Friday 13 September 2024

Norfolk Short Break

Snettisham Day 1 Sunday 8th September 2024.

A good journey here .

We had a short afternoon birding walk but, sadly, the tide was way off!

Sanderling and Ring Plover seen.

Snettisham Day 2 Monday 9th September 2024.

We 'enjoyed' an early walk along the beach to catch the tide as it came in.

The weather was bloody awful with just us two numpties walking on the beach as the rain lashed us driven on by a gale force wind.

Three wind surfers were riding massive waves - bonkers.

Keeping the camera dry was a real pkroblem but I did take a few photos.

After we had dried out a bit, we put some different dry clothes on and....  went out again.

This time we walked from Snettisham Caravan Park to Hunstanton , just a small camera this time out.

The weather forecast was better.

The forecaster LIED and we got absolutely  drenched again on the walk.

Birds:-

Mute Swan with juvs that I tried to turn into Juv. Whoopers but cannot - the Bills not right.

Canada and Greylag Geese.

Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Sanderling, Oystercatcher.

A flock of Waders circled around before landing far off on the beach - Knot.

Dunlin, Redshank.

Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull.

Little Egret, Heron. Little Grebe.

Common Buzzard.

Possible Large Flock of Godwit as well.

and a few others was the best I could do in awful wet stuff.

A Tawny Owl called late evening.



















Small Camera:-






Common Buzzard









Snettisham and Wells-next-the-sea Day 3. Tuesday 10th September 2024.

Moving on day today to Wells-next-the-sea.

We had another short walk this  a.m. - running out of time - before moving on.

Many Sanderling were lovely to see scooting along the beach.

On our way to Wells, we called at the small boat club area at Brancaster Staithes.

There is a great wooden hut cafĂ© here that sells brilliant  Prawn sandwiches ( and Crab etc) - we called here for lunch.

A few good Waders here :-

Black Tailed Godwit.

Redshank.

Curlew.

Common Gull.

A Common Sandpiper (at the time) looks very Turnstone(ish) from the photo.

It left as soon as it saw me.

Red Kite further along.











Common Sand. (Turnstone)!!













Wells-Next-The-Sea Day 4 Wednesday 11th September 2024.

Very, very windy mostly dry - a hail shower late on.

Pink Footed Geese in large numbers most of the day.

Woke me at 5:45am ish over the motorhome.

We cycled to Holkham Hall this morning for a non-birding look about.

This afternoon we had a birding outing walking from the RNLI buildings at Wells down towards town.

After an hour or so Sue retreated to the pretty, and, pretty expensive cafe opposite the  RNLI (not great either) while I continued my birding outing for a few more hours.

I continued down the riverside path then I had a rest, a coffee and a bun in the same cafe ( Sue had escaped to the motorhome by now ).

I then had a walk on the , now available, beach behind the RLNI.

Some good islands appearing now with the tide receding.

An enjoyable day, and we did NOT get soaked today - result.

Some Birds:-

Brent Geese. Pink Footed Geese. Redshank.

Turnstone. Ringed Plover. Lapwing.

Grey Plover.

Turnstone.

Great to get a single Dunlin after checking many Redshank.

Barnacle Goose, Greylag Goose.

Knot (some in summer plumage).

Sparrowhawk.

Great Black-backed Gull.

Hundreds of Oystercatcher.

The Brent Geese and Grey Plover were very distant and a

speculative photo reveals a "potential" Spotted Redshank.



























Wells-Next-The-Sea Day 4 Thursday 12th September 2024.

A poor weather forecast had me pack a small camera for our walk today. 

However the poor weather never came! (very cold wind with sun today) .

We caught the bus to Stiffkey and walked to Blakeney.

The 'lake' east of Stiffkey held loads of 'water' birds but they were really to far for my tackle alas - however some birds were ok to recognise.  

I also checked out the "inlet" river from Wells to the caravan park.

Some Birds:-

Spoonbill. Egyptian Geese.

Greylag Goose. Canada Goose. Pink Footed Goose.

Brent Goose. Teal. 

Widgeon and Shelduck.

Kestrel.

c40 Redshank sheltering under a bank.

Little Egret and Possible Great White Egret.

Large flock of Knott in flight , landed on salt marsh meadows.

Turnstone. Black Tailed Godwit.

From our Wells to the Caravan Park...

Curlew. Ringed Plover.

Wheatear.

Dunlin.

Wells-Next-The-Sea Day 5 Friday 13th September 2024.

Possible Harrier species seen on my way to the shower block.

We set off home today at 9:30 ish called to pick up 2 prawn sarnies at Brancaster Staithes to eat later for lunch.

A truly awful journey home taking 4 hours to do 90 miles (don't say "I had a car like that!") with just a 20 minute lunch stop. 






















Some Birds (Brancaster Staithes butty pick up):

Redshank, Black Tailed Godwit, Teal.

Knot.

The over riding memory of the holiday were the thousands of Pinkies calling & flying over the motorhome 3 mornings on the trot. 

Buzzards and Red Kite on the way home.












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