In search of winter birds, Day 2 - Norfolk 2015

After the now traditional hearty breakfast we planned our day and prepared to head off. There were a few bits and pieces on the feeders in the garden but nothing of much note, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Coal Tit were probably the most notable. 

Wolferton

We started the day at Wolferton in search of the elusive Golden Pheasant. We have tried for this species in previous years but without success, but this year Paul's local knowledge gave us hope. We headed for the northern road that forms the Wolverton triangle and slowly  searched the area. Our first circuit was without success, but on our second circuit we flushed a stunning male bird, who was feeding right on the edge on a clearing. This was our second new species for our annual Norfolk trip and one we were very pleased to get.

Hunstanton

Our next destination was Hunstanton and the coach park opposite Tesco's. Two Waxwing had been visiting trees in the car park all week, but not today. We searched the area for a while but failed miserably. Our next stop was the cliffs at Hunstanton; this would give us a view of the sea in search of ducks and also views of Northern Fulmars. The sea was very quiet and other than a couple of flocks of Sanderling passing by there was nothing of note. We did get some cracking views of Fulmars though as the hung in the stiff breeze.

Fulmar - Hunstanton

Holme Beach

We are fortunate in that when we stay in Norfolk we stay in the home of a birder and are able too enjoy his choice of artwork. One of my favourite artists at the moment is Darren Woodhead (http://www.darrenwoodheadartist.co.uk/) and it was a very pleasant surprise to see one of his pictures hanging on the wall in the cottage. The painting is of a flock of Fieldfares, and a lone Waxwing, feeding in a clump of Sea Buckthorn. 

Darren Woodhead Painting of Fieldfares on Sea Buckthorn 

Our next stop of the day was Holme Beach and here the image on the wall came to life as we were greeted with a flock of Fieldfare, minus the Waxwing, feeding in a clump of Sea Buckthorn. As we enjoyed the birds we could just imagine Darren sat with us painting the scene.

Fieldfare - Holme Beach

Fieldfare - Holme Beach

Our main reason for going to Holme was to look for the flock of Snow Buntings that were known to be present. After spending a few minutes with the Fieldfares we headed on in search of our quarry. We first stubbled across a few Knot that were feeding in the nearby pools, they were extremely approachable, the individual below was the tamest.

Knot - Holme Beach

There were good numbers of Skylark feeding in the sand dunes and as we homed in on the Snow Buntings we stubbled across some pretty of approachable individuals.

Skylark - Holme Beach

There were about 20 Snow Buntings present but they were constantly moving back and forth along the beach. We eventually pinned them down and were able to get some cracking views before they took flight. 

Snow Buntings - Holme Beach

Snow Bunting - Holme Beach

Thornham

Thornham Point has been a regular site for Twite and Rock Pipit over the last few years, except last year that is. After Holme we headed there and were quickly on to a few Rock Pipits. A handful of wader species were present, mostly Redshank but also Grey Plover, Ringed Plover and Curlew. 

Redshank - Thornham

Curlew - Thornham

We eventually picked up the Twite flock, about 30 birds were feeding on vegetation on the salt-marsh. Typically they come to the gutter of the nearby building to drink, but that was not to be the case today.

Titchwell

Our next stop was the RSPB's Titchwell reserve, this is usually a great place for a variety of wader and duck species but also a good place to look out to sea for divers and sea duck. We arrived at Titchwell and headed straight out along the footpath to the beach. The scrape on the north had the best to offer with several Ruff, Snipe, Dunlin, Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits present. At the back of the scrape there were several pipits, including two Water Pipits, four Rock Pipits and a couple of Meadow Pipits, a Bearded Tit joined them for a while and gave good but distant views.

We continued along the footpath adding a few more species to our trip total and then picked up an Avocet and Black-tailed Godwit, both of which had colour rings. As regular readers will know I am constantly on the lookout for colour-ringed birds, so will endeavour to find out where these were from.

Colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit - Titchwell

A quick check on the sea was disappointing, with only Common Scoter and Goldeneye recorded. It has been suggested that the storms of last years have changed the dynamics of the seabed and therefore there are no sea duck present, hopefully things will be back to normal next year.

A149 at Burham Overy Staithe
We intended to finish the day Lady Anne's Drive, but on the way we headed past Burham Overy Staithe on the A149. As we headed towards the lay-by there were a group of birders appearing to be watching something, so we pulled in to have a look. As it turns out they weren't watching anything but we stayed for a while. It was a good choice as we soon picked up a Short-eared Owl, several Marsh Harriers, three Common Buzzards, including a very pale individual similar to others I had seen on the continent, a Barn Owl and a Rough-legged Buzzard.

Lady Anne's Drive
We eventually arrived at Lady Anne's Drive and had another couple of Barn Owls and four Woodcocks, which was in fact our target bird.

We ended the day on 85 species bringing our total for the trip to 101.

In Search of Winter Birds - Norfolk 2013 Day 2

Our day began with a re-calculation of last nights species total, from the lowly 63 species that we thought we had recorded, to the dizzy heights of 68. There is no reason for the miscalculation other than over indulgence in ale from the nearby pub followed by a couple of healthy drams of Talisker before bed....not the wisest thing to do when you have a full day's birding ahead of you!

After a hearty home cooked breakfast we ventured out into the crisp morning air. Overnight  light snow was still lying on the ground so we knew it was going to be cold, but the brisk north-westerly wind was unexpected. 

Corn Bunting Miliaria calandra

We began our day with a trip to Choseley Barns, a former site for tree sparrow, but sadly no more. Nonetheless, there are still good birds to be seen in this area and today was no exception. Yellowhammer, brambling, chaffinch, linnet, and the now very difficult corn bunting were present in the hedges whilst grey partridges were unusually present in good numbers in the fields.

Corn Bunting Miliaria calandra

In Hampshire, species such as corn bunting and yellowhammer have disappeared from many of the their former haunts, which makes these trips to Norfolk even more enjoyable; not only do you get to see the range of species, but in good numbers too.

Brambling Fringilla montifringilla and Chaffinch's F. coelebs

The farm has recently entered a High Level Stewardship scheme and it seems to be paying dividends, since the number and diversity of species was great, and this in turn attracted interesting predators, the most noteworthy being a hunting merlin which headed low over the fields in search of food.

Brambling and Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella

Our next stop was the RSPB reserve at Titchwell, a great place for wintering ducks and waders and for looking out to sea for sea ducks and divers. We arrived in glorious sun but before long a very ominous dark cloud appeared on the horizon. The pasture to the west of the reserve was excellent, golden plover, curlew, lapwing, black-tailed godwit and ruff were all present, a great start to our visit.

Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata, one drake and two ducks 

In contrast to the pasture, the scrapes were much quieter. The usual species were present, shoveler, shelduck, mallard, gadwall and teal, with a single female red-crested pochard putting in a surprise appearance. Wading birds were relatively thin on the ground, with pied avocet and a single spotted redshank the most noteworthy.

Sanderling Calidris alba

Our timing was not great because before we reached the second hide the storm arrived, and with it a deluge of hail and sleet and an increase in wind speed. After it had passed we headed out to look at the sea, the strong wind and rough sea made viewing difficult, but we still managed common scoter, only four though, loads of goldeneye, great-crested grebe and red-throated diver. Thousands of gulls were roosting on the beach whilst sanderling, redshank and bar-tailed godwit fed amongst them.

Snow Buntings Plectrophenax nivalis

Whilst at Titchwell, we were told of a flock of snow buntings that were frequenting the dunes at Holme, so you can guess where our next stop was. We parked in the car park, walked out across the golf course and before long we were watching a flock of around 80 birds, which had joined with even more goldfinch's and skylarks. It doesn't matter how often you see them snow buntings are spectacular, and when you have a flock of 80, you can see where the phrase a 'blizzard' of snow buntings comes from.

