May 08 2016
We had visitors coming to see us and have a pub lunch, followed by a walk so most of our birding today was incidental. However it was not without some good sightings. We had to get some food and drink in but it was a Sunday so we had to wait for the supermarkets at Hunstanton to open at 10am. To kill some time we decided to go to the cliffs at Hunstanton to see the nesting Fulmars.
May 07 2016
After having settled in at our cottage in the village of Thornham, we decided that we were ready for a full day at the Titchwell RSPB reserve, just a mile down the road. As soon as we arrived we checked out availability of places on the “guided tour” of the reserve led by an experienced birder and with the aim of seeing as many species as possible in one afternoon. This didn’t start until 1pm so we had a whole morning to cover the reserve ourselves. We set out to see as many species as possible in the time we had.
May 07 2016
I took an early morning walk on my own through the reed beds to the old, silted up, harbour. The reed bed was alive with the sound of Reed and Sedge Warblers and the sound of Oystercatchers and Redshanks is always in the air, more, or less, distant depending upon the state of the tide. Over by the harbour in the field immediately opposite the path I walked I came across four Whimbrel foraging around in the grass. This was a “year tick”. All of the fields surrounding the harbour were full of Skylarks. A single Avocet flew overhead.
May 06 2016
Thornham 6th May 2016
After our stop over at Horsey Mere, we stopped of at NWT Cley Marshes for a cup of tea and then ploughed on to Thornham where we were due to stay for a week. It was quite late by the time we got there so we cleaned up and then went out for a meal. The first thing we heard as we were leaving the cottage was a Cuckoo calling.
May 06 2016
Today we had to move from our cottage rental in Halesworth to out next cottage in Thornham, near RSPB Titchwell. This turned out to be quite a long drive because, although the distance isn’t great, it takes a long time on the small roads that we prefer to drive on. We broke the journey up with a visit to Horsey Mere where we had previously taken a boat trip courtesy of Ross’s Boat Trips. Our previous experience with Ross was so good that we had to make a return journey.
May 05 2016
Covehithe 5th May 2016
Thursday was not a “birding day” for us as we had arranged to meet friends for a walk to the coast at Covehithe and then a spot of lunch at Southwold. Even then, though, we still managed to see plenty of birds and even added a few “year ticks” to our species list. These included some unexpected birds.
May 04 2016
Weeting Heath is known as one of the most – if not the most – reliable places to see Stone Curlew and they did have them on site and even had a live video feed of one on a nest. Unfortunately the nest was over the hill from the West Hide and in a dip so it was impossible to see this bird from the hide. We were told that there were I’ve other birds also on the site after arriving quite recently; unfortunately these birds were not to be seen either. In all the time we were there not a single person saw one although, apparently, several had been seen earlier in the day.
May 03 2016
The 3rd was reserved solely for a visit to RSPB Minsmere which we had been to a couple of years before but then we didn’t have a full day free so we were a little bit limited in what we could do. This time we took two of the major trails on the site which gave us lots of species of birds and a few “year ticks”
May 02 2016
We drove from Wicken Fen to Lakenheath Fen as part of our Peterborough to Halesworth journey. The afternoon had started to look a bit gloomy but we felt we had a fair chance of getting to the first hide and back before the rain fell. It was a bit of a rushed walk out there but we did manage to get Whitethroat and Dunnock. We started to hear a Cuckoo and this was a feature of our visit to Lakenheath Fen as we continued to hear what must have been several Cuckoos.
May 02 2016
Having recently finished rereading a book based on a long – term study of Cuckoos at Wicken Fen, Cuckoos : Cheating By Nature by Nick Davies, I was interested to see this – the oldest – National Trust site. Unfortunately it was a bank holiday and the reserve was heaving with people and their children and dogs. On the plus side, as soon as we got to the cafe I heard my first Cuckoo of the year. We continued to hear Cuckoos as we went round the reserve but didn’t manage to see any.