Twilight - All Day

 Wednesday December 11

Our best lane drive today, was the one near the Dogotel at Harpley. This old bit of bypassed road is edged with tall trees and very bushy bushes. An additional piece of good habitat is the seeded quinoa and wildflower edging to the adjacent fields. A 50- strong finch flock, including Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Linnets and Brambling, flitted the trees, bushes and seeds, never still for more than  a few seconds. I counted four male Brambling, but there were probably others.

There wasn't much else around, we spent most of the time at Snettisham. The chalet pit was a smooth expanse of very high water, no edge for perching at all. The second pit held twenty Goldeneye, the first of the winter, brought south by the recent storm and cold weather. Such bad light and the birds were the opposite side of the pit, no photos. I'd been hoping for an improvement on my very ordinary 2024 folder bird.

The tide was two hours away from its zenith, still very distant, even when we left. Using my scope, I could pick out clouds of Knot rising and morphing as the water encroached their feeding ground. Closer, a scattering of Dunlin, Curlew, Grey Plover, Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, and a lone Turnstone and Ringed Plover, fed avidly on the crustacean and worm-rich mud. One Red Kite rose from the mud, skeins of Pink-footed Geese and noisy Greylags drifted in ,and out of the Wash. The many Shelduck occupied the middle shore, each with their own feeding yards. Lovely. We never tire of this place, especially when we have it to ourselves and the birds.

Raptors seemed to be having a sitting about day. We  had a total of 8 Buzzards, 7 Kestrels and 2 Red Kites.

At two p.m., it was so dark that we took the shortest drive home, via Ringstead.

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