Despite setting out in rain and overcast, by 10 a.m. it was sunny with blue sky. No Tree Sparrows again in our known area, for the second month running. They usually congregate around the farm in the winter. Where have they gone?
Our first Fieldfare along the back lane to Abbey farm together with many careering immigrant Blackbirds.
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| Fieldfare |
From the hide we saw.... Starlings and Jackdaws.
Pur first visit to Snettisham for some months coincided with a turning tide - at its lowest. The pit nearest to the caravan park had Tufted Duck, Pochard, Little Egret and a surprise female Red-breasted Merganser.
Most of the expected waders on the reserve mud. large numbers of Bar-tailed Godwit and Knot, 700 Golden Plover, a sprinkling of Grey Plover, Dunlin, Redshank and Oystercatchers.So many Shelduck, as always.
Best was a flock of 150+ Fieldfare feeding on Hawthorn berries on the far shore of the pits and a couple of Goldeneye on the pits.
Fifteen Fulmar loafed on the sea at Hunstanton, a lone Shoveller preened on the Broadwater at Holme.
Creeks full of water at Thornham and Brancaster Ovary meant flocks of roosting Gulls and our first Brents - two of them on the marsh. several skeins of Pinks during the day and one field-full near Holkham.
The hoped for Black Brant at Wells - and all the other Brents - had been scattered away by a man walking across the pitch and putt. Shouldn't be allowed !
We had another look for the Black Brant along Beach Road at Cley, a thankless task. It was a very large flock, many of them hidden behind a ridge, very active and restless. Part of the way through my scanning, most of them flew away even further and more widely spread. I gave up. The large flock of Golden Plover in the Eye Field gleamed in the fast dropping sun,
I took advantage of the light to photograph and obliging Lapwing.
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| Part of the flock |
A lovely day, although a short one, upper 60s the final number of species seen.
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