The weather deteriorated very quickly yesterday evening and
getting from the rooms to dinner required a small dingy in the end. It lashed it down all night. Windows rattled,
doors shook and it was not much better while we had breakfast. The plan was to head east as hopefully it
should be clearing from that direction. Thankfully they were correct for once and it had basically
stopped by the time we parked up at Walsey Hills for a walk down the East Bank.
It was grey but the wind had dropped and we had quite a pleasant
walk down with flocks of Shoveler, Wigeon and Teal disturbed by works on the
main reserve flighting overhead onto the Serpentine and Arnolds Marsh. Waders were thin on the ground once again
with four plump Ringed Plovers, several Snipe and Black Tailed Godwits on the
first sections and then a flock of Curlews and Godwits on Arnolds where two
Bar-tailed Godwits and some Dunlin and Redshank were also seen. |
| New rig on the move |
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Wigeon
|
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| Grey Heron |
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| Greylag |
Marsh Harriers spooked the duck and gulls regularly and we
picked up Reed Buntings, Stonechat and Bearded Tits in the reeds either side. A Yellow Wagtail flew over calling and was
highly unexpected.
Down at the sea I was expecting a continuation of the wader
and wildfowl movement reported earlier but there was quite literally not one
bird out over the sea and just a few mixed Gulls following the beach. We could see the weather turning again with a
squall heading our way from further out and only just got to the shelter in
time where every bod on the wall tried to squeeze into for the next 15 minutes.
A 1w Caspian Gull was our reward for hiding from the
rain. With news of five Yellow-browed
Warblers at Walsey Hills we started to head back pausing to look at a migrant
Robin feeding from the reed edge and two Great White Egrets showing their
displeasure at the Marsh Harriers.
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| Great White Egrets |
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| Robin |
Before too long we were in the willows and literally surrounded
by the occasionally appearance of these stripy little gems. Four Yellow-broweds were seen and with patience everyone got
excellent views. They were rather
reticent to call but I was pleased when a couple of them decided to break radio
silence.
There is something very special about hearing a YBW in the
autumn and I think it was a new bird for everyone in the group. There were good
number of Gold and Greenfinches around the feeders but little else so we headed
to the NWT visitors centre for lunch which was interrupted by 15 Cattle Egrets
out with a herd of black cows and superb performances from both Red Kite and Buzzard
while groups of vocal Curlew and floppy Lapwings moved from field to marsh.
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| Red Kite |
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| Red Kite |
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| Lapwings |
Back west now and a good walk at North Point Pools. We did not see any Pallid Harriers but
raptors were a theme with Kestrels, Sparrowhawks, Buzzards, Marsh Harriers and
Red Kites. A juvenile Spoonbill flew along
the coast and great flocks of Golden Plover periodically lifted off from hidden
fields and circled high above before splitting into regimented Vs and drifted
back to another field. There were great
flocks of Wood Pigeons too and a few Stock Doves while we found nine Ruff moved
between the pools and stubble fields with the Lapwing and Jackdaws. Five Siskins headed inland and a flock of
Skylarks were the first we had seen and Swallows and House Martins still
drifted along the coast.
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| Buzzard |
Some Pink-feet were up on a field ridge but we had not
really had any all day but the Brent flock out on the saltmarsh was now about
200 strong. With more rain starting to
obscure Blakeney Point to the east we escaped again and headed back toward Briarfields
seeing a buck Fallow Deer with six Red Deer in a roadside field just west of
Holkham Hall and at least three Great White Egrets down on the fresh marsh
while a final brief stop at Burnham Norton gave the crew good Egyptian Goose
views but not the hoped for Barn Owls and Cattle Egrets. With drift migrants appearing along the coast
in the late afternoon, hopefully tomorrow will be the day that brings some further
scarce passerine joy.
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