North West Norfolk

 29^th January 2012

Today we had decided to do a trip to North West Norfolk we had a early start leaving London at 06-00 hrs in the end there was just the two of us as Corrina is still not feeling well. As we set of and it was very misty but as we drove along the M11 this turned to fog we stopped for breakfast to set us up for the day as we left here the fog was patchy, So on to our first stop at Fakenham armed with some information we drove to the spot and parked up we spoke to someone leaving and was told the Great Grey Shrike was showing when we got to the spot for it had just flown back to where we had walked from it then flew further along the old road where we had good views of it we also had 2 nice male Bullfinch here

Now it was on to the Norfolk coast starting at Salthouse where we had a nice flock of 25+ Snow Buntings and some Pink Footed Geese and some White Fronted Geese, I had some very close Turnstone which i got some pictures of

Next to Cley after getting our permit for the reserve we set of to see if we could find the Western Sandpiper we tried one of the hides overlooking pat’s pool where we found a flock of Dunlin we had been told that it was with the Dunlin flock after a short time we had a small wader fly of but it went out of sight so we then went round to the other hide overlooking the pool from the other side, some birders where on a small wader the other side of the pool after watching this for a short time everyone was happy that it was the Western Sandpiper other birds seen here included Avocet, Black Tailed Godwit, Ruff, Teal, Brent Geese, Shellduck, lapwing.

Keeping to our plane for the day our next stop was Holkam we parked up and set off for the gap we did stop near the path and have a quick  look for Firecrest but with no luck, So it was on to the gap on arriving there was a party of birders of to the west looking at something so we headed out to where they were but they were just looking at the large flock of Skylarks ( it was a bit later that we learned that there were some Twite in the flock) which we did not see, We then headed off to the east side of the gap where there were more birders watching the sea they told us the birds we were looking for where behind us so we set of to see if we could find the Shorelark after a short time with some other birders we found the 4 birds there was also a large flock of Snow Buntings here, We then went back to have a look at the sea where there was a Red Necked Grebe, Slavoinion Grebe, Red Breasted Merganser, Razorbill, Guilemot, on our way back to the car we scanned the large flock of Meadow Pipits looking for Rock Pipit no luck

We now headed to the end of Holkam Park where we parked and then walked back along the road to view the marshes for Geese he we had Brent, Canada, White Fronted, Pink Footed , Eygutian, and the small flock of Barnacle Geese

As we were driving along the A149 we stopped at Burmham Overy to see if the flock of Lapland Buntings where showing no sighting of them but we did have a couple of sub species of geese Black Brant and Pale Bellied Brent Goose, as we had already seen Rough Legged Buzzard we did not wait to see this bird because time was getting on.

Our next stop was Titchwell after a coffee we had a look to see if we could see the Cole’s Arctic Redpoll which we found after a short time there where a good selection of birds on the feeders Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, House Sparrow also in the trees we had Lesser Redpoll and Siskin, Robin, We then moved on along the path towards the shore having Black Tailed Godwit and a close Spotted Redshank on the sea we had Goldeneye, Red Breasted Merganser, Common, Scoter, Eider, Slavonian Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, 3 Long Tailed Duck, along the shore line there where Sanderling, Knot, and a selection of the 5 gulls you would expect to see Black Headed, Common, Herring, Lesser Black Backed and Greater Black Backed, On the way back to the information we had a Water Rail showing very well managed to get some pictures

We now headed for Hunstanton where we had Fulmer and Bar Tailed Godwit

As we were driving along the A149 near Heacham we had a Barn Owl hunting over a field, We now decided that there might just be enough light to have a look at the scissors at Wolverton for Golden Pheasant no sign of any we then drove around the edge of Sandringham looking for Woodcock with no luck as we came down the A10 near Ely a Tawny Owl flew along under the street lights

The final total of birds seen today was 101