May 2021 Guided Birding Tours – Norfolk Species List

By Chris Mills | June 9, 2021

Due to the pandemic situation prior to May, there were a lot of bookings in May for single exclusive days and half days guiding, whilst we were allowed eventually to run a 3 day group of 5 persons at the end of May.

As might be expected we revisited many sites during May on our Norfolk birdwatching tours! So rather than repeat similar birds and sightings in daily blogs, I’ve just provided a list of birds recorded in May below with the better, more interesting species appearing in bold, commoner species just appear with a one against them, treated as present.

1	Greylag Goose	1
2	Pink-footed Goose	8
3	Brent Goose	300
4	Canada Goose	1
5	Mute Swan	1
6	Egyptian Goose	2
7	Common Shelduck	1
8	Garganey – 11th May a drake North Point, Wells-next-the sea	1
9	Northern Shoveler	2
10	Gadwall	2
11	Eurasian Wigeon	1
12	Mallard	1
13	Northern Pintail – two late birds still present at Cley on 5th May	2
14	Eurasian Teal	20
15	Common Pochard	2
16	Tufted Duck	2
17	Common Scoter	12
18	Common Pheasant	2
19	Grey Partridge	4
20	Little Grebe	2
21	Stock Dove	2
22	Common Woodpigeon	1
23	European Turtle Dove – three birds at Snettisham on 28th May	3
24	Common Cuckoo – a better Spring with several recorded from quite a few localities, including a very showy male at Kelling Quags with an hepatic female	2
25	Eurasian Nightjar – at least 4 birds showing very well, including a perched male on evening May 29th	4
26	Common Swift	15
27	Common Moorhen	1
28	Eurasian Coot	1
29	Stone-curlew – we’ve been able to watch 3 breeding pairs during May, plus we found a new pair in NW Norfolk away from the core population on 28th May during the three day tour	2
30	Pied Avocet	30
31	Eurasian Oystercatcher	8
32	Grey Plover	15
33	European Golden Plover – A stunning breeding plumaged ‘Northern type’ Golden Plover was present at Cley on 25th May	1
34	Northern Lapwing	10
35	Common Ringed Plover	1
36	Little Ringed Plover	1
37	Whimbrel – A steady passage throughout May with a peak count of 23 at Burnham Overy, Holkham NNR on 2nd May.	23
38	Eurasian Curlew	5
39	Bar-tailed Godwit	1
40	Black-tailed Godwit	1
41	Ruddy Turnstone	3
42	Red Knot	30
43	Ruff	2
44	Sanderling	4
45	Dunlin	20
46	Jack Snipe – one still present at North Point, Wells-next-the-sea on the late date of 4th May	1
47	Common Snipe	4
48	Common Sandpiper – 1-2 seen on most coastal tours	2
49	Spotted Redshank – in short supply this Spring, but we caught up with a stunning summer plumaged adult at Cley on 5th May	1
50	Wood Sandpiper – a reasonable scattering during May, we had 3 at North Point, Wells-next-the-sea on 11th May	3
51	Common Redshank	25
52	Black-headed Gull	40
53	Little Gull – a single 2cy bird was present at Ken Hill marshes on May 28th	1
54	Mediterranean Gull – seen on most coastal visits with autumn migration underway in early June with adults moving from East to West	4
55	Common Gull	1
56	Herring Gull	4
57	Iceland Gull – a late 2cy bird still present and seen on our tour of 5th May	1
58	Lesser Black-backed Gull	7
59	Great Black-backed Gull	2
60	Little Tern – lots off Cley by the last week of May	1
61	Sandwich Tern – lots off Cley by the last week of May	70
62	Northern Fulmar	2
63	Northern Gannet	2
64	Great Cormorant	11
65	Grey Heron	2
66	Great White Egret – seen regularly during tours at Holkham, North Point, Wells & also at Holme and Cley	2
67	Little Egret	10
68	Eurasian Spoonbill – seen regularly on tours throughout May	3
