Day 2 of a 4-day Winter Wildfowl, Cranes & Owls tour. It was a much nicer day today. After a light frost overnight, it was a beautifully clear and crisp morning with just a little more cloud around in the afternoon. Yes, it was chilly in the fresh SW wind. But so much better than it being “mild” (how the weather forecasters put it), which is just a euphemism for wet and windy! We spent the day on the North Norfolk coast.
We made our way over to NW Norfolk first thing, to Holme. While we queued to use the facilities – too much coffee at breakfast! – a Chiffchaff called from the bushes opposite. As we walked out over the golf course, a couple of Stonechats flicked up onto the top of the bushes and a Song Thrush flew over and landed in the back of the sea buckthorn. Several Skylarks came up from the edge of the saltmarsh, and a Rock Pipit and a Reed Bunting flew over.
Out onto the beach, there were lots of gulls along the shore. The Glaucous Gull had apparently flown off north from Old Hunstanton while we were in the car park, so we stood and scanned up towards Gore Point. There was no sign of it there. We could see several Sanderlings, Turnstones, a couple of Dunlin and a Redshank down on the edge of the water.
Walking south, there were more gulls on the beach and on the sea, but the Glaucous Gull wasn’t with them either. Nor was it hanging around the dead seal further down. The tide was coming in and a couple of large groups of Oystercatchers were gathered to roost on the shore now. We could see a couple of groups of Knot too and a single Grey Plover. Several skeins of Pink-footed Geese headed out over the Wash, possibly leaving us already.
Three Skylarks were feeding on the high tideline. As we continued down, we found the six Shorelarks too. They were very flighty today, in the wind, and kept flying out onto the beach. We got them in the scopes and watched them feeding out on the sand, before they flew back to the shingle ridge again. One of the highlights of the winter here, we have a couple of small flocks along the North Norfolk coast this year.
Looking up, the Glaucous Gull reappeared out on the shore. A biscuit-coloured juvenile (the commonest age to turn up here), we could see its distinctive pink bill with ‘dipped in ink’ tip. At one point it walked up to a 1st winter Herring Gull which it dwarfed – Glaucous Gull is one of the biggest gulls, a real brute! An Arctic-breeding species, they are irregular visitors here, displaced further south by strong northerly winds in the late autumn and winter. After a while, with the tide coming in fast now, it flew off strongly north again.
All the waders were getting pushed in by the tide too. There were lots of Sanderlings feeding along the near edge of the wet sand, just below the shingle ridge. They looked stunning in the low winter sun, and great to watch as they scuttled around like clockwork toys. Three Ringed Plovers flew in and landed at the base of the shingle ridge too, before walking up to try to roost on the tideline.
The Glaucous Gull reappeared again out on the shore, even closer in now. Even better views! More waders were gathering all the time, and we found a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits now in with the Knot and Oystercatchers.
The Shorelarks had landed back behind us on the shingle ridge now. We walked back slowly and had great views of them. With the sun behind us, their yellow faces were glowing. A birder walking the other way had not seen them (he was focused on the Glaucous Gull beyond) and despite us waving to move away, which he started to do, the Shorelarks flew and dropped down on the beach behind us.
There was so much to see here but eventually we had to tear ourselves away and start to walk back. We had seen a few Fulmars distantly flying in and out of the cliffs at Hunstanton and a couple closer flew past over the sea now. A subadult Gannet flew past too, catching the sun, and a single distant drake Red-breasted Merganser.
Looking over the dunes, we caught sight of a Spoonbill as it dropped down onto the saltmarsh further up. It was out of view from where we were and continuing on we then couldn’t see over the dunes from behind the fence. When we got back to Holme, we walked up over the dunes, and the Spoonbill was just visible briefly, feeding in one of the channels, before it walked out of sight round the corner. Most of the Spoonbills which were here in the summer have long since flown south to warmer places, but a few more than normal seem to be lingering so far this winter.
Eventually, we got back to the car park. With all the excitement, and given the weather was so good, we had spent more time here than expected and were a little later than planned. A drake Green-winged Teal had been found this morning at Holkham, so we decided to head back there to see if we could find it and then have lunch there.
We parked on Lady Anne’s Drive and got out of the minibus. There were plenty of regular Eurasian Teal sleeping out on the grazing marsh, but quite a few more were obviously out of view in the grass. Lots of Wigeon were feeding out on the marshes, several Shovelers were in the pools, and a we found a single drake Pintail asleep the other side.
