Norfolk Birds & Wildlife 4 Day Tour 3rd- 6th July

Day One 3rd July – Swanton Novers, Foxley Wood, High Kelling

We started the day with a visit to the nearby Swanton Novers watchpoint where we had amazing views of Honey Buzzards, a displaying ♂ Honey Buzzard, followed by a second ♂ Honey Buzzard.

Whilst enjoying the Honey Buzzard there was also Yellowhammer, Linnet, Chiff-chaff, Whitethroat around the car park area. The nearby hedgerow and rough grassland was also attracting plenty of butterflies with Gatekeepers, Meadow Brown, Green-veined White & a couple of nice Silver-washed Fritillary.

We then headed to Foxley Wood where there was a wonderful selection of butterflies, good numbers of the commoner species, but also really good numbers of Silver-washed Fritillary including the rarer valezina form and White Admiral, Purple Hairstreak, though these refused to come down low and scope views of a Purple Emperor. There were Common Spotted Orchid and also Enchanters Nightshade along the ride amongst many commoner wildflowers.

We then headed up to High Kelling and had more butterfly success – with more Silver Washed Fritillaries, but the main target was White-letter Hairstreak. Good numbers of Black & Yellow Longhorn beetles here too.

Day Two 4th July – Themelthorpe, Trimingham & Hickling Broad

We started the day with a look through a moth trap set in my garden overnight. It had been a clear cool evening, so the catch wasn’t a big one but still some lovely things to see!

We couldn’t miss the opportunity today to head over and see Norfolk’s first ever breeding Bee-eaters, so thats where we started, the birds were alighting on the telegraph wires and flying over the nesting area, so lovely views perched and in flight.

Also Sand Martin, Yellowhammer & Linnet here plus Common Spotted Orchids.

We then headed to Hickling Broad where we had lunch then headed out on to the reserve, after a bit of effort we got some views of Norfolk Hawker and this was followed up with really good views of a group of young Bearded Tits. Out on the scrapes there was Avocets, Black-tailed godwit, Ruff, Little Ringed Plover and Green Sandpiper.

We had reasonable views of an Ornate-tailed Digger Wasp coming to it’s burrows.

The day was very neatly round off with much improved views, compared with yesterday of Purple Hairstreak.

Day Three Day 5th July – Santon Downham and Weeting Heath

We started with a walk over Santon Warren, we eventually get really good views of Tree Pipit, this one feeding young. Also a family of Stonechat and good views of Treecreeper, Nuthatch was heard and also Marsh tit here as well.

We then headed to Weeting Heath, we had fine views of 4 Stone Curlew and then warden James Symonds opened up the moth trap for us, some cracking moths including some species that were very scarce.

Out on the reserve James treated us to a masterclass of knowledge showing and explaining the wonderful scarce and rare arable plants, plus the management required to maintain many of these almost lost species.

Also as we wandered the reserve we had 3-4 Woodlarks, plus many grassland butterflies and added Small Skipper to out butterfly list.

Day Four 6th July – Cley & Buxton Heath

We started with a look offshore at Cley as there was a brisk NW wind, lots of Sandwich tern, plus several Common and Little Terns. Also a small group of Common Scoter passed by, as well as several Gannets. Most notable was the passage of Mediterranean Gulls with at least 20 passing West.

We then headed down the East bank, better birds were Ruff, Green Sandpiper, flock of Black-tailed Godwit but the real standout bird was a long flight of a Bittern as it flew from Cley reedbeds to Salthouse! We also managed to find a single Grayling sheltering in the dunes out of the wind.

We then headed to Buxton Heath where there was really excellent numbers of Keeled Skimmers, also 4 Spotted Chaser, a plethora of Marsh Helleborine, quite a few Marsh Fragrant Orchid, plus still a few Silver-studded Blues.