29/04/17 North-west Norfolk Coast Day 2 with Chris Mills

Saturday 29 April 2017

Visible Migration Event

A very early 05.15 start to experience visible migration from the Old Lighthouse at Hunstanton.  With a change in wind direction, Chris expected us to see lots of birds on the move south, down the side of The Wash, hugging the coastline before heading north again on the Lincolnshire side.  

• He was right but the numbers were lower than expected.  The birds came through in small groups rather than as a mass flow. Nevertheless, it was a really good experience to see birds streaming past us, just a few metres above our heads.
• They were principally Swallows, Sand Martins, Meadow Pipits, Yellow Wagtails, Linnets and the occasional House Martin, Redpoll and Tree Pipit.  
• We did manage to see at least 2 Ring Ouzels in the conifers overlooking the pitch and putt facility nearby.

A good pre-breakfast activity and 2 new additions to my 2017 species list.

Holme Dunes NNR

After breakfast, we made the short journey to Holme to spend a fruitful couple of hours looking for migrants in the nature reserve - viewed from the public footpath.

• It didn't take long to hear and then see yet another couple of Grasshopper Warblers.
• Likewise, we heard then saw Lesser Whitethroats.
• We had several good sightings of Ring Ouzel.
• Quite soon we saw our first Cuckoo of the day, perched at the top of a bush on the horizon.
• There were plenty of Tree Pipits moving through.
• Also moving through were Redpolls, Yellow Wagtails and of course Swallows.
• 11 Ruff were seen at the edges of the pool before they took to the skies when flushed by a Marsh Harrier.

Again it was the sheer number of birds around that impacted most.

Holme Bird Observatory

For the next 3 hours or so we looked for migrants in and around the Bird Observatory.  The birds were plentiful, but much the same as we had just seen.

• In an amazing 15 minute slot, we had a raptor fest with Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, Kestrel, Red Kite, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard all showing well in the skies above us.
• We searched for Whinchat, initially in vain, before Chris got a call from a colleague about a stunning male in the hedge on the exit road from the reserve.  After a while, we found the bird.  initially, the views were poor due to the long distance but gradually the bird came closer and we were able to appreciate its beauty.

RSPB Titchwell

Incredibly, it was 2.30 pm on our last day before we reached Titchwell.

• We had good views of a couple of Bearded Tits in the reeds either side of the channel in the reedbed.
• From the Parrinder hide, we saw 2 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Common Sandpipers, 5 Ruff and loads of Mediterranean Gulls as well as the usual suspects.
• Our final activity, a Seawatch produced well over 1000 Common Scoter and 10+ Velvet Scoter.

At 5 pm we said our farewells and headed home. The feeling was unanimous that this had been an outstanding trip with a good mix of birding experiences and, of course, some stonking birds - our final species count being 117!