A Great White Egret flew in and dropped down at the back. We found a couple of Common Snipe, two Black-tailed Godwit and a Ruff, but there had been no sign of the Long-billed Dowitcher today (or yesterday). There were fewer of the Black-tailed Godwits here that it usually like to hang out with.
There was no sign of the Green-winged Teal though, and several other people were looking and couldn’t see it either. We decided to have lunch and then have another look aftrerwards, so we got our bags out of the minibus and started to walk down. Never give up hope, we looked over at the Teal out in the middle again, as we passed, and thought we could just make out a more promising looking candidate. Quickly, we put up the scope again and confirmed what we suspected, it was the Green-winged Teal. We could just see the distinctive vertical white stripe on its foreflank.
The Green-winged Teal was well tucked down in the grass, towards the back of the other Teal. It was hard to see even when you knew where it was! We took a quick digiscoped photo to show everyone what they were looking for and we all had a look at it. We could also see the different head pattern, with reduced gold head stripes compared to the Eurasian Teal. Just in time, as a Red Kite drfited over and all the ducks flushed. Most seemed to settle again but numbers of Teal did look to be down now and we couldn’t find the Green-winged Teal again.
We walked round to the picnic tables outside The Lookout for lunch, sat in the sunshine today, very different to yesterday! A couple of Red Kites were hanging in the air over the pines. A small group of Golden Plover circled distantly over the grazing marshes towards Wells before dropped back down in the grass.
After lunch, as we walked back to the minibus, we had another scan of the grazing marshes by Lady Anne’s Drive. There was still no further sign of the Green-winged Teal and, at the time of writing, it hasn’t been seen again since it flew. We were very lucky with our timing!
There was still a little time before we had to be at the raptor roost later, so we wrove east to Stiffkey next. A large flock of Brent Geese circled over the village as we arrived. We parked on Greenway and walked over the road and down the steps. At the bottom, we found a couple already watching the Glossy Ibis, so we quickly got it in the scopes. It was feeding with a Curlew on the wet grass further up. There were several more Black-tailed Godwits too here today, but just a single Redshank with them.
As we had seen the Glossy Ibis so quickly, we figured we could still squeeze in one more stop before we needed to be at Warham Greens. Back along the coast, we parked and walked in round some fields. The Tawny Owl was perched obligingly at the entrance to its hole, dozing and sunning itself. It barely opened an eye as we walked up to the corner and set up the scopes. We were looking straight at it, a great view.
Despite the extra stops, we still got back to Warham Greens in good time. We walked down the track and out to the edge of the saltmarsh, where several people were already gathered, and set up our scopes to scan. When everything flushed from the back of the saltmarsh, we looked over to see a Merlin towering up over the trees out on East Hills. A male Marsh Harrier had just caught something and we could see it circling low over the bushes below with prey in its talons.
Apparently a male Hen Harrier had gone through before we arrived but thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long before it reappeared. It was distant at first, flying across the back of the saltmarsh then over in front of East Hills. It worked its way gradually over towards Wells, then we lost sight of it. Shortly after, it came back across in front of us much closer. It circled up over the saltmarsh into the low evening sun, its grey and white body tinged pinky-orange. Stunning birds!
There were several Marsh Harriers, a couple of Common Buzzards and a Red Kite here tonight too. The raptors generally were a bit quiet this evening though – perhaps taking advantage of first nice day for a while to stay out hunting to the last. There was no sign of the Pallid Herrier coming in to roost in daylight tonight. A Spoonbill circled distantly towards Wells briefly, before dropping down onto Lodge Marsh and disappearing into one of the channels out of view. A Barn Owl flew along hunting over the grass below us.
Eventually the light started to go, so we decided to call it a night. We had heard Pink-footed Geese calling earlier and seen a couple of small groups flying off inland, and another heading off west towards Wells. There was no sign of the large flocks flying out to roost on the sands though. As we walked back along the path, thousands of Pink-footed Geese came up from the fields just inland calling. They had obviously gathered to wait in the fields. They flew low in front of the orange sunset over the fields, and dropped down towards the coast behind us.
A wonderful sight and sound, so typical of winter in North Norfolk (for now, anyway!), it was a great end to the day. Time to head back for tea & cake.
