Day 4 of a four day Autumn Tour today, our last day. After a light early mist burned off, it was a mostly bright and sunny day today, with just an hour or so of cloud around the middle of the day, and lighter winds too.
We started the day in Wells Woods. With lighter winds, we thought there was an outside chance of some birds having arrived in the mist last night. It also gave us another opportunity to catch up with some of our regular woodland species. As we got out of the car we could hear Pink-footed Geese calling and looked up to see a skein flying over, presumably just coming in from their overnight roost out on the flats. They dropped down towards the grazing marshes beyond the trees.
Pink-footed Geese – flying in from their overnight roost
The sound of Pink-footed Geese would accompany us all morning today, with regular skeins of birds flying over and landing out on the grazing marshes between Wells and Holkham.
There were several Little Grebes on the boating lake as we walked past and a tit flock came out of the bushes beyond and up into the pines, before moving quickly off in the direction of the car park. We couldn’t see anything with them other than Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits and Goldcrests though, as they passed us. Just beyond the lake, the sun was shining on the edge of the trees and a Chiffchaff was feeding among the leaves in the birches.
As we meandered our way through the trees, we could hear a few birds passing overhead – including Siskin, Redpoll and a Brambling. We came back out onto the sunny edge. In the fields beyond the caravan park a scattering of Pink-footed Geese had now settled in to feed. A Mistle Thrush flew off west calling from the edge of the caravan park, but the bushes here held nothing more than a handful of Blackbirds and Greenfinches this morning.
Continuing on west along the main path, we heard Long-tailed Tits calling in the pines so set off in after them. They were heading for the drinking pool, as we followed. There was a great mixed flock, and a good selection of birds dropped out of the pines and started to feed in the deciduous trees and bushes around the old pool.
Goldcrest – peeking out from between the leaves
The highlight was a Firecrest which appeared in the bushes just below us. We had a great view as it picked around in the foliage. There were a couple of Goldcrests with it and we could see the difference in the face pattern between the two species, the Firecrest more boldly marked black and white. One of the Goldcrests would occasionally chase the Firecrest, the two birds zooming around through the middle of the bush.
We also had a great look at a Treecreeper which appeared on a pine tree at the back of the pool, in the sunshine. We watched as it climbed up the trunk, before disappearing round the back of the tree.
Treecreeper – climbing up a pine tree
Two Great Spotted Woodpeckers came in too. At first, one flew in and landed on a dead birch stump. Then a second joined it, and the two of them chased round the tree after each other, before one flew off back into the pines.
Great Spotted Woodpecker – two were chasing each other around a birch stump
Eventually, the flock moved away into the pines and we decided to carry on west along the main path. Despite the sunshine and lighter winds, it was rather quiet here, in the oaks and birches along the path. We cut back inside, but even here we failed to locate many more birds – just the odd Goldcrest.
As we made our way back, we took a detour in around the Dell. This too was rather quiet today. We did flush a few Blackbirds and one or two Redwing from the brambles, and a skulking male Blackcap too. A couple of Red Kites circled lazily overhead. It was only back out on the main path, on our way back towards the boating lake, that we found a tit flock again, out in the sunshine. Unfortunately they were moving deeper into the trees and seemed to head off across to the caravan park. We decided to move on and try our luck elsewhere.
There had been a Greenland White-fronted Goose found with the same group of Pink-footed Geese where we had seen the Taiga Bean Goose a couple of days earlier, so we thought we would go round there next, to try to catch up with it. We could see a lot of Pink-footed Geese and Greylag Geese in one of the stubble fields by the main coast road as we drove past, but there is nowhere to stop along here. The geese had obviously moved, because there were now a lot fewer in the next field along, where there is a convenient layby to pull off the road. This is where all the geese had been earlier. We decided not to risk life and limb trying to see find a way to view where the geese were feeding now!
As we made our way back east along the coast road, we could immediately see a white shape in with the cows just beyond Stiffkey village. We found a convenient spot to park and made our way back to take a closer look. No great surprise, it was the Cattle Egret. It was on the near side of the cows initially, but quickly walked in amongst them. All the cows were lying down and it disappeared from view. Occasionally, we could see a white head and short yellowish bill pop up between them.
Cattle Egret – hiding in between the cows
A Kestrel appeared and start hovering just above our heads. The breeze had picked up a little now, and it was hanging in the updraft as the wind hit the bank in the corner of the field, close to where we were standing.
Kestrel – hovering just above our heads
We hoped the Cattle Egret might walk out again, and there was no suitable angle from which we could see it. With the cows lying down, it was not getting any food stirred up by their hooves and the next thing we knew it took off and flew away across the road, presumably to find something to eat elsewhere.
