March 4, a Full Day's Birding

The first opportunity for a day's birding after 3 days of sunshine. Would the weather hold....yes it did. A glorious sunny day, although still very cold, 5C being the highest temperature all day. Leaving home at 6.15 a.m., the birds singing well including a local Song Thrush, we'd added 40 species by Abbey farm at Flitcham. The list included Tree Sparrows at our favoured location and a calling male Grey Partridge along with three females at the back of the farm field.


Expecting the usual fruitless drive around Wolferton Triangle... I saw a male Golden Pheasant appear and, just as quickly disappear, into the rhododendron thicket. Pam missed it!
Abbey was disappointing, devoid of birds. The man walking in the field waving his arms about gave us a clue - as well as the notice on the hide door saying that they were moving the Canada and Greylag Geese on before they settled to breed. They're causing havoc to the water system, eating the vegetation and eroding the banks.
High tide at Snettisham is rightly famous for the roosting waders - but not for viewing the variety of species usually present. After finding the two Shorelarks near the entrance gate at the chalets, we walked to the second hide, from which the pit-side bank of roosting Knot 'shingle' van be viewed.

At last, our first visit to Gore Point at Holme NNT. Persistence in scanning an apparently empty sea paid off with 3 Red-throated Divers, Eider, about a dozen delightful Long-tailed Ducks and a flock of 20 Snow Buntings on the beach.
Well satisfied, the next walk was Titchwell, only as far as the first pool to view Avocets and a male Red-crested Pochard, occasionally showing its head and neck on a reedy island. The breeding pair has returned. Luckily, someone was already viewing a Woodcock on the path to the car park. Difficult as always, a limbo stance was needed for a good (!) view. Well, I saw the whole roosting bird.
After a quick lunch at Brancaster Staithe, a 'just in case' visit to Burnham Norton was immediately succesful. The Snow Goose had been reported as only visible from the seawall, about a mile's walk. It flew about with a very large flock of Brent as we arrived. We only saw a small number of Pink-feet all day, they must have started the journey north.
Black Brant at Wells plus a pair of Scaup on Abraham's Bosom, nothing new at Morston nor Cley. A Little Owl at Felbrigg flew into it's nesting tree and some Long-tailed Tits on the feeders at home brought the score to a very pleasing 94. Despite not trying for the Glaucous as we'd seen it on Monday, missing Grey Heron, Snipe, Coal Tit and a few other bankers. An excellent day's birding and very enjoyable too.