20.9.13

Birding in Norfolk

On the 14th September my dad and I went out to Norfolk with some other members from LROS (Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological Society), which each month do an outing to various reserves across the country and this months outing was to the North Norfolk Coast to Holme Dunes and RSPB's best reserve I think in Norfolk, Titchwell Marsh.

So on Saturday it was a early morning, up at 5:30am (which isn't that early compared to bird ringing in the summer). We arrived at Holme Dunes at 9am in the rain but we had all ready got a few good ticks for the day e.g. At Hunstanton school fields there was Grey Plover, Curlew and Lapwing. When everyone had arrived we headed straight for the beach to wait for passing seabirds on their migration south and we ended up with some amazing birds e.g. an Arctic Skua being mobbed by 6 Sandwich Terns, a Great Skua which had been blown by the freezing cold winds, it flew right over our heads, it was just amazing. Then when just before we were about to look at the freshwater pools someone shouts " Gannets" and there were 3 Gannets, two immature and one lovely adult flying over the sea at a distance.
2 Curlew Sandpipers

Little Stint
Later on we headed to Titchwell Marsh hoping for some new species. So as soon as we got in the car park we got Blue tit and Great tit which was ticks for the list today, then we headed straight for the freshwater lagoon after seeing the board with some great species at the lagoon i.e 2 PECTORAL SANDPIPER, 2  Little Stint , 4 Curlew Sandpiper and  1 Greenshank. When we got to the lagoon we had amazing views of the Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stint and the PECTORAL SANDPIPERS, with a bonus of an adult winter Mediterranean Gull. Then moving to the Saltwater Marsh a few more ticks were added; Spotted Redshank, Cetti's Warbler,  Black-tailed Godwit and Bar-tailed Godwit which was good for comparison. Then moving to the sea, hoping for some other species and we got 3 Eider flying past then an adult Eider on the sea. Also we got a lovely Kittwake fly past which I really loved. Then on the way back to the car park we looked at the feeders and we saw Chaffinch and Greenfinch. In the car park a flock of Long-tailed Tits with about 5 Chiffchaffs and one Willow Warbler. So the end of a fantastic day with a total of 65 species with 4 new species Arctic Skua, Great Skua, Pectoral Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper.
Pectoral Sandpiper in the middle with Curlew Sandpiper and Dunlin

No comments:

Post a Comment