As some of you may be aware i have been away again on a birding trip to Norfolk from last Wednesday then coming back home today.
Our first port of call was Lakenheath Fen specifically for the
Golden Orioles that breed there.
We first walked the riverbank down to the 2nd plantation of Poplars but apart from hearing a call there was none to be seen.We then walked back and round the other side but again nothing.I believe there are only 2 pairs here so it was always going to be difficult and views at this time of the year are only fleeting anyway.A good place for
Hobby's as well with 25 seen the previous day.
Still a nice place to visit and it was good to see what looked like work starting on the Visitor Centre here.
Onwards to Weeting Heath for
Stone Curlews.We were directed to the East Hide by the wardens to find a pair sitting out quite close by a fallen branch.Her eggs were due to hatch that day according to the guys on site.A very strange looking bird..........the Marty Feldman of the bird world but great to see.
After Weeting we drove up to Flitcham Abbey Farm...........a farm where wildlife and conservation is the aim of the farmer here..........and he should be congratulated for doing a great job.He has a hide setup where you can overlook a set of pools,fields and meadows etc.
Some way in front of the hide is a very gnarled Oak and in the tangle of exposed roots were 2
Little Owls which we had extremely good views of...........a first for me.There is also a pair of nesting
Kingfishers in the banks of one pool but we didn't see them.A wonderful little place always worth a drop into if you are passing.
We then drove up the coast to drop into NOA Holme........not a lot here....the best thing being distant views of 2 hunting
Barn Owls so we had a little pitstop and refreshed with a couple of ice creams then off to our B&B in Wells for the night.
The next morning was a visit to Titchwell where we had booked ourselves on the guided tour.The tour guide was excellent and really knew his stuff.I knew some birds which were there i wanted to see and he found them all for me including
Curlew Sandpiper and
Greenshank.He even managed to spot
Common Scoter on the sea which there was no way i would have seen.An excellent visit to a lovely place.
We left here and then drove the mile or so to Choseley Barns which i assume is a drying area for grain.Apparently some of this grain is spilled by the barn doors and is a good area for picking up birds feeding on it.I saqw my first
Turtle Dove and
Rock Dove here.Not bad for a 5 minute diversion up a country lane.
About 2ish after some suitable refreshment we decided to go look for the
Montagu's Harrier nesting nearby.I followed John's directions and found the layby where we sat for an hour avidly scanning every bird that flew by.I suddenly realised that John had said carpark and not layby so decided to drive back up the hill and found where he had meant.........not a moment to soon because as we exited the car my wife picked up the female lifting off from in front of some trees closely followed by the male who came on over the fields from our left.He then proceeded to fly up the track very close to us.......excellent.
We decided to go then and as we drove away the female drifted over the hedge and then over our car at about 50 feet..........i couldn't stop to grab the camera as we had other cars behind us by this point.To me this was the highlight of the whole trip and i feel very honoured to have been able to get such great views of such a beautiful bird..........thanks John.
The next day we spent a morning at Cley..........nothing exceptional here but walked the East Bank and then the dunes and had good views of
Common Tern,
Little Tern and 1 solitary
Sandwich Tern doing fly by's.
Popped over to Blakeney Quay in the afternoon as there is a cafe there that does exceptional Beef and Horseradish sandwiches
then walked up to Friary Hills but not much there apart from a pair of
Kestrels hunting.
Drove down to Sandringham that evening.Had a quick scoot round the Wolferton triangle to look for
Golden Pheasant but nothing showing.Anything with Golden in it that week was obviously not going to show for me.
On to the
Nightjar site where we parked up,ate some big slices of Apple Pie we had purchased then went and sat in the woods waiting.From 9.15 onwards we had 11
Woodcocks fly over.At approximately 9.45pm the
Nightjars started churring followed by wing clapping then at 9.50 they started flying.How eerie is it watching them?
We had one land on the path about 15 feet away from us so we got a great view but they come out of nowhere and i can imagine it could be most disconcerting for some people if they weren't aware.Most enjoyable though........again thanks John.
The next day we decided to pop over to Swanton Novers in the vain hope of catching site of a
Honey Buzzard.Sone people wehad met in April turned up so we chewed the fat for 4 hours in the blazing sunshine but alsa no
Honey Buzzard appeared.June is a bad month to see them as the female was sitting on eggs and doesn't fly much and the male justs sits about waiting.
.But we saw a Common and a Hobby with a possible
Sparrowhawk and
Red Kite.
That was about it really.........a quick evening trip over to Glandford to see the
Barn Owl we saw in April and right on cue he turned up and gave us good views for about 10 minutes.
For those of you into Dragonflies we saw
Red Veined Darter at Cley........the warden said there hadn't been any there since 1996........apparently these are rare but i don't know enough about them to know if this is so.
All in all a great 5 days if a little hot at times but we both enjoyed it very much and look forward to the next visit in September/October when i think we will travel up via Minsmere as we didn't have time to go there this time.
84 species seen as listed below
avocet bar tailed godwit barn owl black headed gull blackbird blackcap black tailed godwit
blue tit canada goose chaffinch chiffchaff collared dove common buzzard common gull
common scoter common tern coot cormorant crow cuckoo curlew sandpiper dunlin
dunnock egyptian goose gadwall goldfinch great black backed gull great crested grebe
great tit greenfinch greenshank grey heron greylag heron gull martin jackdaw kestrel
knot lapwing linnet little egret little grebe little gull little owl little tern magpie mallard
marsh harrier meadow pipit montagu harrier moorhen mute swan nightjar oystercatcher
pheasant pied wagtail pochard redshank reed bunting reed warbler ringed plover robin
rock dove ruddy duck sanderling sandwich tern sedge warbler shelduck shoveller skylark
spoonbill starling stock dove stone curlew swallow swift tufted duck turnstone
turtle dove whitethroat wood pigeon woodcock woodlark wren yellowhammer
I did take about 100 shots but unfortunately wasn't happy with any of them....still a lot to learn i think.
Sorrt if it's a bit long
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