Norfolk day out

With my family stuff needing me to be around locally we don't get the days out we used to so with the full day to myself I asked Dad and Jim if they'd like to visit the Norfolk coast and nail down some year ticks for 2026 and of course they agreed as they too had a rare weekend without commitments.

I had a Barn Owl from the car on the way up and we stopped at Hunstanton first to year tick Fulmar at this regular haunt of theirs. I found a Red Breasted Merganser too for the Jims who needed it for a tick.

Next stop was Titchwell and walking out along the meadow trail we found the Tawny Owl roosting in an Ivy covered tree before headed back to the main track where the Jims picked up several ticks for their trouble whilst I just got the single tick as a small flock of Pinkies flew over. At the beach we scanned the sea and I picked up three Long-tailed Ducks drifting along with four RB Mergs, Two drake Eider flew east and on the tide line I added Sanderling and Turnstone to my year list. 

Brent Geese

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Tawny Owl

A stop at Brancaster Staithe added Barwits whilst the Jims picked up Grey Plover too. We moved on to Morston Quay were to our surprise we very quickly found the Glossy Ibis on the marsh in front of the car park and a Greenshank gave us another tick as it walked along the creek here. 

Oystercatcher

Curlew

Turnstone

Turnstone

Turnstone

Bar-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwits

Greenshank

We drove along the beach road at Salthouse in search of Twite bur found only Snow Bunting here although with a shoot in progress on the farmland behind the A149 we scanned the fields to find dozens of Red-legged Partridge for another year tick. By now we were just six miles from Sheringham so I asked Jim if he'd like to see the Eastern Black Redstart and of course he did so we made that our next move. The bird was found as expected on the buildings behind the esplanade and we enjoyed watching it for about half an hour before calling it a day and heading home.

Eastern Black Redstart

I saw 94 species on this trip and added 13 year ticks for my trouble.

Year list now 148