April 30th 2019 – Norfolk Exclusive guided birding tour
Today I guided Paul and Alison, collecting them from Burnham Overy. We set off and visited the Holkham NNR. It was a nice morning, with a bit of a gusty breeze. First of all, from a vantage point we got a nice overall selection of birds, their first Spoonbills flew over and one landed to give reasonable scope views. There was plenty of raptor action with Marsh Harriers, Red Kites and Buzzards sailing around on the wind.
I decided to get them a bit closer! A walk through the woodland was a delight, so many birds singing, Willow warbler, Chiff-chaff, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Sedge and Reed warbler, Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Song Thrush and we managed to get nice views of most of the warblers.
Once the hide we were treated to the continual comings and goings of Spoonbills, plus Little Egrets and we also located 2 Cattle Egrets. Just out in front of the hide there was a busy Mistle Thrush, which was joined by a lovely migrant female Ring Ouzel, we enjoyed lovely scope views of the Ouzel.
Out on the pools there were Avocets, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall and a single Whimbrel.
We had a nice short break with coffee at ‘The Lookout’ and then we headed over to Titchwell. Before a lunch break we headed out to Patsy’s Pool, en-route we had nice views of Reed warbler, sitting out showing well. There was 2 Red-crested Pochard, Common Pochard and nice mixture of other wildfowl. Just behind us a Lesser Whitethroat was singing well and we managed nice views of this, whilst also locating a Garden warbler too, the first one of the year for me. Overhead there were a few Swallows, Sand and House Martins plus 2 Yellow wagtails flew over. We also had lovely views of Marsh harrier from here.
After a lunch break – we headed out to the main reserve. There was a nice mixture of birds, but without anything unexpected. We enjoyed a small group of Red Knot, Bar & Black-tailed Godwit there was quite a nice group of Sandwich terns plus 2 Common Terns. There were also a few late Brent Geese.
A lovely day with a nice selection of Spring birds.