Archive for October 2020
Norfolk Day Exclusive Day Tour – 30th October
Today was an exclusive general days birding for a couple. I collected them and we headed up towards Holkham. As we passed through mid Norfolk and stopped off on a quiet lane for a nice group of winter thrushes, 2-3 Red Kites and a flock of Redwing. We soon reached Holkham and headed out into…
Read MoreNorfolk Day Exclusive Day Tour – 22nd October
Today was an annual day out with a group I’ve been meeting up with in October for many years! It’s always a pleasure to guide these guys as they leave the itinerary and day completely up to me and we always see something nice or different! With the wind in the South, we decided to…
Read MoreNorfolk Day Three of Three Day Tour – 20th October
Today we headed to Cley. Although the winds were Southerly and not encouraging for a seawatch, I was sure an hours effort would see us add a few more birds to our total. It was fairly slow going but several Red-throated Divers were sitting offshore, a few Common Scoter passed by and several parties of…
Read MoreNorfolk Day Two of Three Day Tour – 19th October
Today was a very different day in many ways! Less rare, but equally special, with an incredible 100,00 shorebirds to see, hear and excite us! It was an early start, but was rewarded with one of the most spectacular high tides seen at Snettisham, probably 120,000+ Red Knot & masses of Oystercatchers and Bar-tailed Godwits…
Read MoreNorfolk Day One of Three Day Tour – 18th October
There was a wealth of rare birds to head off and look for today, after a period of high pressure and North Easterly winds. We took the decision to head firstly for the rarest of rare, a Rufous-bushchat that had been found and Saturday and I had managed to see on the previous afternoon. The…
Read MoreNorfolk Day Five of Five Day Tour – 16th October
We started the day at Cley with an hour of seawatching, it was fairly quiet but there was still Red-throated Divers, Common Scoters, Wigeon, Teal & Gannets all moving offshore. Things livened up when first we spotted a Peregrine way, way out to sea, incredibly 3-4 miles out it was seemingly chasing down prey. After…
Read MoreNorfolk Day Four of Five Day Tour – 15th October
With the belated news the previous day of a Red-flanked Bluetail being found at Holme-next-the-sea, we were sent back heading to a previous day’s destination. On arrival it was apparent that we would need patience, the Bluetail had been seen just once in two hours. We decided to head off and do some birding in…
Read MoreNorfolk Day Three of Five Day Tour – 14th October
I decided we would set out at North Point near Wells and walk along the bushes and hedges, as the weather looked good for thrushes and migrants with a NE wind and showers. On arrival there was good numbers of thrushes, mainly Redwing, some Fieldfare, many Blackbirds, some Song thrush and plus small numbers of…
Read MoreNorfolk Day Two of Five Day Tour – 13th October
We started the day with a couple hours of looking at the sea, it was a nice busy session with a constant Westerly stream of wildfowl – Dark-bellied Brent Goose 160 WestCommon Shelduck 8 WestEurasian Wigeon 100 WestNorthern Pintail 4 WestEurasian Teal 30 WestGreater Scaup 3 Fem EastVelvet Scoter 3 WestCommon Scoter 37 WestGreat Crested…
Read MoreNorfolk Day One of Five Day Tour – 12th October
We made our way towards Holkham and en-route noted a couple of Red Kites, though we were set to see plenty more up at the coast. We were greeted at Holkham with small skeins of Pink-footed Geese, as we set off in search of smaller target birds! Our first foraging flock appeared and there was…
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