16th December

Regent’s Park

Waxwing: two birds flew low SW over my garden at 3.20pm. I was sure that I had heard birds calling mid morning but couldn’t locate them. My last cotoneaster (berry bush) still has a few berries left on it.

Norfolk yesterday.

I popped up to Norfolk to meet up with Mark and Clive, two friends from the Northampton area. I had arranged to meet them in the Titchwell car park at 8.00am. I pulled up at about 7.58am not bad, I hate being late. My aim was to start at Titchwell as the high tide was at around 7.45am. Mark and Clive had seen 2 Woodcock as the drove down into the reserve cap park, they were 30 minutes early. This site is a great place to see this species. If you can combine an early afternoon high tide with a warm winters sun, it can be a great place to visit. The weather throughout the day was a brisk SW, offshore winds tend to bush the divers, grebes, scoters (a huge raft of 1000’s could be seen on the horizon) and other oceanic species further from land. Birds seen here were for that reason slightly disappointing, although the beach was covered in possibly millions of washed-up Razorshells, which in turn were being feasted on by a huge number of gulls. I decided not to try and scan these as it would have taken hours and time was limited. From here after a mid morning sausage bap we headed for the Salthouse Beach car park and hopefully Snow Buntings and divers. We looked briefly at the Sacred Ibis in a roadside field but didn’t stop. The target birds were seen at Salthouse, though the divers were well off shore. My last destination at 2.00pm was Stiffkey Camp, and hopefully some Hen Harriers, we saw 2 but I did leave at 3.10pm, which is a little early if you want to see them all come into roost on the salt marsh (7 were seen later on). The best birds we had there were 5 Waxwings that flew low overhead heading westwards. It was as it normally is a good days birding.

Reflection from the water on Titchwells Parrinder Hide

Early morning Little Egret

Waders on the beach at Titchwell

Goose chase

Turnstone by the Salthouse Beach car park

Ten out of the Eleven Snow Buntings at Salthouse, when nestling down in the shingle they can be hard to see.

Having decided that the light was poor and the chance of getting any half decent shots was zero I was gutted when it brightened up slightly and 5 Waxwings and a Hen Harriers taunted me by coming reasonably close. I hurriedly got my camera out but had to make do with hand held rather than fixing it to my stock. The Barn Owl then decided to rub salt into the wound.