That Place Again

 Wednesday December 18

Very windy day, we drove directly to Snettisham, taking the faster and quieter route Google maps had sent us on last week. As is fast becoming a family joke, the sun appeared as we drove through Dersingham. Good for photos, not good for viewing the pits on the reserve. The first pit, viewed as we drove through the chalet park, was again full to overflowing, the wind whipping up the surface into rolling, white crested waves, racing across the surface. 

The second pit was where the small flock of Tufted Duck was loitering, the males' crest teased into weird shapes by the buffeting breeze.



Further on, the Goldeneye were having the same problems. A few of the males were beginning their head throwing back mating advance. It is the Winter Solstice on Saturday.




Somehow the Goldeneye gave me the impression of being less robust than the Tufted.

The receding water, recent enough to have left gleaming wet mud, was in the far distance. A flock of about a thousand Golden Plover, their scaly backs gilded by the low sun, spread in a glistening line across the middle distance, to the left of the deep creek we know as the Cut.


Lovely.

Hunstanton town cliffs were active, Doves huddled in dark crevices, pairs of Fulmar staking their rights to nesting ledges, many of them making short sorties out to sea and back again.

We hadn't seen many geese all day, until we got to Holkham. Still not in any number, but a mixed flock of Greylag, Barnacle with a few Whitefronts and Egyptian Geese occupied the small, wet, field near the gated entry to the park. This is viewable from the road. There's a hybrid Barnacle/? towards left centre.

In fast fading light we were happy to drive home after a most enjoyable day.



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