Birdwatching in Norfolk January 2010

16th January Three Day Norfolk Winter Bird Tour.

Today we headed off at 7.30 to the east of Norfolk & then on into the Broads area to take a look at some different habitat & birds. First stop was in the Yare valley where we managed to locate a small group of around 15 Taiga Bean Geese, whilst watching these birds, we also had
3+ Marsh Harriers overhead.

Moving on we visited an area on the southern perimeter of the Hickling area & despite very poor weather we managed to see 20 White-fronted Geese in flight & a further 4 more Marsh Harrier, as well as Great Crested Grebe & Tufted Duck.

As the weather deteriorated I decided on a roving approach to the likeliest areas for the Cranes, eventually after an hour or so we had distant brief flight views, but after a tip off from 2 other birders we went back to an area we had checked earlier & were rewarded with fantastic views of 2 Cranes feeding in the back of the first field adjacent to the road, whilst searching we also had nice views of several more Marsh Harrier, but more rewarding was reasonable views of a ringtail Hen harrier.

We moved on into the middle of the broads, to visit one of the areas that still had free water & at Barton Broad we were treated to a feast of tightly flocked ducks, with several jewels amongst them. The Ferruginous Duck was by far the rarest, & a new Norfolk bird for myself! But it was really upstaged by 2 stunning drake Smew, these were accompanied by 3 redhead Smew. Out on the water I counted in excess of 40 Goldeneye, several of the males displaying. Whilst treated to this bonanza of wildfowl, mainly Goldeneye, Tufted Duck & Pochard we also added 2 more excellent birds - a Water Rail, showing very nicely, close to the boardwalk & then a speeding overhead Peregrine.

Flushed with success we headed west & found the wintering swans, a real good flock with around c250 Bewicks Swan & 40 Whooper Swan.

We finished off with a drive around another nearby area & were rewarded first with pointy blank views of a very wet & rather miserable looking Barn Owl & then a hunting male Hen Harrier flying parallel to the car & just 25 away!! All in all despite the rain & cold, we had a very successful day & we had already just past the 100 species mark in 2 days.

17th January Three Day Norfolk Winter Bird Tour.

Today we decided to add to out wetland & shorebird list by focussing on some woodland birding & we had a reasonbale selection of birds, small group of Siskin, several Marsh Tit, 1 Willow Tit, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, nice views of a perched Kingfisher, 2 Buzzard & 4 Bullfinch along with a selction of commoner species.

We then headed up to the coast & visited Titchwell, where there was a good selection of birds, 2 Bearded Tit, showed briefly, we were able to study 2 obvious Water Pipit & one much less obvious bird which was very interesting from an identification point of view. We noted 3 more redhead Smew. 2-3 Marsh Harrier, we also watched Red Kite working along the marshes, in a rather "harrier" type fashion.

We had a Bittern fly low over the reedbed, but shortly after were treated to fantastic views of a Bittern as it walked out in full view crossing a gap of open water between two reedbeds!

We then headed off east & were rewarded with concentrated scanning across Holkham marshes, there were around 10,000 Pink-feet & amongst them I located the Snow Goose, which had disappeared since mid December. Also out on the marshes were 105 White-fronted Geese.

18th January Two Day Norfolk Winter Bird Tour.

Today we started a 2 day customised tour for a client. We started with some woodland birding inland & were rewarded with 2 Redpoll, a few Siskin, lots of Long-tailed Tit, 1 Brambling, 1 Marsh Tit, & a very brief Woodcock. We then spent an hour at one of the coastal harbours studying & identifying a range of gulls - this was something the client particularly wanted to address.

We moved on in the afternoon to Titchwell, where we saw a similar mix of birds to the 17th. We then finished the day at Holkham to watch an
amazing roost of 25,000 Pink-feet - we also managed to again locate the Snow Goose, also here we noted a brief flyover Peregrine & a Woodcock.

19th January Two Day Norfolk Winter Bird Tour.

Today was an early start, we set out at 6.40am heading off for the dawn high tide roost at Snettisham. Fortunately the early morning mist lifted long enough for us to witness a spectacular roost of 20,000 Pink-feet leaving, along with an impressive flock of around 5000+ Bar-tailed Godwit, intermingled with a few thousand Knot. Also masses of Oystercatcher, Redshank & Shelduck.

A walk around long the tideline also produced a small flock of 20 Snow Bunting & eventually 2 Shorelark, which showed quite well albeit briefly.

As we walked back we were provided with a real treat, a Merlin sat on a post just 100m away plucking it's prey - an unfortunate Knot.

