TITCHWELL RESERVE AND BEACH - CHOSELEY BARNS - BURNHAM OVERY STAITHE - STIFFKEY MARSHES - WEYBOURNE - HOLKHAM LADY ANNE'S DRIVE
WEATHER: dull and overcast all day - non-stop rain from 12 noon. Top temp 6C
We knew that the rasin was on its way and that we had only the morning to find a few species. We both wanted to visit Titchwell again and to walk down to the beach to scan the shoreline and the sea and so that is what we did first thing this morning.
Using my Thermal Image Camera we picked out another Woodcock but the birds walked away from the path and out of site. A few Muntjac Deer were also found.
The pools at Titchwell held a few species but gernerally the number of birds and species was quite low compared to previous years. We saw all the usual ducks and listed the seven common species as well as Shelduck and Pintail.On the final brackish pool before the beach there was a female Greater Scaup, this bird was quite distant d it was with a small flock of Tufted Ducks. The only waders present were Lapwing, Redshank, Curlew and Black--tailed Godwits.
Female Scaup on the brackish lagoon at Titchwell
On the beach we searched for a flock of Snow Buntings that had been seen yesterday without luck, the tide was low and the shoreline quite distant. We added a few wading speices: Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover and Bar-tailed Godwit.
The sea looked grey and desolate but after a few minutes we found a single Red-throated Diver, a large flock of Common Scoter in flight, Great Crested Grebes and Red-breatsed Mergansers. We walked a few hundred meters eastward searching for the buntings and again nothing was found.
Scanning a bay we picked out two Great Northern Divers and a Slavonian Grebe with sveral Goldeneye Ducks. Guy was disappointed with our tally based on previous visits it was a poor show,
Before we left we walked the Meadow and Fen trails looking for Firecrest and Woodcock, we saw many Long-tailed Tits, Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinches, Robins, Dunnocks and Blackbirds, Goldcrests but not the Firecrest. We made an effort to see the Tawny Owls in their usual place, we saw one of them.
Before we stopped for a hot drink and a bacon butty we drove up to the Choseley Barns to look for farmland species such as Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting. The fields were full of birds and a large 'Game Shoot' was going on in the distance. Huge numbers of corvids, gulls, Lapwings and Geese were constantlky in the air becuase of the shooting noise.
the lagoons at Titchwell were very quiet, not many birds at all!
We picked out Common Buzzard and a few Red Kites too. I have never seen so many many Red-legged Partridges, hundreds of them were dotted in everyfield and hedgerow, along with Pheasants. Many 'game' feeding stations were dotted about, surrounded by groups of Wood Pigeon, we saw a good number of Brown Hares and more Muntjac Deer.
Eventually we found a small number of Yellowhammers in one or two places, we also saw Meadow Pipits but no Buntings or Linnets.
Back at Titchwell disaster struck, the cafe does not make fresh bacon butties anymore!!!! We were gutted. we walked around the boardwalk to see the Tawny Owl and to look for the Firecrest for a second time, no luck on the crest but the owl was at home.
The rain started in earnest around this point, we left Titchwell and heade to Burnham Overy where from the car park you have great views of the quay and the tidal river lagoons. A Red-necked Grebe and a Slavonian Grebe had been seen as recently as yeaterday afternoon, we saw zilch!! Thre Grebe was Great Crested, we saw Red-breasted Merganser and some Brent Geese and all the usual ducks. Redshank, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Curlew and Oystercatcher were the only waders.
Next we stopped at Stiffkey Marshes to look for a Glossy Ibis, this time we were lucky the bird was present. It took a while to find but it eventually showed distantly but well. A lage flock of Lapwing, joined an even larger flock of Wigeon with Greylag Geese, Teal, Shoveler and Gadwall.
The rain contiued, we got a good soaking at Weybourne as we walked a 1/2 mile from a roadside pull-in to the cliffs at the coast. A huge flock of several thousand Pink-footed Geese fed in a field and with them was supposed to be two Tundra Bean Geese. The geese were restless and kept flying up, circling and settling in a different place, How frustrating was that? You scope through the flock and then they all move, we never found the Tundras.
just a small sample of the 2-3,000 Pink-fotted Geese at Weybourne
Pink Feet flying to roost over Holkham Freshmarsh
A little further along the coast was aploughed up section where apparently a Lapland Bunting was over-wintering, we search the area for a while, looking in poor light through wet optics, not ideal. We never saw the bird and later we found out that we looking in the wrong place!
a typical Norfolk Windmill - this one is found just outside of Weybourne
It was getting dark by now and Guru Guy had a great idea, we could stand in the rain and look for Woodcock coming out of Well's Wood at the end of Lady Anne's Drive. Not only did we get wet but we also got cold too, no Woodcock, just two very wet birders. I would that a dripping, dipping, day!