Norfolk 2004

Jeremy Barker

Thurs 25th: Our journey to Norfolk began at 05.30, with a clear night and starry skies, a gradually improving sunrise - and then wham! Fog. From Salisbury plain east almost to the M25, we had thick fog. So there was no chance of twitching the Cattle Egret at Firsdown ... We pressed on to the North Norfolk coast, and having made a last-minute decision to go birding before we dropped our kit at the B&B, headed for Lady Anne's drive at Holkham. Stacks of Pink-footed Geese in the stubble fields beside the road started our proper birding in a pleasant fashion, and to add to the pleasure, the sun came out!

After a quick tea break, we headed down to the saltmarsh to search for Shorelarks and Snow Buntings - Shorelark being a potential life tick for SG. On the way through the trees we met a couple of birders who told us the birds were present (good), but very mobile (not so good). Off we traipsed, east down the saltmarsh, and soon found the Snow Bunting flock, which was extremely mobile indeed! Trying to get a decent view of them on the ground was tough, as they hopped up and down through the grasses, and rapidly headed off to pastures new at the slightest provocation - the sound of wildfowlers' guns in the distance was generally enough. Eventually we were happy that there were no larks in the flock, and continued down to the end of the saltmarsh, then back up the other side, still without seeing them.

After admiring a handful of Rock Pipits, we picked up a flock of birds flying rapidly towards the western patch of marsh. We trudged up there, scoured that section of marsh and found nothing; then stopped to have a look at the sea. Many hundreds of Common Scoter later, we decided to have one more try at the larks - and saw a couple of birders scoping the eastern end of the eastern marsh. Off we went (again!), and finally caught up with the Shorelark flock - 26 cracking birds in full autumn sunshine. We eventually crept up to within 30 or so metres, and enjoyed prolonged close views. Another look at the sea produced a couple of female Long-tailed Ducks, better views of some of the scoter, and a handful of Red-breasted Mergansers and Great Crested Grebes. We headed off to the B&B at Cley with cheerful spirits!

Fri 26th: Our pre-breakfast walk down the East Bank at Cley marshes was instantly successful with a hunting Barn Owl slowly flapping past. A ringtail Hen Harrier was spooking the waders (mainly Lapwing & Golden Plover) over to the west, but we fortunately had great views of the birds on the east side, including a nice Spotted Redshank and about 20 Avocet.

First stop post-breakfast was Thornham harbour, where we spent a cold, but fascinating ten minutes slowly combing a flock of c.50 Twite for colour-ringed birds (4 were seen in the end, all ringed in the Pennines) before another birder tromped through and put the flock up for us... We carried on along the seawall to admire some of the Lapland Buntings lurking inside the Snow Bunting flock, but then had to high-tail it back to Titchwell for a toilet stop. The logical thing was then to wander down the reserve and look around.

A flock of around a thousand Golden Plover were constantly on the alert, spooking regularly and spectacularly with several hundred Lapwings and a selection of other waders; presumably because of a female Peregrine lurking on the landward side of the marsh. Strangely, the duck didn't seem too bothered. The 'selection' waders were about 40 Ruff, a handful of Dunlin and some Redshank, plus odd Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew. Further on down the reserve the usual Black-winged Stilt was looking incongruous in this cool grey climate (and was patently ignoring the Peregrine!). We finally reached the beach and set up for a quick scoter/wader scan. The scoter were all way off to the east, but a few Goldeneye and a couple of Eider were closer. Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Sanderling and Oystercatcher were feeding on the beach, and a fine dark Arctic Skua livened things up with a bit of kleptoparasitism.

The return journey produced a Water Rail, which came out to feed on the edge of the brackish marsh, a ringtail Hen Harrier fooling around towards Titchwell village, and the female Long-tailed Duck - which I swear must have been raised by Teal - dabbling enthusiastically in the surface water of the freshmarsh!

By the time we reached the car, steady rain had set in, so we tried to make the best of the rest of the day - a drive round the back roads produced nothing but a few Red-legged Partridge and a couple of Redwings, and then to Holme where equally little was on show.

Sat 27th: Again, the pre-breakfast walk produced the Barn Owl hunting over the marshes, and this time a Marsh Harrier and Peregrine together were spooking the waders, with a female Merlin joining the fun briefly. A fine adult Mediterranean Gull loafed on Arnold's Marsh and a young Red-throated Diver was on the sea, and we rounded it all off with brief views of Bearded Tits in the reeds and great views of a Water Rail, feeding and calling in the ditch by the path.

Our big mistake was in looking for Waxwings - Norwich traffic and inadequate directions were no fun and no use, and we were eventually pleased just to get out of the city! Our next stop was Horsey Mere, to find that the National Trust lock their toilets for the winter, a fact which caused no little cursing. Some more Bearded Tits were shouting in the reeds, and there were plenty of duck to scan through on the mere, though nothing out of the ordinary. Some Cranes were also trumpeting somewhere in the reeds, and four flew across towards Hickling at one point.

Finally we headed for Hickling, to have a walk round before going to watch the Cranes and harriers coming in to roost. The highlight of the walk was a superb Bittern flying close past the 'observation hut', just as we began to climb the stairs, but Marsh Harriers and another Barn Owl were an adequate supporting cast! The Crane roost was frankly disappointing, as they refused to show up for us, whilst the harrier roost was also pretty underwhelming - about 20 Marsh and one ringtail Hen Harrier came in. Two more Barn Owls were seen, but the best bit of the evening for me was some ridiculously high-spirited Chinese Water Deer, some of them coming to within 20 metres of us as they bounced over (and crashed through) the vegetation in their high-speed chases. They're such porky little beasts, I'm amazed they can run so fast!

Sun 28th: The pre-breakfast walk was cold and windy, with very few birds to get excited about - the Red-throated Diver, Avocets and Spotted Redshank all still present, and a Cetti's Warbler singing in a ditch by the path. We visited Stiffkey - briefly - and Norwich - not so briefly - and both without success, and then turned our noses westwards and homewards again. We stopped for a while at Welney WWT, where we added to our trip list with a small flock of Corn Buntings, and plenty of Bewick's and Whooper Swans. A short stop-off at the visitor centre produced a colour-ringed Mute Swan, the spectacular sight of several thousand Lapwing in the air together, and an Aythya hybrid doing a fair impression of drake Lesser Scaup. Would have been a nice way to round off the trip, wouldn't it?!