North West Norfolk

On Wednesday, Dad and I took the long drive up to Titchwell area. We arrived at Titchwell, and went straight out onto the beach. We soon found the masses of Common Scoters, about 5,500 birds in total with about 15 Velvet Scoters.

The long line of scoters

Female Velvet

Young Male Velvet

Near Adult Male Velvet

We then went to look on the Freshmarsh, Saltmarsh and Volunteer Marsh. Here's what we saw...

A very theatrical Dog on the beach - very funny to watch

Brent Geese

Both Godwits

Distant Goldeneye offshore

Distant Goldeneye offshore 

Grey Plover

Knot

Ruff

Saltmarsh

Shoveler

Teal

Titchwell Beach

Mixed Birds 

We then went to Choseley Barns, to see if we could get any Corn Buntings. No sign of any as their favourite hedge has been taken out. There were though however c. 30 Yellowhammers and a Buzzard...

Buzzard

Wren

Yellowhammer

Final stop of the day was at Burnham Overy Dunes. We got a Merlin from the layby...

Other stuff we got were...

Burnham Beach

Gulls on Burnham Beach

Dusk Curlew

Golden Plover

Mixed Geese

Distant Marsh Harrier

Brents and Pink foots with a Curlew

Pink Foots

Reed Bunting

We then got a very pale Buzzard. When it flew, it didn't show the white barring on the tail for it to be the resident Rough-legged Buzzard.

We then got a great Short-eared Owl and a Barn Owl, but too brief to photograph.

On the way back to the car, I tried to climb over a gate, which I was successful on the way to the marshes, but I fell over it on the way back and landed on my right side. Very painful. Not hurt much, and the optics weren't damaged! When we got back to the car, people were still in the layby and it was almost dusk, but they had the actual Rough-legged Buzzard sitting on top of Gun Hill. They saw it fly in with the white barring on the tail, but I wouldn't of told you it was a Rough-legged Buzzard if I'd of just seen it in the tree!

Happy Birding!

My First Sign of Spring.....on the patch!

This morning Dad and I headed for the patch fairly early, hoping to get an early summer migrant. An incredible sight first thing was a Little Owl flying across the road along Church Road, Stowupland. Great! Then we got to Needham Lake, and not much on their, apart from 3 Great-crested Grebes and a couple of Common Gulls among the Black-heads. We then went to Bosmere, and I got record numbers of Tufted Duck, totaling 26, with the Great-crested Grebe pair already sitting on the nest. I then got my first Lesser Redpoll for Bosmere amongst some Goldfinch and Siskin, as a Little Egret flew over. We also got 3 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 20 of both Fieldfare and Redwing, with my first Chiffchaff of the year singing by the river. Looking over to Alderson Lake, about 11 Wigeon were on the lake, but soon departing. A few Cormorants were also about.

We then headed to a place where Dad used to work, called Thompson Joinery. There were a few lakes there, so we wandered down to them. We got 20 Gadwall, a brief Kingfisher, a Goldcrest, a Treecreeper with another Cormorant.

A Great afternoons high tea at Ickworth rounded off the day really, celebrating an important birthday with the family. 3 Common Buzzards were by the A14.

Happy Birding

Titchwell Marsh

Sorry about the delay to this post, I have just had so much homework it's unreal! I shall get started straight away, so on the 3rd March, Dad and I went to Titchwell. When we got their, a group of Golden Plover and Lapwing flew over the car park which was a promising start to the day. We got to the visitor center, and went out onto the feeders. We could see about 5 Brambling and a Water Rail under the feeders...

We then walked down the main track, and we knocked on to a Kingfisher distantly on the Thornham Grazing Marsh. Then we went into Parrinder Hide. Not much there, just the regular Black and Bar-tailed Godwits, Snipe, Dunlin, Redshank, Curlew etc. We then went onto the beach. We got fantastic views of 4 Long-tailed Ducks, 2 being a flypast, the other 2 were close inshore, them being female. We also saw Goldeneye, a big group of Eider, Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Scoters. A brief Juvenile Gannet was distant, and 2 Ringed Plovers were on the beach. We then went back, and got great views of Spotted Redshank and other common species, including the Red-crested Pochard.

Black-tailed Godwit

Golden Plover

Avocets

Grey Plover

Oystercatchers

Ringed Plover

Redshank

Knot

Snipe

Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank and Avocet

Turnstone

Pink-footed Geese

Red-crested Pochard

Brent Geese

Shoveler

Teal

A Chinese Water Deer also put in an appearance, as did some lovely snowdrops.

We then went back and had sandwiches, then headed back out to the beach. When we got out there the tide was out, so we walked down to the shoreline. As soon as we got down there at put the scope down, we could pick out a Velvet Scoter among 3 Common Scoters due to the white wing patch. Then, we saw 6 Long-tailed Ducks, 4 Drakes!!!!! Not much else of note, so we headed back. We saw 2 Water Rails on the way back, one on Thornham Grazing Marsh, then one in the ditch behind the feeders.

Happy Birding