Dunlin Calidris alpina (left) Knot Calidris canutus (right)

Holme was also great for waders and the dunlin and knot were extremely approachable, giving the ideal opportunity for photography. The image above provides an excellent change to compare two species that can be easily confused by the inexperienced birder.

Knots in flight

After Holme we headed to Wells harbour, where a common seal had hauled out on the sand, before heading to our final destination of Holkham Park.

Common Seal Phoca vitulina

There was not much to report from Holkham, and with no large flocks of geese to see dropping in at Lady Anne's Drive, we headed back to our lodgings and some freshly caught mussels.

Norfolk - In Search of Winter Birds - 28th - 31st January 2011

Winter visits to Norfolk in search of birds has been a feature of January for many years now, and each time four mates and I get the chance to catch up, eat some good food, drink whiskey and wine and spend a few days birding. Because most of us come from the south coast, we start our weekend at a convenient meeting point enroute to the north Norfolk coast. This year was no different and we began our trip with a visit to the RSPB reserve of Lakenheath Fen.

Lakenheath Fen has been a good starting point for us in the past as we have seen bittern, common crane and great grey shrike, but the highlight must be the penduline tit that we found in 2009.

Penduline Tit Lakenheath Fen 26th January 2009 

This year the reserve seemed fairly quiet except for a selection of tits and finches on the feeders, including brambling and lesser redpoll. A stroll around the reserve produced the usual marsh harriers, little egret and a couple of Egyptian geese and then we heard common cranes calling. We usually hear them during our visits, but despite their large size, they can be a difficult species to locate. This time though, five birds were present, a pair with their offspring of last year and two other birds which we presumed to be another pair.

Family Party of Common Cranes at Lakenheath Fen January 2011

We continued our journey north, with our next stop being the Wildlife and Wetland Trust reserve of Welney. Welney guarantees whooper swans and the surrounding fields usually guarantee Bewick's; this year large numbers of both species were present, on the reserve and the surrounding fields.

Whooper Swan at Welney January 2011

A quick scan from the hide produced more Egyptian geese and loads of tufted ducks and pochards; other ducks included goldeneye and single long-tailed duck, which apparently is only the fifth for the reserve. We were quite surprised to learn that it was only the fifth record, but went you think about it, long-tailed duck is more of a coastal species, and therefore does not venture to inland lakes that often......probably utter rubbish but we were happy with that theory.

Drake Pochard at Welney January 2011

Hiding amongst the other ducks, with their heads tucked back, were three ruddy ducks. The cull of this species as protection for the white headed duck in Spain, has made it a difficult species to catch up with in recent years, I wonder how long these three have left?


With time moving on we headed north to the village of East Beckham, where we had booked a cottage for the weekend. After unloading the cars we settled down to discuss our plans for the weekend, wearing our new BTO beanie hats.

The team sporting our new BTO beanie hats January 2011

Saturday 29th began with a quick trip to Sheringham in search of purple sandpipers, our search was in vain but we did see several red throated divers on the sea and flying past. The stubble fields at Weybourne were our next stop, in search of lapland buntings. After trudging around for about half an hour a flock of lappys flew over us and landed in the field right next to the car.....unfortunately due to the height of the stubble and the size of the birds we never did manage to relocate them. 


The RSPB reserve of Titchwell proved to be a much more rewarding place; the sea was full of divers and sea duck. Common scoters were present in their thousands along with red-breasted mergansers and goldeneyes, but viewing was difficult due to the choppy seas and moderate north-easterly breeze....it was freezing looking out to sea. 


One of our target birds for this trip was the northern harrier which has been present for much of the winter, we were lucky enough to get prolonged views of this bird on two occasions as it hunted over the freshwater marsh to the west of the reserve. The reserve itself hosted a selection of finches and wading birds; a very obliging spotted redshank fed next to the path providing an ideal photo opportunity.

