Norfolk in February 2010

I went on a Bird Watching trip with members of my local group of bird watchers to Norfolk, I have been before but was ill and didn’t really see much, oh boy what had I missed!

The birding was terrific out of this world in fact; I can see the attraction to Norfolk for bird watching and possibly invertebrates in the summer, those miles and miles of flat nothing, doesn’t float my boat, its Scotland for me without a doubt. But still it held a strange attraction there were birds in every field, and lots of them; our count for the 4 days was 118 species which is a brilliant count for the society, the best was the flock of 100+ Snow Buntings, right in front of the car and even when we got out of the cars, wonderful little finches and a treat to watch, then there was the 3 Barn Owls quartering a field at 3.30pm daylight for us, one came and sat on a post not 10 yards off us, and 15 to 20 grown adults, all stopped talking and were totally silent even holding our breath as it stared at us all its head moving along the row of people before it flew off to continue its search for a meal, just stunning!

Another day out and we saw 30+ Red-throated Divers, then Common Cranes a first for me and Helen, then onto the roost at Stubbs Mill, where we saw dozens of Marsh Harriers, more Barn Owls, Sparrowhawk and a Merlin as well as hundreds of geese coming and going and the Common Cranes flew in too as they roost there, we watched a Muntjac Deer as it pottered round munching the grass, and over the 4 days saw, Atlantic Grey Seals, Muntjac and Fallow Deer, Brown Hares and Rabbits.