March 30th.
The day started just the way it had ended the day before. Dark, misty and cold. My first stop was at Choseley Barnes, near Titchwell just to see what was around. Upon arrival I could see at least a dozen Corn Bunting and six Yellowhammer as well as a Kestrel on a nearby wire. They were all far too distant for any decent photography, plus the light content was awful.
I was at a bit of a loss what to do next. The weather report for the Friday was a bad one. Black clouds and rain and I was sorely tempted to actually leave Norfolk and possibly go over to Lancashire and North Wales where the weather report looked good. I had even told the couple where I was staying that I would ring them later in the day to tell them if I was staying overnight as it had looked that bad.
I decided to persevere, and that turned out to be a good decision. I looked at the previous days sightings on the pager and birds that stood out where Green-winged Teal at Titchwell and Waxwings near Holkham. I was thinking of going to Cley anyway and Holkham was on the way so Waxwings were to be my next site to visit. I had seen Waxwings on January 1st but didn’t get a chance to photograph them so seized the opportunity to try for these birds. I found them straight away, but what awful conditions to see them in. Extremely misty and the light content was no better than dusk. Obviously I had to crank the ISO right up to get any photos at all but I did manage a few of them (one shown below).
Looking eastwards towards Cley the sky looked inky black. My mood was almost as black as the clouds I was looking at. All week the weather had been great right up until the two days I had taken off from work. I couldn’t see the point in going towards Cley in this weather. I did go as far as Wells but at the harbour there was virtually nothing around so I turned back with the premise that if the weather didn’t improve soon then I would be off somewhere else.
Thankfully not far past Holkham I could see some light filtering through the clouds west of where I was. It was gradually getting brighter so I thought I would go to an undisclosed site in the hope that the Montague Harriers might have arrived early. It was a forlorn hope but at this point the sun actually came out. One thing I had been seeing frequently was quite a few
Brown Hares and this site was no different. They were all over the place. They were also very skittish as they were constantly both on the move and distant. I did manage one shot of a Hare going full pelt across the field below me. (photo below).
I decided to carry onto Titchwell in the hope of getting a photo of the G W Teal. On the way I called into Burnham Overy Staithe to see what was about. There wasn’t much just a couple of Redshank and three Curlew (photo of the latter below).
Titchwell wasn’t as busy as usual. Perhaps the early bad weather had put people off. It had improved considerably by the time I had reached there. As I walked to the visitors centre the usual Robins came out to greet you but on this occasion a youngster came out as well. One of the adult Robins quickly shot out and proceeded to feed the youngster. This was repeated a few times and I managed to capture one of those moments (shown below).
Moving though Titchwell I came to the Parrinder Hide (where the G W Teal had last been reported). To my surprise the bird was right by the hide and plenty close enough to photograph with my DSLR (photo below). Also below is a photo of an Eurasian Teal for Comparison. Apart from the obvious Vertical white bar not the different facial markings between the two.
Green-winged Teal
Eurasian Teal
Out on the water we could also see a Little Gull but that was far too far way even for the Digiscoping set up and a few Avocet (photo below).
I carried onto the path and moved towards the sea looking at the birds either side of the path. Brent Geese, Little Egrets, Golden Plover, Meadow Pipits, Linnets and plenty of Skylarks singing high up in the sky. Quite a few Meadow Pipits were displaying with their parachute fall from the sky and try as I did I couldn’t capture an image of any of them.
I had one lovely surprise when two Skylarks just dropped straight out of the sky onto the path about fifteen feet away from me and started to dust bathe themselves. This went on for about five minutes and I managed quite a few photos of this sequence of events (photos below).
At last they finished their bathing and took off leaving me to carry onto the beach. As soon as I reached it I turned back as the sea was at its furthest point out and the waders were extremely distant. I had intended to come back at high tide (about 5pm) but that didn’t happen as I will explain later. Walking back through the reserve nothing new came my way so after a sandwich in the car park I decided to pop down to Hunstanton Cliffs to try for some Fulmar flight shots. (photos below).
After getting a few images I left for Wolferton (in the hope of photographing Golden Pheasant) which didn’t happen as they didn’t appear, then onto Sandringham to try for the usually confiding Jays.
As I walked through Sandringham the pager bleeped with the message that the Black-eared Kite had been re-located at the far reaches of Snettisham. I thought that it might be a good opportunity to go for it so rushed back to the car.
Snettisham was reached in ten minutes and so began the long walk to the pump house (poss just over 2km). On the way I was treated to breathtaking displays by a huge flock of Brent Geese. The sea was way out but on the mud could be seen masses of Oystercathcher, Dunlin, both Barwit and Blackwit, a few Grey Plover but it was at the tideline where most of the birds were but that was far too far to work out what they were. There was also a mist that far out which wasn’t helping matters.
It took about 45 minutes to reach the pump house. On the way I met the couple who had reported the Kite. Unfortunately he told me that the bird had flown off at 14:50 (it was now 15:10). It had apparently been feeding on something for about fifty minutes so it was doubtful that it would return but I decided to go for it still.
Arriving at the pump house the weather had started to change. Dark clouds rolled over and a mist started to create a veil over the distant woods. It was also getting cold and I was regretting not putting my fleece on as I was now quite cold. As I scanned the woods a Short-eared Owl suddenly erupted from a nearby field. I quickly grabbed my camera but by now it had put some distance from me, plus the light wasn’t helping my photography. I managed one distant shot (heavily cropped photo below).
I waited in vain for about an hour but I was now extremely cold. I decided to call it a day and work my way back to the Rotary Hide, which overlooks the sea in the hope of watching the tide come in. This usually gets the waders flying in spectacular formations. On the way I had the chance for one photo of a Skylark that came out of the grass just in front of. It flew off just as i took this photo.
I was absolutely shattered when I reached the hide and sat down with a sigh of relief. Looking over the mud you could see that the sea was beginning to creep in and the distant waders were on the move. Large flocks of them were swirling in the sky. There were thousands of them and at the same time the Brents were up and flying around. After a while I decided to try to get some photos of the Brents, even though the light wasn’t that good. I was also going to give them a good look over to see if the Red-breasted Geese were in that flock as they appeared to have left Kings Lyn n a couple of days ago.
I was photographing the flying Brents when one of them looked a bit different. In this light it was hard to make out anything clearly but I still tried to get an image of this one bird. I didn’t get a chance to look at my results until I got back to the Bed and Breakfast. Thankfully when I got around to editing the geese I could see that the lone goose I had photographed was indeed one of the Red-breasted Geese. (a not too good photo of the bird below).
I reported it later that night to Rare Bird Alert and I see today that the two R B geese have been seen quite often at Snettisham.
That was a good end to what became an excellent day in the end.
Part three tomorrow.
John
Still haven't seen one in the flesh this year.
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