Tuesday 17 January 2012

What to Do

Tuesday January 17
I woke to a heavily frosted lawn and frozen pond. First time this winter......maybe not, but the first for a couple of months. It stayed like it for the whole of the morning, the dyke bank didn't clear at all.
We should have been meeting friends for lunch but Pam has a sore throat and cough, my sinuses are better though. Didn't want to spread our germs to the vulnerable. By lunchtime, Pam decided that it was too lovely a sunny day to stay indoors and was well enough for a short drive . Via Stalham Tesco to pick up lunch, we drove to Horsey and Winterton. Lunch was eaten in the raptor layby at Horsey, watching two fields full of Golden Plover and Lapwings amongst the sheep. A lone male Marsh Harrier hunted in the distance, near a large flock of Pink-feet.
The reported Glaucous Gull had flown south shortly before we got to Winterton, a returning birder told us - he'd missed it too. I wasn't expecting to see it as it was a couple of hours since the pager message.
Red-throated Divers kept popping up everywhere we looked, on a seemingly empty sea. The highlight was a close-in Shag (!), our first of the year and a relatively good sighting for Norfolk.
Despite a good scan and a lot of hope, neither Short-eared Owl nor Cranes seen on the way home.

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