Also of interest along the strand line was a well deposed corpse of a Little Auk.

We headed off to Holme, where out in the dunes & shore we started with 100's of Fieldfare, a few Redwing amongst them, also a pair of confiding Stonechat. Out on the shoreline we located 2 Red-throated Diver, 5 Common Scoter, 8 Eider & 15 Long-tailed Duck. In the dunes a lovely flock of 60 Snow Buntings were wheeling around & eventually settled in front of us, affording great views.

A late lunch at Thornham produced a flyover ringtail Hen Harrier & good views of Scandinavian Rock Pipit.

We finished the day at raptor roost where we had great views of 2 male Hen Harrier & 1 ringtail.

27th January Wader Photography Workshop

Today we undertook a workshop for a group of 4 on shorebird photography. We covered technique, field-craft, composition in the classroom & then went out to a local site where despite the dificult weather conditions everyone managed to obtain some pleasing images of Knot, Turnstone & Redshank. Images will be posted shortly.

29th to 31st January - Three Day Winter birdwatching Tour

Over the three days the group visited the three main areas of Norfolk, taking in the Fens & Brecks, the Broads & North Norfolk coastline, we recorded a total of 112 species.

Day One

We left the accommodation at 8am & headed over to the Fens in the south west of the county, & we soon located a nice flock of 160 Bewick's Swan & also 9 Whooper Swan, we also had a single Corn Bunting and lots of Fieldfare plus a few Redwing. We then moved on to the Brecks, where we had nice views of 3 Hawfinch, a single Firecrest plus 2-3 groups of Crossbills flying overhead.

We then saw two fantastic finch flocks, first a very impressive flock of around 400 Siskin, followed by an equally attractive 160 Brambling, we continued to search for some perched Crossbill, but despite seeing two more groups they were all highly mobile!

We arrived back around 5PM & chatted the day over tea & biscuits!

Day Two

We left at 8.30am in difficult driving conditions, the snow making the journey east to the Broads a slow affair. We arrived just in time to see around 100 Taiga Bean Geese flying off, but there was still c60 White-fronted Geese showing nicely. A mass of Wigeon, 1000+ took to the skies & a couple of Marsh Harrier drifted overhead, a flock of 20 Goldfinch looked beautiful in the clear frosty light feeding amongst the alders right in front of us.

Next stop we had a fantastic view of around 10,000 Pink-feet, including several skeins right overhead. Plus 200 Grey-lag Geese, several more Marsh Harrier, plus 3 Red Deer & 1 Chinese Water Deer.

We had lunch from a viewing platform looking across one of the Broads, there was a vast raft of ducks - lots of Wigeon, Teal, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Gadwall & around 30 Goldeneye. The walk back was equally productive with 70 Siskin, 20 Redpoll, 2 Marsh tit, 100 Fieldfare, 30 Redwing & 1 Bullfinch.

We finished the day at a raptor roost & were first treated to around 50 roosting Marsh Harrier, followed by an ultra close up Barn Owl - passing just a few feet over our heads! The day finished with two more great birds, a ringtail Hen harrier & 4 Common Cranes bugling overhead.

Day Three

A really early start leaving the accommodation at 0545 to arrive for the Snettisham hi-tide roost

An impressive flock of around 5000+ Bar-tailed Godwit, greeted us on arrival & these were intermingled with a few thousand Knot.
Also masses of Oystercatcher, Redshank & Shelduck. A walk around long the tideline also produced a very tame single Snow Bunting.

There was no shortage of raptors with a hunting Peregrine claiming an unfortunate shorebird, a Merlin & a Marsh Harrier.

Out on the gravel pits there was a mass of roosting Knot & Oystercatcher in amongst them was a mix of commoner waders but a Purple Sandpiper was a nice find. Also here 4 Pintail, 25 Goldeneye including several males throwing their heads back in display.

We headed off to Holme, where out in the dunes & shore we started with 100's of Fieldfare, a few Redwing amongst them, also a pair of confiding Stonechat. Out on the shoreline we located 5 Common Scoter, 1 Eider & 15 Long-tailed Duck.

In the dunes a lovely flock of 60 Snow Buntings were wheeling around & eventually settled in front of us, affording great views.

A late lunch at Thornham produced good views of Scandinavian Rock Pipit, 40 Skylark, 20 Linnet, 1 Barn owl, 8000 Pink-footed geese, 100 Brent Geese & Marsh Harrier

We finished the day at a roost where we had 25,000 Pink-footed Geese, 4+ Barn Owl, 1 Barnacle Goose, 300 Fieldfare & several Woodcock.