North Coast

 Sunday November 9

Living in the subtropics has its penalties. Daughter Sara and family live in Brisbane, Queensland, and they're having a succession of storms at the moment. This includes large hailstones  which - to quote Sara - has made their cars look as though they live on a golf course. I wonder if insurance covers that.

We set out on a lovely, blue sky with little wind, Autumn morning. The recent wind means that many trees have totally shed their leaves, achieving the skeleton look of winter. Others remain, more or less, fully clothed in shades of yellow and brown. Ochre and umber sounds much more attractive. Although there was the usual lack of passerines, five Red Kites and four Kestrels decorated the sky, two Buzzards the supporting show. Best of all was the Merlin which flew out of a roadside tree and across in front of us, shortly before getting home at the end of the day.

Two Little Grebes were back at Snettisham, always good to see. 

 

Even better, a pair of Goldeneye on the centre pit, spending more time under the water than above. Such handsome ducks, one of my favourites. I see that one of the birding magazines is forecasting a Barrow's Goldeney this mpnth. Another lovely duck, which we once saw in Scotland. 


We saw thousands of Wigeon today , mainly on Snettisham mud. The blinding sun on the pits and a low tide did not keep us long there. Good to see at least one Fulmar back on Hunstanton Cliffs.

By early afternoon, the light was already beginning to fade. Seven Cattle Egrets amongst the cattle at Burnham were a bonus.

 

Everything has been distant today.

We were surprised to find so many cars parked at North Point Pools. The patchy signal along the north coast means that I lose some WhatsApp messages. The missing ones often turn up during the night - which is a fat lot of use. Today, we missed the news of a Dusky Warbler at the pools - which explains the cars. I consoled myself with the fact that we probably couldn't have seen it from the car anyway.

We haven't totally given up on Selbrigg, despite the lack of regular feeding there now. Today, our spread seed attracted a Robin and a Nuthatch. The latter obliged by hanging on a fir tree trunk - just about in view.

 


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