Birding Tuesday

 Tuesday January 24

We didn't even bother asking Siri when high tide woud be at Snettisham today. We drove straight there along roadside verges so thick with overnight frost that it looked like snow. Ungritted roads looked likewise apart from the wheel tracks of earlier traffic.Under a sun shining from a virtually cloudless, winter blue sky the countryside looked beautiful. I'm never sure which season I prefer. Winter, when the beauty of skeletal decidous trees opens up the landscape and have a supreme value of their own. Or spring when fresh green growth gives the promise of warmth and migrating birds to come.

The first pit at Snettisham was totally iced, no birds anywhere. The second pit held small flocks of Tufted Duck with some dapper male Goldeneye amongst them. There must have been six Little Grebe. 

 



 

I've lost the marker disc from the top of my Canon camera - the one that tells me which mode of shooting I'm using. When I got home I discovered that all my cherished photos were almost black. The wheel must have been moved when I lifted my camera and lens up from the floor beside me. Which mode was that? I've been leaving it on Automatic, unless the light is good enough to use AV. I shall have to investigate.

Stopping in order to inspect the diving ducks, I caught a glimpse of something speckled brown moving at the bottom of a weedy patch below us. I kept seeing small bits of it and then lost interest as it disappeared, dismissing it as a pipit. Pam left the car to get her camera from the back seat, spooking the unseen bird into flight. A Snipe. It must have found some mud soft enough to probe at the edge of the pit.

The entry gate was propped open. Hurrah. Until closer inspection revealed that the supports had been smashed. It looked as though a vehicle had tried to go through it whilst it was closed and smashed the hinge pillar. 

Yes, the tide was out. This time, the irregularity of the deeply engraved mud was highlighted by swathes of sea ice, formed by the very cold temperatures.

 

A major ravine is know to us as The Cut, ducks congregate there, Mallard and Wigeon this morning. 

 


Two Avocets, Teal, Redshank, Curlew, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit and Grey Plover were scattered about, feeding avidly. .

Chris Packham has been extolling the virtues of The Wash again in Winterwatch. Visitors would be very disappointed if they visited at the wrong time. Not only does it need to be high tide, it needs to be a high, high tide. One also needs to arrive about two hours before the optimum time to enjoy the spectacle shown on TV shows.

On the way out , through the chalet park, a patch of waste ground added a Song Thrush and a Wren to the year list. 

 



That takes us to over a 100 seen either from the car or in the garden. A fraction of our past but very pleasing for now.

After a quick visit to Hunstanton Cliffs, where we added Fulmar  - one snatched photo as it rose from the cliff top,

 

A warning of a road closure at Thornham, the coast road closed after Hunstanton, took us well inland and straight home. In time for the 3 o'clock Sainsbury delivery.

 



 

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