June 2010 birdwatching & wildlife tours in Norfolk

Day One 7th June Norfolk - 5 Day Birdwatching, Butterfly & Dragonfly Tour

This was one of our 5 day summer tours taking in a mixture of birds, butterflies, dragonflies & orchids.

Today we headed off into south Norfolk & just over the border into Suffolk, at Lakenheath.

The tour started with the calls of 2 Golden Oriole, but unfortunately we couldn't locate the birds on this occassion, but this was made up for with great views of 3 different Bittern!

We saw a good range of other birds whilst at the site, including 3 Hobby, 6 Marsh Harrier & a pair of Bearded Tit.

We also saw 2 Hairy Dragonfly, 5 Four-spotted Chaser, 2 Broad-bodied Chaser, & numerous Azure Damselflies.

Moving on to heathland habitat we eventually located 1 Wood Lark & 2 male singing & displaying Tree Pipit, a pair of Stonechat a fly over Siskin. Insects included 1 Painted Lady, several Small Copper, Common Blue & good numbers of Spotted Orange (moth).

The day finished with reasonable views of Firecrest.

Day Two 8th June Norfolk - 5 Day Birdwatching, Butterfly & Dragonfly Tour

The weather was cool & overcast, with much better forecast for Wednesday so we concentrated on birds today!

We started the day at Titchwell with excellent views of Bearded Tit showing down to just a few feet, also a nice hi-tide roost of 200 Knot, 170 Bar-tailed Godwit, 150 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Turnstone & 8 Little Gull.

We also recorded Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat, Blackcap all heard with several showing.

A further stop produced a singing Corn Bunting.

A stop off on the way back produced wonderful views of male & female Montagu's Harrier complete with a food pass & nearby Tree Sparrow, Turtle Dove & Grey Partridge.

We headed back to the accommodation, had a "high" afternoon tea, relaxed for a couple of hours in the garden meadow & then headed out into the evening sunshine, a much better evening for Owls & Nightjars than the previous evening when we had to abort our attempt!

We soon had nice views of Little Owl, giving us an evil stare with it's piercing yellow eyes!! A Barn Owl crossed the road & we eventually reached the heath.

Around 9.45 we were treated to amazing views of several Nightjars, churring & butterfly display flights

Day Three 9th June Norfolk - One week Birdwatching, Butterfly & Dragonfly Tour

Today was forecast warm with sunny spells in the afternoon & the forecast proved to be correct! We made the most of the conditions by visiting two of Norfolk's premier Norfolk Hawker & Swallowtail sites.

At Strumpshaw we started with wonderful views of Norfolk Hawker, both in flight & perched. Other insects were Four-spotted Chaser, Hairy Dragonfly, Azure Damselfly & Black-tailed Skimmer. Whilst walking the paths we notched up a few more birds, singing Grasshopper Warbler & another Bullfinch. We then had brief tantalising views of a rapid Swallowtail, before heading off to another area.

We then had pretty amazing point blank views of up to 3 Swallowtail & an excited crowd of people gathered around these rare & most beautiful insects.

Day Four 10th June Norfolk - One week Birdwatching, Butterfly & Dragonfly Tour

Today weather forecast was for a bright start with heavy showers later. So I decided we would look through the moths, before heading off to look at orchids, dodging the showers!

I had run the moth trap the previous evening & we spent several hours working through approximately 100 moths of 35 species.

Flame Shoulders, Elephant Hawk, Common Emerald, Peppered Moth, Buff Ermine, Magpie Moth, Swallow Prominent, Hebrew Character, Muslin Moth, Common Rustic, Heart & Dart, Common Swift, Treble Lines, Common Wainscot, Least Minor, Marbled Minor, Centre-barred Minor, Clouded Silver, Poplar Hawk, Privet Hawk, Straw Dot, Silver Ground Carpet, Pug sp., Rustic Shoulder Knot, Sword Grass, Dingy Footman, Plain Golden Y, Pale Prominent, Willow Beauty, Brimstone Moth, Flame Carpet, The Flame.

During the afternoon I took the group to a variety of local sites where we saw Greater Butterfly Orchid, Common Spotted Orchid, Early Purple Orchid (mainly over!), Green-winged Orchid & Early Marsh Orchid

We also saw Marsh Harrier, Grey Wagtail, Turtle Dove, Kingfisher & I showed them Otter Scats & runs along the River Wensum.

11th June One week Birdwatching, Butterfly & Dragonfly Tour

Today we visited Cley & found a nice mixture of waders, with the first returning Spotted Redshank present, small numbers of all the breeding waders, further views of Bearded Tit & Marsh Harrier.

Along the shoreline we watched Sandwich Tern, Little Tern, Common Tern flying up & down plus plunging into the sea, fishing. There was also 1-2 Gannets offshore.

The sea pools also hosted a nice selection of birds Dunlin, Ringed Plover & Oystercatcher.

13th June - Terns in Flight Photography Workshop

Today we ran a Flight Photography Workshop for 5 persons, these workshops consist of 2 hours classroom tutorial on technique & equipment followed by a practical session of taking images out in the field. Below are couple of images taken during the session.

14th June - One Day Tailored Tour

Today we headed off early at 6.45am towards Lakenheath Fen, the first section of the reserve as normal heaved with Whitethroat, Reed & Sedge Warbler.

We set out for for Golden Oriole & were rewarded incredibly with both a male & female Golden Oriole showing well perched side by side in the trees for around a minute & then showing again briefly! This was the first definite female I had seen all year.

We had several Marsh Harriers heard 2 Bitterns & saw one in flight , 2 hunting Hobbies in the air together.

After lunch we headed into the Brecks & were rewarded with great views of Tree Pipit, Wood Lark, Stonechat & Stone Curlew.

In the evening we stayed in the Brecks area, had brief but adequate views of Nightjar, with some churring.

17th June- One to One Photography Tutorial

Today was spent with a photographer from Norfolk, Lara Howe whom has regularly attended workshops with her photography steadily improving. But wanting a refresher with the opportunity to shoot some birds & insects her favourite image of the day is shown below.

28th June - Day One - Two Day Birdwatching Tour

Today we headed off at 7.30am towards Lakenheath Fen, the first section of the reserve gave us good views of Whitethroat, Reed, Sedge Warbler plus Cuckoo & several Marsh Harrier. We eventually got reasonable views of Bearded Tit, but this was overshadowed by great views of 2 Bittern flying over.

After lunch we headed into the Brecks & were rewarded with great views of 3 Tree Pipit, Stonechat & Stone Curlew plus good views of a juvenile Firecrest.

29th June - Day Two

We started the day at Titchwell & were rewarded with good numbers of waders & roosting shorebirds - 2000 Knot, 120 Bar-tailed Godwit, 12 Spotted Redshank several adults still in breeding plumage, 5 Ruff, 100 Black-tailed Godwit plus good numbers of Redshank & Avocet. Marsh Harrier, Little Tern, Common Tern & Sandwich all showed well, but the Bearded Tit were fantastic showing down to a few feet in front of the hide. Also 1 pair of Ruddy Duck.

In the afternoon we had nice views of male & female Montagu's Harrier, plus Grey Partridge, Corn Bunting, Tree Sparrow & Turtle Dove were all great additions to our list of scarcer birds.

We had an evening meal together & finished off with nice views of 3-4 Nightjars.