Norfolk Birding

Hello, 

Today Luke Nash, my dad and I visited the North Norfolk coast and we were rewarded with quite a few good birds. On the way to Norfolk, in the dark, my dad and I saw a hunting Barn Owl along the side of the road outside Mawsley village.

We started off at Holkham Gap where I watched my first Shorelarks being highly mobile after half an hour of eluding us. They were flying around the salt marsh and occasionally landing infant of us on the sand, very close but I didn't take my camera. There was also a Black Brant hybrid with the Brent Geese and a female Merlin here.

We then arrived at Titchwell, which was our most productive part of the day. The sea was full with Scoters, Luke estimated that there was at least 650 Common Scoters and I reckoned a minimum of 80 Velvets in a separate flock, there was also two Long Tailed Duck and a few Goldeneye with the Velvets and a Black Throated Diver and Red Throated Diver flew past. Along the beach, there was a flock of 50 or so Snow Buntings, regularly going into the sand dunes and a female Marsh Harrier was present. There was also large numbers of coastal waders like Sanderling, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Ringed Plover and Dunlin while at the visitor centre a female Brambling was taking advantage of the feeders and a sharp eyed birder had found a Woodcock feeding on the ground, the first time I had actually seen one on the deck...

Luke and I then had two dips, we missed out on the Twite at Thornham which we reckon where out on the salt marsh at the time we were present as they had been seen after we left, a smart male Stonechat kept us from boredom though. We also missed out on six Waxwings which had been seen at Hunstanton Petrol Station however we quickly moved onto Wells-next-the-sea and managed to pick up the female type Black Redstart on the quay opposite the sailing as it was feeding on the ground and in bushes.

The three us then finished at Warham Greens where we were treated to excellent views of four Hen Harriers including a first for all of us, a superb grey male which showed the most briefly out the lot.

I would like to thank Luke for joining us today as I know I would have been very lost on the roads without him and supplying us with his excellent local knowledge and my dad for actually getting me to Norfolk and driving us around. Please see our attached pictures below.

Regards,

Jacob 

Black Tailed Godwit 

Curlew 

Black Redstart

Teal

Turstone

Luke's capture of Shorelark