An Afternoon Along The Coast Of North Norfolk – Thursday 9th October 2014
This blog entry is slightly different from the usual because rather
than giving the place names and a list of birds we saw there, I’ll give the
birds seen as a list at the end. I’ve done it this way this time because we
saw such a wide variety of birds.
We set off from home just before Midday and made our way to North
Norfolk via Swaffham and Docking making Thornham our first stop and on the way we
saw a Kestrel. We took a slightly different ending to our route going via
Chosely hoping to come out at Chosely Barns but we didn’t get it quite right
although I think it worked out to our advantage. When we left home it was quite
a bright and windy day the temperature being 13C which rose to about 16C by the
time we got to the coast.
As we went through Chosely I asked Jan what she would like to see
today, she said she always liked to see the birds of prey and I said yes, that
would be good because we haven’t seen many Marsh Harriers lately and almost
immediately after I said it a Marsh Harrier appeared over the hedge probably
about 10 metres from us. We pulled over and watched the Marsh Harrier go along
the edge of a field putting up a small covey of Partridges as she did so. I
fumbled with my camera but by the time I got ready to film it disappeared over
hedge on the far side of the field; a good start to our little expedition and a
fortuitous one because of our unplanned detour.
We came out at Thornham and went down to the Harbour. There weren’t
as many birds there as we saw in our last visit but we met an elderly couple
from Nottingham. The wife was the birder and the husband just a follower. She
had seen the Steppe Grey Shrike earlier at Burnham Norton but the husband was keen
to tell us how the Sparrowhawks had helped to decrease the number of birds they
had visiting their garden in Nottingham. I tried to explain to him that
Sparrowhawks are a good sign of a healthy bird population but I don’t think he
was really listening as he then went on to describe how a Sparrowhawk had
ripped apart a pigeon on their lawn. He then went on tell us about their recent
trip to Iceland and how they had seen Puffins really close up and how a man who had a really good camera like mine won a photographic competition with a photo of a
Puffin. I told him my camera might be good but I’m a really mediocre
photographer!
We moved on to Brancaster Staithe where once again there wasn’t a
huge number of birds but there was a good selection. It was spoilt a little
bit by a man who had to get closer than anyone else and tried to walk closer to
the birds; the birds of course just flew off and he went back to his car and
left! We’ve found that the car makes a perfect hide and birds will quite often
come right up to the car. We had lunch there and Jan said she had a treat for
me, a small round marmite cheese (I’ve been trying to keep off cheese for the
last few months) when she gave it to me she’d eaten half of it, although she
claims it was only a fifth (I demand a recount and in any case who on earth gives someone a treat and then eats half of it)!
Dunlin
Rainbow - Brancaster Staithe
Driving on to Burnham Norton Jan was going to have a go at seeing
the Steppe Grey Shrike a really rare visitor to this country. There were plenty
of cars in the car park and in the surrounding area and we probably got the
last parking spot in a small car park where quite often we are the only car. We
knew that I wouldn’t be able to get that far so I stayed in the car giving
strict instructions for her to get a video as well as a photograph. The chap
parked next us was obviously a real keen “twitcher” as he had all the gear and
quite a plush caravanette with all mod cons. As I sat there hoping that Jan
would bring back some super footage of the Steppe Grey Shrike I was entertained
first by about 50-80 Brent Geese coming into land in front of the car park and
then two Marsh Harriers who put everything back up into the air again.
Jan returned a good half an hour later, not a good sign I was
expecting her to be at least an hour or more. Jan had found the site quite
easily passing lots of birders on the way; she found about half a dozen birders
keeping vigil at the site and she thought she saw something grey disappear into
the ditch and that was it! Apparently the Shrike has been showing very well for
the last few days but today it had decided to spend more time in the ditch that
was about 300 metres from the viewing site.
Feeling somewhat deflated we moved on to Burnham Overy Staithe but
there weren’t many birds there so we moved on to Stiffkey Marsh. It was here
that the heavens decided to open and it became quite difficult to see anything
so we moved onward to Blakeney Harbour and once again there weren’t many birds
and what there was proved difficult to see in the frequent showers.
It had been quite a windy day and the temperature had dropped back
to 13C and when we got to Cley Beach car park overlooking the Norfolk Wildlife
Trust’s reserve we could see quite clearly how difficult the birds were finding
it to fly against the wind. We saw a large skein of Geese but they were very
high up, obviously trying to avoid the wind. Again we didn’t see many birds on
the ground but we did see three Hares amongst the grazing cattle.
We finished our trip at Salthouse making our customary stop at the
Duck Pond but this time without the ice-cream. Parking in Salthouse Beach Road we
watched the cattle and it was interesting to see some Pied Wagtails following
their footsteps to see what insects the cattle had disturbed.
Cow Seeing If The Grass Really Is Greener On The Other Side
We began our journey home but we had one last stop between Salthouse
and Cley because on the way to Salthouse I’d noticed a flock of grazing Greylag
Geese but there was a white bird amongst them and I wanted to find out what it
was. It was in fact a leucistic Greylag the only things that weren’t white was
it’s beak and legs. It had perfectly normal eyes so it wasn’t an albino bird.
It definitely wasn’t a Snow or Ross’s Goose because 1. It was the same size as
the Greylag whereas both of these species are much smaller and 2. It didn’t
have the black primaries of the Snow Goose, so it was definitely a leucistic
bird.
Leucistic Greylag Goose (Taken In Extremely Poor Light)
Leucism is caused by a genetic mutation that prevents pigment,
especially melanin from being properly deposited on a bird’s feathers. It can
range from white patches in the bird’s plumage, paler or diluted colours in the
plumage or as in this case the bird’s plumage being totally white. Leucism is
different from albinism because it only affects the plumage not the eyes, skin or
beaks of the bird. Earlier in the summer we saw a leucistic pheasant at Wicken
Fen.
Melanism is the opposite of leucism because rather than turning the
plumage white, paler or patchy they are dark or black. Again melanism is
genetically controlled and some species actually have a melanistic phase e.g.
Buzzards, Woodcock, Snipe, Montagus Harrier, Red Grouse and Partridge.
Apparently there is a population of Great Tits in Surrey which are melanistic
and it was also detected in House Sparrows in Liverpool in the 1930s. We have
seen melanistic Rabbits in Suffolk and Norfolk and Cambridge is famous for
them. Melanism can also be caused by diet in that birds whose diets are rich in
Hempseed or oil rich content can turn temporarily black.
Our journey home was uneventful and apart from a Hare running across
the road in front of us and a short stop at Hilborough in the hope we might
catch a glimpse of a Barn Owl; nothing else was seen.
Here is a list of the birds we saw, as you can see the recent lack
of Marsh Harriers was certainly made up for today:
Kestrel 3
Marsh Harrier 9
Curlew Too many to number
Shelduck Too many to number
Turnstone Too many to number
Little Egrets Too many to number
Great Black Backed Gull 2
Black Headed Gull Too many to number
Common Gull Too many to number
Herring Gull Too many to number
Ringed Plovers 8
Red Shank Too many to number
Brent Geese Too many to number
Oyster Catchers 6
Knot 5
Dunlin 6
Lapwing 2
Greylag Geese Too many to number
Mallard Too many to number
Pied Wagtails 6
Hares 4
Keep Your eyes peeled and good spotting.
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