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My plans were to go down to the south west after the Gyr and Forsters Tern plus quite a few other birds down there as well. Come late Friday afternoon and the main contenders had disappeared and so had my plans. Ros & I decided to go to Norfolk instead and start our itinery at Holkham Gap after the Snow Buntings Shorelark etc and possibly ending up at Stubbs Mill after the Cranes.
We left Birmingham at 05:00 in pouring rain and the journey didn’t improve much weather wise throughout that journey. We arrived at Holkham just after 08:00 to a relentless drizzle. It was dark very cold. The fields either side of Lady Anne drive were virtually empty of geese, just a few Whitefronts and Pinkfeet. A couple of Curlew were seen but the fields towards the Joe Jordan hide were full of Wigeon and very little else apart from a few Moorhen and Shelduck. The dogs were raring to go so off we set for the beach in front of the gap. By the time we had reached the end of the boardwalk the rain had relented only to be replaced by a freezing cold wind that cut right through you.
In front of us all that could be seen were 50 plus Redshank, about 30 Brent Geese and about 10 each of Shoveller and Shelduck. No sign of my target birds. I decided to walk east towards ells. We reached where the saltings end and sand takes over and there were a few flocks flying around. The first flock was the sparkling Snow Buntings and there must have been well over a hundred of them. They were continually on the move and there were quite a few that were in their white plumage. Another flock was on the move to their left and they turned out to be about 50 Shorelarks. Twite could be heard behind me and I turned to see about 20 of them dropping onto the ground plus another 3 flying away from us.
I walked over to the dunes to look over the sea but it was far too rough to see anything moving. The waves were the highest I have ever seen there before. The wind was absolutely raw and was hitting us face on.
We had spent a couple of hours at Holkham so it was decided to carry on. It was decided that we would finish the day at Stubbs Mill and by the time we had left Holkham we had already used nearly 3 hours of the precious little daylight we had at our disposal. Coming away from Holkham we came across a field full of Pinkfeet right near to the jnct of the Wells road. There was more than a thousand in front of us but even more pinkfeet had dropped behind the top of the hill so I couldn’t even begin to guess what the real total was.
We called into Wells and drove down the beach road to see what Geese were down there. Straight away over a thousand Golden Plover could be seen as well as 200 plus Brent Geese, probably over 500 Lapwing but nothing else. The next place I wanted to look at was the water meadow, which is situated just outside of Stiffkey on the Cley side of the village. I have had Bean Geese there before now. Arriving there all I could see where wildfowl and Lapwing. Scoping the large amount of birds I picked up 3 species and there appeared to be about at least a thousand of each of those species. Wigeon, Teal and lapwing.
The day seemed to be disappearing fast so it was decided to head down towards Waxham and look around Brograve and Walnut Farms. This is a very productive area for geese, swans and many other winter birds. Passing through Morston a Jay took flight and shot across the front of our windscreen.
I should have taken Tony’s offer of a cuppa as we passed through Paston (where he lives) at about 13:00hrs. We stopped at the chippy at the first part of Bacton and bought a couple of bags of chips and eat them outside of the Kingfisher Restaurant at Walcott where you can sit and look over the sea in the comfort of your car. As we ate them a small flock of waders dropped down behind the wall. I got out of the car to find out what they were and the wind felt like it was going to rip my head off. It was so cold it took your breath away. I did look over the wall and found 6 Turnstones and a Sanderling but I wasn’t hanging around to find anything else as it was far too cold.
We carried on and reached the Brograve farM area and there wasn’t a bird in sight. How disappointing. We carried on towards Walnut farm and again there was nothing there either. We pulled away and in the distance I could just make out the shape of some swans. As we pulled up to look at them they took flight and flew towards where we had just come from. My first impression was Bewicks but I wanted confirmation as I hadn’t seen any this year yet. We drove all the way back to Brograve Farm without locating them but as we turned back we saw them in a field that was behind some houses, This field was hidden to us the way we drove past but was open to us going the other way. Scope out and I was looking at 14 Bewicks plus there must have been over 2,000 Pink Feets behind them.
