North
Norfolk – Tuesday 9th September
As much as we like North Norfolk we usually avoid the area during
the school holidays because it just gets too busy. The A149, which runs from
Kings Lynn to Cromer, is a smashing road with lots of scenic views but it’s not
built for heavy traffic and sometimes in the summer with the sheer volume of
traffic from holidaymakers it can turn into one long traffic jam. So it has
been a few months since our last visit.
We had a good start to our journey seeing a Kestrel just outside
Swaffham. It doesn’t take us too long to get from our home in Watton to the
North Norfolk Coast (about 90 minutes and it is quite a pleasant run) but we
invariably see something on our journey.
Our first stop was at Thornham where there were lots of birds; it’s
the sort of place where you can see anything, especially if you stay there for
a while. Unfortunately it was quite busy so we didn’t stay very long.
After leaving there and passing RSPB Titchwell, which is a bit
difficult for us because of my reduced mobility I have to use a wheelchair and
Jan is suffering from Tendonitis at the moment, so we’re trying to give her
wrist as much rest as possible. We went up to Choseley Barns, which is always
worth a visit especially in Spring and the Autumn. On our way up there we saw a
Juvenile Kestrel which defied all our attempts to video it and then just a bit
further on we saw an adult Kestrel hunting the fields, possibly the parent as
they were so close. They were easily identifiable because the first bird didn’t
have all it’s tail feathers.
We moved along to Brancaster Staithe; a Staithe means a small inland
harbour, a safe mooring for small boats. Again there were lots of cars parked
but there was still plenty of room for us to park. We’ve had some good sightings
here and there were a good variety of birds on the shoreline. There were
Turnstones still partly in their breeding plumage, Golden Plover, mixed groups
of Ringed Plovers (juveniles and adults), Redshanks, Common Gulls, A Great
Black Backed Gull (which we saw catch and swallow a sizeable crab),
Oystercatchers, Little Egrets (we saw many of these all along the coast) and a
Black Tailed Godwit. Some of these birds were in their eclipse plumage (which
is a mixture of their Summer and Winter and Breeding and Non-Breeding plumages).
We also saw a Cormorant catch a reasonable sized flatfish, we didn’t believe he
could get it in his beak, we both said: “Now what are you going to do with it?”
But not only did he get it in his beak, he swallowed it whole and then carried
on fishing.
Turnstone
Ringed Plover
Redshank
We stayed there for a while before moving onto Burnham Norton. There
were some Swallows around the houses but other than that there wasn’t much bird
life evident. We did see a Grass Spider and an unusual fly, called the Noonday
Fly.
Noonday Fly
From there we moved onto Burnham Overy Staithe but there were more
cars than birds and the birds there were all young Black Headed Gulls.
Moving further along the coast we stopped at Stiffkey Marshes where
there were plenty of birds; Little Egrets, Curlews, Common Gulls & Black
Headed Gulls unfortunately most of them were a fair distance away from us.
Several miles further on along the coast is Morston Quay, our next
stop. I actually got out of the car here and we sat on a bench overlooking the
Quay. There were a couple of House Martins patrolling up and down the Quay for
a while before disappearing. These were possibly birds that were already on
their migration journey just stopping off to refuel, possibly from other parts
of Britain or Scandinavia or even further afield. There were plenty of Little
Egrets about and we were surrounded at one point by a family of Pied Wagtails,
the two parent birds and several juveniles. These birds rarely stay still for a
second but between us we managed to get some decent video footage of them. Then
two Meadow Pipits joined us for a while and once again these may have been
birds from somewhere else that were already on their migration journey. A
family of Goldfinches also turned up to feed on the seeds on the Broom bushes
at the Quayside. Looking across the Saltmarsh you could see various birds and
in the coming weeks that will be full of Geese and Wildfowl as they come in for
the Winter from Scandinavia, Iceland, Siberia and all parts of the Arctic
Circle.
Little Egret
We made a quick visit to Blakeney Quay but the tide was racing in
and once again there were more people than the Black Headed Gulls that were
gathered there.
Our North Coast journey then took us onto Cley Beach and going along
the Beach Road we came across our fourth Kestrel of the day. I think this was a
juvenile bird and it was perched on top of one of the roadside poles looking
for suitable prey. We managed to get quite close to the bird and I got some
video footage of it, which is on our YouTube Channel. These birds are normally
quite shy and normally fly off quite quickly but this one stayed put for about
five minutes. It was only disturbed by two birders who were walking along the
embankment under the poles. They didn’t even see the bird; they were quite
oblivious to it, even when it flew off. We saw the Kestrel go down on something
from the pole possibly a Beetle or a Worm before it was disturbed. We carried
onto the Beach Car Park where we stayed for a while, this is a good place to
look down and observe the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Reserve and also to watch
the Sea Birds flying along the Beach, it’s possible to see anything from an
Osprey to a Skua and everything in between, from this Beach as most of the
migrating birds fly along the coast in one direction or another.
Kestrel
We then made our last stop at Salthouse. The Beach Car Park used to
be one of our favourite stopping places but sadly since last Winter’s Storms
the Car Park no longer exists and is now under many feet of shingle. The Beach
Road comes to an abrupt halt about 200 metres from where the Car Park used to
be, however it is still a good place to observe the marshes on both sides of
the road. We spent last year’s Christmas Day here and saw another victim of the
storm rescued, a young Common Seal Pup that had been washed away from its
mother. We stayed here for a while seeing a few small skeins of Geese passing
over. In the coming months these skeins will be contain many thousands of
over-wintering Geese, truly one of Nature’s great sights.
Skein Of Geese
Small Skein Of Geese
We stayed here for a
while waiting for the last of the three 2014 Supermoons to rise, we were hoping
to catch it as it rose above the North Sea but there was a bank of low cloud
out at sea so it had risen by about 10-15 degrees by the time we caught sight
of it. It was red as it caught the last rays of the setting Sun. This Moon
although not as big as the last one in August was still pretty impressive and
Jan got a lovely video of it with a bird passing across the face of the Moon,
which is on our YouTube Channel. The Supermoons are when the Moon’s orbit is at
its closest to the Earth and it appears bigger and brighter to us. They are not
that rare, it happens every 13 months but quite often it’s not when the Moon is
full but this year all three of them were full Moons. This month's Moon was also a Harvest Moon as it is so near to the Autumn Equinox.
The Sun Setting In The West
The Rising Supermoon In The East
The Supermoon Bathed In The Setting Sun's Rays
We began our journey home after a great day but still hoping to see
a Barn Owl or two along the way but sadly we didn’t but we were kept company by
the Supermoon still reflecting the light of the Sun down on us. We were already
beginning to look forward to our Winter visits to the North Norfolk coastline,
which to us are always magical – more birds and less people.
The Supermoon Later That Evening From Our Home In Watton
Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting, wherever you are.
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