I was down at Pakefield Beach just after dawn yesterday morning. It was cold and short squally showers were moving through but the sea was very quiet with just six Red-throated Divers north, nine Scoter in the Bay and just as I was leaving a flight of ten windblown Barnacle Geese battling north along the beach. They were picked up at Winterton under an hour later.
The man who feeds the gulls every morning did me a favour
and his bread dump gave me a smallish 1w Caspian Gull on the green as a bonus
amongst the throng.
Southwold for some Christmas shopping afterwards and it was even
colder in the town but a cup of coffee and cheese and marmite brioche whilst
watching the sea produced seven surprisingly competent surfers cruising the
rollers to the south of the Pier while a dusk visit to Henham for a pants seasonal
fair was marginally improved by a Woodcock in the headlights as we left 14
minutes after arriving…
And so to today and another early at Pakefield Beach. It was even colder (3c apparently) and I
could not feel my finger tips after the first ten minutes. The big waves of last night had undermined
the steps at the southern end and they were closed off and there had clearly
been a new landslip near the Coastguard look out and the Gulls, Crows and even
the Snow Buntings were distantly visible on it with two Sanderling on the beach
itself. Kessingland looked incredibly
wet and I later found out that it was impassable north to south due to some new
pools.
The sea was quiet once again with just a few Red-throated
Divers, 32 Scoter of which 23 were in the Bay once again and three groups
totalling 36 Shelduck north were more than I have seen in total since watching here.
A Woodcock headed for shore and made landfall somewhere to
the south, looking wonderfully odd as it jinked expertly through the wave tops
while I followed two male Blackbirds in for the last half mile of their epic
journey willing them to make it safely which both did, ditching into the Elm
copse on the beach. I can’t imagine what
goes through their tiny little minds after flying non stop for so long only to
reach the safety of a foreign shoreline. Do they experience relief upon landing
or is it just the migrational imperative that gets them from A to B with
feeding being the first thing that they think of? A 1w Yellow-legged Gull was on the cliff top
green with the feeding frenzy.
The sun had appeared but it was raining too so I abandoned
in need of a coffee before then taking myself off to Links Road car park for
another look at the sea. I certainly saw
the sea and in fact it came very close to shaking my hand once or twice along
the seawall but of bird life there was just a few distant Gannets and the usual
snaking flocks of Cormorants. Unsurprisingly
I did not see any Purple Sandpipers and only one Turnstone.
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| Great Black-backed Gull |
From here I cut inland to try and find Oulton Marshes. The car park was almost full and the rain had
returned but I stuck my wellies on and wrapped and headed out for a circuit of
this never visited reserve. After glancing at few expected leaf mines, I ended
up out on the muddy track through the marshy fields where the ‘winking’ of Pinkfeet
could be heard. Most were grazing in a
grassy dip but every now and then you could see rusty brown heads and pinky
fronts appear for a look round. The took
flight on frosted wings in several similar sized groups and I tallied 220. To
think I only live a couple of miles from here in a straight line and perhaps I
will have more over my house as the winter goes on.
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| Pinkfeet |
The were big Gulls, Little Egrets and Rooks in the field and
a Grey Heron spooked several Common Snipe and amazingly two Jack Snipe which,
as I have seen happen before when I was at Rainham, are more than happy to
climb high and fly far when they feel they need.
A single Chinese Water Deer was noted and two Kestrels were hovering
while the area overlooking Peto’s Marsh at Carlton (once I had got my bearings)
added five female Marsh Harriers and a very determined Red Kite that was
harrying the massed flocks of Wigeon and Teal.
Marsh Harrier
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| Red Kite |
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| Red Kite |
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| Red Kite |
The cold was getting to me so I followed the path back
through a Sallow corridor and the woods that brought me back to the car adding two
circling Buzzards, scolding Cetti’s Warbler, Goldcrest and a party of
Long-tailed Tits in the process. The
short route home took me past Mutford Lock where a Shag was sitting up on the
jetty.
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| Both mines on Sallow - awaiting the oracle |
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| Buzzard |
I had warmed up and settled in for the afternoon I persuaded
myself to head back to Pakefield Beach at 1430 on the off chance that they may
be something moving as east Norfolk had had a few Little Auks, Puffin, Shearwaters
and seaduck. I had only been there five
minutes when I picked up my own Little Auk twirling away inside the sandbank breakers
as it headed north. I am not entirely sure when I saw my last one but I always
marvel at how tiny and determined they are.
It made it past the big Gulls on the last of the sandbar and disappeared
towards Ness Point.
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| Little Auk |
I think that all the sightings today have been going north
so they must have gone past in the dark or much further out before working
their way back up again. The three lost
juvenile Brent Geese briefly dropped into the green before two hounds sent them
off once again and three adult Med Gulls were down on the beach but strangely I
have never seen one join in with the bred feeding melee up on top.
Down on the beach there were yellow and blue men (not
Minions I think) preventing people from going down the beach towards
Kessingland and more where gathered around that landslip I noted earlier and as
I type this bomb disposal have just blown up something that was revealed within
it.
Let’s see what tomorrow holds.
Bombs and birds?
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