A pre-breakfast head out the door saw thousands of Pink-feet
on the move but going inland rather than over the hotel but spectacular none
the less while a Red Kite gave me the eye to see if I was either about to
perish or through out some tasty morsel.
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| Pink-feet |
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| Red Kite |
East once again and we made excellent time on the roads and
were soon at an empty Walsey Hills car park which was something of relief. A
short walk and a scan and the 1w Grey Phalarope was safely in the bag as it
spun and bobbed around on Pope’s Marsh.
It had chosen Shoveler as its feeding assistants and closely followed
their own gyrations so that it could pick up titbits floating around them but always
facing in the opposite direction when so close that they were almost
touching. Every now and then a Shoveler
would get grumpy and give it a poke but it would just swivel and come back.
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| Grey Phalarope |
A Water Rail was conveniently out feeding with some Moorhens
in the main ditch and despite frequently dashing for cover it would soon return
to continued foraging.
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| Water Rail |
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| This Black-headed Gull followed us the whole length of the East Bank - and back |
Bumping into Chris Gooddie was a fortuitous thing as he had
just found a cryptically sleeping Jack Snipe and kindly lowered his scope to
show my group while I worked out where it was lurking in the grass. While we were doing this Maria then found one
feeding completely in the open – a quality bird doing some steady bobbing to a
beat only it could hear.
There were Little Grebes in the channels and a Kingfisher
zipped by while a pair of Stonechats seemed particularly upset by a couple of
Reed Buntings in their Elder. Marsh
Harriers were constantly on view and there were the usual assortment of regular
waders on Arnold’s Marsh along with several smart Pintail and other dabblers.
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| Stonechat |
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| Pintail - not quite out of eclipse |
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| Little Egret - noting like a good fluff and shake |
The sea was calm and almost devoid of birds with just a Guillemot,
two Red-throated Divers and two bull Grey Seals seen before we decided to start
the walk back. Bearded Tits continued to elude us but a Mistle Thrush overhead
was a new for the trip and by Snipes Marsh by the van I heard Grey Wagtail and
a couple of Redwings too.
From here we popped into the main Cley visitors centre and
then made our way to Bishop’s Hide where Water Pipits were seen but briefly
with one clos outside found just before it took flight. A Kingfisher rocketed through and 17 Ruff dropped
in with a host of Lapwing for a drink and wash and brush up before heading back
to inland fields. There were a few Dunlin,
Snipe and Black-tailed Godwits and a solitary Avocet. Marsh Harriers cruised to and fro but to be
honest most of the birds on the scrape took no notice. A trio of Reed Bunting posed well as we made
our way back the car and we then stopped to help a seriously disabled man cross
the road only have a paused car change its mind and almost take me out.
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| Black-tailed Godwit |
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| Reed Bunting |
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| Reed Buntings |
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| the cigar gall of Lipara lucens - a fly |
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| Acrocercops brongniardella on Holm Oak in the car park |
We had lunch as the rain at last started but we could not
really complain having escaped it up to this point before making our way back
along the coast. Just before Cley
village a sign said ‘Road Ahead Closed’ with a diversion sign up Old Womans
Lane. Any signage then disappeared and I
dropped back out past the village and on my way. Strange we thought. The same sign then appeared before Blakeney
and then Morston. Cars and buses came
the other way and it was not until we reached Wells that the road was clocked
by ‘works’ and we were forced left back towards Wighton and then by following
our noses onto a tiny lane back west that everyone including the buses were
on! It was exciting and certainly a road
less travelled as they say. We emerged
back on the main Wells – Fakenham road and continued on our journey and were soon
bac in the Burnham Overy Dunes lay by where we sat for five minutes to see if
the light rain would stop. It did not so
we got out and kitted up for a walk down to the seawall in the hope that we
could get amongst the Starling roost we saw the night before.
Blackbirds and finches moved ahead of us and six Fieldfares
came out of the hedges where Goldcrests and Long-tailed Tits noisily fed while the first Deer and Hares were already out in the
fields. Three Cattle Egrets flew in to
join the herd alongside us and there was a good flock of Canada Geese along
with Pinkies and Greylags.
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| Cattle Egret |
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| Cattle Egret |
Once up on the seawall the rain stopped and there was the
makings already of what was to become a spectacular sunset. There was a good
selection on waders out on the saltings, muddy creeks and sandy bars including our
first Bar-tailed Godwits, Turnstone, Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover of the day
while Brents grazed and Little Egrets fed in the shallows.
Starlings started to appear and we were treated to a super
display form the 4000 or so that arrived and they timed their final murmurings
with the sun peaking out from below the cloud and given us more of a golden
five minutes than a golden hour.
Meanwhile in the background Cormorants had been making their way in
snaky lines to Bones Drift and had been joined by thousands of Jackdaws and
Rooks that literally turned the bare trees black. Chinese Water Deer dotted the meadows and
Marsh Harriers began to collect but the Peregrine we saw went over before the Starlings
had ever really got going.
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| Starlings |
With the sky on fire it suddenly became filled with a vast
line of Pink-feet that came from inland and dropped somewhere off towards Scolt
Head and at that point we decided that we should really start the walk
back. More nudgers and winkers could be
heard and a similarly vast number came across the Holkham Estate and headed
towards Lady Anns only to be followed by the same again. It felt like 10000 birds could have been within
those three flocks.
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| Pink-feet beyond |
I still had hope of Barn Owl once again and as if by magic a
ghostly shape banked and dropped just in front of us before slowly quartering
the fields and disappearing off into the gloaming making a perfect end to a
special day.
