North Norfolk

Made my fist visit of the winter to north Norfolk today (I know, it's almost spring!). It was a lovely sunny winters day, with temperatures pushing double figures. I started off at Titchwell RSPB, where a couple of Water Pipits and some nice photos of Brent Geese were had. The best birds though were on the sea. When I reached the beach I headed over to some birders using the largest dunes as cover and the told me they'd had 18 Velvet Scoter, all of which were shifting west in small flocks along with the Common Scoter. I joined in their count and within about 30 minutes the count had reached 39. This included seven birds that were sat just offshore, feeding with some Common Scoter. I don't know what the record count of Velvet Scoter is in Norfolk, but I'd imagine this might be close, especially over the past couple of decades.

It was then off to Stiffkey Fen to look for divers in Blakeney Harbour. Unfortunately, one of the seal boats had been through the harbour 15 minutes before I arrived and had pushed most of the divers up a channel, which wasn't visible from the coastal path. After about 30 minutes though, some of the divers emerged, with around 6+ Great Northerns and a Long-tailed Duck moving back out into the pit.
As well as the divers, there was a nice adult Black Brant, a Black Brant x Dark-belled Brent hybrid, a few Water Pipits flying around, Yellow-legged Gull and quite a few Med Gulls.

Drake Gadwall, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Dark-belled Brent Goose, Titchwell

Hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Stiffkey

Hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Stiffkey

Hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Stiffkey

Hybrid Black Brant x Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Adult Black Brant, Stiffkey

Quck venture out

So it's finally stopped raining and the wind has died down enough below hurricane-force that I feel it safe to venture out into the field. In fact the sun was actually shining! So, I headed out to east Norfolk to have a mooch around Martham and Horsey to see what was around. Martham Broad was pretty quite, with about 30 Tufted Duck, 20 Gadwall and a Eurasian Wigeon being the only thing of note there. Four Common Cranes (2 pairs) were feeding in the fields just east of the coast road between Somerton and Horsey and the Black-throated Diver was swimming around in the middle of Horsey Mere. There's no access to Horsey Mill and hence the footpath past it to go around the south side of the boat mooring, so you need to head around the north side of the broad to view it. The bird was viewable after about 200 metres walk from the car park.

Finally, I did a late afternoon visit to see the Glossy Ibis by the river at the end of Cess Rd. The bird is very approachable and poses quite nicely for photos.