Norfolk day trip

The Jims and I headed north this morning arriving at Wolferton at first light where we gave far too much of our valuable time looking without success for the probably soon to be un-tickable Golden Pheasants.
Disappointed we headed off without seeing our target although I had added Barn Owl Pink-footed Goose and Red-legged Partridge to my year list on the way up the A10.

Brent Goose

Next we pulled into the harbour car park at Thornham and very quickly found a very large flock of Twite.
Brent Geese, Linnet, Rock Pipit, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Skylark, Red-breasted Merganser, Knot and Sanderling to add to the year list before moving to Titchwell.

Twite

At Titchwell we added Water Pipit on freshmarsh, Bearded Tit, both Bar & Black tailed Godwit and Avocet. We found over twenty Snipe and two Water Rail giving the Jims needed ticks. Coal Tit visited the feeders and we bumped into Nevill and Stuart here too as they also enjoyed a tour of Norfolk today.
A quick drive around Choseley gave good views of Fieldfare, Redwing, Song Thrush , Mistle Thrush and Blackbird all feeding in the same field which gave me three year ticks to boot. No Brambling, Siskin or Redpoll were seen to today but maybe this current cold snap will push a few more south for us to enjoy.

We heard news of a large flock of Snow Bunting at Holme so made the short journey walking across the golf course to the beach where we very quickly found the Snow Buntings (around 20 or so birds) feeding with a large (60+) mixed flock of Linnet and Godlfinch. Amongst the flock were some summer plumaged stunners but we failed to find the reported Lapland Bunting.

Last call was a stop at Burnham Overy on the way home. We pulled into the layby where a small group had gathered as is normal at this year ticking time. No news of either Short-eared Owl or Rough-Legged Buzzard but after a quick scan we found a SEO sitting in the field and it soon took flight before being joined by a second Owl. Another scan and we found two Common Buzzard sitting on the gates around the Goose fields and then two Rough-legged sitting in the fields giving our best views of sitting RLB's to date.

A terrific days birding and with a couple of local ticks on Saturday added to the mix the year list has jumped to 115 species which is respectable after four days.

Mute Swans

YEAR LIST NOW 115