Norfolk in the murk
I am making sound worse than it actually was. The days that I had put aside to spend a few hours birding were on the whole quite gloomy and misty with a bit of drizzle thrown in. The best day with sun from sunrise through to late afternoon was the day my car went for a service.
Below are a few of the more interesting photos I managed to take.
The only wader apart from the small flock of regular wintering Turnstone's was this
Sanderling.
A couple of distant Tundra Bean Geese took off with over 2,000 Pink feet just as I arrived at
the viewing area.
Before they had all got airborne I picked out this lone Barnacle Goose.
I went goose hunting over at Choseley one morning but the sun that had been forecast didn't
show in the time that I had allowed. I headed back east to see the Snow Bunting's at
Salthouse. On arriving at the end of beach road I was met with big waves crashing against
the shingle beach. It was beginning to come over the top and I was slightly worried that it
might breach it and flood the area and with it my car.
Luckily enough the tide had peaked and disaster was averted for now.
This 3rd winter Glaucous Gull flew over my head as I waited for the
Snow Buntings to work their way towards me.
The Whooper and Bewick's Swans on the old Ludham Airfield were slightly closer this visit.
The yellow-legged Bewick's Swan that I have seen on two previous winters had returned.
Later that day a report of a Tundra Bean Goose on the airfield made my mind up as to where I would go the next morning.
It didn't take me long to pick up the only grey goose on the airfield the next morning. Was
this the bird reported yesterday, being a lone bird made me think it was. The trouble was
that once I'd looked at it through bins I could see that this was just a lone Pink-foot and
possibly misidentified because it was further away the day before.
Another report of possibly 12 Tundra Bean Geese in with several 1,000 Pink-feet only a few miles down was to hard to resist even though I still had my wife in the car. I asked her to
keep her eye's peeled for geese on her side of the road. Well it would have been impossible
to miss them, they covered almost the entire Sugar Beet field and these fields are huge. I
pulled over by a farm gate and looked back, I was slightly to low to scan the field properly
so once I was sure there weren't any Tundra Beans on this side I turned around and went
back to a nearby lane. It didn't take me long to pick up 5 Tundras, 3 unfortunately dropped
out of sight over the ridge. These 2 stayed in view until I felt my other half was getting to
cold.
I am making sound worse than it actually was. The days that I had put aside to spend a few hours birding were on the whole quite gloomy and misty with a bit of drizzle thrown in. The best day with sun from sunrise through to late afternoon was the day my car went for a service.
Below are a few of the more interesting photos I managed to take.
Sanderling.
the viewing area.
show in the time that I had allowed. I headed back east to see the Snow Bunting's at
Salthouse. On arriving at the end of beach road I was met with big waves crashing against
the shingle beach. It was beginning to come over the top and I was slightly worried that it
might breach it and flood the area and with it my car.
Snow Buntings to work their way towards me.
this the bird reported yesterday, being a lone bird made me think it was. The trouble was
that once I'd looked at it through bins I could see that this was just a lone Pink-foot and
possibly misidentified because it was further away the day before.
keep her eye's peeled for geese on her side of the road. Well it would have been impossible
to miss them, they covered almost the entire Sugar Beet field and these fields are huge. I
pulled over by a farm gate and looked back, I was slightly to low to scan the field properly
so once I was sure there weren't any Tundra Beans on this side I turned around and went
back to a nearby lane. It didn't take me long to pick up 5 Tundras, 3 unfortunately dropped
out of sight over the ridge. These 2 stayed in view until I felt my other half was getting to
cold.
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