Part 2
Sunday 22nd January 2006.
It was 17:00 when I left the Stubbs Mill roost and I drove northwards through Cromer then followed the coast road to Wells next the sea where I parked up for the night on the harbour car park. Over the road was the chippy and soon a bag of chips was purchased and devoured. I listened to my CD's until 22:30 got in my sleeping bag and settled down for the night. I awoke at 04:45am to –1.5C and a very cold nose.
I managed to doze off again after having the car engine on for a while; to warm the car up, then woke up just after 06:00. After breakfast a lovely skyline of dark cloud with broken areas of light could be seen and I tried to capture the moment with my camera. Hopefully it has turned out and if so I will post it in this thread.
My first port of call was Lady Anne’s Drive, Holkham, famous for the visiting wintering geese. Arriving at 07:30 I was soon joined by a few more birders with the same thoughts as me, to witness the daily arrival of these geese. Within ten minutes the Pink Feet could be heard and soon skein after skein could be seen as thousands arrived and then swooped to the ground under a cacophany of noise from their calls. A few minutes later and more could be heard and then seen. This is an incredible sight and sound and if any of you haven’t witnessed this I urge you to try it as it is awesome. One of the sights and sounds of Norfolk that all birders know and love. I have tried to capture some of these moments on camera and will post any that have come out ok.
I walked out to the sea to see what was out on the water and was rewarded with some nice birds including huge rafts of Common Scoters and Eiders.
I visited other places en-route to my final destination of the Welney Wildlife Centre, including Choseley Barns for the large flock of Corn Buntings (but missed out on the reported 12 Lapland Buntings). Into Titchwell to try for a few more photos, but Titchwell was remarkably quiet for once. Then onto Hunstanton Cliffs for the resident Fulmar. Easy enough to see but this time they were staying low and distant so no flight shots of them today.
Last call before Welney was an area known as the Wolferton Triangle, near Sandringham. Here is a small resident population of Golden Pheasant. These birds are amongst the gaudiest birds you are likely to see and with their brilliant colours you would think they are easy to see. Not a bit of it. They are one of the most reclusive of birds and usually you need quite a few visits before you see one. In fact it was 7 years at this site before I actually saw one. To get a photo you can more or less forget it. Anyway I drove around the perimeter of the small wood very slowly, stopping every now and again. The idea is to watch from the car as it is frowned upon if you enter the wood. In any case if they hear you walking in there they slink off under the huge Rhododendron bushes never to be seen until you have gone.
Suddenly two birds emerged from under one of the bushes. I slowly eased the brakes on and gently came to a stop. Got my camera out and put on my 5x teleconverter and slowly opened the door, just as a cyclist passed me. The two birds disappeared straight away but I thought I would stay where I was for a while. 20 minutes elapsed and I thought of moving slightly further down the road when one of them popped out again. I just had enough time to fire off one shot before it rushed across the road to my side and then stopped for a few seconds, allowing me one more quick shot before disappearing for good. They are not the best of photos but I will post the best one of the two later tonight.
It was now time to go to Welney. I came off the A10 and passed over the 40 foot drain and along a narrow lane that can be very productive at times. A couple of miles along there I came to a field full of Lapwings and Golden Plover. There were literally thousands of birds in those newly ploughed up fields and it was a joy to watch them free flying in the sun. It’s at these times I wish I also owned a DSLR as my camera isn’t the best at flight shots. It was getting late and I carried on but a few fields on I came to a field full of distant Bewick Swans, which I watched, and photographed. The light by now wasn’t brilliant and the birds were distant so I only managed a couple of record shots of them. Moving on I came across a field full of Whooper Swans and again stopped and did a bit of photography. This time they were closer and I managed a few half decent shots.
Then onto Welney but I had taken my time too much and arrived just as the feeding of the Swans had finished. Still I did manage a few more shots of Whoopers and a final shot of the sunset over the main observatory. The resulting photos (if they are good enough) I will add to this thread.
I thoroughly enjoyed this weekend, as I nearly always do in Norfolk. Hopefully you have enjoyed reading my account of the weekend and the resulting photos from it, which I will post later tonight.
John
Re: Two days in Suffolk & Norfolk 