69	Western Marsh Harrier – seen on all coastal tours	4
70	Eurasian Sparrowhawk	2
71	Northern Goshawk – still managing to see these right through May with a bit of patience down in the Brecks, South Norfolk	2
72	Red Kite – seen on almost all tours in May	8
73	Common Buzzard	4
74	Short-eared Owl – amazingly late records this Spring with 3 still present at Cley/Salthouse on 25th May	3
75	Common Kestrel	1
76	Eurasian Hobby – numbers lower in North Norfolk, seen regularly on tours to Brecks, South Norfolk	2
77	Common Magpie	1
78	Eurasian Jackdaw	1
79	Carrion Crow	1
80	Eurasian Blue Tit	1
81	Eurasian Skylark	1
82	Woodlark – seen on all our tours to Brecks South Norfolk, with one clearing holding up to 4 singing males and also seen occasionally in North Norfolk
83	Bearded Tit – seen well at end of May with a family group, poorer flight views on earlier tours	1
84	Sedge Warbler	12
85	Eurasian Reed Warbler	5
86	Common Grasshopper Warbler – seen & heard regularly on tours in North Norfolk	2
88	Sand Martin	20
88	Barn Swallow	50
89	Common House Martin	2
90	Willow Warbler	1
91	Common Chiffchaff	2
92	Cetti’s Warbler	2
93	Long-tailed Tit	1
94	Eurasian Blackcap	1
95	Garden Warbler – seen and heard from mid May, especially in the Brecks, South Norfolk	1
96	Lesser Whitethroat – seen regularly through the month	1
97	Common Whitethroat	2
98	Common Firecrest – seen on all tours to the Brecks, South Norfolk, with one area holding 7 singing males	4
99	Eurasian Wren	1
100	Common Starling	4
101	Mistle Thrush	1
102	Song Thrush	1
103	Eurasian Blackbird	2
104	Fieldfare – late birds seen on May 3rd	11
105	Ring Ouzel – we saw three at Burnham Overy on the tour of May 2nd, I also recorded eleven the next day whilst birding at Muckleborough Hill without a group.	3
106	Spotted Flycatcher – sadly much declined here as a breeder and migrant we recorded a single migrant on the tour of 29th May	1
107	European Robin	1
108	Whinchat – another declining migrant but we recorded a single dropped on to the fenceline at Hunstanton Cliffs whilst doing visible migration and guiding a client on 10th May	1
109	European Stonechat	2
110	Northern Wheatear – a good scattering of Wheatears, with plenty of Greenland types from 2nd week of May onwards.	6
111	Dunnock	1
112	House Sparrow	1
113	Grey Wagtail	1
114	Western Yellow Wagtail – a light passage, seen in single figures regularly, best count 22 passed overhead on May 3rd at Hunstanton Cliffs. A single, sadly unpaired displaying male still present at Cley at end of the month	1
115	Pied Wagtail/White Wagtail – several White wagtails were seen during tours with 2 at North Point, wells-next-the sea.	2
116	Meadow Pipit	2
117	Tree Pipit – seen on all trips to the Brecks, South Norfolk	4
118	Common Chaffinch	1
119	Hawfinch – an unusual find in late Spring on May 6th, with a bird watched feeding on the ground in the Brecks	1
120	Eurasian Bullfinch	1
121	European Greenfinch	4
122	Common Linnet	12
123	Lesser Redpoll – still small groups in Brecks, South Norfolk in early May, plus 45 Redpolls passed overhead on May 3rd at Hunstanton Cliffs	7
124	Common Crossbill – 1-2 were seen in early May but the larger numbers from March and April disappeared	1
125	European Goldfinch	4
126	Eurasian Siskin	4
127	Yellowhammer	2
128	Common Reed Bunting	2
129	Barn Owl – seen occasionally and on 2 Nightjar and Owl evening sessions.
130	Water Rail – heard on several occasions in early May tours

Posted in Articles