Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

Wednesday 17th February

Ouse Washes WWT

A gloomy, damp start slowly lifted to give a brighter afternoon.

We walked across to the main hide soon after the centre had opened and found plenty of floodwater but not many swans.

A few dozen Whoopers were out in the middle distance and over 700 Pochard.  A swan feed was due around noon and a WWT chap duly appeared but announced that as they'd had a major ringing session that morning he doubted many would come in! He wasn't wrong but a few family parties of Whooper's did and hundreds of Pochard.

We walked to a few other hides and found a few Bewick's, hundreds of Wigeon and Teal and c200 Black-tailed Godwit.

Back at the information centre a Water Rail was feeding under the bird table which was attracting a handful of Tree Sparows.

Ouse Washes

Whooper Swan

Pochard

Titchwell RSPB

Mid afternoon we left Welney and drove north to the coast arriving at Titchwell around 4.30. It was overcast, grey, damp and miserable but we walked to the beach anyway. Apart from a couple of Spotted Redshanks we saw little of note. The main interest was the new earthworks that have been built as part of the plans to protect the freshmarsh.

Thursday 18th February

Holkham Gap

The day dawned fine- sunny, bright and dry. After a lazy breakfast we drove east to Holkham, getting fantastic point blank views of a Barn Owl just outside Burnham Deepdale.

Parking on Lady Anne's Drive we watched as several hundred Pink-feet flew off with a Greater Snow Goose for company - good start !

We walked through the gap in the pine belt onto the familiar sandy expanse of Holkham Bay and headed east to look for the Shore Lark.

They took a while to find but after an hour or so we were watching 5 feeding happily on a stony expanse just short of the dunes.

The boys got bored and spent a good while rolling down the dunes and then filled their wellies up with water in a creek.

Shore Lark

Wells Boating Lake

Whilst the kids dried out and  warmed up in the car we drove to Wells and took a look at the Scaup that have been present for a few weeks now. A nice party of 4 birds; an adult drake, 1st winter drake and 2 females.

It was now mid-afternoon and we decided to head to Salthouse to finish but just outside Wells found the A149 closed for road repairs and decided the diversion might take an age and instead headed back west to Titchwell.

Scaup

Titchwell

We got to Titchwell soon after 3pm and set off to the beach with the temperature dropping and grey clouds rolling in. In the ditches at the start of the path to the beach 2 Water Rail gave great views and we spent a while getting the boys on the birds whilst I tried to get some photos in the gathering gloom. On the freshmarsh we had a few Spotted Redshank and several skeins of Brent's came in. When we got to the beach the cold soon hastened our return to the car though we spent a while in the information centre chatting to the staff about the plans for the reserve whilst the boys tried to spend their pocket money.

Water Rail

Friday 19th February

It snowed overnight, we'd had about 3 or 4 cms before I turned in but dawn revealed that it had nearly all melted.  Blue skies and sunshine and a biting northerly wind made for an uncomfortable day outdoors but we made the most of it and kept moving.

After a late breakfast we headed east. Just outside Burnham Norton we had 2 Barn Owls hunting over the meadows near the mill. The closure of the A149 sent us inland and we drove past Binham Priory. The kids asked about the ruins and so we turned around parked up and spent an hour or so exploring the ruins and the church - a new interperative centre was excellent.

Eventually we made it to Salthouse and drove to the beach car park. As we drove into the car park Snow Buntings were all around us, drinking from the puddles, flying along the shingle ridge and eating grain put down for them on the edge of the saltings. Jenny took the boys to the sea

and I spent an hour photographing the Snow Buntings in the occasional sunny intervals.There were around 110 birds present.

As we left and drove to Cley another Barn Owl was quartering the fresh marsh.

We did not spend long at Cley, mostly birding from the car and driving through deep puddles to amuse the boys!

Salthouse

Snow Bunting

Saturday 20th February

Titchwell

It dawned bright, sunny and cold with a heavy frost coating grass and hedgerows as far as the eye could see. From our bathroom in the Briarfields Hotel looking west across towards Titchwell I was delighted to see a Barn Owl perched on a concrete post just a couple of hundred feet away. It took flight and began hunting over the rough grass and disappeared in a seaward direction.

After breakfast we loaded up the car and decided to spend at least the morning at Titchwell.

On arrival we were greeted by an enthusiastic member of staff who soon had the boys attention - they could borrow a book on birds to help them identify what they saw and if they returned with a list of 20 species they could keep the book!  The boys were totally enthused and remained so pretty much up until the returned to show their list and claim their prizes some 4 hours later with just an hour off on the beach!

There were lots of highlights, including inevitably another Barn Owl. Water Rails showed well and we had great look at many waders including Spotted Redshank, Ruff, Black and Bar-tailed Godwits. The sea was calm and I persevered with the scoter flock and was rewarded with 5 Velvet Scoter and 5 Eider in addition to the 1200+ Common Scoter. The best was almost saved to last; leaving the beach and dropping down onto the freshmarsh I heard the unmistakable sound of Twite and had a superb flock of 57 birdswhich spent a few minutes feeding on a grassy island. Many were colour ringed - grey and pink. We had great scope views in the sunshine.

Water Rail

The Parrinder Hide has gone and a new earthwork constructed to act as a new sea wall. A new hide is planned - managed retreat!

Spotted Redshank

Black-tailed Godwit

Turnstone -feeding on a dead fulmar

Bar-tailed Godwit

We left Titchwell after lunch at the cafe and drove to Holme. I parked near the beach, crossed the golf course and scoped the sea for ducks but managed just a single Eider and another Barn Owl.

Our last stop was just inland from Titchwell where a great flock of Pink-feet were spread out across ploughed fields. The Greater Snow Goose had been reported with the flock and was still present when we arrived as dusk approached.

The honking of the Pink-feet as the sun set was a fitting sound to end our trip to Norfolk.

Snow Goose with Pink-Feet