BURHAM OVERY STAITHE - SHERRINGHAM - WEYBOURNE - CLEY NEXT TO THE SEA - SALTHOUSE - STIFFYKEY - LADY ANNE'S DRIVE.
WEATHER: a bright start today, cloudy midday then clear again,
We had a great day today, not so successful as we would have liked but the bright sunny weather compensated for the lack of bird sightings.
Our first birding effort was thrown at seeing the Red-necked Grebe at Burnham Overy, we had a clear blue sky and no wind, the light was perfect. However, the tide was all wrong and at a low level when we got there which was not conducive to seeing grebes or divers.
LOOKING EASTWARD FROM BURNHAM OVERY STAITHE AT SUNRISE
We took a small walk along the embankment to view the channel that runs out to the sea and found a lot of species but not the right ones. Waders included: Redshank, Curlew, Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, we also saw Kingfisher, Red-breasted Merganser, Shelduck and most of the common Ducks. Marsh Harriers flew over and further down stream we found three Little Grebes.
taken from the embankment at Burnham Overy - low tide was not a good time to look for grebes
From there we set off for Sherringham, a quiet street on the western outskirts has been the winter home of the rare Eastern Black Redstart. This long-staying Asian sub-species of the Black Redstart has been delighting birders over the last few weeks.
We found it within minutes of our arrival and the bird showed extremely, it is such a colourful ball of energy that took its time to show us all of its attributes. We spent 30 minutes or so watching it dash about feeding and posing for the cameras, wat a little beauty.
the very rare visitor to the UK - Eastern Black Redstart normally lives in Asia
From Sherringham we drove back to Weybourne Beach to scan the sea for Scoters. We had hoped to see Velvet Scoter but all we got was a large 'raft' of Common Scoters and in the distance there was another small group of Scoters which could have held the Velvets but they were too far off to identify.
we searched this bunch of Common Scoter (mainly females) for Velvet Scoter - they were about a thousand miles out to sea
Closer to us we found several Red-throated Divers and a single Black-throated Diver, also Great Crested Grebes, Cormorants and a couple of Grey Seals. A quick stop at the Windmill on the edge of town was made to scan the fields for the Pink-footed Goose flock but we couldn't see them from the roadside.
t 1pm we drove back to Cley NNR to have lunch with my old friend Richard Headford, we had alovely hour talking over the good times before we set off for the beach at Salthouse. climbing up to the top of the shingle bank we started scanning east and west for a flock of Snow Buntings which had been reported recently. On the sea we found more Red-throated Divers and a couple of Great Northern Divers as well as more Common Scoter.
Finally, Guy the Guru, spotted the flock of Snow Buntings about a mile away, they were very flighty and were constantly taking to the air in a cloud of brown and white. Just before we decided to leave the buntings flew right over us and landed a few hundred meters to the west of us, but once again they didn't stay down for more than a minute. We watched them flying around for another 10 minutes before calling it a day.
flakes of snow - no! Snow Buntings also about a thousand miles from where we stood
We made a second visit to the beach at Weybourne and had much closer views of Common Scoter but failed to find a Velvet amongst them, that will have be on another day.
Driving back towards 'home' we stopped at Stiffkey and took a path towards the shore. I went a little ahead of Guy as he was re-parking the car into a safer position. Whilst Guy was messing about withe car I spotted a Barn Owl heading towards me, it was carrying a mouse/vole and flew almost over the top of and disappeared behind some pine trees near to where Guy was. He was gutted that he missed the Owl but soon made up for it by finding a male HEN HARRIER! wowza! The harrier flew along the distant marshland and stay in view for less than minute, we both got it into our scopes, what a bird.
From a distant vantage point we scanned across to Blakeney Point where dozens of Seals lay, we picked out several birds on the water, one of which looked very much like e size and shape of a Long-tailed Duck. It was too far out to clinch it, As the ligt began to fade we wathced Marsh harriers, a Red Kite and dozens of strings of Pink-footed Geese flying in 'v' formation heading for the marsh to roost.
sunset taken from a raod stop on the way to Lady Anne's Drive at Holkham
On the way home we stopped at Lady Anne's Drive at Holkham to watch the setting sun and to look for Woodcock coming out of Wells Woods. The gates were closing at 5pm and it was still light at 4:50pm we had to leave a little too early for the Woodcock to emergy.
Thus ended day 3 of our mini-break, we still needed to see Red-necked Grebe! Read tomorrow's blog to find out if we eventually caught up with it!