From here I have a spot that I normally stop at that has nearly always produced both Barn Owl and Cranes as well as Hen and marsh harrier. It is just past the mill at Horsey Mere. There is a layby that is on the right, going towards West Somerton and it is here that we stopped. Unfortunately there were beaters walking the fields and shots were being fired so there wasn’t much chance of birds hanging around there. It was 14:15 and even at this early hour it was getting quite dark. There was a heavy cloud cover and it looked almost like dusk.
We drove around to Stubbs Mill but on the way stopped at the edge of West Somerton, on the Martham road, to look across the fields below the hill. There was one field heaving with geese. It was impossible to really put in a sensible count but I estimated there to be at least 4,000 Pink Feet, a couple of hundred Canada Geese and Brent Geese and surprisingly at least 100 Barnacle Geese. A Kestrel was hovering above our head as we left.
We reached Stubbs Mill at 14:40 and drove right to the place. You are not supposed to park there but if anyone has ever tried to walk that road you know how far it is and in these conditions of roads under water and biting winds to contend with that walk was a definite no no. One other car was there and 5 birders were standing on the raised earth where you look from. Joining them they told me that I had just missed 2 Common Cranes and a Barn Owl. That was a nice start, I don’t think. Looking across the vista in front of us the first thing in evidence was quite a few Marsh harriers. In fact we counted twelve that were in close attendance with each other. One of the birders shouted that the Cranes were showing and soon I was looking at my first two Cranes of the year. A surprising sight of a Bittern was seen as it flew low over the reeds on the far side of the reserve. 2 Hen Harries appeared amongst the Marsh Harriers and as I watched these, 3 large birds flew across my field of view. They were Cranes and that brought the total up to 5 that were roosting.
It was getting late now and the biting wind was hitting us face on. My eyes were streaming and I was just about to pack up when a movement to my left caught my eye. At last my first Barn Owl of the year but this one was doing something I have never seen before. In fact all of the other birders appeared surprised as well. It was harassing a Marsh harrier and really having a go at him. It appeared to be trying to force the Harrier down and for a while succeeded but the Harrier tried to turn back on the owl. The owl came back at the harrier and again tried to force him down and this time succeeded as the harrier went to ground with the owl flying away from it as if in triumph.
Has anyone else ever witnessed anything like this before?
It was almost dark so we had to call it a day. It was a day that I thoroughly enjoyed. After a dodgy start it stayed dry throughout, albeit very cold, but the sight of that Barn Owl is one I will never forget and rounded off the day nicely.
We left Birmingham at 05:00 in pouring rain and the journey didn’t improve much weather wise throughout that journey. We arrived at Holkham just after 08:00 to a relentless drizzle. It was dark very cold. The fields either side of Lady Anne drive were virtually empty of geese, just a few Whitefronts and Pinkfeet. A couple of Curlew were seen but the fields towards the Joe Jordan hide were full of Wigeon and very little else apart from a few Moorhen and Shelduck. The dogs were raring to go so off we set for the beach in front of the gap. By the time we had reached the end of the boardwalk the rain had relented only to be replaced by a freezing cold wind that cut right through you.
In front of us all that could be seen were 50 plus Redshank, about 30 Brent Geese and about 10 each of Shoveller and Shelduck. No sign of my target birds. I decided to walk east towards ells. We reached where the saltings end and sand takes over and there were a few flocks flying around. The first flock was the sparkling Snow Buntings and there must have been well over a hundred of them. They were continually on the move and there were quite a few that were in their white plumage. Another flock was on the move to their left and they turned out to be about 50 Shorelarks. Twite could be heard behind me and I turned to see about 20 of them dropping onto the ground plus another 3 flying away from us.
I walked over to the dunes to look over the sea but it was far too rough to see anything moving. The waves were the highest I have ever seen there before. The wind was absolutely raw and was hitting us face on.
We had spent a couple of hours at Holkham so it was decided to carry on. It was decided that we would finish the day at Stubbs Mill and by the time we had left Holkham we had already used nearly 3 hours of the precious little daylight we had at our disposal. Coming away from Holkham we came across a field full of Pinkfeet right near to the jnct of the Wells road. There was more than a thousand in front of us but even more pinkfeet had dropped behind the top of the hill so I couldn’t even begin to guess what the real total was.