It was already getting on for lunchtime, so we headed back to the car and went off to find somewhere to sit and eat. There was an unbelievable amount of traffic on the coast road today, and it took us 10 minutes to get back through Stiffkey village, with all the congestion. When we got to the car park at the north end of Greenway, it was packed with cars and we were lucky to be able to find somewhere to park. Clearly, lots of people had some up to North Norfolk for the weekend, with the promise of warm, sunny weather!
It clouded over as we ate our lunch up in the shelter overlooking the saltmarsh. As it did so, suddenly flocks of birds started to appear, moving west along the coast just in front of us. They were mostly Starlings and Chaffinches, in flocks of 10-20 at a time. Looking carefully, in with the flocks of Chaffinches, we could see the odd Brambling too. A couple of little groups of Siskin flew over calling as well.
Starlings – moving west along the coast after it clouded over
This was visible migration in action – always great to see. Some flocks of Starlings were flying in across the saltmarsh too, presumably fresh arrivals in from the continent for the winter. It is likely birds were arriving all morning, but in the clear weather they will often come in much higher. In the cloud, the flocks had dropped down and were more visible.
For the afternoon, we had planned on a change of scenery. We got in the car and headed inland, a short drive down to the north Brecks. Our destination was the pigfields here, which is a site for large gatherings of Stone Curlews in late summer and autumn. We are well past the peak in terms of numbers, but there are still a few Stone Curlews lingering here. We got out of the car and started to look at one of their favourite fields and it wasn’t long before we were looking at two Stone Curlews, quite close to where we were standing.
Stone Curlews – a small number are still lingering in the pig fields
Scanning round carefully, we found a third Stone Curlew, just a little further back. There may well have been several more, as there is a big dip in the middle of the field which you cannot see into and a fourth Stone Curlew appeared briefly on the front edge of that.
We were looking into the light, so we tried to make our way back along the road to find a better angle. It was still not perfect, but through the scope, we had a great close-up look at the two Stone Curlews. We could see their staring yellow iris and black-tipped yellow bill. They are not related to regular Curlews – they are named because of their Curlew-like calls, and are actually a member of the Thick-knee family. Eurasian Thick-knee doesn’t have such a nice ring to it, although perhaps we should revert to using the more evocative old name for them – the Wailing Heath Chicken!
It is not far from here to Lynford Arboretum, so we decided to head round there next to try to add a few extra woodland birds to our trip list. As we walked down along the track, the trees seemed rather quiet at first, but we stopped at the gate to have a look under the beeches. The feeders were empty, but someone had strewn some seeds on the ground in the leaves. A steady stream of birds were dropping in – Chaffinches, Great Tits. Then a Marsh Tit appeared too. It kept coming back repeatedly, flying in, grabbing a few seeds, and shooting off back into the trees to deal with them.
A larger bird dropped down out of the trees and landed on the edge of the stone trough. A Hawfinch, a female. It had a quick drink from the trough, lingering just long enough for everyone to get a good look at it, before flying back up into the trees. A great result as they are not easy to see here at this time of year!
Continuing on down along the track, a Common Buzzard circled overhead. As we got down to the bottom of the hill, we could hear a Marsh Tit calling, so we took a little detour out through the trees towards the side of the lake. Some seed had been spread on a bench there, and the Marsh Tit was coming in repeatedly to grab some, much as we had seen the one earlier doing. We stood and watched it for a while. A Coal Tit was doing the same too.
Marsh Tit – coming to grab seed from a bench in the arboretum
While we were standing there, we heard a Kingfisher calling from the lake. We hurried round to the other side, but there were quite a few people out for a Sunday afternoon stroll along here today and it had obviously been disturbed before we could get there. Otherwise, there was not much to see on the lake – just a few Mallard, a Canada Goose and a Moorhen. A flock of Long-tailed Tits was calling from the alders on one of the islands and we heard a Grey Wagtail as we walked round the lake too.
It was a lovely late afternoon down in the Arboretum, and we could easily have stayed here longer, but we had a long drive back to North Norfolk ahead of us. With the sun now moving round and dropping, there was also a request to stop back at the Stone Curlews on our way past, to see if we could get some better photos.
The light had improved a little when we got back to the pig fields, but the closest Stone Curlew was also now just behind one of the electric fences, with a wire in the way. It didn’t stop us getting a great last look at it through the scope though – a cracking bird!
Stone Curlew – back for another look on our way home
Then it was time to head back and wrap up our four days of Autumn Migration birdwatching. It had been a very enjoyable tour, with a great selection of birds and some memorable moments.
