Norfolk Day 28.10.19

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.

Ominous clouds at Cley Beach, early morning

Little egret, East Bank, Cley

Herring gull, Brancaster Harbour

Turnstone by name, Turnstone by nature

Brancaster Harbour in good light

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.

Sleeping drake teal

Bright eyed shoveler

Overhead Golden plover

Superb plumage on a drake teal

Dunlin

Ruff

Meadow pipit

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.

Goose stepping Greylag

Curlew in blue afternoon light

Distant grey plover

Brent geese over the beach

Rockpooling Oystercatcher

Black tailed godwit

Preening redshank

Golden plover

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

1. red throated diver
2. great crested grebe
3. gannet
4. cormorant
5. Little egret
6. Grey heron
7. Mute swan
8. Pink footed goose
9. Greylag goose
10. Canada goose
11. Brent goose
12. Shelduck
13. Egyptian goose
14. Mallard
15. Gadwall
16. Shoveler
17. Wigeon
18. Teal
19. Pochard
20. Tufted duck
21. Common scoter
22. Red kite
23. Marsh harrier
24. Common buzzard
25. Kestrel
26. Red legged partridge
27. Grey partridge
28. Pheasant
29. Water rial (heard)
30. Moorhen
31. Coot
32. Oystercatcher
33. Avocet
34. Ringed plover
35. Grey plover
36. Golden plover
37. Lapwing
38. Knot
39. Sanderling
40. Turnstone
41. Dunlin
42. Redshank
43. Spotted redshank
44. Black tailed godwit
45. Bar tailed godwit
46. Curlew
47. Ruff
48. Great skua
49. Black headed gull
50. Common gull
51. Herring gull
52. Lesser black backed gull
53. Greater black backed gull
54. Little auk
55. Puffin
56. Guillemot
57. Stock dove
58. Wood pigeon
59. Collared dove
60. Kingfisher
61. Skylark
62. Water pipit
63. Rock pipit
64. Meadow pipit
65. Pied wagtail
66. Wren
67. Dunnock
68. Robin
69. Redwing
70. Mistle thrush
71. Song thrush
72. Blackbird
73. Cetti's warbler (heard)
74. Great tit
75. Blue tit
76. Coal tit
77. Long tailed tit
78. Bearded reedling (heard)
79. Magpie
80. Jay
81. Jackdaw
82. Carrion crow
83. Rook
84. Starling
85. House sparrow
86. Chaffinch
87. Greenfinch
88. Linnet
89. Goldfinch
90. Twite
91. Reed bunting
92. Snow bunting
93. Yellowhammer

    

    Yet another redshank