I spent Friday in north Norfolk with Richard Campey, who lives and works near the coast. It was a relaxed day, with some morning sunshine, before showers moved in from the south-west during the afternoon. We didn’t travel out of north-west Norfolk and saw nearly 70 species without really trying.
Barn Owls were very obvious, perhaps after rain preventing them from hunting last night. We saw at least 6 during the day, including this early morning bird, perched on the way to Holkham Bay, our first stop after Richard had dropped off his son at work.
An area of the marsh at Holkham has been fenced off to allow regeneration of the saltmarsh. This area has been attracting Shorelark this winter. When we arrived 4 birds were right in the middle of fenced off area, but as we watched and waited they worked their way over towards us. Eventually, we had superb views in lovely early morning sunlight:
There were also at least 40 Snow Bunting on the saltmarsh, with over 1000 Common Scoter, 5 Red-breasted Merganser, 4 Long-tailed Duck and 2 Great Crested Grebes on the sea.
As always, the skies and fields of north Norfolk were filled with thousands of Pink-footed Geese, some quite close :
The Rough-legged Buzzard at Wells announced itself by putting up hundreds of Lapwing, Golden Plover and thousands of duck. We had superb ‘scope views of it hunting in front of the pines and frequently hovering before it returned to its regular perch on a building viewable from the road:
The sunshine after yesterday’s rain had brought out the raptors with lots of Kestrels, Marsh Harriers, Common Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk all seen throughout the day.
A wintering Black-necked Grebe on Holkham Hall lake was a nice addition to the day list:
The afternoon saw a change in the weather, with regular heavy rain showers. As darkness fell we popped in to see if the Eastern Yellow Wagtail was about still about, as it’s favourite dung piles are only 10 minutes from Richard’s house. We discovered that it hadn’t been seen in over two hours, so called it a day and went back to Richard’s for afternoon tea. Hard-core birding it wasn’t, but it was a superb chilled-out day with a good friend. We finished the day as we had begun it, with a Barn Owl. We watched this bird hunting by the road near Sedgeford. On one occasion it hovered right above our car, starring down at us, providing the sort of view that is the last thing that countless mice and voles ever see. They are fabulous birds:
