Up early and straight to Wells Harbour in very poor light. Not much so quick coffee and long wander on Holkham Beach. Very grey so left the camera in the car. Shore larks flew off and out of sight and just a Red breasted merganser seen during a 15 minute sea watch. Sea was very choppy. By the time I returned to the car the light was better with patches of blue sky.
Drove to Cley beach: gannets on the horizon, fly through goosander but too late for the auk passage. A large flock of Snow buntings bounced their way west and lost to view before I could fire off a photo. Coffee at the Visitors' Centre and off to the central hides. Spoonbills, pintail, avocets before I wandered down the East bank. Very little here so back to the car and a quick visit to Warham Greens, just curlews and Brent geese. Stop offs at Brancaster harbour and Choseley drying barns before completing the day and a very grey Titchwell apart form a bright 20 minutes when I was on the beach. Plenty of wader movement west and the day finished off in semi darkness by 4.45pm with a Barn owl making an appearance over Thornham Marsh, shortly followed in almost complete darkness by a 2nd owl. Some very grainy photos due to high ISO.
Species List:
- Mute swan
- Whooper swan
- White fronted geese
- Pink footed geese
- Greylag geese
- Canada goose
- Brent goose
- Shelduck
- Egyptian geese
- Mallard
- Gadwall
- Pintail
- Shoveler
- Wigeon
- Teal
- Pochard
- Red crested pochard
- Goosander
- Red breasted merganser
- Red kegged partridge
- Grey partridge
- Pheasant
- Red throated diver
- Little grebe
- Great crested grebe
- Gannet
- Cormorant
- Little egret
- Grey heron
- Spoonbill
- Red kite
- Marsh harrier
- Common buzzard
- Kestrel
- Water rail (heard)
- Moorhen
- Coot
- Oystercatcher
- Avocet
- Ringed plover
- Grey plover
- Golden plover
- Lapwing
- Sanderling
- Turnstone
- Dunlin
- Ruff
- Redshank
- Black tailed godwit
- Bar tailed godwit
- Curlew
- Snipe
- Black headed gull
- Common gull
- Mediterranean gull
- Herring gull
- Lesser black backed gull
- Wood pigeon
- Collared dove
- Barn owl
- Skylark
- Shore lark
- Meadow pipit
- Pied wagtail
- Dunnock
- Wren
- Robin
- Song thrush
- Blackbird
- Goldcrest
- Cetti's warbler (heard)
- Great tit
- Blue tit
- Long tailed tit
- Magpie
- Carrion crow
- Rook
- Jackdaw
- Starling
- House sparrow
- Chaffinch
- Linnet
- Goldfinch
- Greenfinch
- Reed bunting
- Yellowhammer
- Snow bunting
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Grey heron |
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| Greylag goose |
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| Shelduck |
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| Avocets, Greylag and Shelduck |
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| Spoonbill coming into breeding plumage |
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| 2 Spoonbills |
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| Red crested pochard |
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| Drake mandarin from the ornamental duck pond at Blakeney |
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| Cormorant |
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| Redshank |
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| Marsh harrier with an apparent fungal growth on the leg |
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| Brent geese |
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| Brent goose |
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| Very distant Whooper swan with Pintail behind at Titchwell |
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| Gulls: 3 Black headed and 3 Mediterranean gulls (2nd, 3rd and 4th from the left.) |
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| Incoming Brent geese |
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| Golden plover, some entering into breeding plumage at Titchwell. |
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| 2 more Spoonbill |
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| Bar tailed godwit, Titchwell beach |
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| Bar tailed godwit |
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| Dunlin |
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| Bar tailed godwits with a Grey plover at the back showing the dark blotch on the underwing. |
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| Grey plover |
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| Series of a 3rd year pale Herring gull |
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| Adult Herring gull |
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| Common gull series |
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| Another shot of the Marsh harrier |
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| Turnstone leading a small flock of Dunlin |
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| Oystercatcher |
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| Oystercatcher, Titchwell beach |
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| Adult Herring gull |
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| Titchwell Curlew at dusk |
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| Another evening Curlew |
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| Barn owl hunting over Thornham Marsh at dusk |
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| Same owl |
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| Note dark upperwing plumage |
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| 2nd Barn owl, much less dark on wings and head. |