Spotted Redshank at Titchwell January 2011

Amongst the dry weedy areas on the scrape a mixed flock of skylarks and twite were feeding. In previous years we have seen twite at Thornham, so it was nice to catch up with them here and save on travelling time. As I was watching the twite feeding I noticed that one bird had been ringed with a single metal ring and three colour rings (one on the right tarsus and two on the left). I quickly took down the colour combination, and passed it onto a friend who works for the BTO. This bird was first ringed as a chick on 4th June 2010 in The Pennines, it was sighted again in on 8th August 2010 at a quarry 3 kilometres to the north-east of the original ringing site, and has not been seen subsequently. Our sighting was 195 kilometres south-east of the ringing site and 239 days later. I think this is an excellent example of the value of ringing/colour ringing birds; I will certainly be looking out for this individual next year!


Burham Overy Staithe was our next stop in search of rough legged buzzards, three had been reported in the area but with the light fading fast we didn't hold out much hope of seeing one. However a scan of the tops of the bushes rewarded us with distant views of an absolutely classic rough leg. As we were watching this bird a second flew past, before both birds headed into the nearby wood to roost. We ended the day at Lady Anne's Drive, Holkham to watch the pink-footed geese come in, which is always a spectacle worth seeing. As we waited barn owls hunted over the marsh and woodcocks emerged from the woods to feed.

Pink feet falling from the skies at Holkham

Sunday 30th was a calmer, brighter but colder day. After a brief stop at Sheringham in search of the purple sands, no luck again, we headed off the Cley and Salthouse. The snow buntings in the car park at Salthouse proved to be easy, as once again they were being fed...I never tire of seeing these cracking birds.......

Snow Bunting Salthouse

........the excellent light provided me with the opportunity to practice my photography and take some more turnstone shots.

Roosting Turnstone at Salthouse January 2011

It was the east bank at Cley which produced the best birds of the day, 10 stunning shore larks. These birds are another species which are one of the reasons we come to Norfolk in the winter since they are very unusual on the south coast of England.

Shore Lark on the Beach at Cley ©T. D. Codlin

At least four of these birds had very bright black and yellow heads, others were much duller. Apparently the sexes are similar, therefore it is probable that the duller birds were juveniles...

Shore Lark on the Beach at Cley ©T. D. Codlin

......at one point the whole flock crouched down low to the ground and were clearly looking up, I looked up to see what was bothering them and soaring overhead was a peregrine falcon. As we wandered back to the car we were greeted with views of a fly-by spoonbill, four ruff and five pied avocet, the sea was extremely calm, in stark contrast to the previous day. A single eider duck was just off shore along with over 40 red throated divers and a single fly-by black throated diver. Along the east bank, enroute back to the car, a single drake American wigeon fed with its Eurasian counterparts.


Choseley Farm was our next stop, in search of corn buntings and a single waxwing. There have been so many waxwings around this winter, and in such large flocks, that it was sad to see this lone individual surveying its surroundings.

Lone Waxwing at along road to Choseley Farm

The day ended with a visit to Warham Greens to see the harrier roost. As we pulled up in the car park a large flock of dark-bellied brent geese, with at least 15 light-bellied's were feeding in the adjacent field. The harrier roost was the best we had seen for years with at least 10 hen harriers,  three marsh harriers and single peregrine and merlin; a chorus of singing grey partridge rounded off the evening.


Monday 31st and time to head home. We started again at Sheringham where three of us finally caught up with a purple sandpipier, before it disappeared. We then headed south to Cantley Marshes in the hope of catching up with the lesser white-fronted goose that had been there. No such luck with this bird but we did catch up with around 30 Taiga bean geese, three white-fronted....which got us going for a few minutes, and another ringtail hen harrier. But the most surprising bird for me was the hooded crow, this species used to winter more on the east coast, but in recent years they have been few and far between.


Well that thats all folks! The end of another great weekends birding in Norfolk where we saw 123 species in four days, which we thought was a reasonable total given our laid back approach. Lets hope the weather and the birds are as good next year.