A 1-day tour looking for late autumn migrants and winter visitors on the North Norfolk coast.

Late Autumn

Large numbers of birds come here to spend the colder months, including wildfowl, waders, birds of prey and owls, and by November most of our winter visitors should be here in good numbers. There should be large numbers of geese, particularly huge flocks of Pink-footed Geese commuting between their roost sites on the coast and the harvested sugar beet fields inland, where they feed. Sometimes a rarer goose may be mixed in with them, and in some years it is a good time to find Tundra Bean Geese in the flocks. There is always a good selection of ducks and waders to see too at this time of year.

Our over-wintering Shorelarks are always one of the highlights of the season here, and should be back in residence by this time, and there may be flocks of Snow Buntings too. It is a good time for raptors and we may go to a site to watch for Hen Harriers and Merlin coming in to roost at dusk. In some years we may have a Rough-legged Buzzard around for the winter as well.

It is always worth checking the sea and November can be a good time of year for scarcer divers and grebes on the coast. In northerly winds, Little Auks and Grey Phalaropes are both possibilities and maybe even a Pomarine Skua could be blown inshore. In November 2021 one of our groups was lucky enough to find a Brünnich’s Guillemot on the sea here, the first for Norfolk and only around the fourth record for England.

Whilst autumn migration is largely over, some species often still turn up at this late time of the season. On previous tours we have seen such exciting rarer birds like Stejneger’s (Amur) Stonechat, Isabelline Wheatear and Hume’s Warbler. There are still often surprises to be found!