I was up at some ridiculous hour and set off to Dave's. It promised well with an Urban Fox near home but just as we neared our first stop a Moorhen walked in front of the car :(
We arrived at Holkham at about 7:50 and promptly had a Woodcock fly over our heads. Lots of birds in the woods with some large tit flocks (predominantly Coal and Long Tail) and lots of Goldcrests. There were lots of Grey Squirrels and a few muntjac. Our target birds were Yellow-Browed Warbler and Firecrest, both were heard but......... we also heard Bearded Tits.
We headed back to Titchwell, which was absolutely packed with twitchers for the Whiskered Tern. This had advantages as the cafe was empty and we had prompt service of Bacon Rolls! We then strolled along the path with Water Rails grunting, Beardies pinging and Cettis being mouthy and saw the Whiskered Tern. Ran into two Harlow Birders at Titchwell as well. You drive 110 miles.......
So where next? Twitchers eh! Off to Salthouse which was quiet, Razorbill and a Juve Puffin off coast as well as Gannets and a Red Throated Diver. In the nearest pool was one Dunlin and a Curlew Sandpiper.
Lunch at the Dun Cow Salthouse was rather nice and then we stopped at East Bank Cley. Red Throated Diver off coast and a pair of Eider flying through. The White-Rumped Sandpiper was a right git to find luckily for me it flew with 2 Dunlins giving nice rump views.
Stopped off at Blakeney to twitch the Cattle Egret (honestly don't you hate these tick and run merchants).
Curiously the hardest to find was the Snow Goose. We sort of misjudged it and found a massive Pink Foot flock but no... oh there's another one over there, drove to far. Well found some birders and the promised two barnacle geese were there but uh no Snow Goose. We then did what we should have done in the first place and used the OS map and found the right field and there it was.
A rather pleasant day in the usual good company. I missed some good birds like Marsh Harrier and Little Stint out!
3 comments:
Ahhh, lifers. I remember them.
It's MONTHS since I got anything new (five months to be precise), and I'm not finding much on the patch at present (certainly no Cattle Egrets, even I could spot them).
I'm getting so desperate that I'm off to Essex of all places this weekend ;-). The mother-in-law lives in Braintree, so thought I'd find out what's on offer. Fingeringhoe and Abberton are both relatively nearby, both been decent in the past - got any other ideas?
both are nice.
Old Hall Marshes are meant to be pretty good.
If you go to Sahfend (Southend for foreigners) if you go to Westcliffe between Rossis Ice Cream parlour and the casino on the front there has been Ring-Billed Gull.
If you can make Titchwell 28th Oct at 9:30.......
Can't make the 28th, but perhaps some other time when I'm over there in bandit country?
I'll look up Old Hall Marshes and let you know. Cheers Pete.
(I've been to Southend - I'm not sure even a RBG is gonna lure me back).
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