We called into Wells and drove down the beach road to see what Geese were down there. Straight away over a thousand Golden Plover could be seen as well as 200 plus Brent Geese, probably over 500 Lapwing but nothing else. The next place I wanted to look at was the water meadow, which is situated just outside of Stiffkey on the Cley side of the village. I have had Bean Geese there before now. Arriving there all I could see where wildfowl and Lapwing. Scoping the large amount of birds I picked up 3 species and there appeared to be about at least a thousand of each of those species. Wigeon, Teal and lapwing.
The day seemed to be disappearing fast so it was decided to head down towards Waxham and look around Brograve and Walnut Farms. This is a very productive area for geese, swans and many other winter birds. Passing through Morston a Jay took flight and shot across the front of our windscreen.
I should have taken Tony’s offer of a cuppa as we passed through Paston (where he lives) at about 13:00hrs. We stopped at the chippy at the first part of Bacton and bought a couple of bags of chips and eat them outside of the Kingfisher Restaurant at Walcott where you can sit and look over the sea in the comfort of your car. As we ate them a small flock of waders dropped down behind the wall. I got out of the car to find out what they were and the wind felt like it was going to rip my head off. It was so cold it took your breath away. I did look over the wall and found 6 Turnstones and a Sanderling but I wasn’t hanging around to find anything else as it was far too cold.
We carried on and reached the Brograve farM area and there wasn’t a bird in sight. How disappointing. We carried on towards Walnut farm and again there was nothing there either. We pulled away and in the distance I could just make out the shape of some swans. As we pulled up to look at them they took flight and flew towards where we had just come from. My first impression was Bewicks but I wanted confirmation as I hadn’t seen any this year yet. We drove all the way back to Brograve Farm without locating them but as we turned back we saw them in a field that was behind some houses, This field was hidden to us the way we drove past but was open to us going the other way. Scope out and I was looking at 14 Bewicks plus there must have been over 2,000 Pink Feets behind them.
From here I have a spot that I normally stop at that has nearly always produced both Barn Owl and Cranes as well as Hen and marsh harrier. It is just past the mill at Horsey Mere. There is a layby that is on the right, going towards West Somerton and it is here that we stopped. Unfortunately there were beaters walking the fields and shots were being fired so there wasn’t much chance of birds hanging around there. It was 14:15 and even at this early hour it was getting quite dark. There was a heavy cloud cover and it looked almost like dusk.
We drove around to Stubbs Mill but on the way stopped at the edge of West Somerton, on the Martham road, to look across the fields below the hill. There was one field heaving with geese. It was impossible to really put in a sensible count but I estimated there to be at least 4,000 Pink Feet, a couple of hundred Canada Geese and Brent Geese and surprisingly at least 100 Barnacle Geese. A Kestrel was hovering above our head as we left.
We reached Stubbs Mill at 14:40 and drove right to the place. You are not supposed to park there but if anyone has ever tried to walk that road you know how far it is and in these conditions of roads under water and biting winds to contend with that walk was a definite no no. One other car was there and 5 birders were standing on the raised earth where you look from. Joining them they told me that I had just missed 2 Common Cranes and a Barn Owl. That was a nice start, I don’t think. Looking across the vista in front of us the first thing in evidence was quite a few Marsh harriers. In fact we counted twelve that were in close attendance with each other. One of the birders shouted that the Cranes were showing and soon I was looking at my first two Cranes of the year. A surprising sight of a Bittern was seen as it flew low over the reeds on the far side of the reserve. 2 Hen Harries appeared amongst the Marsh Harriers and as I watched these, 3 large birds flew across my field of view. They were Cranes and that brought the total up to 5 that were roosting.
It was getting late now and the biting wind was hitting us face on. My eyes were streaming and I was just about to pack up when a movement to my left caught my eye. At last my first Barn Owl of the year but this one was doing something I have never seen before. In fact all of the other birders appeared surprised as well. It was harassing a Marsh harrier and really having a go at him. It appeared to be trying to force the Harrier down and for a while succeeded but the Harrier tried to turn back on the owl. The owl came back at the harrier and again tried to force him down and this time succeeded as the harrier went to ground with the owl flying away from it as if in triumph.
Has anyone else ever witnessed anything like this before?
It was almost dark so we had to call it a day. It was a day that I thoroughly enjoyed. After a dodgy start it stayed dry throughout, albeit very cold, but the sight of that Barn Owl is one I will never forget and rounded off the day nicely.
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