Norfolk
So the annual Marriner Norfolk trip has come round again. The boys birding trip went very well considering the placid SW winds. We ended up on 126 species across the three days which was very enjoyable. of those 126, 7 of them were year ticks taking our year total to 217 which smashes our previous record by 17 when we finally broke the 200 barrier last year. Enjoy!
Thursday 8/10/20 Cavenham
Thursday started off at school and I have to apologies to my geography teacher if I seemed like I want paying 100% attention to your lesson ( I promise I was) I was too exited about leaving!!! 2:30 arrives in a flash and we are off, I wont bore you with our amazing car Banta but as we got near Swaffam my dad said " I wonder if there are any Stone Curlews still around." so I quickly consulted the group chat and to our luck there was Calum Urquhart with the swift response that there were some still at Cavenham. as we arrived we could see 20+ stonies from the car window!! in the end they showed within 30m!! big thank you Calum!
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| Stone Curlew 8/10/20 |
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Stone Curlew 8/10/20
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Friday 9/10/20With the winds being a placid SW we knew that we had no chance of finding any nice migrants so we deemed Friday to be our "twitch" day. So we set off at 7am to Salthouse which helpfully was only 10 minutes from where we were staying in Blakeney to see the Red-Necked Phal which showed quite distantly - no where near as nicely as the Tring bird but still great to add it to the trip list! We then had a cracking sea watch with all 3 diver species and this amazing Golden plover fly in and flop on the beach infront of us!! We then drove over Wighton to (eventually dip on) the Hoopoe😓. After that low we headed of to wells woods where we saw only my second ever Red Backed Shrike; and what amazing views we got of it we stood watching this fence line for about 20 mins, then someone turns round and there it was sat right behind us!! We then wandered back up the track when a Peregrine falcon stooped over the flood waters causing absolute carnage, with 100s of teal and lapwing going absolutely crazy!! We then had a wander from wells woods to Holkham finding a couple of Yellow Browed warblers (none of them showed only called) so we didn't feel quite contempt with the year tick but it was a tick none the less. We also had an unexpected Fem Redstart which was quite cool! When we got to Holkham we checked RBA and the Hoopoe had been reported again so we decided to try for it again and what a great decision that was!! I had the best views ever of the Hoopoe who was pleasing the socially distant twitchers. Back to Salthouse at dusk where we had amazing views of two Short Eared Owls hunting together over the fresh marsh!!1 Back to the pub after an amazing day!!
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Hoopoe Wighton 9/10/20 | | Fem Redstart Wells 9/10/20 |
 | | Short Eared Owl Salthouse 9/10/20 |
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Golden Plover Salthouse 9/10/20
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| Red Backed Shrike Wells 9/10/20 |
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Short Eared Owl Salthouse 9/10/20
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Saturday 10/10/20Saturday we headed over to Cley for a sea watch First thing. it was quite quiet but we saw a few nice Scoter flocks and there was a lovely and close in Red throated diver, which showed its main diagnostic feature of the upturned bill. My Dad also picked out some nice Sandwich terns feeding in the surf which were nice. We then headed over to Titchwell in the aim of adding most waders to the trip list, which we did very well. the Main highlight though was at lunch time sitting outside the café and having 4-5 Brambling feeding in the trees around us! These were the first birds of the autumn for us. We also saw a very obliging Wheatear on the beach which looked like it had come in off. At Titchwell we then saw that the elusive Barred warbler had been seen again, where Burnham dunes meet Holkham pines, so we wandered out into the dunes and found the hollow it had been residing all day and after about 20 mins we thought we had it, with a skulky Sylva, but it turned out to be a lesser whitethroat. A nice bird, but not the one we were looking for. we then gave up and moved to the next hollow along and then after 10 mins, there it was a cracking Barred Warbler feeding on the blackberries what a stunner !! Whilst being around we also picked up our third Short eared owl and some Cattle Egrets. Then the long walk back made a whole lot easier when we picked up a cracking Ringtail Hen Harrier hunting over the fresh marsh. this was my first for two years and what a cracker it was!!!
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| Ringtail Hen Harrier Burnham Overy 10/10/20 |
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| Lesser Whitethroat Burnham Overy 10/10/20 |
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| Brambling Titchwell 10/10/20 |
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| Barred Warbler Burnham Overy 10/10/20 |
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| Wheatear Titchwell 10/10/20 |
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Red throated Diver Cley 10/10/20
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Our last day in Norfolk😓 with the winds changing to NW we thought we would try our luck with a sea watch then a walk around Burnham and Holkham. The sea watch was very slow with not a lot moving but a couple of blackbirds in off was a cool sight to see also 2 Eider and 4 RBM.
We then headed off to Burnham Overy, where the dunes yielded little. however, we had two YBW in Holkham Pines and finally seeing one!! we can now feel like we can tick it properly. On the path back from Burnham, we had great views of the waders including a very confiding Grey Plover which I think is one of my favourite waders in the UK. we also had very nice views of a Great White Egret. They have become quite common in Norfolk but still great birds to see. We also saw my dads favorite wader being a Sanderling.
Sounds and looks like you had a great trip great write-up 👍🏻
ReplyDeleteThanks mate :)
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