Another Year

 Thursday January 1 2026

Early for us these days, soon after 8.40, on a very cold, ice-covered puddles morning. Clearng the car windows of overnight frost and ice, delayed us by at least ten minutes. Better than last year when my birding journal tells me that gales and rain prevented us from going out. Neither of us remembered that. 

Although it was dull and overcast in a biting northerly wind, our garden birds were already active. I missed the Long-tailed Tit but started with a small number of common birds we often miss on our trips out. Blue and Great Tits for example.

We'd hit 20 species by the time we left Selbrigg , Nuthatch, Coal Tit and two Marsh Tits the highlights. Marsh Tits have disappeared from our garden and these were the first we'd  seen for many months.  

Tha eagerly anticipated mixed finch flock on the Harpley quinoa crop, was totally missing. They can't have finished all the seed available. There was a car in front of us, maybe they'd gone off somewhere. Again, no Little Owl at Abbey Farm, Flitcham . The hedges had attracted a few flighty Blackbirds, Redwings and Fieldfare, occasionally stopping long enough for identification.

Snettisham was very disappointing. We enjoyed Goldeneye, Tufted Ducks and Little Grebes on the approach pits but the tide was way out. There were very few birds too. The highlight was a small group of Avocet which Pam located distantly. I became aware that I hadn't taken any photos - there are always plenty of Greylag here. By now, the sun was shining and the countryside looked lovely with its winter skeleton trees and fresh plough.

 

Then I took one of a male Goldeneye - which is not going to win any prizes.

Hunstanton was heaving. So many people and dogs on the beach that it was only Oystercatchers left on the shore. No Fulmars on the rough, choppy sea, nor on the cliff ledges. The lighthouse car park, which holds several hundred cars, was packed, most walking families had at least one dog.

We couldn't find the reported Black-throated Diver at Brancaster Staithe. We saw a birder standing on the door sill of his car looking into the far distance, down the channel towards the sea. We could see a couple of dark blobs but not identifiable.  

We continued to pick up odd species such as Marsh Harrier perched on the ground at Holkham, and some Barnacle Geese in a roadside field, before we got to North Point Pools. A small group of birders were scoping the mixed flock of geese feeding, and/or asleep, on the tall-grassed, tussocky field adjacent to the car park. Pam parked in the opening and I scoped the flock, finding a lone Brent and a few Russian White-fronts but no Taiga Bean Goose. Eventually, Pam asked a passing birder for some help. Pam then  moved the car and I quickly found the bird feeding at the far right of the flock where it had been out of my view. No wonder I couldn't find it.

Amazingly, we still hadn't seen any egrets, so drove down to Stiffkey campsite marshes where, having squeezed the car in next to the hedge, we soon saw at least six Little Egrets and my first Curlew.

Overcast again and poor light, we set off for home. As we drove east the weather improved ,and we experienced a spectacular sunset. Norfolk's big sky enveloped us in a palate of shades of apricot and gold. The setting sun blazed in the wing mirrors, it was all happening behind us. Pam stopped just outside our village at a pipeline pull-off to take a photo. I took a couple through her side window. Cameras never seem able to do justice to the nuances and shades of colour produced by sunsets and rainbows. 

 Not edited.