North Norfolk 19.03.2010 to 22.03.2010 (1 Viewer)

Friday 19th March

Titchwell PM
After travelling from the Midlands we decided to spend a few hours at Titchwell enroute to our accomodation for the weekend. We were pretty tired after the long drive but it was a pleasant way to unwind walking down to the beach while watching the odd Marsh Harrier float over the reed beds and the assorted waterfowl and waders going about their business on the scrapes. The reserve seemed a little quiet compared to previous visits but I guess it's that quiet time of year before spring migration gets in full swing!! The beach was very quiet for birds and little was seen by the foreshore as it was high tide and the reefs were under water, the beach was also seemingly devoid of other birders so we made the most of the peace and quiet and just enjoyed the scenery. As we walked along the boardwalk from the beach 2 Grey Partridge suddenly appeared and flew over to the marsh side of the reserve, quickly hiding themselves in the gorse bushes!

Saturday 20th March 2010

Salthouse
The weather forecast for today wasn’t that brilliant so we decided that today would be a ‘bird watching form the car day’! First up was a Meadow Pipit that was seemingly ignoring the grotty weather and enjoying a rest on one of the fence posts, then we noticed a good flock of Turnstone near to the car park and they were soon to be joined by a flock of 25+ Snow Buntings!! We couldn’t believe our eyes as they first appeared on top of one of the shingle ridges and then they joined the Turnstones near the car park giving us some super close up views of them! Other sightings included Common Gull, Avocet, Ringed Plover and a Little Egret in one of the drainage ditches alongside the road out of the car park.

Saturday 20th March 2010 cont

Cley Next the Sea
We decided to see if the weather would improve so headed over to the vistors centre for a cuppa in the hope that the rain would ease a bit…and thankfully it did so we managed a quick walk over to the hides to see what was out and about! In Pats Pool a single Ruff was seen and it had a prominent blue ring on its right leg, after looking at my photographs more closely I was surprised to see that it had 6 rings on its legs in total; I have sent my information to the relevant person so will hopefully find out a bit more about the history of this Ruff! Other sightings included Avocet, Lapwing, Redshank, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveller and Shelduck. From Daukes Hide we had some super views of Black Tailed Godwit and Avocet which were feeding about 15 ft from the hide, the best sighitng from here was seeing our first Sand Martins of the year when 3 flew over the pool.

Sunday 21st March 2010

Burnham Overy Staithe AM
For me this is one of the most picturesque areas on the North Norfolk Coast and we are generally lucky with the weather when we plan to visit here and today was no different! The weather had improved drastically and luckily the blue skies and sunshine lasted for most of the day! We walked out towards the dunes and as the tide was in there were very few waders in the channel; over in the fields we managed to see Curlew, Oystercatcher, Wigeon, Greylag Geese, Brent Geese, Shelduck, Starlings and a Barn Owl hunting in the distance at Holkham Pines. When we arrived at the dunes we were greeted by the chattering call of Sky Larks overhead and Meadow Pipits were dotting about the dunes here there and everywhere! The beach was quiet for birds but it made a super setting for a picnic lunch! On the walk back the tide had started to go out and so there were a few more waders in the channel including Redshank, Curlew, Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Black Tailed Godwit.

Sunday 21st March 2010

Titchwell PM
We spent the rest of the afternoon at Titchwell and along the path to the beach we managed to see the usual suspects including Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail, Black Tailed Godwit, Avocet, Redshank, Ruff, Little Egret and Little Grebe. At the beach we looked out to sea and there must have been at least 1000 Common Scoter all grouped together, I have never seen so many together so this was nice to see! There were also 2 Male Goldeneye out on the sea. Along the shoreline there were plenty of Sanderling dotting around together with Curlew and Black Tailed Godwit; over on the reefs were Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Ruff, Knot and Redshank. On the way out of the reserve past the visitor centre a couple had managed to track down the Woodcock in the scrub area at the back of the building and offered us a view through their scope; I have never seen one so close up and it had a very doey eyed look!! After a minute or two the Woodcock went out of view and about 5 mins later we managed to re-locate it, unfortunately it had decided to go into an area full of small twigs so getting a record pic was out of the question!

Monday 22nd March 2010

Holkham Bay
We decided to have a quick visit to Holkham Bay en-route home and we were pleased that we did so! From the bench we scanned the bay and could see good numbers of Redshank together with Oystercatcher, Meadow Pipit and Skylark could be heard over head and best of all there were 3 Wheatears in the marsh area! This was a super end to a long weekend on the coast!

A great read of your long weekend and super photo's to compliment your report in North Norfolk, Emma! :t: Thankfully you didn't have any snow this time!