In Search of Year Ticks

 Monday January 19

Startled to be leaving in rain - they don't always get the forecast right - it soon stopped. The rest of the day was a patchwork quilt of sun, heavy cloud, grey overcast, thick mist and the odd spot of rain. Warmer too, the temperature went up to 10C, which made having an open window much more comfortable.

I used a tide app. to help decide where to go today. I read that the high tide at Snettisham was at midday and at a height of 6 metres. Well worth a visit; we drove directly there, picking up our first Mistle Thrush on wires over the weed field near to the beach. Seeing a group of twenty people march across the causeway entrance, we hastened to park - to find the tide well out, acres of mud with very few obvious birds. Pam then looked at her printed timetable - the writing is too small for me to read in a moving car. Oh dear, high tide was during the night. A quick look at dozens of Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck and Mallard before we left. There were still a few Goldeneyes on the pits but little else.

The small section of Hunstanton cliffs viewable from the lower parking place, held twenty five Fulmar. Most of them huddled on ledges, some occasionally sallying forth, gliding around, apparently buzzing the sitting birds. Several Rock Doves (feral pigeons) watched their antics from their favoured pipeline exit. 

 

  The Lighthouse car park only had  about four cars parked at the bottom end, near the exit to the beach. We parked in our usual non parking place from which I can scope the beach and sea. The mist came and went, making sea watching a lottery, I didn't find any birds apart from gulls. However, the exposed mud flats made up for that with masses of feeding gulls and waders on the mussell beds and rocks. All the common waders, nothing new, just lovely to watch. 

Brancaster Staithe now has very few boats on the water, all their dinghies also removed from their line-up on the beach. I found two male Mergansers, well separated and only viewable through a scope. Whilst we were parked, a camera toting couple wandered about in front of us. Bird scarers. The man came over to my open window to show me a shot of a Merganser he'd taken at Burnham Overy Staithe, saying that it was close in, swimming up and down the channel. It was, just not the one in front of the car park. It was a short visit. Later, we dicovered that Sue and Ian were there and had tried to get our attention. So unlike eagle-eyed Pam.

The first drive past Stiffkey floods brought views of the three Glossy Ibis standing in a group at the edge of the water.  Pam hastened up the road to turn round so that the birds were on my side of the car. They'd gone. After a shortish session at Stiffkey, where we added Great White Egret, we stopped at the floods for the last time. Two Ibis were feeding as far as they could get from the road. Pam tried a couple of very ambitious photos using my camera.

This is the result! Not even a record shot - but it's going in the folder. 

 A total of eight new birds for the year was pleasing - even if none of them were unlikely to be seen again.

Fulmar, Skylark, Jay, Wren, Glossy Ibis, Mistle Thrush, Shoveller, and Great Egret.