{"id":28759,"date":"2021-05-31T19:50:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T19:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/?p=28759"},"modified":"2021-05-31T19:50:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T19:50:37","slug":"a-few-days-in-north-norfolk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/a-few-days-in-north-norfolk\/","title":{"rendered":"A Few Days in North Norfolk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Alexanders – THE Norfolk spring wild flower.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Record shot of the Common Crane at Holkham Fresh Marsh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
This rather Grey headed Yellow Wagtail was at North Point Pools near Wells.
I watched it drop into this hawthorn bush as though freshly arrived.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Goldfinch – several were along the coast path from Blakeney to Morston.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Hobby – over the beach road at Salthouse on 26th May 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
This male Kestrel was hovering right above our heads at Morston.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Kestrel – male<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Lapwing displaying over the water meadows at Blakeney. Oh for a blue sky.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Meadow Pipit – above four images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Red Kite over Holkham Fresh Marsh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Reed Bunting – a male in summer plumage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Redshank – these birds love to call from fence posts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Rook – not often one gets close to a Rook.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sandwich Tern over the shingle beach at Salthouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
This very obliging Sedge Warbler was at North Point Pools, near Wells.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Shelduck over the fresh marsh at Blakeney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Short-eared Owl – one of three that were hunting the dunes between Cley East Bank and Salthouse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Skylark – above two images – get a load of those hind claws – immense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Swallow – Blakeney Fresh Marsh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Wall Brown – the only butterfly we saw during our few days in Norfolk – Titchwell 28th May 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Greenland Wheatear – photographed in heavy rain at Salthouse <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Wren – this obliging individual was belting out its song in the reeds at Blakeney Fresh Marsh.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,18,663,17,171,656,172],"tags":[694],"class_list":["post-28759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-665","category-birds","category-birds-of-2021","category-britishbutterflies","category-butterflies","category-trips","category-year","tag-norfolk-salthouse-cley-blakeney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplybirdsandmoths.co.uk\/sbam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}