Holkham hits

A trip up the A11 this morning gave us the chance of adding a few year ticks so we started at Holkham and after putting some gold coins in the green box at the car park we headed off down the board walk and along the path towards the "roped off area". We quickly found 21 Shore Larks feeding and soon after around 30 Snow Buntings. We enjoyed good views of them for a couple of hours although the sun never quite got over the pines and the sand on the dunes remained frosted over during the time we were there.

Shore Lark at Holkham

Some of the Snow drops.

We added Dartford Warbler to the day list when one was seen flitting around with a Stonechat at Holkham to our surprise before leaving for Cley.

At Cley we parked at the coastguards and walked east to East bank finding a Glaucous Gull as we neared the far end. The bird appears to have some damage to it's right eye but otherwise was a joy to watch and we managed a few images too. Another group of Snow Bunting was found here which pushed the days total to over 100 birds proving they are having a good winter on the Norfolk coast.

The Glauc at Cley

We dropped into Sheringham for a spot of lunch and managed to find a single Purple Sandpiper.

Purple Sandpiper at Sheringham

As we headed back towards Titchwell in search of the Choseley Barns Rough-legged Buzzard I stopped to get the Jims a year tick for White-fronted Geese on Holkham freshmarsh and on arrival at Choseley we quickly found the Rough-leg and managed to get the small crowd on it to the delight of all. The bird sat, flew, hovered and generally entertained us. Among the crowd four guys from yorkshire that I last bumped into at the Rock Thrush in Wales when one treated me to a beef sandwich.

The journey home delivered one more final year tick when a Woodcock was seen at Dersingham.

Year list now 146 and all in all a very good days birding.