car.
I finished the day hoping for a short eared owl at Thornham where I got a pair of twite instead and then popped down to Hunstanton to see if the red rumped swallow was still about. No birders at the Sea Life Centre hinted that it probably wasn't and no sign in the 20 minutes I spent there in ever decreasing light.
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| Goose stepping Greylag |
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| Curlew in blue afternoon light |
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| Distant grey plover |
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| Brent geese over the beach |
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| Rockpooling Oystercatcher |
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| Black tailed godwit |
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| Preening redshank |
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| Golden plover |
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| One of many drake shoveler |
A great day to visit with the weather conditions making photography tricky as one minute it was sunny followed by light clouds, heavy grey clouds, drizzle and then sunny with a rainbow.
Species list
- red throated diver
- great crested grebe
- gannet
- cormorant
- Little egret
- Grey heron
- Mute swan
- Pink footed goose
- Greylag goose
- Canada goose
- Brent goose
- Shelduck
- Egyptian goose
- Mallard
- Gadwall
- Shoveler
- Wigeon
- Teal
- Pochard
- Tufted duck
- Common scoter
- Red kite
- Marsh harrier
- Common buzzard
- Kestrel
- Red legged partridge
- Grey partridge
- Pheasant
- Water rial (heard)
- Moorhen
- Coot
- Oystercatcher
- Avocet
- Ringed plover
- Grey plover
- Golden plover
- Lapwing
- Knot
- Sanderling
- Turnstone
- Dunlin
- Redshank
- Spotted redshank
- Black tailed godwit
- Bar tailed godwit
- Curlew
- Ruff
- Great skua
- Black headed gull
- Common gull
- Herring gull
- Lesser black backed gull
- Greater black backed gull
- Little auk
- Puffin
- Guillemot
- Stock dove
- Wood pigeon
- Collared dove
- Kingfisher
- Skylark
- Water pipit
- Rock pipit
- Meadow pipit
- Pied wagtail
- Wren
- Dunnock
- Robin
- Redwing
- Mistle thrush
- Song thrush
- Blackbird
- Cetti's warbler (heard)
- Great tit
- Blue tit
- Coal tit
- Long tailed tit
- Bearded reedling (heard)
- Magpie
- Jay
- Jackdaw
- Carrion crow
- Rook
- Starling
- House sparrow
- Chaffinch
- Greenfinch
- Linnet
- Goldfinch
- Twite
- Reed bunting
- Snow bunting
- Yellowhammer
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| Yet another redshank |
