Friday was wet, boy was it
wet. I got wet, my bird book got wet, my binoculars got wet, but fortunately it
was not windy, so it could have been a whole lot worse; despite that we saw a
lot. We started at Snettisham, where we went to the
beach at high tide, the trouble was that high tide there is a long way out!
This is because it is very flat and even a few inches makes quite a difference
as to how far in the water comes in. As we went into the
hide, beside the hide as a grassy scrubby area with concrete blocks, (probably
the remains of an old pill box), among all that was a covey of Red Legged
Partridges. They are quite common in that area, but not in
There was a lake near the
shore, and it was full of ducks, with Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Shoveler, Shelduck and Pintail,
and it was fun sorting them out. On the sea side there were a few Turnstones,
and Oystercatchers . We walked round the lake, and as
we rejoined the sea side, we met some guys who told us that they had seen some
Shore Larks, which we missed the first time through. Great excitement and we
went back along the shoreline and looked and looked and nothing in sight, so we
gave up, and started to walk back to the car park, when Ray saw a pair of Shore
Larks, which was great, binoculars and ‘scopes out and we saw a pair, which was
wonderful as for a lot of us they were “lifers”. They were very difficult to
see, as they camouflaged in with the stones on which they were hunting for
insects and seeds under the pebbles. They are delicate little birds, not unlike
a Cirl Bunting in markings, but not so dumpy. They
have black feathers along each side of the crown, directed like two horns
backward, which is why they are called Horned Larks in
The afternoon was spent at Sculthorpe reserve, a very well managed local reserve with
walkways and hides. It is basically woodland with reedbeds and a river at the edge. There were lots of feeders attracting many
garden birds. There was a CCTV camera showing a Tawny Owl in a nesting box. The
main bird of interest there was a Golden Pheasant. It has been in the area for
about 2 years. For a large bird of bright colours it
was surprisingly difficult to see in the undergrowth as it crouched down under
a tree among tall rough grass. Then there was the Kingfisher on the river,
which I missed, as usual. On the way back, there was a yell from both Ray and
Tom, “Kingfisher,” I jumped a mile the Kingfisher shot off, but luckily for me
settled on a branch further up, so I got a good view.
Then we made a mad dash to Roydon Common. We wanted to be in time for the Hen Harrier
roost, and we were running late. That meant no hanging around. We arrived as it
was getting dark, and the rain was easing off, and a forced quick march along
the moor to a raised area, and waited; almost immediately we saw these ghostly
shapes against the trees and bracken. There must have been about 7 in all. They
are slightly smaller than the Marsh Harrier, and slimmer with narrower wings.
They are quite scarce and breed on treeless moorlands. The male is this ghostly
pale grey, with black “dipped in ink” wing tips. It used to be confined to the
South West and the Scottish Isles in the 30s, but despite persecution has
extended its range to more moorlands, including
Saturday was the day of the
Snow Bunting: delightful little birds, which are rare winter visitors, who go
around in little flocks, going up and down like grey aspen leaves then settling
on pebbles, where they are very hard to see; more later.
First off to Choseley Barns in the mist, which are a short distance from
where we were staying, to hunt for Yellowhammers and Corn Buntings.
Both of these were soon spotted in the hedgerows, and there were good
sightings. There were more Red-legged Partridges with some Hares on a ploughed
field. The Corn Bunting has become quite
scarce due to the changes in farming practises. It is
dumpier and planer than the Yellowhammer and is more streaky chest and back. It
lives on cereals, fodder plants and legumes. It does like elevated song posts,
so is not happy when there is no hedge nor tree nearby. It tends to be a ground
nesting bird, or will nest in gorse bushes near to the ground.
Next we went off to Salthouse. On the way there we saw many birds on the
fields, in the villages and on the roadside ponds, I
was quite surprised how many I had written down. As we approached Salthouse, we first saw another Marsh Harrier, and then a
Barn Owl quartering areas over the marshes. We got good views,
the poor driver, Alec, was told to keep his eyes on the road!! We got to
the car park, and we had hardly got out of the car, when a little flock of
something little flow over and landed in the shingle beside us. They were
quickly identified as Snow Buntings. Joy oh Joy, I was thrilled as I really
like them. They hung around for a bit, and then flew over to the other side of
the car park, where Alec got some smashing photos of them. They really are most
attractive little birds. It is the white on their undersides which make them so
like falling leaves. They nest under stones and in crevices in the
We then went to see what we
could see on the sea. Well it was grey, choppy and misty not too far out. There
were a lot of hardy fishermen out on the shingle, their rods made for good
markers, when we eventually saw some Great Northern Divers far out to sea,
flying right to left. There were also a few Great Crested
Grebe.
Then we went to the reserve
at Cley; more Marsh Harriers and Barn Owls. By this
time we were all very blasé about them!
We got excellent views of them again. There were a great many Brent
Geese, and a Black Swan, which seemed to have decided that the marshes were
where it wanted to live. There was a
small group of Avocets on one pond, and Redshanks prodding around in the mud.
It has been a marvellous 3 days; a great variety of habitats which meant
that the group as a whole saw 103 species, which was excellent. Thank you
Richard for organising such a successful outing; it
was well planned and the hotel was excellent.
Number of species seen: 103
Ann Crawford and Sue Thompson
Birds seen, in BOU order or alphabetic order
BOU order
in BOU order