We decided to spend a few days away in North Norfolk, basing ourselves at Blakeney. The first three days were pretty dreadful, with heavy rain on and off and a very cold North Westerly wind. These conditions made photography and birding extremely difficult. Fortunately there were a few birds hanging on from the previous week and we managed to see Common Crane, Temminck’s Stint, plenty of Spoonbills, a Great White Egret and a few Red Kite to kick start the week.
A few Short-eared Owl were hunting the marshes between Cley and Salthouse and after some patience we were rewarded with some reasonable views once the rain stopped. I found a Greenland Wheatear at Salthouse and one of the abberant “White-rumped” Common Swifts that have been seen along the North Norfolk coast at various sites. This was was over the marshes at North Point Pools, near Wells. I must admit it got me going for a few moments.
The 26th May was by far the best day – A walk out to Blakeney Fresh Marsh produced a few feeding Sandwich Terns and Little Terns, several Marsh Harrier. Later in the morning we had a Red Kite over Blakeney to Morston coastal path and excellent views of a male Cuckoo. I found 2 Spoonbills roosting out on the salt marsh. We decided to spend a few hours parked up along the beach road at Salthouse, whilst eating our lunch of Crab & Prawn sandwiches. I decided to check the RBA news and noticed a report of 2 Bee-eaters over Overstrand heading west. Right we will stake this one out and keep fingers crossed that they will head our way. Sure enough at 14:33 I picked up on the distinctive sound of a calling Bee-eater. I had a job to locate it in the bright blue sky and sunshine but as it got closer I managed to get my bins on the bird, which was quickly followed by the second. I watched them hawking in the sunshine over Walsey Hills at some distance. What a fantastic few moments, it is experiences like this that makes birding so exciting and enjoyable. About 15 minutes later I picked up on a Hobby, heading in the same direction following the streams of Sand Martins and Swallows that were all heading west along the coast.
With booming Bittern and several Cuckoo waking us up each morning we were reluctant to leave for home. A great few days away and we managed to see around 96 species without too much effort.
I watched it drop into this hawthorn bush as though freshly arrived.
