You can never have enough of a good thing and if you are into Birds/wildlife/scenery then North Norfolk certainly is one of those things.
A group of 11 people lead by Oscar2006 had another excellent day on the North-West coast of Norfolk yesterday, the weather was fairly good, mostly bright and sunny if a little cold but it did cloud over towards mid-afternoon.
We started our day at Snettisham RSPB reserve,on the long walk down to the far end of the reserve we saw several nice birds, a very confiding (for those with large telephoto lenses!) Scaup, a Little Egret, Kingfisher and a whole supporting cast of commoner Wildfowl. Although the tide was already well on its way out we had good views of huge flocks of Knot, Golden Plover, Godwits etc... out over the vast expanse of tidal mud.
Possibly the best photo opportunity here was a very obliging Pink-Footed Goose, not a species that you can normally get that close to.
Pink-Footed Goose at Snettisham
Next stop was the cliff tops at Hunstanton, the main target species here was Fulmar. We positioned ourselves along the cliff edge and were treated to an air display by both Fulmars and a whole selection of gulls. The air was full of the sound of DSLRS in "machine gun mode" blasting away at the fast flying Fulmars. It really is a case of trial and error but we all came away with good images of them as well as other species of gull both in-flight and on the ground.
Fulmars in flight at Hunstanton
Black-Headed Gull, 1st Winter juvenile at Hunstanton
We then moved on to Thorham harbour to try and locate the flock of Twite that had been reported there, unfortunately these did not show but we were rewarded with good views of Spotted Redshanks in the main creek, as well as Curlew, Shelduck, Redshank, Grey Plover and a pair of Stonechats in the rough field behind the sea defences.
Final stop of the day was Titchwell, we spent some time watching the smaller birds and a fight between two male Pheasants in the bushes near to the centre before we moved out onto the main reserve.
Female House Sparrow at Titchwell
There was nothing too exiting about but the first few Avocets, Marsh Harrier, Little Egret,
a huge flock of Golden Plover, Golden eye and a good slection of waders made it a very nice place to end a cracking day out.
A few of us decided that we would check out Wolferton triangle on the way home to see if we could spot the elusive Golden Pheasants that frequent the area. On the way there we stopped on the side of the road to watch a Barn Owl hunting over rough meadows close to Heacham village, always a pleasure to watch and something that you never get tired of seeing.
We spent half an hour looking for the Golden Pheasants but they too were a "no show" but we were kept ammused by watching Muntjac deer grazing the roadside verge, and as the light began to go we finally decided to head for home.
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